Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Photographing Fairies





"The Cottingley Fairies" is propably one of the most famous series of photographs of all time. Taken by young cousins Elise Wright and Francis Griffiths in 1917, the photographs of the young girls, frolicking with fairies, stirred up an enormous controversy at the time as to their authenticity. During the height of the Spiritualist movement, there was a great deal of effort put forward to prove that the supernatural and mythological in fact existed, and so many people, including most famously, devout spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It actually went on for quite some time, with a great many luminary figures championing the girls and their photographs. Real or not, you must admit, the girls' renditions of fairies are most clever.

Upon seeing this Erin Featherston DIY headband in Teen Vogue, it struck a chord with me. Ultra girlie/boho chick is not normally my millieu, but the headband was so resonant of my memory of the Cottingley photographs I simply had to try my hand at it.
It was absurdly easy to make and is quite fetching I think. Though, to be fair, I fully admit I've yet to wear it out and about. I simply can't find a way to wear it without appearing to be some kind of overgrown flowergirl. Ideas?

5 comments:

yiqin; said...

I think you should just wear it out! You don't look like a flower girl! :) & I love those photos! Especially wit the fairies! I need to diy a headband soon!

Riot Nrrd said...

:D
That headband is delightful!! You should just wear it out. What's wrong with looking like a flower girl? :)
But you could wear it with black leather and dark skinny jeans... I think that would look kind of cool. Like a gangsta fairy queen.

Amelia said...

I like it. Wear it with something menswear inspired.

Wendy said...

Definitely would look cute with a floaty dress.

FASHION CHALET said...

Nice, I love this set of photos (:
Thanks for your comment, I guess the dress could go either way (hippie or flapper) I couldn't decide either. In fact when I uploaded them into my Flickr account, one was named "Hippie" while the other "Flapper" lol.. ;)