Brigitte Fontaine

Searching for the Beautiful, nothing less

In France, Brigitte Fontaine is mostly known for her eccentric clothes and her outrageous haircuts. And as far as the general public is concerned, that is about it. She has had her –deserved– recognition by a fringe of the press but the first images of her that come to mind are the disastrous interviews led by low brow TV hosts, more willing to boost their audience thanks to Brigitte’s strange manners than take pains to understand what her work is about.

Brigitte Fontaine has repeatedly been charged with madness and she definitely is mad, if you call madness the ability to see other images, other rimes in life. Unlike some younger singers who like to think of themselves as "damn crazy" to compensate for their lack of originality and/or talent, she has created from scratch a nutty character just for the sake of celebrity. She obviously has fed a persona over the years, like any artist but more importantly, she has also created her own, authentic and consistent universe, made of unique rapprochements and dazzling images.

Words: the right one, please
It would be too difficult to point the separate ingredients that make the magic of her work. The recipe must be kept secret, still its inimitable alchemy undoubtedly comes first and foremost from the power and precision of her words. Brigitte Fontaine probably knows more words than me and all my friends –even the clever ones– united, and she knows how to pick them. For their meaning –who else knows the difference between "husband" and "spouse"?– and for their sonority. Pointing the exact notion using a word texture that will match the idea perfectly.
Her texts are a manifest against anything too easy and too expected. Her exactness allows her any digression and poetic delirium: a baroque, unseen before world into which we immerse with great pleasure, notably because we understand what she is talking about and manage to catch a glimpse of its richness. Unlike other geniuses who desperately try to prove their inspiration through vague turns of phrase. Brigitte Fontaine builds worlds brick by brick. She tells stories that make you feel beautiful, happy, slightly melancholic, deeply aware of life's disasters, yet strong, aristocratic, unique and able to do anything you want since you are alive.

Breathing life into words
Beside the quality of the words, the songs are imbued with an atmosphere that point to Brigitte Fontaine’s excellence as a singer and storyteller. Her constructions are coated with a peculiar feel which springs both from the inspired arrangements by her husband –or spouse?– Areski Belkacem and from her singular voice, at times childlike, gasping and husky with a somewhat forced diction. All her heart and all her breath into the pieces she creates.
"A song is an artistic act where millions of things have to happen in two minutes. People receive it in a thousand different ways, as they please! They can decide whether this is it or not. Listening to the words, one after the other, is not what matters to them. What matters is to receive a breath, a perfume…"
A perfume like the one invented in "Demi-clocharde" she played with Sonic Youth, the story of an infinitely free, idle "half-bum" wandering across the city, wearing the "golden necklace Emile bought her for her birthday". A distorted, decadent and poetic scene like a first-rate, white and black artistic picture.

 

Jarvis, king of style

Can everyone be him?

Fed up with my old pink framed specs that I cannot decently wear with anything but black tops –or navy blue, when I feel rebellious enough–, I headed for the optician’s, resolute to find the sleek and accessory that would enhance my natural charm.
Although I had already seen some of the new Spring collections, I was quite amazed at how strong the nerdy look trend had grown, sweeping out anything not bulky, plastic and black. As I desperately tried on every model by Tom Ford, Chanel and Donna Karan that could possibly help me "assert my personality", a thought came to my mind: I’d already seen these on someone long before all this crave started… It was HIM, of course!

Jarvis Cocker was the first to dare the weird-looking, NHS glasses… successfully, I mean, a few years ago, i.e. when they were still a clear signal that you did not want to be kissed by anyone. Ever.

"But personality… that’s what counts"
In an interview by Ann Scanlon published in Volume 10 in 1994, Jarvis explained the importance of clothes and style:
"It was quite an important decision to make in Sheffield, because people would beat you up if they didn't like your clothes. Leigh Bowery can walk around with his bollocks hanging out in London but, in Sheffield, somebody'll hit you for having a lime green shirt on. So my wardrobe was quite a serious thing –it wasn't like a flippant, foppish thing to do, you had to be prepared to take the consequences. But it was a good way of meeting like-minded people. You'd probably meet like-minded people while you were running away from a gang of skinheads. I've still got the first shirt that I ever bought from a second-hand shop–it's orange with white spots on it."

Dressing can be a political act: it amounts to much more than matching the "right" colours and picking the right cut. It actually tells the world who you are. Jarvis created his own style away from the ready-made outfit of the season. And that is what turned him into the dandy, glam, sexy pop icon we now revere, differentiating him from everyone else, the polyester trousers, the outdated shirts. Personality means being different, daring to conjure up something new, unusual, even if it means you are considered an eye-sore by hipsters and so-called fashion pros.

Now, why do all these people persist in disfiguring themselves with unbefitting frames, when they know everyone else has already got them? Are they trying to get their membership card of the ugly-frame-and-skinny-jeans-private-club? It takes personality –and even courage, as stated by Jarvis–, to actually "be yourself" and to avoid the "be yourself like everyone else" trap. One is fun, the herd is not.

I just love to go past eccentric people on the street. I regularly happen to be on the same metro train as an incredible, middle-aged woman wearing the most extravagant hat I’ve ever seen: about 60cm high, orange and brick-red velvet with yellow feathers –I didn’t even know they allowed such things in town. And what I love most is her detached, snobby look as she walks down the platform. No-one else could wear that with as much style, because she picked the hat herself and turned it into her own thing.
"When the world zigs, zag" said a Levi’s advert years ago. I’ll try that and have my older-than-old frames fixed.

Bonus for those who have NOT bought this winter’s large frames, a funny glasses story by the king of style:
"[Contact lenses] have had a very big influence on Pulp. For a start, they meant that I could move on stage, because when I used to wear my glasses on stage they always fell off –I'd kind of shake my head and then they'd be gone or, if they didn't fall off, they'd slip down and look really stupid. It was terrible. Once we played at The Library Theatre in Sheffield and I kind of jumped and my glasses went flying off and I couldn't find them. So there was a ten minute gap in the concert while I looked for my glasses because, when I haven't got them on, I can't see a thing. Nobody knew where they were, and eventually I found them inside the bass drum, but obviously it destroyed the whole atmosphere of the concert. You're trying to create some sort of atmosphere and then suddenly you've got this big gap while the lead singer's crawling around on is hands and knees trying to find his glasses."

 

Lily Allen

"Everything’s just wonderful"

She is her father’s daughter but she definitely has what it takes, style and talent, to be a pop icon herself. Lily Allen or the groovy chick every girl wants to be.

Once upon a time, there was an ex-florist who recorded tracks in her free time and suddenly decided to make them public on MySpace. Success was immediate and, in a few months’ time, she had become everyone’s favourite vixen thanks to her funny, vindictive song "Smile". Just like that, very simply. Lily had become a star and yet did not start acting like one, pursuing the accounts of her now different life on the blog she had started earlier. A kid telling her friends last night’s gig was fun, although the food before was dreadful and made her sick –most of the time in less politically correct words.

Not the haughty, catwalk skinny type, Lily breathes a new spirit into "Girl-singer-land". A freshness which results from a subtle combination of "innit" talk, irony and natural distinction and which at last brings about an alternative to pushy Missy Elliot and to enervating Norah Jones. Surprise: girls do not all bite and fight, neither do they all indulge in soppy songs. Some, like Lily, do have brains and a sense of humour, they are cheeky, gossipy and devilish, otherwise, where’s the fun?

Smile !
And fun seems to be what Lily is after. Not only in her lyrics and posts, but also in the way she dresses, moves and acts –the pictures on her MySpace page testify to her particular affection for faces and laughs. Often pictured holding a lollipop or an ice-cream, the grown kid nonetheless knows her way around style. She simply created her own. Although she claims wearing jeans and sweaters most of the time to work in the studios, she undeniably has a flair for fashion, matching perfectly old-style, princess dresses –she once mentioned her passion for the 18th Century and the spectacular weddings of kings and queens– with Nike trainers and conspicuous bling bling necklaces. And colours! Multicolour clothes and make up that bring out her ability to invent something of her own. Unlike the sad fashionistas who collapse because the chic fripes boutique no longer has the vintage jacket everyone’s got to wear this winter… Lily Allen wears and inhabits her clothes –not the other way around: she is having fun and that is what gives her that dazzling look.

Pragmatic levity
This light yet not superficial feeling resonates in every song of her album. Her mix of styles, from ska to pure pop, called "urban skank" by some, manages to gather mixed, complex emotions into a work that is straightforward, full of energy and irony. Ambitious but never pretentious. Lily Allen is a patchwork of musical influences in the same way as she is a multi-faceted young woman, aware of social difficulties in the UK –she has voiced her opinion on Tony Blair, "the guy who always smiles and proclaims Britain’s economic prosperity, when the standards are sinking for most of his compatriots"–, of the intricacies of individuals and relationships and everything a girl her age must know. She talks about all that with a resolute and pragmatic lightness that may be necessary in a world that is no longer what you can call very exhilarating.
She has managed to find a modern adjustment to such a world and kindly hands it to her listeners: put some energy into it! No complaining, only sparkle and irony are required to make your life a liveable, lovable place.