The huge false eyelashes.

I wear them every single day.

Even on days like today when I’m wearing pants covered in paint, a nasty ripped and tied back together t-shirt and I have black tile grout staining the half moon circles of my fingernails.  They are ON.

If I’m not seeing a single person during the day, they are on.

I don’t wear them for other people, I wear them for me.

I have gotten shit for wearing them because people assume that my hyper-fem look is because I’m just horribly insecure and I feel like I need these lashes on to feel attractive.

Here’s the real deal.

I got obsessed with the look when I was 19, when I was working at an old movie house that showed vintage films.  Week after week, canisters of film would arrive that contained film names like:  Pitfall, To Have and Have Not, Gun Crazy and Kiss Me Deadly.

The thing that all of these films from the 1940s and 1950s had in common, was they each featured a strong, ass-kicking femme fatale.  At that point in my life, I was used to seeing modern movies in mainstream theaters where the lead female character was just the lead male’s girlfriend.  She wasn’t dangerous, she had nothing to say and she was always boring as hell.

What happened to the femme fatales?

I stopped going to mainstream movies and was happy to just sit in my projection booth week after week, watching the black and white vamps -scheme and strut.  They were smart, and they played match for match with the boys.  That was interesting to me.

They were in control. They made people stand up and take notice. And they did NOT mess around.

I wanted to emulate them.

They didn’t give a fuck about chasing boys.  They were spies, writers, circus performers and wanderers. And they did what they did well and with power. They were “one of the boys” but with false lashes.

Growing up with all boys, I could identify with that.

I also didn’t care about chasing boys around or being cute for boys. Boys were my friends. They wanted me to be real with them. They didn’t want me to do some stupid tip from a women’s magazine to figure out how to make them like me.

The femme fatales spoke to me. They were feminine AND badass. And years later, when I put on my first pair of false lashes, I saw that signature femme fatale look staring me back in the mirror.

The false lash look harkens to a time where a girl may be wearing a gorgeous dress and her hair may be done perfect in curls….but look out – because she’s smart, she’s dangerous and she’s got your number.

That’s where Danger Dame came from.

So I’m curious….what influences have affected your look or your style?

Gimme the dirt in the comments. I wanna hear it all!