Archive for June 2010
Fantasia
I just finished watching Fantasia Barrino’s new video for the song “Bittersweet.” Fantasia is today’s birthday girl, and an interesting case-study of Cancer style.
I’ve claimed that Cancer women are susceptible to “helmet head,” and Fantasia is no exception. At times her hairstyle is just way too hard. However, there are times in this video when I said to myself that the singer has never looked better, with the soft curls and the deep side part of the 1930s–inspired style. I kept waiting for her hair to move, though, but it didn’t.
I’ve learned to expect Fantasia’s hair too look too hard, so it was a nice change to see her soften up her appearance. Still, I believe she just needs to take her transformation one step further. She’s on the right track!
Nicole Scherzinger
Watching performer Nicole Scherzinger win the mirror ball trophy on “Dancing with the Stars” made me take a second look at the style of the Cancer native.
I don’t associate the sign of Cancer with cinematic glamour, but I do know that they tend have a sense of nostaligia. Seeing Nicole on the show dolled-up like a musical star of the 1940s made me believe that I may have been too eager to warn Cancer women about the dangers of idealizing the past when I wrote my book on astrological style.
I do tell Cancer women to stick to the classics, and many women equate that advice with dressing in boring clothes. But there hasn’t really been anything boring about fashion since the 1920s. We just get tired of looking at things we’ve seen too many times before. While the best-dressed Cancer don’t necessarily bring back tired trends, they do have a knack for stealing looks from the cinematic archive and pulling them off with aplomb.
On “Dancing with the Stars,” Nicole frequently looked as if she had just walked off the set of a classical Hollywood musical. I don’t associate any negative connotations to the word “classic” when it’s used to describe the movies, so why should I believe that “classic” clothing has to be boring. It doesn’t when it’s on a beautiful, stylish woman like Nicole Scherzinger.
Now her wardrobe as a Pussycat Doll is another story . . .
Kellie Pickler
The best-dressed Cancer women don’t stray too far from looks that are considered to be “classics.” Kellie Pickler, for instance, seems to have a sense of style that is anything but avant garde, yet she doesn’t appear in public looking like a fashion victim, either.
As a Cancer, today’s birthday girl is likely quite sensitive regarding criticism of her wardrobe. She’s learned to play it safe in quite classic dresses that evoke comparisons with old Hollywood rather than with Paris or Milan. Nevertheless, it works for her. She manages to stay off the worst-dressed lists, and that probably pleases her more than being called the best-dressed girl in show biz.
Vera Wang
I’m find Vera Wang very intriguing. I didn’t really take her seriously as a designer when she first started out because I hate wedding dresses almost as much as a hate weddings. Yet as her brand developed beyond just a special occasion label, I got to know a little more about the woman herself. She’s quite fascinating!
But since she’s today’s birthday girl, I should be discussing her in terms of her zodiac sign: Cancer. Wang does dress like a Cancer, but does she design like one?
Yeah, sort of. The wedding dress is actually a Libra garment. Libra, with its association with the seventh house, rules over partnerships like weddings. Brides themselves, however, are associated with Cancer, as are any fertile, nubile women. In my book, I advise Cancer women to avoid dressing as if their raison d’être is to mate with the first man they can get their hands on. I also tell them that they should avoid dressing in a matronly manner, because many Cancer women overreact to their innate sexuality by creating a persona that is decidely unsexy.
Wang exhibits both of these characteristics. As a wedding dress designer, she works with bodices and corsetry to craft garments that appeal to the most basic notions of what a sexually attractive, nubile woman should look like. As a ready-to-wear designer and a former fashion editor she occasionally treads into the territory of conceptual fashion: Possibly the least-sexually attractive style known to mankind. Women who work at fashion magazines might adore the editorial edge of conceptual fashion, but it can be rather repellant to the opposite sex.
Cancer women need to find the middle ground between these two styles. With every season, Vera Wang’s label is getting closer to reinventing this ideal. She’s not exactly designing for Pamela Anderson, but she’s not designing for herself, either. I don’t believe she’s a master of the genre when I compare her to her fellow Cancer, Giorgio Armani, but she’s getting better with every collection she sends down the runway.
Full Moon Fever
There was a partial lunar eclipse a few hours ago. Eclipses are supposed to make full moons even more powerful, especially if the degree of the eclipse is somehow personalized on your natal chart.
For the rest of us, however, the full moon in Capricorn can shed light on difficulties with coworkers and the overall work environment. Patience is the key when dealing with problems over the next couple of weeks. Patience will be rewarded. Capricorn is probably the least-reactive sign in the zodiac, and Capricorn natives can be all-business in the face of a crisis. Try to learn from their example.
On a more personal note, Capricorn is associated with the knees and the bones. The same dietary issues that affect bone health also impact the skin, hair and nails. Double check your diet to ensure you’re getting enough calcium and vitamin D. Spend a little time stretching this weekend, too. And, as with any full moon, be sure to drink plenty of water while your “juices” are flowing so freely. Your kidneys will thank you for it.
If you’re shopping this weekend, avoid purchasing status-conscious items, or anything emblazoned with a logo, for that matter. Poor impulse control — especially today — could see you dressed like a shill for someone else’s benefit.
Chris Isaak
I find it intriguing that singer Chris Isaak is a Cancer. Cancer is the sign of nostalgia, and Isaak’s stage wardrobe could have been pulled right off the set of “Classic Country,” the television show I mentioned a few posts back when I discussed June Carter Cash.
I don’t advise most Cancers to run out to the thrift store to buy their wardrobes. Dressing in a retro style is an art form best left to Scorpios (who can make what’s old new again), and Capricorns (who know exactly when a trend is ready to make a comeback). Cancers, on the other hand, tend to look back at the past with rose-colored glasses. They wear retro clothing because of a mood or a feeling they associate with a particular style.
Chris Isaak is a performer, so he can get away with that. He probably watched the same TV shows I did as a kid, and it’s likely that his style of dress onstage is an emotional tribute to the performers he idolized. I’m not sure if he would get away with his signature style if he wasn’t a performer, but I don’t believe that he would want to. Cancers are also on the sensitive side, and they take negative criticism of their appearance quite poorly. It’s lucky for Chris Issak that he looks great doing what he’s doing. He doesn’t need to change a thing.
George Michael
I often discourage Cancer individuals from following the trends. Cancers have a reserved nature that is rooted in their desire to protect themselves from harm. Sometimes that can translate into a conservative wardrobe. When it doesn’t, Cancers just want to wear what everyone else is wearing. That would be fine if they weren’t so moody, but being moody can result in some odd fashion choices.
Cancer natives who dress according to their moods can appear to be bipolar. There’s just no consistency to their wardrobes as they swing wildly from style to style. When today’s birthday boy, George Michael, first found success with Wham! in the early 80s, his sense of style was all over the place. As a result, looking through photos of his early career offers more laughs than style tips.
Almost everyone looks terrible through the eyes of the subsequent generation; I understand that. But every once in a while the pendulum swings back to where it was and someone who has been around for a long time (like George Michael) becomes a fashion icon as the new generation embraces the old. However, I don’t believe that’s going to happen with George Michael because there was no particular style to his wardrobe to define his early career.
Eventually he figured it out. He looks good nowadays. A little conservative, perhaps, but good, nonetheless.
Michele Lee
Today’s birthday girl, actress Michele Lee, held the record for the most episodes played as a single character on US primetime TV. As Karen Cooper Fairgate MacKenzie, Lee appeared in 344 episodes of “Knots Landing,” a record only recently surpassed by “Law and Order” star S. Epatha Merkerson.
It figures that the most stable matriarchal character on the show would be a Cancer. Lee also typified her sun sign during her time on “Knots Landing” in one other respect: She had a perfect hourglass figure. There were younger, sexier women on the show, but Lee’s knockout body was difficult not to notice, even though she was usually dressed in a rather conservative manner.
The best-dressed Cancer women don’t need to draw attention to their assets with vulgar or garish clothing. Too many have a boobs-first approach to fashion. Some people live by the maxim “when you’ve got, flaunt it.” Others play it a little more subtly. At the height of her career, Michele Lee was a paragon of perfect Cancer style.
June Carter Cash
Years ago, when most TV stations actually signed off at night, I would have to get up around 5:00 every morning to get ready for school because I had such a long bus ride ahead of me. I’d eat breakfast while watching the only thing on TV at that time on one of the few American channels that didn’t sign off. It was called “Classic Country,” and it was vintage footage from the Grand Ole Opry. I actually became a fan of the show after a while because it so kitschy.
One of the big stars of the show was today’s birthday girl, June Carter, who would appear with the group “Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters.” She was a scrawny little thing with a high-pitched, twangy voice and a plucky personality. Eventually she would become a star in her own right, but her own celebrity would be eclipsed first by her husband, Johnny Cash, and then by her daughter and stepdaughter. Practically everyone in the Carter-Cash family would become more famous than June.
But it’s just like a Cancer to step into the role of the matriarch without protest. Her stepdaughter Rosanne Cash once said “if being a wife were a corporation, June would have been a CEO. It was her most treasured role.”
I should be evaluating June’s sense of style, but she was so far removed from the typical world of celebrity glamour that it would be futile to discuss her in those terms. I will say that I’m not surprised that the mother of country music was born with the sun sign of the archetypal maternal figure.
Cyndi Lauper
Yesterday I mentioned that the world of the worldwide web has made it much easier for someone like me to confirm the birthdates of celebritries in order to evaluate their natal charts. For instance, I was never actually sure if Jane Russell was a Gemini or a Cancer. The odds were about three-to-one in favor of Gemini, but without any evidence I avoided discussing the actress. I didn’t want to stick my foot in my mouth.
So imagine how I felt this morning when I discovered that I’ve had Cyndi Lauper’s birthday wrong for years. It wasn’t my fault. I took it out of another astrology book which I won’t mention because the author of that title probably was in the same boat as me. We trusted a source that proved to be incorrect.
The problem wasn’t that I made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. It was the magnitude of my mistake. I kept using Cyndi Lauper as an example of Gemini style. When she first broke out on the scene in the 80s, she demonstrated some definite Gemini traits, especially with her hair color. In retrospect, I can see the Cancer influence in the thrift-store style she made fashionable. Cancer rules over nostalgia, after all. Gemini is far more fashion-forward.
In recent years, Lauper hasn’t been seen in anything but black, and that makes a lot of sense; those crabs love their basic black. In my book I warn Cancer natives against wearing head-to-toe black every day of every week of every year. I encourage them to lighten up. Lauper does maintain hairstyles that help to keep her look light. As a woman in her fifties, she really does fit the profile of a well-dressed Cancer.
But what about that mouth? When I watched Lauper on the “Celebrity Apprentice,” I got the Gemini vibe from her because of the way she wouldn’t shut up. But she only has one planet in Gemini: Jupiter. I have Jupiter in Gemini, and although I can go on and on and on, I attribute that to my blabby third-house sun. I can’t determine Lauper’s house positions because I don’t have her birth time, so it would be pointless for me to speculate about where her sun sits in her chart. I just know that she’s like me in one other respect: She talks a hundred miles a minute, but then clams up for the next couple of hours. There’s no middle ground with the way she communicates. I have a strong Cancer moon in my chart. Is that a Cancer trait that I’ve never really researched before? Do we only have two speeds when we’ve got something to say?
I do know that I was a little surprised by Lauper’s emotional outbursts on the “Apprentice.” The previous season’s winner, Joan Rivers, is a Gemini, and so is the show’s host, Donald Trump. Although they could get in plenty of screaming matches on the show, neither seemed to take anything as personally as Cyndi did. Now that certainly defines her as a Cancer.
I should have seen it all along. The writing was on the wall. I’m often the first person to admit that there are celebrity charts that I can’t get my head around. This one, however, was just an oversight. I’m embarrassed by my lack of due diligence. Oh well, at least I wasn’t the only one who got it wrong.
Cosmically Chic 
