Jitka Cerhová in 'Daisies'

Marie 1 & 2 are the basis for women, disaffected and rebellious, in Vera Chytilova's 1966 avant garde film 'Daisies' or 'Sedmikrasky'. The film is a big contender in the Czech New Wave, aimed to make the Czech people realize their oppression and see its effect on their world. The world created is sort of post-apocalyptic place where the rich are gluttonous and the poor starve. Much like the reality of the country's situation. The waste of food caused the film to be banned. But, all in all, it's a big aesthetically pleasing fuck you.

The Maries decide to go bad rather than continue their dull lives. The film begins with the girls in a meadow of flowers. They pick fruit from the trees and eat. This scene invokes a Garden of Eden imagery. In this version of the story, woman eats the fruit knowing exactly what the outcome will be. The Maries break the convictions associated with femininity by being the ones in control: the users rather than the used. They want the lavish lifestyle and they've learned to use their looks to achieve this. The girls let older men wine and dine them before tricking them back onto a train and out of town.

Daisies is filmed on different film stocks and uses film processing techniques to achieve a stylistic, visual clusterfuck. Some of these include duotones, tints, full color on varying brands of film, and black & white. The changes on screen often relate to feelings and plot points. It can be a way to differentiate scenes and their meanings. Black & white film is used in a scene where the girls wear black and white two-piece bathing suits and sit against a wooden fence. They talk of the hopelessness in the world, so the numbing black & white is fitting. In a scene following, a colored, duotone wash covers the screen as they conspire and their moods improve.

The girl's outfits are often simple shift dresses in varying shades, usually staying in the pastel family. The black dress with a similar cut,  featured in this recreation, is worn by the brunette, Marie 1. It adds sex appeal for the dates. There is always an element of floral, representing their femininity, whether in the pattern of the dress, backgrounds, environments, and Marie 2's floral headpiece. But, the vivid colors of the food outshines all other objects. Leave it to the Maries to remind us that even though the world's gone to shit there is always tasty food.

Prepare for the meal of a lifetime, while we recreate this alluring look:

The three key pieces to this look are:

Black Mini Dress. Look for a short black dress with scoop, V, or sweetheart (square) cut neck. You want a little skin peeking out. You can pair this with black opaque tights, especially as the temperatures drop. The dress should not be tight past the waist, if at all. Make sure it has some swing or has an A-line cut. You can go with long sleeves, but to recreate this particular look I'd go with sleeveless or cap sleeve. 

Scarf. I purchased a pack of sheer juggling scarves in an assortment of colors to use for many looks. Juggling scarves are the things they used to make you play with in elementary school gym class, remember? A pack of about 30 different colors was around $10 on Amazon. For this look, black is the way to go. It should be monochromatic, which means each piece is the same color. You can also get a black scarf in any fabric. Marie 1's is sheer. My favorite are the long, skinny scarves that you can easily tie around your neck, but a square scarf works as well. You will need to roll it length-wise to get the same effect. You can tie or let it hang down your back. 

Pigtails. You can't thrift this, but it is a DIY. Using a fine tooth comb or your nail, part your hair down the middle. Check in a mirror to see that the back follows that line. You can either pull them into low or high pigtails. Try to keep the base just behind the ear. To get the 60's height, tease beforehand and sculpt the pigtails. They will have to be a little lower to achieve this. Add some false eyelashes and a cat eye.

My Recreation: 

photo cred: Sarah Howard

The Breakdown:

Dress: Goodwill-Harlem 125th 

(originally Betsy Johnson)

Scarf: Sheer Juggling Scarf - Amazon

Pigtails: my hands

"If everything's going bad in this world, then we're going to be bad as well!"

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