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© Linda McIntosh
ARCHIVAL FASHION ZINE PROFILING
CONTRARIAN HEROINES OF FASHION,
FILM AND ART.
RUN BY JESSICA ANN RICHARDSON
& GIRL GANG OF CONTRIBUTORS
marchioness > blog
Fresh (2022)
Urban Life
“I hate like dating, you know? Everything about it,” says Fresh’s heroine Noa, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones. As a single girl currently living in London, I can completely relate. In the words of Carrie Bradshaw circa late 1990s, us single girls are living in the ‘city of un-innocence’; endless swipes, never-ending fuck boys, dates with zero chemistry and where happy endings seem like a myth. But such modern dating woes all seem idyllic compared to being entrapped by a cannibalistic killer.
The Lost Daughter (2021)
Urban Life
Sunlight dapples on water, waves crash, and cicadas whirr. The air feels thick and heavy. Beneath the haze of summer, the film seethes quietly. Fruit sits rotting in a basket. A worm crawls from the mouth of a doll. Pristine in white, except for a spot of blood, Leda (Olivia Coleman) stands ghostly against a dark sea. So begins The Lost Daughter, brimming with foreboding. Leda’s name, even, is drenched in canonic sorrow; first in Greek mythology, later in the WB Yeats poem. The sense of threat is palpable.
Somersault (2004)
Urban Life
A somersault, by definition, is a body doing a complete 360° roll, and in Cate Shortland’s coming of age film the young protagonist Heidi (Abbie Cornish) life experiences a similar spiral. Somersault deals with self-exploration, trauma, and sexuality while also touching upon a raw young love that neither lover is prepared for.
Dear Babylon (2019)
Urban Life
Police, protests and housing estates. Real conversations about governmental action and the marginalisation of the working class. Director Ayo Akingbade throws us into constructed archival footage, while we learn of the passing of a fictional ‘AC30 Housing Bill,’ which would see them evicted for the same reasons they live in low-income housing. The impact of Dear Babylon has particular weight in London’s East End; here, we meet a plethora of people living in Tower Hamlets. We discover the real lives this classist bill affects. The message is clear: people living in housing estates matter, the working class matter, the people of London matter.
Yves Saint Laurent: The Last Collections (2019)
Urban Life
The urge that many of us have to see behind the proverbial curtain to peer into the inner world of the lives of the rich and famous, particularly those whose genius and esteem is shrouded in relative mystery, has by now been well-documented. Social media has opened the door for us, the public, to be conscious observers. We’ve seen this with the advent of celebrities on social media, and now especially in the era of ‘casual instagram’, the perfectly curated slice of life depiction is now the new centre stage…
Adult World (2013)
Urban Life
Hidden gem Adult World is a coming-of-age story for the previously gifted, Rory Gilmore sympathisers amongst us: the kids or teens that excelled at school, fought their way into higher education, and grew up thinking they’d become famous only to realise getting discovered is hard, and life in your twenties is even harder.
Happy Hour (2020)
Urban Life
Happy Hour follows 21-year-old narrator Isa and her friend Gala as they arrive in New York. We watch as they enter a cocktail filled world bubbling with adventure. Just like Isa’s signature drink: the French 75. Champagne, lemon juice, gin and a dash of syrup describes Granados’ debut perfectly.
Boy Parts (2020)
Urban Life
Eliza Clark’s debut Boy Parts begins with a mouthful of vomit; a brazen warning for the difficult to digest story to come. The novel follows Irina, an unscrupulous, cocaine fuelled photographer of fetish art, who scouts boys on the street to pose in her garage-turned-studio. This is where lines between art and abuse, consent and assault and sanity and insanity begin to blur.
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories (2009)
Urban Life
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories is a modern, Argentinian take on the precedent set by Shirley Jackson’s Dark Tales. Both of these unsettling collections of short stories focus on women, however, author Mariana Enriquez takes her tales to another, more disturbing and grotesque level through subverting expectations of femininity.
House of Gucci (2021)
Urban Life
“It’s better to cry in a Rolls-Royce than be happy on a bicycle” are the immortal words of Patrizia Reggiani; glamour fiend, ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci and his subsequent murderer. House of Gucci director, Ridley Scott, shares how the pair’s marriage grew bitter, introducing a content Maurizio smoking over an espresso, moments before cycling towards his untimely death.
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