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What I Learned About Style From Aaliyah’s “We Need A Resolution”

Today would've been Aaliyah's 35th birthday. Let's celebrate her. What a goddess.

To say I was an Aaliyah Zealot would be an understatement. Baby Girl (as her friends and I would call her) was a cultural icon. Her music set the tone from the mid-90s to the start of the new millennium. Her clothing was a midriff revolution, her shades the gateway to her soul, her voice the perfect yet not overdone pitch, her dance moves a choreographer’s dream. Then at 22 years old, we lost her.

On August 25, 2001 I was devastated to learn that Aaliyah Dana Haughton died in a plane crash while choosing to ride with her team on a cargo plane that reached its weight capacity with a pilot under the influence. Aaliyah and I were a month apart in age. She would have turned 35 today (January 16, 2014). It’s crazy to think of what Aaliyah would’ve been like a 35. Who knows if she would’ve been a wife/mother, total career woman, or a hybrid? Like Beyoncé. Would there have even been a Beyoncé if Aaliyah still walked planet earth? We know Beyoncé would’ve existed, but like Beyoncé Beyoncé? Aaliyah had the female (and male, naturally) population in a chokehold with her charisma. I covered the one-year anniversary of Aaliyah’s death back in 2002 at her cemetery site in upstate New York, and every girl there looked just like her. It was eerie, yet comforting.

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Choosing one video from her catalogue to dissect through style was difficult since she went through so many fashion revamps. Right before she passed away, she was working on her self-titled Aaliyah project, and her style made a subtle switch. She adopted this sexy yet spacey motif, and we see it come to life in “We Need A Resolution.” So I picked that video to pluck some style lessons, since those were the visuals that showcased what I feel was the stylistic direction she was heading in right before she died. From see-through lace to gothic make up, and back around to one-dot lipstick application and free-flowing curls, “We Need A Revolution” captured every angle of Aaliyah’s existence at the time. SNAKES IS HIGH
Timbaland’s woozy snake charming-esque beat got an aesthetic embodiment in the video for “We Need A Resolution.” There were snakes. Big ones. And when there weren’t snakes, there was snakeskin. It made total sense, because Aaliyah looked like she could charm snakes—both the reptiles and trouser snakes. Were the images of her caressing a humongous boa constrictor somewhat phallic? Of-fucking-course, but it lived in a world called “Every Man’s Fantasy” to have the junk to wrap around a hot girl. Twice.

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Props to Aaliyah for keeping it visibly under control while that snake slithered around her. She lay there on a bed of calla lilies, with dirt on her face, like she was crawling through the Amazon (the rain forest, not the online bookseller) and needed a place to rest. The pic above is funny though because her hand pushing the snake and her uncertain face makes, “Okay now get the fuck away from me!” the appropriate caption.

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Looks like she killed that snake though and turned it into a bikini. Well done, Baby Girl! Was that a euphemism for castration and/or emasculation? Feminists, your take?

BACK TO THE FUTURE
The futuristic aspect of "WNAR" was a little morbid in retrospect, because it reflected a future that Aaliyah would never actually see. Shit, we haven’t seen it yet, but director Paul Hunter’s interpretation of the future showed Aaliyah as a digital goddess. The switching of hues from indigenous dark green to baby (girl) blue made it appear like the future was bright, with Aaliyah seated at the forefront of it.

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Out of anything that should’ve remained after this video, I would keep Aaliyah, clearly. However, this traveling pod is a close second. I mean, how boss was this little spaceship cable car thing?

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And here we have Aaliyah, chillin’ in her pod, like bitch what?

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Can we focus in on Aaliyah’s Padmé Amidala-inspired lipstick, though not nearly as scary? She looks like a cyborg, but like the ones that virginal guys fantasize about meeting because Star Trek taught them alien chicks were hot.

GOTHIKA
Once Aaliyah was in the middle of filming her starring role as Akasha in Queen Of The Damned, she developed a slight fascination with vampire make up. It was like she realized then and there that it looked really good on her. So she went with it.

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See the dark make up? And the fact that she was in a skirt looking grown was a bit of a message. Her video for “Rock The Boat” (with the video shoot that lead to her death) showed her in a more mature style as well. Though in “WNAR” she took it to the next level:

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Do you ever have those moments where you’re laying down with your headphones on and you feel like you might just levitate and float away? No? Fuck you then. Aaliyah agrees with me, and she’s actually done it. Listen to Portishead and you’ll understand what both of us were talking about here.

SHADY BUSINESS
There was this rumor that Aaliyah wore sunglasses and had long hair that covered half of her face because she was hiding a lazy eye. Like, how fucking dare you? Well, it seemed as though she grew tired of that nonsense and stopped wearing her shades. In fact, for most of the three videos from her Aaliyah project, she hardly wore glasses at all. We got a few moments of her with them on in “WNAR” though:

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And even here the glasses are tinted enough where you can still see her eyes, where she’s like, “Okay motherfuckers, see? No lazy eye. I’m not Melissa Joan Hart, my eye is WIDE AWAKE.”

SAVE THE LAST DANCE
My favorite scene from the video is the choreographed dancing, with Aaliyah going back to basics in her typical gear moving around like she’s gliding on olive oil. She didn’t need anything fancy to rock while she was dancing. Just some pants and a top to get the job done.

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Call me crazy, but the freeze frame above actually makes Aaliyah look more grown than she was at the time. It was like a moment where you saw what Aaliyah would’ve looked like at an older age.

Like 35.

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl. Rest In Peace.

In Kathy's head her and Aaliyah are best friends. She's on Twitter - @Kath3000.