DD gave me this necklace for my recent birthday--it's a pave skull and crossbones, with Swarovski crystals. It's Tarina Tarantino. I've been pining for the thing for months. I love it so much that I've worn it practically every day since then.
The ultimate reaction to this accessory was my CEO's disapproving comment, "A jeweled skull?!" A fashion criticism coming from someone with an iron-gray bowl haircut and lots of fleece--I'll take that as a compliment.
Two things have gotten me really into red, white and blue (and neither of them is the American flag):
One is my Blackletter calligraphy teacher, Ward Dunham. From him, I learned that Blackletter calligraphy is always, well, black and white, unless an accent color is added, and that's always a beautiful vermillion red. If a second accent color is added, it's always ultramarine blue. I've looked at pages and pages of old Blackletter texts (reproductions) and all that black on white, with red and blue imprinted itself mightily on my brain, apparently, for I'm now crazy for red and white, blue and white, black and white, stripes, pirates, skulls, and, uh, espadrilles.
The second influence was the film Blood Tea and Red String. If you can find this charming, dark, disturbing and sweet handmade stop-motion animation fairy tale at your local independent video store or Netflix or whatever, you must watch it, and you'll see why. The colors are saturated, primary and beautiful, and there's a lot of red and white stripes, red spider silk, white porcelain tea cups filled with blood tea, and an unfortunate blue bird.
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