ghosts don't wear shoes.

June 16, 2010 1:27 PM

John Jannuzzi of Textbook pulls together fresh-off-the-runway, high-fashion looks for fictional characters and historical figures, answering that eternal question: What Would Holden Caulfield Wear? Or Eleanor of Aquitaine? Or Zelda? Or Rasputin? Or an assortment of Pokemon?
posted by oinopaponton (21 comments total)

This is a really cool idea ...
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:32 PM on June 16, 2010

The Holden Caulfield link is a refreshing reminder that, despite what you might think, he was a preppy douche.
posted by kenko at 1:32 PM on June 16, 2010

I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him agin in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had smallpox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now; and then I happened to look around, and see that paper.

It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself:

"All right, then, I'll wear my Missoni sweater!"
posted by sallybrown at 1:40 PM on June 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

Funny that, I always thought he was a preppy douche.
posted by chavenet at 1:41 PM on June 16, 2010

I was very taken with the fashion decisions for Emma, Jane Eyre, and Medusa, not to mention Helen of Troy, but I seriously question the eight maids a milking choices.
posted by bearwife at 1:43 PM on June 16, 2010

98% of the world doesn’t know the rest of that poem

Love this one
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:44 PM on June 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

Some of these are awesome (mostly people who were probably sort of fashionable.) Some make less sense. I don't think Atticus would have worn a tight blue hipster cardigan.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 1:47 PM on June 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

I don't think Athena would be wise at all to wear this.
posted by bearwife at 1:50 PM on June 16, 2010

Great idea. I really liked Princess Leia.

I was curious what they'd do with Hamlet, and disappointed not to see him.
posted by codacorolla at 1:51 PM on June 16, 2010

As a rather stereotypical gay man, I should be drooling over all the couture, but as an editor, all I can do is fume that someone somewhere still thinks it's cute to forgo capital letters.
posted by Help, I can't stop talking! at 1:56 PM on June 16, 2010 [2 favorites]

I was curious what they'd do with Hamlet, and disappointed not to see him.

Obviously the problem here is that Hamlet just can't make a decision about what to wear.
posted by Babblesort at 2:13 PM on June 16, 2010

Hamlet wears all black, yes? (Was it ever actually specified in the play that he always wears black? He always seems to be played that way.)
posted by frobozz at 2:22 PM on June 16, 2010

Interesting. I very much like the Catherine Earnshaw post.

Of course, when I clicked on the "Zelda" link, I was expecting Zelda Fitzgerald, not a video-game character. Guess that tells you how old *I* am.
posted by Lulu's Pink Converse at 2:23 PM on June 16, 2010

In no universe would Link carry a man purse.
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:28 PM on June 16, 2010

What would Jesus wear?
posted by twoleftfeet at 2:44 PM on June 16, 2010

I like a lot of these.

I entirely reject the Edmund Dantes choices.
posted by gurple at 3:31 PM on June 16, 2010

I don't think they bothered to even look at a copy of the Catcher in the Rye... the stuff they came up with isn't even close.

In chapter 1, he mentions how someone had stolen his camel's-hair coat which had fur lined gloves in the pocket. In chapter 3, he says that he took off his coat and tie and unbuttoned his collar shirt. And he puts on a hat he bought "a red hunting hat, with one of those very, very long peaks." (He later mentions that it has earlaps you can fold down.) In chapter 4, his schoolmate Stradlater borrows his hound's-tooth jacket, and he's worried that he'll "stretch it all over the place." In chapter 5, he puts on pajamas and a bathrobe, but still wears the hunting cap. He writes an essay about his dead brother's left-handed baseball mitt and gets it out of his suitcase. When he sneaks out of Penzey in chapter 8, he complains that the Gladstone ice skates his mother bought him were banging the hell out of his legs.
posted by crunchland at 4:07 PM on June 16, 2010 [2 favorites]

Well, Link does have a lot to carry around.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that "Zelda" was in fact the Zelda of my childhood. I was totally prepped for Fitzgerald.
posted by duvatney at 8:50 PM on June 16, 2010

John Jannuzzi thanks metafilter for the attention!
posted by thatelsagirl at 9:08 PM on June 16, 2010

Hamlet wears all black, yes? (Was it ever actually specified in the play that he always wears black? He always seems to be played that way.)

I can't remember if it says that in so many words, but at least one character mentions that Hamlet is still dressed in mourning, despite his father being dead for however long.

There are many different ways to dress in all black, especially filtered through a modern fashion lens.

I was personally picturing Hamlet wearing Hot Topic suspender pants and a JTHM t-shirt.
posted by codacorolla at 6:13 AM on June 17, 2010

I kind of want that milk maid's Burberry coat...
posted by zorrine at 2:34 PM on June 17, 2010