Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens
Lileks posted this 1977 Frederick’s of Hollywood Catalog about a month ago, but I haven’t seen it ’til now. Nice illustrations of Charlies Angels-esque models wearing hideous jumpsuits and huge wigs. The outfits look not so much sewn but as if they were concocted in test tubes at Dow Chemical.
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:10 am
Yes, these catalog scans are wonderful…however, one of my pet peeves
with Lileks (and other retro or found art sites) is that he continues to gild the lily with his cheeky and unnecessary comments…
SUCH AS THESE - -
1) The “Gypsy Girl” outfit would come in handy if you were the greeter at an Esteban’s restaurant…
2) I think I met her in Doom 3, where legless torso-harpies flew at you…
3) On the right, Bert Convy stands motionless, hoping the tarantula fastened to his chest does not bite…
To me, having comments like these accompany nice, fun scans of already-charming material is like having someone yakking away and reciting bits of dialogue while watching a classic movie.
Lileks is actually somewhat witty, but many other such webmasters are quite un-witty and only ruin the visual material they claim to love and cherish. Good art material should be able to stand on it’s own merits…”funny” comments only seem to pump up the ego of the person making the comments and usually add nothing. The brutal fact is, most webmasters aren’t Woody Allen.
PS - I think it’s interesting that Frederick’s of Hollywood outlets are now standard in shopping malls (sometimes located right next to Radio Shacks!) Victoria’s Secret most likely paved the way.
May 3rd, 2006 at 5:23 pm
I have to agree with Kurt Benbenek to the degree that I didn’t find myself as amused by Lileks’ comments on the “Fredericks ‘77″ catalog. Not everything requires commentary and I think this is one time I find that Lileks may have bought into his own humor.