PicoBlog

Merry Christmas everyone! The year 2023 is fast coming to an end and I thought we could have a bit of fun. If you missed last week’s post on wild headlines you didn’t hear about, go back and read it! You’ll find out why some cats look like they’re wearing socks.

Absolutely Wild Headlines You Didn't Read About, End of 2023 Edition

·

December 14, 2023

Here’s one more nostalgia post and I promise I’ll be off my 90s kick that I’ve dipped into so frequently in past months.

Perhaps you thought I would be talking about a stylish European 90s-era actor like Monica Belluci or Emmanuelle Beart. No, I’m naming none other than Madame Courtney Love as one of the best style icons of the 90s. Others include Janet Jackson and Chloe Sevigny.

I would be completely remiss, however, if I didn’t send you to writer Cintra Wilson’s amazing trip down memory lane detailing how she knew Courtney Love in their San Francisco days…and ruined her dress by borrowing it and accidentally tearing it up. Cintra Wilson is such an amazing storyteller. I’ll link it again further down so you don’t forget…

Courtney Love, my friends, is an unappreciated icon of the 90s. Everyone thinks Kate Moss was the 90s. Who gives a shit about Kate Moss!

Courtney Love was the First Lady of grunge. She was the lead singer of the band Hole, known for the song Doll Parts. Nirvana stans among us know she was married to Kurt Cobain and they had one kid together, Frances Bean Cobain. And wow does Frances Bean ever look like her dad!

Courtney Love can dress, people! She’s definitely had a troubled past, has openly struggled with addiction and is considered a hot mess but so what? She’s still a style icon. 

She wore antique slips as dresses, lots of pastel shades, silk slip dresses cut on the bias (as did Caroline Bessette Kennedy on her wedding day to JFK Jr.). 

I also have to note that Courtney Love had the idealized 90s figure: heroin-slim with boobs, collarbones visible on straight shoulders, and hipbones jutting out (you may remember from a past post that I call the 90s-00s the “visible bones era”).

She’s also famous for wearing Mary Jane shoes, knee-high socks, and a lot of school-uniformish combos and babydoll dresses. Did she invent this look? Cintra Wilson’s post makes it pretty clear that she was into this look early, way before she got famous.

Excerpt:

“I got dressed at Lila’s house […] Courtney had other ideas about what I needed — she was already known for her “Kinderwhore” look: real Victorian nightgowns, worn with your hair teased out, dark, smoky makeup, a pale powdered face, and black tights and shoes.

“Here,” she said, tossing a feather-light piece of ancient embroidered cotton to me, the weight of a Kleenex.  “This nightgown was my grandmother’s, so don’t destroy it,” Courtney told me.”

Just please go and read the whole post, it’s too good.

A babydoll dress is cut like a t-shirt on top, has an empire waist gathered right under the bust and a flowy, short skirt. It evokes a Regency dress, just cut looser and short. Weird factoid: many fashion historians pronounce “Empire” waist in a French way more like AHM-peer rather than em-PYRE.

I wore a lot of babydoll dresses in the 90s and they are fabulous. You can layer long sleeves and tights under them in the winter. In the humid summer, their floaty qualities speak for themselves: this is about the least amount of clothing you can wear for maximum ventilation and nothing clinging to you.

The media at the time called this look Kinderwhore for its childish-but-sexy vibes and unfortunately the name stuck. I think it undermines a valid aesthetic that’s a strong counterpoint to deliberately ugly grunge. Personally I would call it Pastel Grunge or something that also nods to the fact that it was a rumpled look.

Grunge style, real grunge style, was a bit greasy and dirty. There wasn’t any femininity in the classic grunge look. That’s perhaps why I was so drawn to Courtney Love’s style, I love pastel shades and clothing that leans more cute. I would still rather wear a pastel color sundress than jeans, the harsh climate I live in being the reason I don’t wear skirts and dress year round.

This is also a key reason why I’ve always been drawn to Dior with its floral motifs, heavy use of pink and curvy lines as opposed to Chanel, which deals in more severe shapes and colors. 

Nowadays, the culture ignores Courtney Love, starting from back when she dared to turn 30 or something, who knows. How dare we! She’s a legend. She IS 90s style. Furthermore, her style presence was heavily felt in the early 00s when clothing trends turned more femme.

Also btw, she can dish about style! I used to watch Fashion Television religiously (all hail queen, icon, legend Jeanne Becker) and I can recall Love being interviewed at an Agent Provocateur show. Love had a smart opinion on bra shapes…she likes the look of bras that have a more pointed effect and she had a good reason, I just can’t remember what it was. 

Thanks for reading!

Warmly,

Helen

P.S. Now go read this by Cintra Wilson, it’s deliciously nuts!

ncG1vNJzZmiglaGyr63VnqmyZqOqr7TAwJyiZ5ufonyxe9OhoKxlp6S6orqMoqpmmV2owbq4xGagnKeel8K1ec2o