{ the jaunty magpie }

Call me old-school, but this Bird forgot how fabulous sweater twinsets and saddle shoes could be after watching episodes of David Lynch and Mark Frost's fabulously weird 1990s series, Twin Peaks. It featured my most Jaunty of girl-crushes, the amazingly stunning Sherilyn Fenn as the she's-so-totally-not-in-high-school spoiled rich girl, Audrey Horne. And duh, could the name be any more double entendre? I think not. I remember first watching the series in my pre-teen angst thinking, damn, I hate this biyotch, but watching the series again, it's more like, damn, I want to be like this biyotch, because she's so hatefully fabulous. 

Reaching Cult Queen status the second she tied a cherry stem in a knot (without using her hands - jigga yeah!), and slow-dancing alone to the haunting, cool jazz sounds of Angelo Badalamenti's score, Audrey Horne went from jailbait naughty schoolgirl to a more industrious jailbait naughty Nancy Drew, doing her part towards solving the mystery of Who Killed Laura Palmer. And no, even after over a decade since the show aired and was unceremoniously dumped by ABC, I'm not telling who killed Laura Palmer, because by the power of Netflix, you should give this oldie-but-goodie series a watch.

Let's face it, David Lynch, as much as he's known for being an eccentric artist working in the medium of weird, he totally knows how to pick strikingly lovely actresses. He always lends a unique, retro look to everything, so much that when you watch Miss Audrey swaying about in her saddle shoes or red kitten heels, wearing a pleated skirt and sweater, nothing about the show looks dated. Fine, there were a few moments of big hair/mall bangs, scrunchies, and a pair of acid wash jeans or two, but Lynch knew to treat the ladies with vintage class and style. The wardrobe was not a designer-name, label-driven commercial like a lot of the television series now -- the looks were timeless, with the exception of Donna Hayward's wardrobe of sweaters that were clearly raided from the Huxtable family collection. But the eternally sassy Audrey Horne was consistently stylish and delightfully retro, sneaking cigarettes in the girl's bathroom and sauntering in and out of each scene, leaving a strangely innocent smolder in her wake.

Jaunty Fine Print: Photos of cherry pie and doughnuts by Denise Sakaki; photo of Sherilyn Fenn as Audrey Horne from Wikipedia