Noodle (Gorillaz)

Plastic Beach is the new album just released by everyone’s favourite virtual band, Gorillaz. I’ve been listening to the music on repeat and I absolutely love Jamie Hewlett’s illustrations. (Yes, I realise not all of the illustrations I feature on this page are “official”.)

Noodle is my favourite character of the bunch – although I’ll readily admit that I tend to latch on Asian characters that break out of the stereotype – and her late teen style phase is actually pretty close to what I tend to come up with when I just throw stuff from my wardrobe on. Plus she’s also a cyborg who’s in a videoclip with Bruce Willis. She’s stylish, a mean guitar player, an awesome dancer and kicks butt. Who wouldn’t want to dress like Noodle?

Her look is quite an easy one to achieve because it’s mostly made up of wardrobe basics. Because it’s my first post I’ll try to walk through the steps of how I figure out what to wear.

1. Google some images

I found a whole bunch of different stuff, but these images were closest for the look I wanted to go for. There were definitely some items of clothing that mark of her late Demon Days look and I picked the items that I had in my wardrobe and I knew would suit me.

Here’s a rundown of what I found Noodle wearing most often:

• Tops: Plain, occasionally striped, t-shirts and singlet tops – short, not long.
• Bottoms: Short shorts, occasionally short skirts.
• Footwear: Knee-high socks, Sketchers style keds or knee-high black boots.
• Accessories: Military cap, neck bandanna, leather gloves, belts.

Additionally Noodle often rocks a sort of military look (sort of reminiscent of Hewlett’s Tank Girl in a way as well).

Now take out the items that you think would fit into a Noodle outfit and try them on together. Think about colour/texture/themes in her clothing.

2. Build a Silhouette

People who are familiar with EGL will understand this concept. Because we’re not cosplaying and we’re emulating a style, we’re more concerned with an overall impression rather than particular details like colour. This step is thinking about the clothing relative to the rest of her body. How much skin is showing? Where do her shorts and skirts end on her thigh? If you were looking at her animated shadow which shapes and corners are the strongest?

The bulk of Noodle’s clothing is concentrated around her torso and her arms and legs seem to stick out of a rectangular shape made by her clothing. Therefore we want a loose fitting, short-torsed t-shirt and similar skirt or shorts. Under-the-knee socks or boots are a definite because this is where there is a strong line break in the shape or colour.

Her hat seems to be one of those military caps however if you don’t own that particular style, any hat with a forward brim and flat-ish top would probably work. She sometimes wears a chunky belt around her waist.

3. Colour and Texture

Noodle usually wears plain, more low-key colours accented with brighter ones. If you wanted to go for a more military-cyborg Noodle you might want to stick to khakis, shades of grey and all the colours of the camouflage rainbow. Her clothing is matte, and in most cases you’d probably be looking for items made out of cotton or drill.

4. Alter the look so you’re comfortable.

It was a cold day when I walked out so I added opaque stockings under my knee-high socks, and a military jacket over the top of my t-shirt. The skirt was also pretty short, and I generally feel more comfortable wearing tights underneath. I opted for the skirt instead of shorts because I really don’t like the way most shorts look on me (especially short-shorts).

5. Wear Your Outfit!

Noodle Attempt

Items rundown:

• Black Wool General’s hat – Camberwell Market $15 (+buttons and brooches I’ve collected – maybe +~$10)
• Olive Military Jacket – Westco, bought from eBay for $10
• Bandanna – Bought somewhere in San Francisco for $2
• Brown T-shirt – Piping Hot from Target, ~$10
• Belt – Buffalo Exchange in Berkeley ~$6
• Grey Check Skirt – Thrift store, $2
• Knee-High Socks – Target ~$5
• Black Leather Boots – Tony Bianco $100 (they’ll last for years)

5. Review The Outfit

I don’t actually own sensible knee-high boots or keds either (that probably needs to be remedied). I had a choice between my mid-calf boots and black sneakers, and chose the former. This actually threw out my silhouette a bit because it cuts off the colour at the wrong place. Next time I’d go with my shorter length Doc Marten boots or the sneakers. I’d probably also wear my pair of leather gloves as well.

I totally dig the colour co-ordinating of the blue socks, belt and the t-shirt print though and was complimented by my swing dancing teacher on how much he liked the outfit!

So that’s the first post finished! Let me know what you think of the blog, if there’s something I missed out or included only boring bits or any general feedback you’d like to give me!