Djuna Barnes amusing short story The Terrible Peacock (1914) details the brief undoing of city reporter Karl, who is despatched by his editor in search of a woman more dangerous than Cleopatra, thirty-nine times as alluring as sunlight on a gold eagle, and about as elusive. This woman with electrifying green eyes and bright red hair, who has been allegedly setting hearts and eyes fluttering in Brooklyn, is always outfitted in slinky green silk, found at first by Karl clad in a dress that undulated like troubled, weed-filled water as she moved. He immediately falls for this Aphrodite of the Sea-Foam, all but forgetting about his date with Lilac Jane." Its a satisfying contrast: insipid-sounding pastel shades set against a sinuous green goddess whose lure quite possibly spelled destruction. Although there might be an adjacent, vampier kind of effect were she were clad in another color like red, The Peacocks green dress suits her exaggeratedly erotic persona perfectly: conjuring images of sirens, folkloric enchantresses, and the thrill of untouchable desire
Arriving in a bizarrely funny traveling ensemble of voluminous fur with a giant powder puff fastened to her head, Tillys croaky-voiced sex kitten is nothing we havent seen from her before, but shes adorably undignified
It has an elastic waist, adjustable straps, and its is not see-through
Heres a step-by-step guide: 1
Women might wear a stylish cocktail dress or a smart pantsuit, keeping it classy but not overdone
