You Are What You Eat

This week we decided to review a strange but fun video with lots of VERY interesting outfits...Orange Caramel's Catallena! It was posted on March 11, 2014 and had 1,376,885 views by the 23rd. Let's get to it!

Em:
If you're looking for an imaginative video about anthropomorphic food, this is your video. Orange Caramel starts out dressed as mermaids, with shiny and slightly scaly floor-length dresses that turn into tails at the end. Why not. Then the video takes an unexpected turn--the mermaids end up flopping around in the kind of styrofoam and plastic packaging usually used to package fish in a grocery store. Meanwhile, the dancing parts of the video were performed in eye-catching polka dot ensembles. The whole video used vivid colors and bold details to really make an impression.

Sure we're totally at a beach

THEM EYELASHES

CUTE

Ruby: This video is completely crazy, and as per usual when that's the case, there's some really good crazy and some really bad crazy. Personally I love the concept of the sushi costumes. I thought they were super original, identifiable and really fun. The dance outfits were a little on the weirder side with too much going on most of the time. But even so it seemed to add to the playful chaos concept they were going for so all in all it worked out pretty well. As someone who eats quite a bit of sushi, I thought the anthropomorphized sushi were absolutely hilarious.

Another version of the adorable polka dots

At least the colors are well composed

R: Holy Headwear, Batman!
B: What is it, Robin?
R: Those girls over there...what's on their heads?
B: Robin, do not look at them. Keep very, very quiet and try not to attract attention.
R: *whispers* Who are they?
B: Those are the Sushi Sisters, also known as Orange Caramel. Villains, the lot of them.
R: What did they do?
B: They've murdered sushi chefs across the nation. Their fourth sister, Floe, was killed by bad sushi at an unknown restaurant, so they've made it their mission to avenge her death.
R: That's horrible! So...the headgear?
B: Trophies from past murders.
R: Are...are you going to try to stop them?
B: That, Robin, is why we're here this evening.

THE VICTIM

Blast from the past:
Orange Caramel is a subunit of After School, brining out the quirky, odd side of the band. After School is known for classy, sexy concepts, so this subunit has always been an out of the box group for them. When they debuted in 2010, they called this whacky style Candy Culture. So lets take a walk back through candy land, shall we?

They debuted in 2010with a video called Magic Girl, the originator of this candy style. This video features cute, fluffy dresses in pastel colors, polka dots and teeny tiny accessories. It was ultra feminine and played up their charm and cuteness.

Later in 2010, they moved onto Aing which took a turn for the weird. It's this dream like, fairy tail fantasy concept, complete with costumes like little red riding hood, alice in wonderland, snow white.... all made out of latex.

They came back with two mv's in 2011, Bangkok City and Shanghai Romance. These mvs continued to explore the ways in which things could get weird fashion wise in kpop videos. Bangkok City featured, voluminous blonde wigs and a roller disco theme. It was a lot sexier in concept than some other videos they've done. Among the truly odd, there were a few great moments.

Shanghai Romance was actually the first video I ever saw from Orange Caramel and it definitely left an impression. Shanghai Romance has pieces that really feel more mainstream kpop and some really cool pieces but all that is counterbalanced by some of the weirdest clothing/accessories I have ever seen in a kpop mv to date.

In 2012 they released Lipstick, the pingpong battle royale video. This moved back towards the candy culture look in some ways, but I think this is really when they took off towards Candy Couture. The styling was sexy and flirty while being crazy and weird. It felt like it was less cliche and really defined what I love about Orange Caramel; its pop colors, weird dances and an undeniable charm.

This mv really continues down that path of exploring a weird concept in an innovative and fashionable way. I'd definitely go back for seconds.

#lacemeup
#shinyasSHINee
#hat-titude

#lacemeup because once again, lace makes an appearance! We talked about it in Ladies Code's So Wonderful, and we'll keep talking about it, since it just keeps showing up! Lacy details seem to fit into any outfit set, adding a dash of femininity and elegance to anything. We also saw it in quite a bit in Rumble Fish's Virulent Song--for some reason that video keeps coming back.

Pretty lace gloves on Orange Caramel

Ladies Code

Lace absolutely EVERYWHERE is The Virulent Song

#shinyasSHINee for the blindingly reflective outfits we've been seeing a lot of this year. From the mermaids in this MV to the extras in Royal Pirate's Drawing the Line, metallics are definitely in. While it sometimes works in a kpop mv, be careful with this one in real life...its hard to have a conversation with someone who has been blinded by your outfit.

Super reflective dress...luckily the design is kept fairly simple otherwise

a classy addition from Drawing the Line

#hat-titude you gotta have it these days. There have been a lot of head covering's recently in kpop, although most have been more traditional hats. Although hats are more commonly found in boybands fashion choices, we're seeing them more and more for women too. There was a beret in SPICA's You Don't Love Me and Girls Generation all wore fedoras in their dance scene in Mr. Mr..

is it a magic mushroom? will we ever know?

Spica looking sassy

Fedora Generation?

Em: I think I speak for both of us when I say AWESOME. They really tried to do something different here, and the effort paid off, with an eye catching set of outfits that played an integral part in the story of the MV. Talk about making the outfits the focus! Very clever, and I'm glad they went all the way with it. I love polka dots too, so seeing them as a theme made me happy, and it also brought the outfit sets together. The dance outfits made a lot more sense with the repeated pattern. Orange Caramel has done it again!

ALL the polka dots

Yum yum?

Ruby: I thought this video rode the line between crazy and fashion in a really unique way. We see a lot of girl groups these days who use the same concepts over and over again but with Orange Caramel you know that you're gonna get something really unique. The best part about it is that other than one poor choice of dance outfits, everything is flattering and sexy. These three women look amazing while breaking all the traditional guidelines for how kpop girl groups are dressed in mvs. They're also a great example of how to do the cutesy, candy girl style without looking like they were dressed like little kids, which can get creepy.

This is INDEED unique

 minnie mouse!

The set--a table as a stage? Yes please!

Swimming in my soy sauce. nbd.