White Heat

School of Seven Bells – My Cabal

Suit: Calvin Klein via Macy’s (similar).  Tank: SM Store.  Shoes: INC via Macy’s.  Sunglasses: ASOS (similar).  Necklace: South Africa (similar).  Cuffs: SM Store (similar).  Clutch: Ross (similar).

Photography by Timothy Peterson at Sheraton Laguna Guam Resort.

The Inspiration

Two of my favorite things: travel and shopping. I scored this handmade Zulu necklace in Durban, South Africa a couple years ago. My husband and I were there for a convention, where we met the lovely women pictured left. I learned that half the population of Durban is Indian and we spent a hurried 20 minutes in a cramped and colorful Indian bazaar. So, the necklace is Zulu, I bought it in an Indian shop, and yet I feel like an Egyptian when I wear it.

The Music

School of Seven Bells is the last shoegaze band in existence, or more accurately, the first reincarnation of the early ’90s sound. Until I heard their debut, Alpinisms, in 2008, I thought shoegaze was dead. It is perhaps the only type of music named after the type of dancing, or rather standing, it inspires. The shoegazer was identified by slack posture, swaying/bobbing head, and an inability to meet the gaze of the audience.

SVIIB properly resurrect the genre and marry the ghosts of My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins. That means Lush-like female vocals atop a happy wall of sound and snappy electronic backbeat. I found SVIIB through band member Ben Curtis, who played drums in two of my favorite Dallas bands, UFOFU and Tripping Daisy. He was something of a child prodigy, as I remember, playing loud and fast pop punk with his brother in the trio UFOFU when he was still in high school. Check out this SVIIB video starring a precocious child who looks somewhat like singer Alejandra Dehaza.