Day 12 – What's your gothic inspiration?

Louise Brooks

Hmmm now for me this is more of a list of who rather than what, and there are several whos.

Also Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks was a silent film star in the 1920's (if you look her up on youtube there are a number of clips from her films, mostly from Pandora's Box).

She's widely credited as being the inspiration for the bobbed haircut phase that swept the fashionable ladies of the 20's and early 30's.

Brooks was the rebel of Hollywood, while she liked being an actress, she hated Hollywood itself and eventually left to make movies in Germany instead.

In Germany she made the three films which she is most famous for (so stick that in your pipe and smoke it Hollywood!), Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl and Prix De Beaute.

The three films were incredibly forward thinking in their attitudes towards sex and relationships, unfortunately to forward thinking for the moral attitudes of the time and the films were heavily censored (Pandora's Box especially so as Brook's character Lulu is not the submissive dear seen in most films of the time).

Unfortunately after her flounce from Hollywood  many directors blacklisted her, and she found it hard to get parts any more.

She made her last film in 1938 and then became a call girl for a while,before beginning a new career as a writer.

Siouxsie Sioux

Siouxsie should need no introduction, but on the off chance you don't know who she is...

In 1976 Siouxsie went to see a band called the Sex Pistols after friend had told her that they sounded like The Stooges (who she was a huge fan of), she became part of "The Bromley Contingent" who followed the Pistols around and many of whom ended up in their own bands of became recognisable faces like in the cases of Sue Catwoman and Debbie Juvenile.

By September she'd started her own band, though their first gig was a bit of an accident and they didn't have any songs at that point so ended up winging most of it, fortunately it worked out ok and The Banshees were born!

With the Banshees, The Creatures and later her solo album Mantaray, Siouxise has sung and been involved in many of my favourite songs, the first guitar riff I ever taught myself to play properly was the main riff of Arabian Nights, the song I'd put on the Juke Box every week when I was first old enough to go to pubs was Peek A Boo and the first video I ever favourited on youtube was Kiss Them For Me.

Her make-up and wardrobe have inspired many many people (myself included, it was her bob in the Peek A Boo video that inspired me to cut my hair like that before I found out who Louise Brooks was).

Mana Sama

Of course no list of my inspirations would be complete without Mana Sama.

Mana Sama is the ever silent but beautiful designer and model for Moi Meme Moitie and guitarist with Mois Dix Mois.

Mana started out in the punk band Girl'e, where he was known as Serina before moving on to Matenrou and later Malice Mizer where he became Mana and started to be recognised for his fabulous stage outfits.

While with Malice Mizer he was involved in several music videos and two short films, "Bara No Konrei" which is a silent version of Dracula that seems to be heavily influenced by the Francis Ford Coppola film and "Bel air", also silent.