Courtney Love has quietly been on Pinterest for a year, but her presence on the site has gained some publicity since she opened a new, official YouTube account last week with a video addressing her “Twibel” lawsuit. Accompanying the clip were many, many comments from Love directing us to her Pinterest and unmasking some of the heretofore unclear pieces of Love shorthand and various other linguistic misdirections that seem to plague her communications.
We sat down with it and dissected some of the more surprising, bizarre, and uncharacteristic reveals that C. Love’s Pinterest pins offers. And if a picture is worth a thousand words, then that board with (give or take) 253 hairstyle pins is really saying something.
The Brides Board
Yeah, there’s a brides board, and yes that’s the last thing in the world you expected to find on a Courtney Love Pinterest account. There’s another selection of bridal gowns on her me me me board. And on the latter, in the midst of many turn-of-the-century/silent film brides, is Natalie Portman from Star Wars. Let’s hope to God this means she’s designing bridal gowns and not that she’s been watching the crap Star Wars prequels — although a DVD commentary on that from Courtney Love would amazing.
Michael Kors
Unless you are deep in the fashion game, you may not have noticed the very special relationship between Michael Kors and Courtney Love. These days Kors is best known to the masses (and the person who left the comment, “Isn’t Michael Kors just kind of expensive Talbot’s??”) as a Project Runway judge and for his downmarket creations for Macy’s and the TJ Maxx bargain bin. But what Kors really is, is one of the magnificent American designers who is slowly ascending to the level of a Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren. It might all be shades of brown, but the sweater + fur bomber look above is classic bohemian, right up Love’s alley. Every kinderwhore has to grow up sometime, right?
Love explains their relationships in a 2012 interview with E! from the front row of his spring 2012 show, saying, “He gave me this marigold sweater, it was the first thing anybody ever gave me that was, like fashion. He was really, really nice to me — he was downtown at the time…”
Died Blonde
Like much of Courtney Love’s presence on the internet, this board seems like a jumble of things that don’t go together. Off the top, there are several images of Kat Bjelland for no apparently reason (is this inspirational or women C. Love wants to kill? Depends on what day of the week it is). It segues into what you’d expect: a mixture of dead blondes that includes Caroline Bissett Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana, and Princess Grace. And then things get weird. The dark imagery trickles in slowly, starting with some gothic makeup and a syringe full of glitter. A collection of images by Ray Caesar and Diane Arbus push the uneasiness forward. By the time you get into ballerinas side by side with shots from the “Fuck Yeah, Creepy Pictures” Tumblr (above), the train is way off the tracks.
In the caption for a pin of Marilyn Monroe (and well below a collection of images of women with bruises and stitches), Love explains, “this BOARD IS ABOUT THE UPCOMING RECORD BY ME ITS GOING TO BE CALLED COURTNEY LOVE I FIGURE THE NAME ISNT EXACTLY HRH BUT HRH OF ROCK? WHAT THE FUCK IT IS CERTAINLY USEFUL THERE AND ITS NOT CELLOS WERE COMING OUT SWINGING, SOMEONE TEACH ME EVBERYTHING ABUT STEVEN KLIEN NOW AND IT IS AMAZING HOW MANY WOMEN DIED BLONDE,,,,ANY OMAGARY THATS LIKE THAT TOO,[.]”
After reading that, you come to a selection of wicked witch-inspired outfits by Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent’s spring 2013 collection that makes perfect, absolute sense.
Edwardian Fashion Influences
Love’s fashion influences and aspirations, as pinned, are what you’ve seen (Peter Pan collars, wood nymph/Stevie Nicks/Ren Fair, 1920s drop waist with sparkles) and what you expect (Marie Antoinette, Twiggy, Belle Epoque), and then there’s this whole selection of vintage and contemporary designs inspired by Edwardian era fashion that is almost inexplicable. It’s that weird decade or so in time post-Jane Austen but pre-Downton Abbey where skirts were long and fitted while bodices where manipulated into a fascinating drape; Gibson Girl hair was the thing to do; large, wide-brimmed hats were always in fashion; and Parisian haute couture was all the rage. It’s a silhouette not much recalled by modern-day couture designs, save a few blinged-out Marchesa pieces, so for Love it’s a bit of a left-field choice. The image above, taken from her “kook cool” board is an example of the melding of present-day elements into the Edwardian silhouette.
Trees and Doors
With no reason given, there is a board named trees and doors on Love’s Pinterest. It contains only trees and no doors. Instead, there is a second board titled doors that seems to address all the door business. Best guess on what this is about: her boards seem to indicate she was at some point or currently is thinking of buying a place in London. People in the UK find doors (the color and style of) to be exceptionally important. Can only assume she’s sussing out wood and design options for a British flat.
Groupies, Muses and Band Aids
Given her own role in activist, female-friendly ’90s rock, it’s hard to parse Love’s stance solely based on an image-driven platform like Pinterest. But she’s got several of the ’60s and ’70s “name” groupies up on her our girls board, right alongside bands like Heart and The Runaways. We’re talking Pamela Des Barres, Bebe Buell, Sable Starr, Audrey Hamilton, Pamela Courson, Jenny Boyd, and most disturbingly Lori Maddox — the 14-year-old courtesan of Jimmy Page. So it’s hard to figure out if she’s commenting on the style of these groupies or if she identifies with them or if she’s taking some other position entirely. The rest of the board is split between women Love has documented friendships with (Winona Ryder, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Moss), women she’s known for admiring (Stevie Nicks, Madonna, Patti Smith), random golden-age and silent film-era inspirational starlets, and people — spanning generations — you’d imagine she’s a fan of (Sky Ferreira, Sofia Coppola, Angelina Jolie).
Even if the golden groupies of the last era when rock stars could get away with that kind of behavior are very stylish and cool, it still comes off as weird to fetishize the lifestyle on a Pinterest board of cool women. Then again, even the fictional Penny Lane earned a pin, so who the hell knows what’s going on with that curation.