PART 1 OF 689620 (PROBABLY)
The work of Kristen Wiig is something I hold very close to my heart. I practically carry it around in a locket. But it seems I got so caught up in how funny and talented she is that I failed to notice the myriad of styles that have featured in her work over the years (I know, I'm so shallow.) Wiig's career is an amazing balance between genres so as to be expected the style found in her work is also a bountiful list of different varieties of chic, tongue in cheek, and GD weirdo car crashes. The sheer volume of time I've spent admiring Kristen's comedic chops implies that it would probably be a lie to say the style hasn't had an influence too. Even you Gilly! Giiillly? Giiilly! (JK, probably not Gilly) Did everyone see Diary Of A Teenage Girl? The Martian? Hands up who's having a great summer. Wiig's having a great summer. Let's take a look back at some outfits then.
WHIP IT (2009)
So Wiig's character in Drew Barrymore's directorial debut WHIP IT is called Maggie Mayhem, but really she should have been called GODDAMN BABEDOM
She's all mustard-button-up, whole-stick-of-eyeliner, auburn-breeze-daydream kind of witty roller derby girl. Also known as what we would all envision ourselves looking like as a roller derby girl. The reality would be smudgier and sweatier. There would be chaffing and wheezing and wobbling. Try as I might I would not look great in yellow.
Oh look, there's Mayhem looking great in yellow. She's casually applying lip balm and resting against a locker like the most popular girl in high school but with an art freak sketch book for arms. Eve is evidently showing us how big her creative boner is for Mayhem's look.
Here she is looking good in yellow again and laying down the law when Ellen Page is acting kind of bratty. Did I mention her hair is auburn and purple? AUBURPLE. Let the records show that in 2009 Kristen Wiig started auburple. And twas beautiful.
I think one of my favourite things about this film is that it was made before pastel dyes were EVERYWHERE and every basic bitch at Coachella had a sleeve. "Oh so you mean Drew Barrymore APPROPRIATED roller girl culture and pimped it to the masses?" No that's not what I'm saying. Shut up.
After MUCH consideration, the second best style moment featured in Whip It (shout out to Barrymore's orange baseball shirt & rainbow hair in first place), is this sweet shop epiphany:
Who knew an outfit could be both candy striper AND hospital gown?? She's simultaneously the patient AND the do good volunteer! Coupled with a camo bag so big you could carry Ellen Page around in it? Sold. Also she's wearing flip flops and I ONLY JUST noticed. That's how good this outfit is. It distracts from the crime that is non-beach flip flop wearing. Let's take a better look at this masterpiece.
There's a front pocket. There's a white vest underneath. There are big white hoop earrings.
I LOVE THIS LOOK. I LOVE THIS FACE.
And if you're still not sure:
It's a look so amazing it gains the admiration of Andrew Wilson (the undisputed* hottest Wilson brother.)
*He is. I will fight you!
10/10 for Maggie Mayhem. We are but screaming fan girls cheering you from the sidelines.
Should you watch this film? Juliette Lewis and Alia Shawkat are also in it, so yeah, probs.
GIRL MOST LIKELY (2012)
In this instance, Wiig plays Imogene, a botched-faux-suicide New York socialite who gets dumped and ends up back at her eccentric mother's house in Atlantic City. The appealing style note in this film is the fact that Imogene looks INFINITELY better revisiting her adolescent clothing than she ever did in her NY yuppie clothing. It truly was a magically garish time.
First case in point; Wiig sits in a New York office. Her blouse is beige. Beige is yuppie for 'my life is bland and meaningless.' I mean, she matches the sofa for christs sake. Her face conveys emptiness and boredom. Also, it is wrought with concern that nobody cares that she is a brilliant writer who doesn't produce any work whatsoever but god, you're supposed to just know that she's a genius just from looking at her! Hmmm, feels familiar.
Now she's back in Atlantic City, and this is where the really good stuff begins. She wears an old oversized Friends shirt to bed like a Netflix hero.
She proceeds to walk around the house, and then thrillingly - the entire town, in her high school gym wear.
Which includes a pair of old Converse that should have been binned years ago aka my staple.
Her teenage footwear seems to inform her state of mind as she gives her stepdad Matt Dillon (lol) attitude like she's some Avril Lavigne type, off her tits on Sourz shots. Ergh you don't understand my life!! *slams door* *blasts Hole*
Again similarly to a teenager, she gets all cute over a boy. Digress much? But this does have a positive influence on her (leaving the house in actual outdoor clothing) style. White denim shorts and purple/teal block work? Nice. And accessorising with a book no less.
Next up she's rocking a retro T, floral short and denim vest. Her expression is accurately downcast though because that kid from Glee is approaching like an all-white grim reaper armed with Backstreet Boy moves and a horrible attempt at the 'I wear eyeliner so I'm a sexy bad boy' troupe.
That's a lighting thing. It's not his package. Btw.
Lord help us that is not an outline.
Anyway! I'm sure you will agree, Wiig's outfit above is a DELIGHT. But some snarky dance club characters have an oddly strong reaction to it.
Shut it moron. And you, Mister Drinking-Whiskey-In-A-Smarmy-Way-And-Ruining-Whiskey-For-Everybody.
Shut it moron 2: The sequel.
Let's move on because Imogene is now moving into FULL ON UNDERDOG BLOSSOMING TRANSITION.
She wears her old tie dye crop, has a 'glitter expression' adornment on her cheek and eats some pizza. She's CAREFREE at the PIER.
She leaves a one night stand grabbing her red Doc Martens and a white lace bra. She's SEXUALLY LIBERATED and RESEMBLES OLD SCHOOL MADONNA (kinda)
And ultimately she ends up writing a Broadway play, staring at her reflection in the dressing room mirror like "she's so lucky, she's a star.."
This dress is beautiful but it looks too much like the SNL Red Flag perfume parody for me to take it seriously. The gold necklace is beaut tho.
Overall, what did we learn? We saw that dressing like an adolescent is a win, denim shorts are a timeless winner (??) and the late nineties were a great time for fashion and the classic American sitcom. We also learned that taking a guy from Glee and dressing him up to resemble an 'adventurous musician influence' is like polishing a turd. One of those fake joke turds that no one above the age of five believes is a real turd. Not even for a split second.
Welcome To Me (2014)
This had been on my 'must watch' list for a while, and I don't think it ever got a UK release? But now it's on Netflix so I dove straight in. Diving into a new Netflix addition is sometimes the only exercise I get.
This is such an appealing concept: a woman with a borderline personality disorder wins the lottery. And she wins big too, a cool $86 million. What does she want to do with all that money? Move into a casino hotel and create a TV show about herself, naturally. I mean what else would she do? Invest and make smart property choices? C'mon.
The fashion in this film is so brilliant. And the set design. It's rare that I ever value anything over the script. But this time set dec and photography win out (big ups to the script tho, and the pube line and the masturbation line in particular. That makes the film sound weird, it's not, well it is a bit. Anyway!...)
This is what Alice
I just bought a similar jumper from Lazy Oaf.
Alice mostly sits around in her lil treasure trove apartment in front of her television reciting Oprah phrases back at Oprah. Which I can relate because I mostly do the same thing, but with Kristen Wiig movies.
K Wiig looks so good in red, we know this, but here's some further proof.
Another fun thing to know about Alice is that she carries an umbrella around, wears pumps and socks, and never takes her fanny pack off. Alice is a winner.
Well she's not really that much of a winner... until she's a lottery winner.
But she has Linda Cardellini as her BFF, so it's not all bad.
And Tim Robbins as her therapist.
There's that pesky fanny pack again.
But suddenly... LOTTERY
And Trashter Thelma and Luna Louise haul ass to the casino. Like white trash biddies to a bingo hall.
I mean look at these two. The faintest sniff of wad and they look like bloody Toddlers in Tiaras. So great.
Neck jewels for days.
But a girl can't live on fruit machines and Brut alone so Alice decides to crash a live TV environment and talk about her recent money explosion and also her... mental health.
At least she's wearing a cute little denim dress, brown belt and purple socks.
As it turns out the studio are in trouble and need money.
So they give Alice her own show! Hurray! $$$$$
And she makes the deal in a gingham suit and straw hat.
And tries to fire her therapist. Here lies some great dialogue and classic Wiig comic timing surrounding food, protein and glucose.
This is my favourite screenshot:
If it was a meme it would be 'Senate denies women access to birth control'
Guess who's back, back again? Gingham's back (sorry)
Erghhh she looks so good, that dress is so cute, no wonder all the guys are flocking.
I just said flocking before I saw this next shot. Which shows Alice wearing a bird badge. Flocking.
She takes her producer on a lil date to what looks like Moonlight Rollerway. Solid choice Alice.
Mmmm... burgers.
But back to the show, and they're ready for launch. Alice wears this stripey pastel number.
And then comes one of my favourite ever sequences in film: Alice rides out into the studio in a giant swan.
Yes, you heard me, a giant swan.
And she's like "hey world, look at me!" except she doesn't say ANYTHING. She's on live TV and she says nothing. This is peak Weird Wiig.
Just starring down the camera. Like The World's Greatest Comedian that she is.
Oh wait, she's finally saying something.
Spoiler alert: it's something strange.
It doesn't go well so she cries and then afterwards she watches herself crying... and cries. It's all very meta.
Great outfit though!
As we established with Whip It, Wiig looks great in yellow.
She loves that thing.
Something else to know about Alice. She sets her alarm for midday. Alice is definitely my kind of people.
Her apartment is kitsch AF but not in a Deschanel way, in a Todd Solondz kind of way. Did I mention that I love these sets?
So delicious. She colour coordinates everything.
And because the internet is strange, Alice's show becomes pretty popular, she has a cult following and gets good youtube hit rates when she does things like ride a bike around while reenactors play out damaging scenes from her childhood. It's all a bit of lighthearted fun!
The production value has ramped up, she's pretty much spending all her money.
But she looks beautiful. And (sort of) professional. So it's worth
And gets to have tantrums on live television.
We've all been there.
And Cardellini is still putting up with her and indulging her ideas.
She's even got a bonafide fan. A grad student.
Who she gives a BJ to in the back of her limo.
Okay, so things might not be great...
The money's gone. It's finale time. Alice sounds like the kind of person who'd go out with a bang, right? Right.
Carousel horses, neon and a ballgown to be exact.
And then an all white tux. What did I tell you about fashion in this film!
Alice is truly smitten with her life choices.
And producers Joan Cusack and James Marsden are like "well we did that I guess. And we kinda pulled it off, I guess".
Welcome To Me: The Pageant.
Stay tuned for The Skeleton Twins, Hateship Loveship and Paul!
