Foxy lady Paloma Faith
This is Paloma Faith, an English actress and singer. I’d never heard of her before, but the following outfit was probably designed to remedy that condition. If so, it succeeded admirably:
And here’s a closeup, which I sought because I couldn’t quite believe my eyes, and couldn’t figure out what I was looking at:
So, what sort of animal tail is Ms. Faith sporting? I’m still not sure, although I tried some Google image searches to find out. Are those squirrel tails? (Don’t think so; they seem a bit too thick). Or raccoon tails (to go with the eye makeup)? (Don’t think so; they’re not striped enough.) I have finally come to the conclusion that Paloma might be displaying three fox tails on her breast, for reasons best known only to her.
The entire hideous ensemble puts me in mind of a dark memory from my youth: the fox fur stole, a fashion still popular in the 50s although it originated earlier. I had a deep horror of those little beasties, which consisted of the entire fox skin (yes, including the feet, head, and all, eyes replaced by glassy orbs) wrapped around the neck and hanging casually down the front, the fox jaw somehow securing the whole thing by its teeth being used as clamps.
And here is a photo of the real thing. You can’t get its full measure unless you see it being modeled, however (I couldn’t find a good photo of that; please provide a link in the comments section if you do):
The centerpiece of the adornment is the skull and horns of a small sheep, extensively broomed (tips worn off). You can see their annular rings. The tails appear to be fox. Given the succubic look in the second picture, ‘paloma’ is paradoxical.
Excuse please but I believe the teeth were replaced by clamps.
Otherwise it would be known as “Foxmoutha Dentata.”
Simon Kenton: so, it’s the union of predator and prey?
Or, in a more optimistic world, is the fox lying down with the lamb—after they’re both dead, that is?
Yet another no-talent trying to break out of the pack? Was she handing out copies of her sex tape too?
Pray for the asteroid.
I’d call it the skanko-vampiric-Georgia O’Keefey look.
Just dye the fox tails some fluorescent color, and you’d have Michelle Obama’s outfit at the next state dinner.
Ms Neocon, to me the union of predator and prey is called “chyme.” Ms Paloma’s necklace/stole or whatever it is – these high-fashion distinctions are way above my skillset – does not really represent that.
This accessory appears to be the unfortunate results of a 60 mph meeting of semi truck and a pack of coyotes feeding on a road kill sheep scraped off of the blacktop and hung around the neck. I think the look could be improved by knocking out a few of Paloma’s front teeth with a ball pein hammer but that’s just my opinion.
My Mom had one (the fox stole that is, not the furry tail necklace).
I was alternately fascinated and repelled by it as a child.
Just dye the fox tails some fluorescent color, and you’d have Michelle Obama’s outfit at the next state dinner.
And then put a blinking red light on the foxes’ noses, and Michelle will be all set for the next conferment of a posthumous Medal of Honor.
The fox (sorry, in the previous post I’d thought there was more than one) caught a break. Imagine if it were still alive how embarrassed it would be to be seen with this woman.
Celebrity check list:
Weird makeup – check.
Funky hairdo from another era – check.
Weirda$$ accessory that apparently has no real name – check check.
Put ensemble together as a way of attracting media attention – check!
————–
I’ve never heard of her before either, and have no clue as to her talent or lack thereof.
I’ll also agree she has a fairly bizarre look going on here.
BUT, I’ll also point out that her tactic to gain attention apparently worked, and I’ll even give her points for going against the do-gooder’s efforts by wearing (gasp) animal skins!
paloma f. (plural palomas)
Singular
paloma f.
Plural
palomas f.
1. dove, pigeon
2. (Nicaragua) Complete male sexual organ.
With a fashion sense like that, there’s gotta be a high level government position for this whatever she is. To me, at first glance, it looked like maybe she was using a fox sporran as a necklace, but I, too, think there are some sheep? horns involved in this Black Massy type dodad.
Bad enough that she hung this crap around her neck, but she is also just intrinsically weird looking; the chick you run away from at a party, even if you are drunk,
Looks like coyote tails.
I wonder what is the emplois of this “burlesque actres”? Maybe she’s presented as comic relief to some generously shaped diva – with her mongoloid face and near-unibrow, half of normal length [and bowed] lower extremities, tubular torso, non-existing neck and arms that stretch to her knees?
I’ll have to reject fox as the origins of the tails, though…it looks to me more like a wolf, the steppe’ kind. Or maybe a dingo – given the subject’s fondness of the exotic (or rather – bizarre)…
I remember the fur stoles very well. Never seen one with teeth, though.
No, no, this woman defines chutzpah: Spilled a pina colada on her dress at a PETA dinner, and at picture time stole one of the animal-abuse exhibits to cover up with and brazened it out. Extra points for the vampiric grimace.
And to think we worried about Bjork wrapped in a swan.
Hideous. Just hideous. Lose the makeup. Lose the dead animals. The dress is alright otherwise.
>>Wolla Dalbo Says:
December 5th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
With a fashion sense like that, there’s gotta be a high level government position for this whatever she is.
continued from above…
Yeah, like First Lady. She’s better dressed than the current one usually is these days.
No reprintable comment.
Yeah, the Paloma ensemble is as awful as it is mysterious – but I do remember those stoles being worn by the elderly church ladies, when I was a child. My brother and I found them to be kinda grisly yet fascinating, with the glass eyes and the paws, and the jaws that clamped shut on the other end of the stole. Ah, the memories.
I am sure any child seeing someone wearing a stole like that, these days, would probably run screaming.
I’d rather look at jello.
Exactly, Chaz.
Bjork is still on this side of eccentric. Paloma is way outside the line.
You should appreciate her shoes, though.
However, despite at least 6″ heels and hidden platform, they don’t make her figure closer to normal proportions.
When my parents were on their honeymoon, my father ran over a coyote. “Alta Mae,” said he, “how would you like a fur piece?”
Said she, “Just what I’ve always wanted.”
So my father threw it in the rumble seat (yes, that long ago) and on they drove.
When they arrived at their honeymoon hotel in Denver, my father said to the parking attendant, “Do you know a taxidermist? We’d like to have this coyote turned into a stole.”
The parking guy said, “You might want to kill it first.”
The coyote was sitting up in the rumble grinning at them.
The second time, my father killed it successfully. And made it into a stole for my mother. Which I now have. Looks much like your fox picture, Neo, though a bit larger.
I admit to liking the fox stole, which would be very warm on a cold, blustery, winter’s night. I think them one of the best uses for an animal’s fur — right next to lining for parkas.
As for Ms. Paloma’s decorations: they have no utility and are too ostentatious to be ornamental. In a word: FAIL! One kills and uses the fur, etc., of an animal because it is useful and, in many cases, beautiful. The whatever of Ms. Paloma fails on both accounts.
Wenda – fantastic story!
I always enjoyed the ladies wearing the fox furs with the glass eyes. To me, they were the “time machine ladies” who appeared to me from a different era.
Now that I’m older, I try not to dress like a time machine lady, but it’s hard to do. The styles of so many young women make no sense to me. I don’t know how to layer things properly, and the knitted Peruvian peasant cap that I saw several times today seems kind of sloppy, not cute.
So I guess I’m going to be a time machine lady. I hope my children aren’t embarrassed to be seen with me.
I’d hit it.
she is making converts to peta
Hahahaha!! How politically incorrect!
My elderly Aunt had one of those stoles, every chance I got I’d mess around with the thing, try and attach it to my little sister, the dog etc.
I’ll skip the Paloma and opt for the Dita Von Teese, thank you.
That is one incredibly ugly dress. But I submit to you that it is not ugly because it uses fur, but rather how it is used.
I am a little surprised at the comments I’ve been reading. If memory serves, the tip of the spear of political correctness was the demonizing of wearing fur coats. You know the story, ‘fur is dead’, ‘I’d rather go naked than wear fur’, etc.
Fur is just a classification of a much broader group of animal hides. Do we see protesters chastising us for wearing leather coats, pants, shoes, belts, purses, hats? No. We see protesters chastising the wearing of fur because it is seen as a vain symbol of wealth and attempting to make the wearer feel guilty about it – and they have succeeded.
Yet, we see fur being used all of the time in a manner that does not produce the protest. For example, women wear parkas adorned with a fur ruffs around the hood – don’t look now but the fox or coyote is just as dead as the one used in that ghastly dress, yet not a peep.
Fur was the first clothing. Ever since Og the caveman ventured too far from the equator and said to himself ‘Ugg, me cold. Hey, that stuff warm. Feel good too.’ we have used it as a tool of survival. We would literally not survive an hour in the northern climes without some type of clothing, and not having biologically adapted to it, we stole the adaptation from the animals we encountered as we moved North.
And use it we do. If you live in the northern cities such as New York, Chicago, Boston, you still see women wearing fur, not because they’re vain, but because its damned cold. Fur is used all across the spectrum of human nature, from the eskimo hunting seals to the seductress Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate. It’s part of who we are.
So, let’s be consistent. If we are comfortable having Chicken Parmesan and Filet Mignon for dinner, holding up our pants, wearing shoes, sitting on a sofa or automobile seat, ad infinitum, then let’s stop with the faux outrage about fur, shall we?
And let’s also recognize that it is a planted axiom that fur is something evil. It is not. Admit it, we’re all anonymous here, that when you see a woman in a fur that you want to reach out and touch it, squelch the temptation as you might.
So in the larger context of our political climate today, I say we grab ourselves a fur coat, a good cigar, a well made cowboy hat, western boots, a copy of National Review and head on down to the local Starbucks and horrify some liberals. Sound like fun?
Gray: pervert!
Great post, turfmann. You’re dead on right of course. I’ve always thought the “cuddle factor” had a lot to do with the faux fur outrage. The cuddle-ier the animal is the more furiously it causes liberals to gnash their teeth. You don’t see them whining about alligator or snakeskin.
*turfmann,
couple days ago I was passing by Macy’s at Herald Square and had to navigate through large crowd of deranged anti-fur activists in front of the 7th Ave entrance. They were screaming and posing for the cameras, as it’s the busiest time of the year at the busiest NY retail block.- there were thousands of shoppers for the audience.
funny, how that crowd chose not to demonstrate in front of numerous fur workshops and wholesales of the garment fur district, only a block or two down the Avenue. I bet they wouldn’t like the reaction.
Turfman… the durn thing is ugly.. (you decide whether i mean the fur, the lady, or both)
tatyana…
ever notice that when they paint a old womans fur, they never seem to throw paint on hells angels leathers…
You have to step back and look at the way the fur is arranged. It is intended to increase her fertility and her husband’s/boyfriend’s virility.
Paloma was the first “to perform” at the T4’s Stars of 2009. Sorry I missed it. I wonder what she did?
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/t4/starsof2009/gallery.html
Here is an e-bay item.
If you look at the 3rd picture, it shows the black spring clip at the mouth to hold the ends. I remember my Grandmother use to have one. I remember the tail, body and feet but not the teeth and skull. It may be your memory is playing tricks on you. The hides would have been tanned and after that trying to get the skull back into the hide would have been difficult.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-1940s-lined-fox-fur-stole-wrap_W0QQitemZ120498823322QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Women_s_Vintage_Clothing?hash=item1c0e4a209a
PS:
Here is a link showing a 4 pelt stole as it would have been worn in the 1940’s
http://vintagehattery.com/furcollarsstoles/furstole1.html
Mike: I think you are correct. I probably last saw one when I was about four years old, and I would imagine they seemed incredibly ferocious to me. So I remember teeth instead of a clamp.
I also think I did a lot of averting of my eyes.
Hmmm…I would not be surprised if she kilt and skint them herself with her very own teeth 🙂
I know Paloma, and she would never wear real fur as she has been approached by people on a similar matter before, and it wasn’t real fur then and it isn’t now. She disagrees with fur