"Heroin Chic: Can A Nonaddict Pull Off The Look?", is the title of a blogpost where you get a how to-guide to achieve the "edgiest of edgy" look of a drug (ab)user, without actually sniffing a line yourself.[1] Yes, YOU can be heroin chic too!

Quite confusing right? In our upbringing we learn that drugs are bad (a 'war on drugs' and the 'abuse of drugs' are both connotations that have a negative sound to them). However the idolisation of drugs and drugs users is still very alive in today's society. And therewith also the connotations of drugs being something cool (or maybe even you're cool because you use drugs). This image of being 'cool', 'rebellious' and kicking against the shins of conservatives is not something new. It's even funny to think that the use of drugs used to be quite a 'day-to-day' thing to do. But not anymore. Or at least, the majority of us have given up on a snuff of coke for something, well, a bit more healthier.[2]*

It's not the Eighties!
In contrast to the 1980s Super models, who were "beautiful in an alien sort of way" (and important to add: perfect in every aspect), came the heroin chic model in the spotlight. Lighting a cigarette, hair all over the place and -quite clearly- imperfect in every way (or better said: perfectly imperfect in every way -I mean Kate Moss can be seen as the model of models, who still reigns the scale of 'modelness'). It was the absolute opposite of what we were known with. Therefore it was something exciting and refreshing. It fed a 'crave' to highlight the imperfections of life and society.[3] Or did it?


You say what?
Heroin chic is a derivative of the socalled Waif look (waif originally being a homeless, neglected or abondoned person, especially a child who appears thin or poorly nourished). 'Heroin chic' was actually used as an insult to the 'gamine fleshless young -very young- girls' who were next in line to take a spin on the catwalk. As stated earlier, these girls were something (extremely) different from the '80s Super -healthy- models (but don't be fooled, these Super models also brought some controversy with them).[4]**

As stated in a 1993 article of The New York Times:
"The latest models are also in keep with today's more liberal tone, a rejection of conspicious wealth and an embracing of the organic, the gritty, the ethic."[5] A stand against glamour, one could say. The "deglamorization of fashion" became an important part of the Waif look.

Mirror, mirror on the wall
The catwalk and therewith fashion is more often than not a reflection of society. A more cynical outlook on life came to the front. With subcultures like Grunge and Riot Grrrl that questioned the workings of their surroundings. A new kind of reality or the shaping of a new kind of reality became to emerge. It very much helped in that way that drugs became cheaper and better. And naturally the fact that purer heroin could be smoked rather than injected (and therewith doing away with post-Aids fears of needle use).[6] These developments were very important in the way society -and mainly youngsters- were more 'free' (or actually capable) to experiment with these sort of stimulants.

However it must be said that at the time people weren't too happy with this new cynical way of approach to life. This attitude therewith naturally to be crowned with the "Choose life" speech given by Ewan McGregor in the cult film Trainspotting, ending with "But why would I want to do a thing like that?". It was depicted in the media as a worrisome business. By 'deglamorizing fashion' they -said the media- 'glamorized drugs'. Hence heroin chic.


Tragedy, more like... tra-chic-die!
The philosophy of heroin chic was based on "the idea that authentic beauty stems from the fact that something that is considered valuable is treated with nonchalance, disrespect, and even a little abuse (...) The tragic, self-destructive characters who couldn't care less about themselves or others became the heroes in a weird mixture of infatuation and disgust."[7] And this philosophy is still something that hasn't completely died away, yet.

Heroin chic is conflicted within itself. The opposite meanings of heroin and chic, and therewith most probably the bad vs good connotations these derive, take a different -and again conflicting- point of view. How can you be chic when on heroin? You're not there with 'the right mind', do you even have 'a mind' at that point? And what is right anyway? Can you be chic without putting your mind to it? Do you even care -according to the heroin chic philosophy- about the chic part? Or is it chic because of your status within society: being a model, being a representative of a certain (high)fashion brand, living the life of the rich and famous, something that people look up to, but at the same time not caring about this position and therefore you're being 'chic' about it, because not caring is chic?

You could say that the 'drug reality' is something that includes escapism of the 'reality reality'. Heroin chic was a way to end 'fake reality' of the 1980s Super models and presenting a more 'reality reality', with emotions, feelings (but also not feelings because not caring, remember!) and rawness. However drugs are mostly seen as something chemical (as "artificially fabricated products") and therefore unnatural and not part of the 'reality reality' heroin chic tries to represent.[8]


However the terminology still works. We all can imagine how heroin chic looks like and what it means because it pin points certain aspects together. Creating a look, and maybe even more important: an attitude to go with the look, that together undoubtedly means heroin chic. The contradiction within those two words, and the meanings they create, may even be the whole reason why we can detach certain aspects and attach it again to this 'new' combination. Making or giving it meaning. Heroin chic forms a resistance against hegemony. It offers an alternative to mainstream or dominant culture where for instance drugs are solidly being seen as something bad and opens the discussion to shift or change this idea of good and bad in the first place. Hereby not saying that this is necessarily a good shift or change, but it certainly challenges or give a different vision to empower or give room to defining dominant culture and (sub)culture that doesn't fit into that role.

New Yoooooork
To get back to the blogpost I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the writer states that to look heroin chic "you're supposed to look like you spent the weekend binging on heroin and sleeping wherever you end up."[9]

And: "Some aren't a fan, but I AM, and it's totally not fair because it's the only look I can't pull off. First off, I'm nowhere near drug-addiction skinny. (...) When I moved to New York I told myself I was going to start dressing like one of those really cool New York girls (not hipsters, guys) that roam around the East Village looking like she could be one of Johnny Depp's ex-girlfriends."[10]

Heroin chic in this sense is a combination of living in New York, hanging around the East Village, being a cool 'New York' girl (but mind you: not hipster), being drug-addicted skinny and looking like one of Johnny Depps'ex-girlfriends. Oh, and naturally excessively doing drugs all weekend long (making you drug-addicted skinny in the first place, which is sort of the main point you could take from this blogpost to 'pull off the look': be a drug addict with drug addict symptoms in New York, obviously).


Would you like to snort with me?
Through heroin chic drug abuse has been commodified as a lifestyle and therewith 'normalized' -to some extent naturally- within our culture. Or to be a bit more precise: Western European and North American culture. It's even created the myth that a model always exclusively someone who's very thin. Or rather: the connotation an average person gets with the word 'model' is 'someone who's very thin' and thus creating the myth of models always being thin, drug abusing and not healthy girls.

Although it could be said that thin was in fashion before, but one could counter argue that that was a different kind of thin. Not a drugs-related kind of thin, basically. Naturally not to say that they didn't do drugs before heroin chic became 'a thing'. Because I'd like to state that they most probably did. But it wasn't highlighted or 'glamorized' as much as within the heroin chic (IT'S IN THE NAME) period. And now, in the period after that, we're still aware of the highly drug abuse within the fashion/modelling industry. We all find it naturally problematic (or are taught to find it problematic), but it isn't something that's been 'bragged about' or publicly shown as a craving or ideology within the fashion/modelling industry world. We try to hide it, ignore it or stand above it. Or are we?

Side note: hereby not saying that every skinny girl or model are constantly on drugs or that being skinny is something bad. The same goes for being fat or anything in between, the way you look can never -in the core- be bad or good. But the way we perceive someone who's skinny, and especially skinny models, has changed thanks to the heroin chic period. The images created during this time are now still seen as the denotation of models, while they're actually thus connotations. This creates the myth that models ought to be skinny and that models that aren't skinny should be labelled as 'plus-size models' because they differ from convention.***



We can ALL be hero(in)'s!
Is it quite telling that there's a Trainspotting 2 on the way to our cinemas? Is it telling that the Opium perfume of YSL gets to be campaigned as much again (in quite a suggestive way- the name itself doesn't hide much anyway)? Is it telling that -give or take- 30 years after the heroin chic period the skinny white girl is still exclusively favoured by most designers?

So can a nonaddict pull off the heroin chic look? Yes, according to the blogpost. Just don't wash your hair for weeks, look pale and put enough black eyeshadow (messily) on your lids, then you've got the look... And that without any drugs involved!

Love,
Dominique


*While doing research I came across [this] website where they sell sniff boxes "to assist in providing aromatherapy solutions for today's busy lifestyles." So no drugs (well in the classical sense of drugs), but still something to powder our noses with... 
** However keep in mind that looking like a poor drug addict has never been in style. The hedonism of for instance Kate Moss and Courtney Love (and therewith the image of Heroin Chic) relies in part on wealth and privilege (getting high and messy in very expensive shoes). Also we're talking not of simply 'being skinny', but a specific aesthetic of being skinny, which notably isn't (just) achieved by taking (lots and lots of) drugs.
***It's become a norm. That's the core of the problem. As a model you're supposed to be skinny, otherwise you're not a model or thus a 'special' model that needs a specific indication of this diversion of the norm (aka 'plus-size model').


Sources:
[1] XOVain, "Heroin Chic: Can A Nonaddict Pull Off The Look?" (1 July 2013), http://www.xovain.com/how-to/heroin-chic, 27 February 2016.
[2] Wikipedia, "Snuff (tobacco)"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snuff_%28tobacco%29, 27 February 2016.
[3] T. Loncar, "Heroin Chic From the Mid 90's" (7 October 2013), http://stillinbelgrade.com/heroin-chic-mid-90s/, 27 February 2016.
[4] N. Angier, "Fashion's Waif Look Makes Strong Women Weep" (11 april 1993), http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/11/weekinreview/fashion-s-waif-look-makes-strong-women-weep.html, 27 February 2016.
[5] Ibidem.
[6] E.H. Allwood, "Revisiting the 90s moral panic over heroin chic" (January 2016), http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/28630/1/revisiting-the-90s-moral-panic-over-heroin-chic, 27 February 2016.
[7] T. Loncar, "Heroin Chic From the Mid 90's" (7 October 2013), http://stillinbelgrade.com/heroin-chic-mid-90s/, 27 February 2016.
[8] E. Goode, "A Sociological perspective on Drugs and Drugs use", http://www.psychedelic-library.org/goode.htm, 27 February 2016. 
[9] XOVain, "Heroin Chic: Can A Nonaddict Pull Off The Look?" (1 July 2013), http://www.xovain.com/how-to/heroin-chic, 27 February 2016.
[10] Ibidem.
And inspired by D. Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979) and J. Storey, Cultural Theory and Popular Culture (2015).

I just read somewhere on the internet that every birthday after 21 isn't worth celebrating because it means you're just another step closer to death. This has become my life motto. Because, as we all know, the internet is always right. Its function and morality can only be described as a more morbid and accurate representation of YOLO.

So here I am, closer to death than I ever was before (although it's safe to say that I've been 'nearly dead' for a few months already), and wondering about what my contribution will be to this world. Will it be my thesis on demusealisation of fashion within the exhibition space? I doubt it. Will it be these 'brilliant' blogposts staining the internet like a drop of tea that couldn't reach the mouth and therefore now perfectly marks my jumper which I've been wearing for two days straight and which smells faintly of last nights dinner? It's safe to say: probably not. So will it then, therefore (because we're running out of options) be the monstrosity I call the list of books I haven't read? Well... it still seems rather inlikely, but sure, whatever floats your boat.


Reaching for the sweet stuff
After reading Batsheva's (from Cynical Duchess) blogpost about her TBR list (although it took me the whole post to understand what TBR meant and before that point almost felt obliged to send her a 'get well soon' card) and my trip yesterday to the 'books festival' in Nieuwegein, it shouldn't come as a surprise to you that today I'm going to share my TBR list aka books I bought yesterday/books I bought recently/books I got gifted recently. A very striking and catchphrase-y name for a blogpost, I know. I promise, as you might've noticed (or not), I will try to make it sound a bit more catchier.

It's a sweetspot of 16 books I'll be sharing with you today. 16... Yet another reminder of my lost youth/life. But don't despair, I heard there's enough time playing with books when haunting an old mansion in the countryside somewhere in England...


Boooooooks
The main bulk of this list was purchased yesterday during the infamous 'books festival'. This festival is generally held twice a year and offers us muggles misprinted or otherwise misfortuned books for a whoppingly good price. It's great. This month, however, in general, has become quite book-orientated. Not that I'm complaining, but as I commented beneath Batsheva's post, the chances of it becoming 'too much to handle' (say for instance being put off by the amount of books staring at you which makes you run away screaming, only to be hit and killed by a car) is becoming more and more part of reality. Although I'm not there yet (after doing some maths I calculated the risks and came to the conclusion that 6 more new books this month will do the trick; as it'll reach the number beyond life and apparent opens the gate to eternal nothingness. This naturally begs the question: do you feel lucky, punk?).


Passion for...
As a fashionista it shouldn't strike you as odd when I tell you that the 'fashion book' is best represented within this list. Don't you worry, it isn't only pretty faces on fine pictures that have sealed the deal. Take for instance Dit Boek Gaat Niet Over Mode [This Book Isn't About Fashion] by Cécile Narinx, Marije van Regenmortel and Merel Bem. Although I on the one hand strongly believe that thinking that fashion/clothing is equal to the creation of identity first of all limits your perception of what clothing can do or what 'you' as a personality contains and second of all has created -among many other things- a society that blindly follows and accepts that the fashion industry is responsible for the second largest amount of pollution in this world.[1] On the other hand however I just can't help or escape the thought that, indeed as this book is trying to illustrate, fashion/clothing is more than just a piece of cloth. And that it indeed, inescapably, is a way of communication and can represent a certain mood or 'stage of life' or be a comfort or just be fun.

• Dit Boek Gaat Niet Over Mode [This Book Isn't About Fashion] by Cécile Narinx, Marije van Regenmortel and Merel Bem
•  Coco Chanel: The illustrated world of a fashion icon by Megan Hess
• Vogue on: Christian Dior by Charlotte Sinclair 
• Stephen Jones & The Accent of Fashion by Hamish Bowles 
• Coming into Fashion: A century of photography at Condé Nast by Nathalie Herschdorfer 
• Moda: Made in Italy by Modemuseum Hasselt  
• Fashion Makers Fashion Shapers by Anne-Celine Jaeger 
• Helmut Newton: World Without Men by Helmut Newton 
• Ingrid Bergman: A life in pictures by Isabella Rossellini and Lothar Schirmer (ed.)

Uncultured barbarian
This January my mind was in Russia. Starting naturally with the exhibition about Catherine the Great at the Hermitage and quickly followed by finally watching the 2016 BBC adaption of War & Piece. This was my first encounter with War and Peace and I'm ashamed to say that I haven't read Leo Tolstoy's apparent masterpiece. And I, in the near future, won't either be making acquaintance. As I'm, again, ashamed to say that the story just didn't catch my imagination and sometimes even uproared annoyance. Especially against the almost-name-twin-of-my-sister Natasha Rostova. Don't get me wrong, the BBC did a great job! The scenery, the way they captured it, the actors, all phenomenal! The story just... I don't know, was a bit of a let down. As I said: it mostly evoked annoyance towards almost-name-twin-of-my-sister. And at the end I didn't felt relieve or happiness or contempt towards the characters, their 'growth' and ultimately their ending. But hopefully these books will! (although we all know the bittersweet ending of the Romanovs).

• Catherine the Greatest: Self-polished Diamond of the Hermitage by Hermitage Amsterdam 
• The Diary of Olga Romanov: Royal Witness to the Russian Revolution by Helen Azar 
• Servants: A downstairs view of twentieth-century Britain by Lucy Lethbridge

I'm very much looking forward reading Servants: A downstairs view of twentieth-century Britain by Lucy Lethbridge. From time to time I can be quite an anglomaniac, especially late 18th, 19th and 20th century England has a perminant grasp on my imagination (just to name a short time-frame). This book is apparently "the most authorative account yet of behind-the-scenes, twentieth-century Britain." And if those words doesn't excite you than maybe I can persuade you by saying it also got pictures! There's for instance a picture of the Duke of Bedford unloading dishes from the first Kenwood Automatically Fully Automated dishwasher at the Ideal Home Exhibition of 1959. I mean, if that doesn't do it for you, I don't know what will...


In other news
Are you familiar with those suspicious moments where you, for instance, just added a book to your digital lists of TBR only to find a physical copy of it moments later. Granted, the physical copy is in Dutch and not English, but who cares when the price is but a shadow of its original. In contrary it can also be very suspicious coming across a book you've been waiting for your whole life without you even knowing it. Don't you just hate it when that happens?

• Art: A Beginner's Guide by Laurie Schneider Adams 
• Incognito: The secret lives of the brain by David Eagleman 
• The Princess Bride by William Goldman 
• The Language of Flowers: A Miscellany by Mandy Kirkby

What book are you currently reading and what book do you wish you were currently reading? Not because of the poor quality of the book you're currently reading, but more in the sense of 'planning for the future', what's next in life? Although I don't believe in a five year adoration plan, guided step-by-step what your life is or should be looking like (I mean, honestly, for me, narrowing it down to one book for the near-future is already a momentarily oppression of the past lying on top of a sofa made out of flames, burning every bit of hope for a new and better tomorrow. But by all means, plan your future, sell your soul and comment below: what book are you reading in five years?).

Love,
Dominique


Sources:
[1] Vogue NL, "Waarom de mode-industrie de tweede grootste milieuvervuiler ter wereld is" (14 November 2016), http://www.vogue.nl/artikel/waarom-de-mode-industrie-de-tweede-grootste-milieuvervuiler-ter-wereld-is, 28 November 2016.

I've got this tendency to always have an opinion about everything. Living with me can be a nightmare: I gleefully talk through the news, or anything basically that's on TV, saying how obnoxious and wrong they are. But who is really obnoxious and wrong? Me- who thinks she's right (I am right). Or the newsreporter- who's just (badly) doing what they get paid for to do?

This endless commenting doesn't restrict itself to just the TV. Also books are being bullied by my opinion. Or rather: notebooks and emails (which I send to myself... which is totally normal and fine). Almost every notebook I own has been bullied by my words and careless writings about how something is totally wrong or totally cool and inspiring and the best thing ever (but, suffice to say, it's mostly 'totally wrong'). Today I'd like to share one of these excerpts: an email to myself.


What u on 'bout?
As I already mentioned in a post or two ago, last year began with a Vivienne Westwood book and ended with a Vivienne Westwood book. The book in question, Get A Life!, mainly discusses Westwood's work for Climate Revolution mixed with her daily life (she goes out a lot and has a lot of friends (the one might be related to the other)). In between you'll get a glimpse into her life as a fashion designer/brand hostess. But I definitely wouldn't describe this book as a fashion book or recommend it to anyone who only cares about the dresses and has no eye for the politics. Although, if you are considering buying this book, I take it that you're familiar with dear ol' Viv and her stance in life/politics/fashion and how it's all intertwined.


Pop pop pop u lar
Our journey begins at page 187. Vivienne describes her visit to the V&A museum. She went there to see the David Bowie exhibition. She writes: "I enjoyed myself but great as Bowie is, I'm not so interested in popular culture."