Luella's Bat Mask - Uncovered!

Back in June I posted a sordid tale of how Claudia Schiffer broke my toe... okay well not directly, but by proxy I really do put the blame squarely on her. Not that it's her fault; models don't mean to make people hurt themselves for the sake of art and fashion, right? Right, of course not. Anyway.

So the other day, maybe even last week at this point, I was scrolling through my NotCouture feed as a distraction from something (couture-ish fashion blogs are one of my guilty RSS indulgences). And I came across this blurb of a 12-year old fashion blogger named Tavi. The pic included in that post is just awesome and totally drew me in--I might even "take inspiration" from it at some point--so I clicked through to the girl's blog site.

Since most of my enjoyment from fashion blogs comes from looking at the pretty pictures, I scrolled through the page quickly looking for things that caught my eye. It was kind of the "interview" process I go through with blogs, when deciding whether or not I will subscribe to them. So there I was, scrolling scrolling scrolling, and then I saw it. Picture 11 in her post from August 4th. It was... the mask.

The same mask that I was lusting over when I first spotted it on Claudia Schiffer, that I eventually spotted again being worn by model Milagros Schmoll (image above left). So at that point I was kinda like, holy crap, I've got to figure out who is making this mask! It was practically haunting me. (Of course I never really pursued that.) So when I saw Tavi's post, linking to the Elle UK accessories report, I was just like, damn, I've finally done it. Or something equally dramatic sounding yet not actually dramatic.

So, the mask. The Mask. I was really disappointed to learn that it is called a "bat mask", but bat it is, and it's made by Linda Farrow Vintage for Luella. Bat mask? Seriously? Okay well whatever, just because they designed this piece of awesome doesn't mean they know what they're talking about. But really, how can you not link the Luella mask directly with Lee Meriwether's Catwoman from the original series? Perhaps I'm just particularly fond of Catwoman...

Well, anyway, I discovered where the mask came from, and now you know too. BTW, it costs £200, which right now equals about $372. Shiiiiiit... with inflation like that, you might just see me putting this up on Etsy, made to order. If I had an Etsy store. Maybe I should make one, and this could be one of my first listings. Besides, mine is hand-made out of record vinyl, and that is inherently cooler than any mold-injected plastic couture thingy, right? Of course it is.