i always felt like desdemona of shakespeare’s othello was helpless. like a lot of shakespearean damsels, she was the pawn of schemes around her. she up and left venice to elope and accompany othello in his travels. as the plot unfolds we see that she is made to look like a two timing hussie with cassio by iago. all this is done because iago feels cassio was wrongly promoted over him by othello. confused? no worries…it’s shakespeare. anyway, upon duping othello into thinking cassio and desdemona were knocking boots, othello promises iago a promotion if he kills cassio. iago in turn convinces roderigo, who is in love with desdemona to kill cassio. things start getting crazy, othello smothers desdemona, iago kills roderigo, iago kills emilia, othello kills himself and then iago gets arrested. that’s a super bare bones version but as you can see, desdemona was pretty helpless…so she’d probably wear flowy dresses, right?
1: eloping with othello: dress by alberta feretti, shoes by valentino
2: i lost my handkerchief: dress by christian dior, shoes by stella mccartney
3: othello is being so mean: dress by giambattista valli, shoes by azzaro
when thinking of romeo and juliet i often forget how young they were. once the whole story plays out she is barely a teenager and even her father considers marriage proposals from “the valiant paris” too hasty. however, i need not get in to the details of this story for we all know it very well. instead, consider a fourteen year old’s take on the clothing. it’s one of those ages where everything can be so fun, bright colors, quirky silhouettes and basically anything goes. now, juliet is a capulet which probably means she wanted for very little in her life. and if the heiresses and socialite daughters of today teach us anything, it’s that they each have loveable style all their own (thinking more of lydia hearst and byrdie bell types not hiltons or lohans). so without further delay, i give you juliet capulet…a charming young woman of verona.
1: party at capulet mansion: dress by reem acra, bow by luella, bag by marc by marc jacobs, shoes by dvf
2: marrying romeo in secret: dress, bag and clogs by chanel, bow by erin fetherston
3: off to see friar laurence: shirt by devi kroell, skirt by burberry prorsum, coat and bag by luella, clogs by chanel, hat by isaac mizrahi
macbeth continues to fascinate me years and years after reading it, i suppose that’s the mark of a great work. so may i present the three witches. there are two reasons why i still think of it often, the first being my teacher who assigned it to us in high school was so into literature and teaching. she really got us excited about books and that’s quite a feat considering most of us were hyper-privileged and under-enthused. the second is the work itself, i love the story and all the manipulation. you can tear macbeth apart over and over and arrive at a different conclusion each time. who really started all the trouble that night? was it the witches for informing macbeth he would be king? was it lady macbeth for pushing him to commit the crime? was it macbeth himself? it’s almost too fun to think about. i like to think it was the witches though, the personification of evil. plus, they’re the original mean girls…and who doesn’t love the idea of three women roaming the earth intent on disrupting the lives of mortals? everybody loves it, perhaps that’s why it’s pops up in so much work across the world. oh my god, macbeth is so good, must read again.
1: double double toil and trouble: dress by balmain, shoes by givenchy
2: fire burn and cauldron bubble: dress and tattoos by rodarte, shoes by ann demeulemeester
3: 98% of the world doesn’t know the rest of that poem: dress by vena cava, boots by balenciaga
lady macbeth was one of my favorite characters of all time, not really because of herself…but because of my teacher. every time she mentioned lady macbeth, she would say it in a crazy voice and then point her two index fingers to her head. i’m not sure if it was some way of telling us that she was lady macbeth like, or just her way of saying she was in important character. all i know is martha burr was an impossibly hard grader. in any event, lady macbeth is one of those 100% pure evil women, you know, a bitch. there are so many evils in macbeth and it’s hard to place the blame for what happens on one single character. she was certainly a motivator though, and that’s almost worse than being a perpetrator. power hungry, pure evil with no regard for consequences, i’d like to think lady macbeth would fit in with today pretty well.
for the record, i don’t think my english teacher was a murder motivator…she was a motivator though, i’ll give her that.
1: strutting around the castle at inverness: dress by balmain, shoes by rodarte
2: duncan is here for dinner: dress by bottega veneta, shoes by givenchy
3: “you should totally kill duncan”: jumpsuit by lanvin, shoes by costume national
