Alice Glass presents herself in quite an appreciable way.
I spent an earlier part of today looking into Crystal Castles, the band. I probably listened to their self-titled album every night last semester and was always at least a bit curious as to who put forth the androgynous, highly-affected vocals for the album. You can imagine how pleased I was to discover Alice Glass and all her eccentricities (ran away from home at fourteen and changed her name to Vicky Vale, how improvident). I should've dome some research on this band eight months ago! oh well.
Most of all she impresses me by combining remnants of vintage and punk styles into something more moderate and accessible than either alone. Sometimes she's a bit informal or over the top, but most musicians are, and she's less than most. I love her plain, un-pleated skirts and cardigans. Again: on one hand, she's dressed pencil-like and vintage, and on the other, she's nearing schoolgirl-inspired punk...but her blend sort of transcends either category and keeps me from tastelessly labeling her as either.
I'm also fully ready to admit that our subject does not always look as sharp as she does in these pictures. For this a few reasons poke their heads out of the ground. First and foremost, I probably chose the best images of her on the internet. Why would I not? Second, she's in a
band and performs
concerts. Of course she looks ratty and tastelessly artsy sometimes; it's more or less her job, or, at least, she has the right to do so since she's an
artist and can clearly get away with it. I mean, overall, I pity her for not being able to bridge her keen perception of fashion and her necessarily flawed rawness, but on a comparative basis she looks pretty damn good, hehe.
Hm, I find her eyeliner inoffensive, and I almost can't figure out why. But I can: she uses it to give her eyes a definite shape without drawing too harsh a contrast against her skin - she lets it fade away at the edges instead of insisting upon too sharp an outline. And the jaggedness of her hair and eyebrows complements it well, and she doesn't do it all the time.
I love her stage presence, and would liken her to a comic book character. I don't think she'd be too upset to hear that, either, in light of her aforementioned name change.
The black dress on the right is so perfect for her and for Crystal Castles. In short, I'd call it starry. There's something so modest (it couldn't be plainer) yet nervy about it.
Below, pretty. It would be cheesy if it weren't for her hair and makeup. Well, maybe it's still cheesy, but I think she does it well.
There's just something so sprite-like about her! She's the kind of person who's photos might be improved with some JPEG noise and unseemly pixellation. I wish I had that sort of inherent fuzziness. She looks quaintly troublesome. It's already there, without you deciphering it. All pictures are from the Crystal Castles last.fm page, except Crystal Castles's first one, which should be credited to David Waldman / KWC / [formertransformer.com] or something like that, whatever.
