The Look: Losing You, by Solange Knowles

Another post on Solange Knowles? That's right, folks. Four days later and I've still got Solange on the brain. I spent the better part of the weekend practicing her moves. (And the rest of it hoping I'd spot her in Carroll Gardens.) While my attempts to replicate Solange's dance routine in Losing You may have been embarrassing at best and emotionally scarring at worst (in the words of my loving boyfriend, "some things cannot be unseen"), I think I've done a pretty nifty job of recreating my favorite aesthetic elements from the video. For those of you who have not yet committed every scene to memory, here's an encore of my favorite stills from the video:

Music Video for "Losing You." Photo Credit: Terrible Records. Source: The Examiner

Music Video for "Losing You." Photo Credit: Terrible Records. Source: The Examiner

This video is a real treat for the eyeballs. Oh lord, the fashion. That brick pattern suit? I die. The oversized houndstooth coat? Leopard flats? Color block platforms? High-wasted denim hot pants? And that's just Solange's wardrobe. Don't even get me started on Les Sapuers. 

But the Cape Town set also provided rich inspiration. One of my favorite scenes from the video is when Solange is lying on a pile of mattresses moving her legs in the air in tempo. (Note: don't try this at home. It is neither as sexy nor cool as when Solange does it.) Katrin Greiling's Bidoun Sofa Series (#6 below), inspired by Bedouin furniture, consists of stacked mattresses threaded with a cord. 

Music Video for "Losing You." Photo Credit: Terrible Records. Source: The Examiner

My second favorite scene is when  Solange is grooving to the music in front of the shipping container-cum-designer-suit-purveyor. The tailor is shutting the door, which bumps Solange. Does she stop dancing? NO, she does not. She stumbles a little, but doesn't miss a beat. Just keeps doing her thing like the goddess that she is.

Music Video for "Losing You." Photo Credit: Terrible Records. Source: The Examiner

Did you notice the caricature illustrations on the outside of the barber shop? I would hang them on my wall if I could. They struck me as a world apart from the run-of-the-mill caricature art you see in the environs of Times Square. A good caricature walks a thin line, and these definitely err more on the side of art than kitsch. I scoped out Etsy hoping to see some similar Caricature talent-- check out A. Weaver's Caricatures on Etsy (#3 below).

The price tag on this shipping container model home ($650!) makes it a real reach item considering it's of limited functionality (#4 below), but I wanted to include an image of the shipping containers from the videos and this one, from Module-R, fit the bill. It was a sobering reminder to see images of how poor communities around the world re-task and adorn objects like shipping containers for shelter-- out of necessity and cost, rather than in pursuit of "green living" (although there's a whole army of people out there who would argue that re-purposed Shipping Containers are far from green). The Cape Town shipping containers in the set of Losing You were a far-cry from the kitted-out, uber modern shipping container shelters I'm used to seeing in the pages of Dwell. Sobering indeed.

The Look

Sources
1. Brick Wall Background Pillow, Zazzle.com - $59.95
2. Veronica Houndstooth-Print Twill Dress, Net-a-Porter - $465
3. Custom Order Caricature Art, A Weaver Caricatures @Etsy - $14.99
4. Model Container Homes, Module-R - $675
5. Clair by Elizabeth & James, JoanMarie - $177
6. Bidoun Sofa Series by Katrin Greiling