Today I’m the vigilante Tank Girl from the comic book series and feature film of the same name. Is the vigilante theme populated by my role models from the 90s? Maybe!
About the Look
I came to Tank Girl by way of Courtney Love. I read that she was in charge of the film’s soundtrack and immediately went out and bought the cassette. I then realized the lead was played by Lori Petty, who I already loved from A League of Their Own and Free Willy (girl has range!), and made an effort to see the movie. I hadn’t read any of the comics, so I wasn’t a disappointed fan. The absurdity on parade was all new to me and I loved every minute.
Tank Girl, comic and film and character, is chaotic. Messy and noisy and weird and gross and overtly feminist. She exists in a dystopia that is all too realistic: the Earth is a desert wasteland and an evil corporation controls water and the military. Rebecca commandeers a tank because she can, throws on a coat of paint and takes it to war.
Slightly less realistically, there are cyborg zombies and anthropomorphic kangaroos. Most amazingly, there is both a fashion show and a musical number. Tank Girl, comic and film and character, is not enough and too much at the same time.
About My Look
This was a lot of fun to put together. Working remotely most of the time allows me to push the boundaries of “appropriate attire”. But I wore this out to do my errands and the goggles were popular with everyone from the Starbucks barista to the older lady who was in front of me at the flu shot line.
I didn’t purchase anything new for this look. The goggles were part of my Hera Syndulla look. The New Rock boots I bought in London in 1999. The jacket I got at The Gap in 1994. The t-shirt is a Boys size Captain America t-shirt I probably got in 2011; I cut off the sleeves this morning. The bandaid is due to the aforementioned flu shot (get vaccinated people!)
The ripped nylons aren’t super visible in the photos but it was important to me to include them (and point them out) because of the Courtney Love connection. I kept them for months just knowing I’d find a way to use ripped nylons.
or Commission a Look