This week’s review is CL’s first solo single, The Baddest
Female. It released on May 27
th, 2013, and currently has 3,245,122 views. Damn. If you have not yet seen the most badass warrior-princess-gangster-basketball-player-child-pirate-idol in action, check it out here:
WHAT WILL I BE FOR HALLOWEEN
Overall impression:
Em: This week’s music video was CL’s Baddest Female, which
was, well, badass. The outfits were in-your-face, overdone, and kinda
spectacular. There were tons of cool details and quirky pieces that together
basically said the same thing as the song—I am CL, look at me because I am
AWESOME. Most of it was intended to be sexy…not much aegyo here. In fact, they
put her in pigtails and she still looked pretty badass (the shoes and
motorcycle gang helped). Even the backup dancers had the same bold colors and
powerful image. Let’s just say the clothing lives up to the title of the song.
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| Badass |
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| What could be more childlike and innocent than pigtails and a swingset. There was even a lollipop! |
Ruby: CL definitely played up the gangster style here with
elements like grills and heavy chains. Her outfits ranged from red carpet
ready, to quirky but wearable, to straight up warrior princess. The link
between them was this idea of hip-hop style that integrated into each piece.
Aegyo was kept at bay with details, such as dark, bold makeup. She kept the
clothing fairly traditional and very recognizable within the gangster style, so
even if it is a different style for kpop, she wouldn’t be perceived as being
completely incomprehensible. CL likes to be the bad girl, and I think that's
reflected in the video.
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| Gangster...or vampire. You decide! |
Other promotional Materials:
Em: Her stage took the hip hop style from the MV, using the
white clothing with heavy gold jewelry like in the first part of the video.
This was probably the most basic of the outfits, which makes sense for a stage
show...warrior princess would be cool but a little impractical. Teaser photos
were basically directly from the MV.
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| STOP. I'm too cool for this. |
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| Still too cool for this, even in live stages. |
Ruby: YG took an odd route. They did a lot with graphics,
including a really cool thing on the side of their building. It added to the
suspense, but I think seeing the artist really excited me more. Personally. The
graphics did allude to the lux and very rich feeling of the video. It was super
detailed and really cool actually.
And the only legitimate video promo YG actually did:
Continuity:
Em: The continuity was a LITTLE jumpy just because the style
was intended to have an element of craziness to it and they had so many
different outfits. However, the intensity was the same throughout and the
aesthetic didn’t actually stray too far. There didn’t seem to be much of a
storyline behind the outfit changes though…it was more of just AND HERE’S
ANOTHER WAY SHE CAN LOOK BADASS. The variety did make it more interesting
though.
Ruby: I think solo artists get cut a lot of slack for
continuity. I’ll admit, it doesn’t matter as much when its only one person
because its not as disorienting. I actually thought it was really well tied
together. There were really two main styles, the put together super rich, super
high maintenance pop star look and then her baggy pants, sweats and heavy accessories
looks. The makeup remained pretty consistent and the hair was simple (by kpop
standards…). It worked for me.
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| eyepatch, leather, death spike heels...scary CL |
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| neon heels, white fur, detailed nail polish...diva CL |
Band’s Overall Image:
Em: This was right in keeping with other 2NE1 styles…they’ve
always maintained a powerful image, even in acoustic songs like Lonely. There
was also some references to I Love You, with the same organic gold details and
exotic feel, just even more CL-ified. The new set of outfits fit right into her
already-established image, and the teasers even made a point to connect
previous work from 2NE1 with the new MV.
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| Maybe lonely...but still punk. That's a skill, ladies and gentlemen. |
Ruby: CL hits somewhere between 2ne1 and GD in a way. She
takes from crazy and lux fashion here. It is very much in keeping with her
image. It’s her first solo so this really sets a precedent for the future as
well. There are pieces that would have
done GD proud here, her alien golfing hat or her eye patch. However she also
keeps it really high end. Sometimes she even manages to shoot a gap, like with
her warrior princess look, where its clearly not wearable clothing but it still
feels expensive and luxurious. She wears it well, so it works.
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| Alien Golfer Hat. Not even kidding. |
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| fashionable warrior princess, WHAT NOW |
Trends in K-POP:
Em: A lot of really popular trends showed up here, from neon
colors to the bondage-y leather and spikes. I saw a few REALLY cool
face-covering pieces, including CL’s chains and a backup dancer’s mask.
Baseball caps made an appearance (something we’ve been seeing a lot of lately)
as well as crazy hair and shoes. There were also references to other YG group’s
stuff, especially GD’s One of a Kind.
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| Baseball cap, crazy hair, face covers, neon color, spikes, fantastic shoes, etc, etc. |
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| These shoes needed to appear somewhere. |
Ruby: I agree on the hats. A lot. I mean this year we've
seen a lot of girl groups rocking the caps, new groups, like GI in “Beatles”
and old standbys like Girls Generation in “ I Got a Boy”. Facemasks were really
big last year, from normal to some weird uses of face covers. This year they
seem to be more on the outs. I think the idea of integrating aegyo into other
styles has become really big recently. Trying with Lee Hi and the jazz sound
and BAP with “Stop It”. Even Hyuna in “Ice Cream”. Everyone is trying to get in
on it. Which is cool. I have a thing for pigtails.
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| Baseball cap and neon hair in GI's Beatles |
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| MORE baseball caps and some more neon in SNSD's I Got A Boy (same cap too) |
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| Integrating aegyo with subtlety and finesse, from BAP's Stop It |
Conclusion:
Em: In terms of fashion, Baddest Female was awesome. It was
full of statement clothing that matched CL’s image and fit the song. It was
powerful and cool and generally, well, badass. A few things were questionable
(the basketball outfit wasn’t exactly my favorite) but other outfits made up
for them. If there’s anything that gets me to like animal prints, it would be
those shoes. As she says, it was bad but not bad meaning bad but bad meaning
good, you know? (OKAY THAT WAS A BAD JOKE AND NOT BAD MEANING GOOD BUT BAD MEANING BAD BUT WE WARNED YOU ABOUT BAD JOKES)
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| The shoes in question |
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| And this outfit, just because it deserves mention. |
Ruby: I love CL’s image. Always have. This for me was her in
a nutshell, so I loved the outfits. I completely adored the swing clothing, and
personally, loved the jersey. It provided some cheek to a very fashion heavy
video. I guess I wish that she had done something a little more out of the
ordinary for her. I adored what she wore in “I love You”. A black cat suit was
totally unexpected but in context, it worked so well. For me those are the
breakout moments, when she takes clothing and makes it badass. I didn’t get as
much of that as I wanted. Oh well. I still fangirled pretty hardcore over this
whole video.
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| The catsuit from 2NE1's I Love You |
Daily Dose of Daebak:
Find GDragon. Now find GDragon’s pants. You can’t, can you.
Nope.
REVERSE HAREM. Seriously though. I probably don’t recognize
everyone she has in her manly-collection but here are some: G-Dragon (BIGBANG),
Taeyang (BIGBANG), Teddy (1TYM, they were popular once, okay? He’s a bigwig in
yg now) and Yang Seungho (2ne1 stylist, member of nuthang, all around bad boy)
Please feel free to leave comments, questions, statements, monologues, prologues, or anything else you want! What did you think?
See ya next week!
Ruby & Em <3
