A rare photo of Berber at her most beautiful.

“She wore heavy dancer’s make-up, which on the black-and-white photos and films of the time came across as jet black lipstick painted across the heart-shaped part of her skinny lips, and charcoaled eyes.”

“Her performances broke boundaries with their androgyny and total nudity, but it was her public appearances that really challenged taboos. Berber’s overt drug addiction and bisexuality were matters of public chatter. She could often be seen in Berlin’s hotel lobbies, nightclubs and casinos; she would walk around naked except for a sable fur, carrying a pet monkey and a silver brooch full of cocaine, while flaunting her lesbian lovers—removing the barrier between performance and normal life. In addition to her addiction to cocaine, opium and morphine, one of Berber’s favourites was chloroform and ether mixed in a bowl. This would be stirred with a white rose, the petals of which she would then eat.”

One dances hunger and hysteria, fear and greed, panic and horror…Anita Berber—her face frozen into a garish mask under the frightening locks of the scarlet coiffure—dances the coitus.

— Klaus Mann

Anarchists of Style: Anita Berber, Part 2

 
Sebastian Droste (occasional husband and dance partner of Anita Berber), in 1923.

Her hair was cut fashionably into a short bob and was frequently bright red, as in 1925 when the German painter Otto Dix painted a portrait of her, titled “The Dancer Anita Berber”. Her dancer friend and sometime lover Sebastian Droste, who performed in the film Algol (1920), was skinny and had black hair with gelled up curls much like sideburns. Neither of them wore much more than lowslung loincloths and Anita occasionally a corsage worn well below her small breasts.

“By 1928, at age 29, diagnosed with tuberculosis and her body shot by years of drug use, her last days were spent in the hospital. “She had the mask of a mad old hag” recalled friend Leo Lania. She died on November 10, 1928 and was buried in a pauper’s grave.”

Berlin – Metropolis of Vice

Illamasqua Theatre of the Nameless inspired make-up

Directed by: Annie Sperling – Created & Written by: Michelle Carr

Want to know more about the life of Anita Berber? Read Mel Gordon’s book – The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber: Weimar Berlin’s Priestess of Debauchery

Goddess of the night – a fantastic article on Berber from Strange Flowers

1. Deer de Los Muertos Halloween Makeup, 2. Outfit for Tranarchy #1, 3. Flapper Outfit for White Ghost Shivers Show,
4. Sometimes I wear hats that are 100 years old, 5. Anachronistic Manicure, 6. Andrea from NZ visits Austin!,
7. I wear giant blue dresses, 8. Usually there’s an umbrella involved, 9. This is my Easter get-up

photos by Angeliska

I dressed as a coin operated doll & Valerie was a pink monster. Check out her paws! In order to create the makeup for my doll, I used this photo of a Boudoir Doll for inspiration. I had gotten an entire bucket of rainbow rhinestones for this outfit, but I was directionless on what the end result would be. What started out as small circles of rhinestone blush quickly evolved into a swipe of jewels across my face. The boots I am wearing made me about 6’3″, so I did feel a bit like a beribboned Godzilla taking clockworked steps around the dance floor.

photos by Fun Lovin Photos

Devaki Knowles was running the photobooth (she took the photos at the first Tranarchy when I was a Louise Brooks German Flapper). She is amazing, partly because she also takes old pull-apart polaroids at these events, and I am collecting them for my imaginary grandchildren.

Want to see more amazing outfits of the evening?
More Tranarchy! – Angeliska’s Flickr Set
Tranarchy Photobooth – Fun Lovin Photos

Agent Ribbons: everything I love. Imagine if The Zombies and The Boswell Sisters collaborated on an album that was recorded in a Victorian house decorated by Dame Darcy. From the tick-whir of the Super 8 Projector on Rubix Cube to the sweet cirrus cloud melodies of Grey Gardens, Natalie Ribbons has a voice like a siren: crooning from within a closed closet door, her mermaid scales slough off into collected piles of shoes and clothes.

The best part, is that I am fortunate to be a part of this magic. Agent Ribbons recently relocated to Austin this spring. Natalie and I met over Ban Mi & young coconuts at a Vietnamese sandwich food cart one night in August. Since then, we’ve gone on adventures nearly every week, including cheersing Sonic Youth, Bocce Ball games in graveyards, and caterpiller races.
I made a second deer antler head dress & yesterday we headed out to the Texas prairie to catch the last few moments of winter sunshine. I like how these turned out like hand-colored tin type photographs.

The World is a Cigarette

If you’re in France, Spain or Portugal, be sure to catch Agent Ribbons on tour starting next week. They will also be in a future issue of Bust and touring the West coast in the end of 2010. Buy Chateau Crone from Antenna Farm Records on CD or Limited Edition Vinyl. Hooray!

1. Agent Ribbons, 2. The World is a Cigarette, 3. Agent Ribbons,
4. agent ribbons, 5. agent ribbons on the ticket, 6. Agent Ribbons

Rather than Austin City Limits, I spent the day seeing my favorite bands for free, including the radiant Agent Ribbons, pictured below. Natalie Ribbons and I also ran into Sonic Youth drinking wine at a bar, and we cheers’ed them!

Natalie uses a finger monocle to peruse the Pernod list. Gentlemen kept handing us roses throughout the night.
Laura (another ice cream maker in town) & I water down our cocktails.

Here are some shots of Angel and me at Party Like it’s 1929. This is a fantastic period party thrown by the wonderful Datri Bean. We danced through the night and sipped apricot liquor. I made my necklace out of a chandilier from work! It made such music as I moved. It is double-sided so the strands hang down the back just as they do the front.

My headband is from the ever-so-fantastic Louise Black (of Project Runway season 6!) I have been buying headbands from her for years and I love the accent they give each outfit. This one is a delicate green ribbon with glass pieces and a deco brooch. So lovely!

I finally got my makeup right tonight when I turned on the “sepia” setting of Photobooth and just did my makeup in the computer camera as if I was in a sepia picture! I think I am always too timid to really darken my eyes but having the sepia setting let me know where to put the dark shadows and highlights. Guilherme looked very handsome dressed up in a vest and proper suspenders. He shaved his moustache into a Clark Gable shape and I think it fits him very well.