When I was growing up I wanted to be Laura Palmer. (If she was real of course. Please give my visionary, teenaged self some credit).
Even those who aren't Twin Peaks lovers will know this was a somewhat distorted ambition. Laura was, on the surface, a beautiful, popular high school student from a Pacific Northwest logging town. An only child seemingly adored by her parents, saccharine home-coming queen and selfless volunteer for the elderly. Yet lying nebulously beneath the golden-blonde veneer Laura was crazy wild, self-destructive and manipulative with a serious cocaine habit and well, let's just say a bit of a one. She did things that would turn anyone's hair white let alone her father's; just read her secret diary where any illusions of purity are brilliantly shattered. (No honestly do, it's eye-popping).
None of this was her fault of course, what with a possessed father and the weird and wonderful world that she and the other 51,201 residents (both existent and supernatural) inhabited. Despite this, Laura was smart and enigmatic with glossy 1950s pin-up looks and I imagined slipping into a kilt and soft cashmere jumper and mesmerizing just about everyone as she did in that mixed up little town.
So any homage to Twin Peaks' tragic heroine piques my curiosity (Hi, Laura Palmer by Bastille). This includes my new favourite thing - the 'Laura Palmer's Theme' Dress.
It is designed by the very talented Maria Soromenho, who first came to my attention back in 2013 with her first capsule collection and I have been following her with a fashion-hungry appetite ever since.
Gorgeously vampy and handmade with incredible attention to detail, the 'Laura Palmer’s Theme' Dress is the perfect statement piece. Ostensibly, from the back it is a sophisticated and classy little black dress; something good Laura might wear to the Double R Diner to meet James Hurley for a coffee or two.
Yet just like Laura herself, it can metamorphose with a turn of the body and swoosh of the hair. From the front its raw design is tough and punky with a strip of fierce black leather tassels that command your attention. This is very bad Laura, drinking at the Bang Bang Bar or running maniacally into night through the dark woods.
I absolutely love this dress. I would wear it with a bashed up pair of Chloé buckled leather ankle boots, an edgy cuff from & Other Stories and fiery MAC lipstick in Ruby Woo. The sounds of Angelo Badalamenti's ingenious compositions would be my inner soundtrack.
Of course, I need to wait for the right place to showcase this beauty and the Twin Peaks UK Festival sounds like a great place to start. With a number of devotees to the TV cult classic in attendance the dress is sure to be appreciated by the Peakies, who would note the similarities with the chic black dress and blood-red lipstick worn by Laura in the Black Lodge.
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Twin Peaks UK Festival
You can purchase the Laura Palmer's Theme Dress from Kuji Shop
