Aka Tombo Millinery: Gatsby

So everyone went a little Gatsby mad for a while there. Not me, why? because Japan is the last country in the world to release The Great Gatsby. That's right; Peru, Bolivian, Kuwait, Vietnam are just a few of the countries to have release dates before Japan which will finally lift the curtain on June 14th.

After reading several blogs and seeing pictures of 1920s parties happening all over the place I decided to stop feeling left out and headed to the local library where I got me a copy of Gatsby and settled in to the couch...AND...I didn't like it. I actually feel like I should apologise for saying it out loud but here is my reasoning.

When I read The Odyssey I read the page mentioning the Sirens 3 times thinking I had missed something.

To my mind the sirens as described by Homer had inspired artists ever after like Waterhouse and the painting above. In reality the description by Homer is short, vague and pretty dull.

Same goes with Gatsby. The name Gatsby and the images I have of the 1920s go hand in hand. I was waiting for details about the dresses, the parties the luxury. No, no and no. On top of this the characters where really horrid people, after a few chapters I was bored of them and was ready to poke Gatsby, old boy, in the eye. According to my literary friend this was the point as Fitzgerald hated the type of people he was writing about and the book was meant as a scathing criticism of the time. Maybe true but still not so much fun to read.

I at least hope that the film will be pretty to look at and that Hollywood will fill in all the sequinned, cloched, cocktail gaps. However I recently read an article with the stylist for the film who stated that she wanted a fresh look for the film so finger waves and cloches were largely out and straight bobs with Tiffany jewelled headbands were in.

WHAT!!!!!

Yes the headbands are pretty but really you cant have a 1920s film with more head scarves than hats. I was really hoping that the film would bring back my favourite style of hat of all time...The turban!

Lots of people say that they don't have the confidence to carry a hat and while I generally pooh pooh this idea I must admit that wearing a turban is a bold hat choice and needs to be carried with such an easy confident air that it terrifies most people. But when you get it right man does it look good, unfortunately when you get it wrong...