The Mermaid Handbook

THE MERMAID: A FASHION and BEAUTY ICON

An untitled illustration by Felix de Gray for the British magazine The Sketch, June 16, 1937.

THE MERMAID POSSESSES A NATURAL BEAUTY, but her aura is distinctively tinged with seduction and potential danger. After all, as some stories go, she might very well pull you to your death, whether she means to or not. And it’s that combination of attractiveness, unpredictability, and mystery that has bestowed upon the mermaid a timeless allure. She is captivatingly beautiful and beguiling—and strong.

With her traditionally long, flowing, sumptuous tresses and an outrageously curvaceous figure that is never clothed, save for her iridescent, powerful tail, the mermaid has always been a formidable and fashionable femme fatale, inspiring artists and writers, fashion designers and stylists, and makeup and hair looks for centuries. Part of that draw is that she is an enigma—complicated, even contradictory. She’s half human, a gorgeous seductress, beckoning you to come hither as she lounges seemingly casually on a bed of rocks overlooking the ocean, but she’s also half fish, encased in shimmering scales, and sexually inaccessible. Despite all appearances that might indicate a human affiliation, she is otherworldly, dwelling in the depths of the sea. She joins us and then leaves us just as quickly, plunging back down into the dark ocean depths among the sunken ships and treasure.

Whereas a human who rises on the rungs of the best-dressed lists or makes waves on the red carpet often depends on a strong relationship with an individual couturier or stylist, the mermaid doesn’t need outside help; her fashion sense is inherent. She was born with a sinuous, glittering tail that reveals her body’s every curve and flares at the end with a flourish. Nonetheless, the tail is not for show, as much as it dazzles us; it allows her to move through the sea as powerfully as a shark or whale.

The mermaid has been a fashion icon for millennia, and her influence has made its way into nearly every culture and era. When Project Runway host Tim Gunn was interviewed for the I Am a Mermaid blog in 2011, he said: “When we consider the catalysts that are essential for inspiration in the fashion industry, few have the staying power or the potency of mermaids, owing largely to the fact that mermaids have been part of world literature, lore, art, and artifact for such a very long time. There will always be a place for mermaid-inspired fashion, provided that the designs are conceived in a manner that’s relevant to the current moment.” And today, more than ever, the mermaid exerts her influence. Flowy, tangly tresses, sometimes tinted blue or green for extra oceanic flavor, are everywhere on social media, as are glitzy mermaid-queen crowns fashioned from shells and jewels. Gowns mimicking the mermaid’s undulating shape are perennial favorites on the red carpet and the wedding aisle. The mermaid’s allure can be au naturel or ultraglamorous, from Disney’s showy Ariel, with her bright flaming hair, lavender shell top, and green tail, to Madison from Splash, with her more natural bronzed skin, pale flowing locks, and orange tail, to any number of other incarnations.

Sadly, the merman hasn’t fared so well as an icon of any sort. The Irish male merrows, for example, “are nothing worth looking at,” reports Katharine Briggs, referencing Crofton Croker’s tale “Soul Cages” in Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland (1825), “for they have green hair and green teeth and little pig’s eyes and long red noses, and short arms more like flippers than any respectable arm that could do a day’s work.”

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes . . .

—LORD BYRON

“She Walks in Beauty,” 1813

Grant Brummett captured this glowing image of mermaid Kathy Shyne for her book, Twig the Fairy and the Mermaid Misadventure, 2011.

Grant Brummett