Fashion Explorations

The wave of the future

2008-09-16T16:48:00.000-05:00

This blog has been dormant for a while. This is in part because of upheavals in my personal life, in part because of a heavier workload and more demanding study schedule over the last few months, and in part because I got a little bored with the narrow focus I'd set forth in the blog.

Well, now my personal life is much calmer and my work and study schedule is still intense but is more consistent in its intensity (and I've become fairly acclimated to its demands). Plus, I really do enjoy blogging. So I'm not quitting altogether but instead am rethinking my blog and moving my blogging activities to a new address and a new name. This new blog, as my "About Me" testifies, will pick up where this blog left off but will not be limited to writing about fashion (although I will of course still write about fashion). This blog will also be linked to my new etsy shop, which should be up and running very soon.

If anyone still visits this blog, please do come check out the new blog and the new shop in the next few days.

Happy 100% Percent Thrifted Birthday to me!

2008-03-27T15:52:00.002-05:00

Happy 100% Percent Thrifted Birthday to me!, originally uploaded by cmt2779.

Today is my 29th birthday, about which I am very excited. I am sometimes a little sad that this is the last year of my 20s, because I've enjoyed my 20s, but I also see so many fabulous people (here and in my real life) who are rockin' their 30s (not to mention the fabulous people in their 40s, 50s, and so on) that I almost can't wait to get there myself.

My brother turned 26 a couple of months ago and started talking shit about how he was old now. I told him that I wasn't old yet so he couldn't be old yet, either. Furthermore, I told him, I would let him know when I got old so he could prepare for it.

Hasn't happened yet.

Today is also the last day in my No New Clothes Initiative, during which I only bought clothes that were thrifted, vintage, repurposed, or otherwise used. So I wore a 100% thrifted outfit in honor of that occasion.

The Case of the Absent Blogger

2008-03-12T09:42:00.005-05:00

If you're reading this post, you may have noticed that my week off around Thanksgiving turned into a several month hiatus. Oops. A convergence of personal life stresses, graduate school pressures, a new job position, and a general lack of creative or productive feelings did me in.

But.

I'm feeling much better now. My personal life is going swimmingly, I think I've got graduate school and my new job under control (for the moment, at least), and I've got creative juices flowing every which way (it's a messy image for a messy process). So I suppose this post represents my triumphant return to the world of fashion blogging--or at least a return. Triumphant remains to be seen, I suppose.

In the last few weeks, my creative energies have been working in a couple of fashion-related directions. One simply consists of dressing myself. I've felt much more experimental in the last few weeks and I think this experimentation has paid off.

This outfit was featured as one of Tricia Royal's wardrobe_remixers of the week last week, which just makes me all kinds of happy. It's such a nice feeling to have other people with awesome taste and style think you have awesome taste and style, too.

I've had the wrap skirt for a couple of years. I bought it in a random boutique in Evanston, IL, on my first trip up to visit a friend in Chicago. The fuchsia dress is a recent purchase, bought without having a chance to try it on properly because I could not pass up the color and the collar. The leggings and socks are from Target, and the shoes have been in my closet for years. I've rediscovered them recently, though, and have been wearing the heck out of them.

This is the other direction my creative energies have been working: embroidery. Here I'm embroidering a naughty word onto a paisley tie. This is a test tie, a prototype, if you will, for a larger project I'd like to undertake of embroidering various designs (not all naughty words) onto ties. Right now I'm in the bettering-my-skills-and-drafting-ideas stage, but I look forward to continuing to do more of this kind of thing. I also have some ideas for jewelry that I'll be featuring as they take more concrete form.

A holiday break and more etsy goodness

2007-11-20T14:56:00.001-06:00

For Thanksgiving, I am taking the week off. I don't have to teach again until next Monday and I'll likely actually have time this week to rest. So I'm taking a break from the blog, too.

I'll be back next week. Until then, here's some more etsy goodness I've been wishing I could afford. From RoseYeskova, there is this tunic:

And from Miss Bunny, these "Glittering Kraken" shoes:

New Outfit and New Arrivals

2007-11-15T18:00:00.000-06:00

Today's outfit represents an exploration in fashion for me in more than one way. For one thing, I'm not wearing black at all. I'm sure there are outfits I've posted in which I'm not wearing any black, but it still feels like a big deal for me not to wear black. When I'm at a loss, I tend to reach for black.

I also realized recently that I almost never get dressed without having planned things out ahead of time. This morning, however, I just threw together a few things that a) were clean (I haven't done laundry in ages), b) were the right size (some clothes fit better than others these days), and c) hadn't been worn in a while. I tried not to overthink it, and I quite like what I wound up with by exploring a different color focus and a different process that allows more freedom.

Outfit details:
Green sweater, aqua tee, gray skirt, teal tights: Target
Snail necklace: etsy seller PreciousPups
Gray SAS shoes: thrifted

After today's class, I also discovered that I'd received three packages in the mail today. The awesome Darla at The Vintage Zoo sent me this wonderful jacket:

I love the colors and the flower print. It's comfy, too. I can't wait to wear it!

I also received a whale pin from Elegant Musings and a painted jeep necklace from Star Willow Studio. Hooray for new accessories!

Fun with Wigs: Or, Playing Dress-Up with My Head

2007-11-13T08:30:00.000-06:00

I have short hair. I have had this short hair for about five years now. I like it. It's easy, it's cute, and I feel like it fits my personality. But sometimes I want to do something different. What's a girl to do?

One answer: wigs.

I have long wished for wigs that I could wear, just for a change, and recently I've bought a few. I didn't buy any for years after I decided I wanted to because it's a real attention-getter to show up one day and look completely different than you did the day before. I mean, show up in different clothes, even dramatically different clothes, and people will probably notice but not be confused by it. Show up in different hair and people are genuinely confused. Hair, unlike clothes, is an identifier, a way to tell people apart quickly.

As an example, one of my close friends has had blonde, sort of naturally wavy hair for a while now, but she recently got a new style, a straight, dark brown bob. She describes it to me before I saw it by saying, "Think Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction," which is a pretty accurate description. It looks really great, but it's quite a change. It's so drastic a change, in fact, that when she showed up to teach her class of college students, several did not recognize her and thought she was a substitute. Keep in mind that this is more than halfway through the semester. Furthermore, one of the graduate professors, one of the graduate professors who is on her committee, whom she has known for years, sat right next to her in a meeting and never seemed to realize who she was in her new hairstyle. These people have had a chance to see her often and to see more than just her blonde hair, but they were easily fooled by a new cut and color.

So I'm wary of the response I'll get if I put on new hair. But I finally decided to go for it. I've been getting braver in my clothing choices, so I should be braver in my hair choices, too. Oddly, despite my trepidation, I decided to start with something wild. My first wig was a blue bob. I wore it to a concert and I really liked the way it looked. I wound up having to take it off halfway through because the wig cap was too tight and my head was killing me, but I liked the wig itself.

Since then, I've also acquired a dark brown bob wig and a black, wavy shoulder-length wig. I haven't worn the dark brown one out yet, but I wore the black one out a few nights ago. It got a pretty good reception. My friend was surprised (I hadn't warned her I would look different and I see her on a regular basis), but others who see me less frequently seemed to think it looked natural. My friend's mother said, upon first seeing me that evening, "Gosh, Christy, doesn't your hair grow fast!" and her brother asked if I had straightened my hair. I hastily assured them that it was not my real hair. To have not done so would've felt like lying. But their responses were interesting. Apparently, to people who don't see me very often, it is more logical to assume that I've just styled it differently or that my hair grows really fast than to assume that I'm wearing a wig.

My night out with a friend a few days ago and my concertgoing in a wig represent first steps in making wigs part of my fashion repertoire. I don't want to wear them too terribly often, but I do want to wear them more than once every four or five months. And I want to be more confident in my choice to wear a wig, less worried about others' reactions.

Eventually, maybe I'll even work up the courage to wear a wig to school.

Dressing the Part

2007-11-08T14:30:00.000-06:00

Over the course of my life, I have developed a sense of what kind of outfit is appropriate to specific situations and varying levels of formality; however, my personal sense of propriety does not necessarily match that of others. This distinction most often surfaces and comes to matter at work.

I am a graduate teaching assistant at a fairly large state university. I teach English courses (mostly freshmen and sophomore, although this semester I've taken on a senior level course as well), go to faculty meetings, meet with students, and do a lot of my own work as a grad student here on campus, among the undergraduates I teach. I am the teacher of record for the classes I teach. I design and plan the classes, teach them myself, do all the grading and deal with the students myself. There is no senior professor who is officially or actually in charge. It's all me.

As such, I want to be professional and I generally tend to dress up more than I might if I were only a student at the university. (That doesn't bother me at all, of course, because I like to dress up.) This tendency toward dressing up is encouraged further by the fact that I am only a few years older than the students I am teaching. At the beginning of the semester, I dress more conservatively, more formally, and more like I think students think a teacher should dress. I do this to make the distinction between myself and the students in the class as clear as possible and establish the power dynamic of the course from the start. I can and do relax this distinction as the course develops, but without a clear foundation it is far too easy, I have found, for the students to get too comfortable, which means getting lazy and sometimes presumptive. In short, they think they can walk all over me if I give the impression of being too friendly too soon.

All that being said, though, I want to dress like myself and I want to be myself when I'm teaching. As a teacher I am playing a role, enhancing certain elements of myself, but I want to be as true to myself and as honest with my students as I can be. So I do relax after a couple of weeks and start to experiment with outfits.

It is here that I break with my peers. I know many who go through a similar process of laying down the law at first and then relaxing as the semester progresses (and they often reflect this process in their clothing, too), but there are just as many who retain the same level of formality or business-like attire throughout the entire semester. One fellow graduate teaching assistant (male) would not teach without wearing dress pants, a buttondown shirt, and a tie. Some students have similar ideas about how teachers should appear. In fact, on a recent student evaluation I had a female student write that I should dress more professionally because my outfits were often distracting.

Despite these differences within my department and my field, I truly have a lot of freedom. During the training course when I began this job, which was several years ago now, the director of the First-Year Writing Program, the program I was entering into, told us that how we dressed was mostly a personal decision, one we could determine as part of developing our teaching personae. Her only recommendation was that we not expose ourselves to the students. And although students do have certain expectations of instructors based on their prior experience, they seem much more willing to accept experimentation from instructors in the liberal arts like myself. Just as there is a stereotype of the buttoned-down professor with tweed and elbow patches or the plain teacher in glasses, there is a counterstereotype of English teachers, as well as art teachers and music teachers, as hippies and artists and free spirits.

But others have less freedom: instructors in other departments, people who work in other fields altogether, people who must wear uniforms.

I know how I deal with this issue. I use my own best judgment for what will be appropriate (while teaching, this frequently means something that won't distract too much from the topic at hand) and sashay through my life with the confidence that I look good and no one can stop me from doing so. But how do others deal with this isssue in their lives? How concerned are you with appropriateness in dressing yourself on a regular basis? How do you work your personal style into the workplace? Does it cause problems? Or does it bring positive attention?

More Dress-Up Fun.

2007-11-06T11:20:00.000-06:00

I'm back after a brief break, and I'm sporting a look from the Dress Another Wardrobe_Remixer Challenge. This outfit is designed by nemrešpobjećodnedjelje.

I was a little nervous about it at first. The color combination of the skirt and shoes, though fairly subdued, is not one I would have thought of on my own, and the skirt fits oddly. I bought it because I love the colors, the plaid, and the fabric, but it's too small for me to wear like a normal skirt. I have to wear it as an empire waist skirt because of the waist size. And because of the style of the skirt, this means I'll look poufy and thicker than usual. So it took me a little while to get used to the idea of wearing this and to visualize it properly.

Generally, I do envision an outfit before I put it on. It's rare for me to just put something on and have a sudden realization that it looks cool. One thing this wardrobe_remix project is leading me to is the belief that I should try that technique of surprising myself more often.

What really makes the outfit, as far as I'm concerned, though, are the shoes.

The shoes, designed by Miss Bunny, are also one major reason it took me so long to wear this outfit. I don't quite feel comfortable wearing these shoes to teach my regular classes. I want people to see my shoes, but I don't want them to distract from class, so most days have been off-limits for this outfit. I am teaching a class today, but I figured it would be okay to wear the shoes because 1) I'm teaching a senior level college course today instead of freshmen and sophomores and 2) because we'll be sitting down around a conference table for this class intead of my standing in front of the class and leading discussion or lecturing from there. That makes my feet less of a focal point.

I have one more outfit waiting in the wings from the Wardrobe_Remix challenge, which I'll post when it gets worn (it also involves these shoes), and then I'll be back to thinking for myself. Unless someone else wants to style me, that is.

Blogging Society Challenge: Glamour in a Giant Men's Shirt

2007-10-25T09:36:00.000-05:00

So everyone should totally check out The Blogging Society Challenge over at The Fashion-y Blog. I submitted a look a couple of days ago and a couple of others have as well. So go! Look! (But--maybe you want to finish reading this first?)

I took an XL men's shirt, put it on upside down (so the collar is in the small of my back and the hem is creating a collar around my neck), rolled the giant sleeves way up, and buttoned it asymmetrically across the front, then I belted it with the cummerbund.

I love the way this looks but it's not the best outfit in terms of arm freedom. My range of movement there is a bit limited, so this outfit may be only for events that don't involve much reaching and gesturing.

Outfit details:
Shirt and cummerbund: thrifted
Skirt, argyle tights, ankle boots, and necklace: Target

A Rainbow Treat: Putting the Fun in Fashion

2007-10-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

After grading all weekend and just generally being stressed out lately, yesterday I was finally able to at least temporarily relax (even though I still had to go to work and teach two classes).

I just got this rainbow striped sweater in the mail from Darla at The Vintage Zoo (aka zoo_gal on flickr and a regular over at Wardrobe_Remix) and wanted desperately to wear it.

Monday was the perfect opportunity. Fall came a-knockin'. Seriously. Temperatures dropped significantly, and it was rainy and windy and gray. Everyone else I saw was wearing grays and dark blues to match the supposedly dreary weather, but I was excited and I wanted my outfit to show it.

It was only after I'd gotten dressed and taken photos that I realized I not only felt a childlike joy, but I looked it, too. I looked like a pop culture icon of my 1980s childhood: Rainbow Brite or Punky Brewster, perhaps. All I needed was the hairdo. Pigtails or a side ponytail, anyone?

It pleased me a great deal to realize that my outfit for the day so clearly reflected my joy, my comfort, and my own past--or at least a small fraction of it. Fashion, after all, needn't be such a serious business. It's something I spend a lot of time and effort and money on, so it can sometimes be easy to forget that, to focus instead on looking appropriate or looking attractive or looking adult. There are certainly serious issues tied up in the realm of fashion, issues that are important to consider and discuss, but if that's all we see, we're not doing fashion right. We're not getting the most out of it. We're missing the fun.

Well, yesterday at least, I had the fun. And everyone could see it.

So here's to childlike excitement and childhood inspiration! May we never forget the joys of looking like, acting like, and, most importantly, feeling like children from time to time.

Escape of the Elephant (Sweater)

2007-10-18T09:30:00.000-05:00

"Contrary to what most people say, the most dangerous animal in the world is not the lion or the tiger or even the elephant. It's a shark riding on an elephant's back, just trampling & eating everything they see." --Jack Handey

Actually, Mr. Jack Handey is wrong, too. The most dangerous animal in the world is a knitted Republican elephant--with a banner and an agenda.

I found this sweater on ebay a couple of nights ago and immediately knew I had to have it.

Now, I am not Republican. Nowhere near it. But that's exactly why I wanted this sweater. I envisioned wearing it with something that screams liberal progressive anti-Republican and confusing the hell out of people. Layer it over an anti-Bush T-shirt or a pro-liberal candidate T-shirt, wear it with my feminist skirt, make my own liberal propaganda T-shirt--really, the possibilities seemed endless.

I also imagined dressing up as a middle-class conservative Republican lady for Halloween. The sweater just cries out for a sensible business skirt and blouse, sensibly heeled shoes, and a pearl necklace. And big hair. Definitely big hair.

Besides all that, it has little elephants! How cool is that?

Sadly, however, its price shot up and I couldn't afford it. Bummer. I think that may have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Playing Dress-Up

2007-10-16T09:45:00.000-05:00

Halloween is coming, and I still don't know what I'm going to wear. I'm really bad at coming up with costume ideas. I never feel up to putting a lot of extra effort into making a costume and I don't like the more common/obvious costumes, but I want my costume to be recognizable. Quite a pickle I've created for myself, no?

Last year I dressed up as Marla Singer from Fight Club. I tinted my hair a couple of shades darker with some very temporary dye, styled it crazier than usual, put on lots of dark eye makeup, wore a black dress (though I can't remember which black dress I chose--it might've been an old black lace party dress) with a black sweater and black ankle boots. It was pretty good, but not identifiable enough. A cigarette might've done it, but I don't smoke. Also, I needed to add a name tag, I think. Sadly, I don't have a picture of myself in this costume.

I could do Marla Singer again and improve upon it. I could live with that. I might even enjoy doing that again. But I'd also love to try something new.

I have a couple of ideas already. The first is Mary Quant. I have a black wig that could approximate (but not really match) her somewhat geometric jet black hairstyle. I could wear lots of eye makeup, my short short black thrifted a-line dress, one of my pairs of boots (with or without heels, I'm not sure yet), and perhaps a pair of tights. On the other hand, wig and eye makeup aside, I would wear this on a normal day, so it doesn't feel enough like I would be costumed.

I don't have the long hair for it, but Annie Hall would be fun. I have the pants and the tie. I have an almost-appropriate vest and can easily acquire the men's shirt (and likely a new vest). I do have a dark-brown wig, but it's not long like Diane Keaton's in the movie. Maybe it'd be close enough? This would feel more like dressing up for me. The slouchy menswear style is not a direction I normally take in my everyday dress.

So those are my ideas. If anyone out there has any other suggestions or feedback about my ideas, I'd love to hear it. What are you wearing? Do you have any ideas for fairly easy costumes for someone like me (someone like me here referring to someone who is lazy or, if you're feeling generous, merely very busy)?

Also, the Blogging Society Challenge has truly begun, so I will be working on playing dress-up with a men's shirt in the next couple of weeks. I have a couple of vague ideas, but haven't begun actual work yet. Look for results soon!

Remix Review.

2007-10-12T16:30:00.000-05:00

Truly, there's so much awesomeness over at Wardrobe_Remix that it almost seems silly to try to pick out the best. So I'm not going to do that. So, instead of trying to judge best or provide an overview (there are others who do these things, including Tricia, the group's founder, over at Bits and Bobbins and the girls at Painfully Hip), this week, I want to feature three remixers whose recent outfits include details I really love or ideas I might like to try myself.

First comes Snoof, who is always fabulous. The combination of influences in this ensemble is what really draws me in. The vintage Gunne Saxe-esque dress, layered under the bright yellow sweater, topped off with the head wrap!

Fall Colors: 8. October 2007, originally uploaded by Snoof.

Next we have sherbet tone. This outfit seems simple, but is really interesting, with the supershort minidress layered over the patterned turtleneck and the knee socks with the wonderful brown shoes. This somehow manages to successfully combine sensible with sexpot.

Remixd: Finally Fall., originally uploaded by sherbet tone.

Finally, Earthworm, a less frequent (but no less fabulous for it) remixer. What I really love here is the refashioned bathrobe, which becomes a striking tunic. This inspires me to want to create something similar.

With Breeches, originally uploaded by Earthworm.

Fashion Challenges

2007-10-09T16:20:00.000-05:00

In addition to my personal challenge of the No New Clothes Initiative, in which I will buy nothing new (read: unused) for the next six months, I've discovered and taken up a couple of other short-term challenges or projects thought up by others.

Kori over at The Fashion-y Blog has proposed a Blogging Society Challenge in which participants will start with a plain men's button-down shirt and use that as the foundation for a unique outfit. I think it'll be fun to do myself and to see what others come up with. She's already posted some fabulous photos of others' ideas (handpicked for this purpose from The Sartorialist) on her blog. Check it out!

And over at Wardrobe_Remix, where I spend so much of my online time these days keeping up with the hundreds of awesome outfits that are posted daily, there is this project to dress up another wardrobe_remixer or allow yourself to be dressed up. I've suggested an outfit for one participant already and been dressed by another.

It's a bit of a challenge to look at someone's else clothes (at least what's been posted to wardrobe_remix) and try to remix them in a way that will be interesting, fun, and flattering for that person. But it's certainly fun, too. And it's great fun having someone else put together your outfit. Truly, I love planning an outfit and testing options and seeing it work or, sometimes, not work, so it's fun to practice this on someone else. Also, it's neat to get a fresh take on clothes you've already worn, a perspective outside your own. This is especially great in this particular community, friendly and supportive as it is.

The No New Clothes Initiative

2007-10-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

Winter is coming (supposedly), which means coat weather. My old coat was a thrift store find from a few years ago (I got it for $10 in the middle of the summer and was so proud), but it finally reached the point of being too ratty to wear and too tired to be refurbished. So, in need of a new coat, I headed off to the thrift store. I had no trouble finding a replacement. In fact, I found two and had to choose only one (pictured below), leaving behind a nice red wool double-breasted coat.

After a couple of hours of shopping, I found myself thinking about my clothes-buying habits. I spend a lot of time and money on clothes (and books, but that's not relevant at the moment) and I make a lot of impulse buys. Frequently, these impulse buys are at Target or Old Navy. Cute, but not necessarily substantial or necessary. Surely, I thought to myself, I can find just as much (if not more) cool stuff at the thrift store. Plus, thrift store clothes are unique, cheap, and more environmentally friendly in that buying used clothes cuts back on the demand for and production of--or at least my support of--newly manufactured clothes from raw materials. I'd been toying with the idea of changing my shopping habits substantially, but this particular shopping trip sealed the deal for me. So here's the new plan.

Project: Buy only thrifted, vintage, or refashioned clothes for the next six months. This will primarily include local thrifting, but I'll also look to vintage shops (local and online), etsy, and ebay for my shopping needs. Whatever I buy must be used or refashioned from used materials, however. Eventually, I will try to cut out--or at least cut way down on--online shopping, too, in order to make my wardrobe and shopping habits even more environmentally friendly by diminishing the costs of transporting my stuff, but that will come later.

Exemptions from the initiative: Underwear, socks of the purely functional sort (should they become necessary), and fabric to sew with--assuming, of course, I become motivated enough to begin a real project any time soon.

Time Frame: I began a few days ago and will maintain this level for six months, setting the end date as March 27, 2008, my 29th birthday. Upon reaching the six-month marker, I can re-evaluate my goals and either renew my resolution to buy only non-new clothing or modify it slightly if necessary, perhaps at that point adopting a resolution to diminish my online purchasing.

Purpose: Challenge myself by having to look for the things that I want and need and having to work with what I have. Save money by buying clothes on the cheap instead of just cheap clothes. Practice more sustainable habits.

Realistically, this won't limit me too much. There are lots of thrift stores in my area and many of them are quite good. But it does make the purchases I make more ecologically sound, more interesting and unique, and, well, more thrifty.

And as a kickoff to the project, I went thrifting two more times this last weekend and found lots of awesome stuff. It will all be duly modeled over on Wardrobe_Remix.

Fashion History 101: Worth and Poiret

2007-09-27T15:00:00.000-05:00

When I was in high school, I used to go to the local library and check out the fashion and costume history books over and over again. I'd pore over the pictures, not bothering to read much of the text, and sometimes even try to copy the images by hand. I don't draw well, so that was a bit discouraging, but I still loved the pictures. Recently, I decided I should return to a similar habit--except this time I'll read and not just look at the pictures.

I've begun with a couple of simple, picture-heavy books structured by brief chapters about important moments in fashion history: 20th Century Fashion: 100 Years of Style by Decade and Designer, in Association with Vogue, by Linda Watson, and Key Moments in Fashion: The Evolution of Style.

In 20th Century Fashion, I found this image:

The caption reads, "Paul Poiret's MInaret tunics were both radical and dramatic, and combined the line of the hobble skirt with the theatricality of the crinoline, 1913." This combination of dramatically different shapes and the contrast in volume between top and bottom is what draws me to this look. It's a 1913 version of the more modern dress over pants look, after all. This variation on the big top plus skinny bottom style is one worth playing with, I think.

Poiret's comments about this new style he invented are telling. In his autobiography, he wrote,

Like all great revolutions, that one [the invention of the hobble skirt] had been made in the name of Liberty -- to give free play to the abdomen. . . . It was equally in the name of Liberty that I proclaimed the fall of the corset and the adoption of the brassiere which, since then, has won the day. Yes, I freed the bust, but I shackled the legs. Everyone wore the tight skirt.

We don't tend to think these days of the bra as liberating, but in this time it truly was. Similarly, the shackling of the legs by the hobble skirt seems not much of an improvement over the shackling of the bust, but while with the corset, women were misshapen and even internally damaged, with the hobble skirt, they merely couldn't walk very effectively.

Another image that leapt out at me in my recent reading is this one, from Key Moments in Fashion:

The caption for this photo reads, "A 1938 evening coat by Worth in moire (a watered silk fabric) and manufactured by Rémond." The coat is fabulous, with the giant flowing sleeves and the elegance of the sleek floor-length silhouette.

Really, though, what I love about this look is the hat. It is bizarre and completely impractical, and I love it. I'm not sure if I'm ready to adopt hats into my wardrobe, but I have long wanted to. I used to bemoan the fact that women don't wear hats any more--not the fabulous work-of-art hats that they used to wear, anyway. I have seen several people working such hats into their outfits on Wardrobe_Remix lately, however. Maybe my time for hats is approaching.

Scrapbook from the Past: Dress Drama

2007-09-25T17:00:00.000-05:00

I found my old style scrapbook from high school (maybe early college). I used this folder to store photos from fashion magazines and catalogues that I really really liked. Sometimes I got creative and arranged them on a page, but often I just stored the whole magazine or catalogue page in the folder.

Looking back at my choices, I can see that there are some clear and recurring themes in my taste of approximately 10 years ago. One is dresses! In bright colors and dramatic shapes!

The dresses I kept photos of are ones I wouldn't have known what to do with if I'd had them then, dresses I would probably have been afraid to actually wear. And not just the high couture ballgowns of the first photo, but the more "normal" dresses of the last two images as well. But my desire for these bold, attention-getting dresses says a lot about my taste, even though it was yet in its infancy when I developed this collection. After all, I still have a thing for dresses in bright colors and dramatic shapes, only now I'm growing brave and creative enough to wear them when I find them.

Part of the shift my rediscovery of this folder highlights, from the girl who drooled over the photos but could imagine doing no more than that and the girl who would now gladly wear these dresses or others equally dramatic, has come from getting to know myself and what kind of person I am and, thanks in large part to teaching, becoming more confident on the whole. Another part of this shift is thanks to Wardrobe_Remix. I've been watching, commenting, and posting there for several months now and I already feel much more confident and inventive in this arena. In my case, my personal development and my development of style have gone hand in hand. As I've become more confident in other arenas, my willingness and ability to experiment with fashion has grown, too, so that, for me, style really is power.

[Unfortunately, I can't provide much information about the source or date of these photos. Mid-to-late-90s, I suppose. Probably a combination of Seventeen, Glamour, Vogue, and various shopping catalogues.]

Fashion and Feminism: Azzedine Alaia

2007-09-20T18:35:00.000-05:00

Azzedine Alaïa, who gained popularity in the 1980s and has been dubbed "The King of Cling," says (as quoted in Fashion Now), "A woman's not going to buy a little skirt for a lot of money if it's not for seduction. What else are clothes made for?"

Oh, dear. It's this attitude that makes it difficult for people to imagine feminism and fashion going hand in hand. Or at least, this attitude contributes to the problem of imagining a feminist who loves fashion. Like myself. If clothing is only for seduction, how indeed can a feminist justify loving fashion? It again becomes all about the male gaze, doesn't it? All about the other and none about self-actualization or creativity.

Alaïa also talks about how he designs for all women, not for any particular, for Woman. Although he is clearly inspired by the female body and by women, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, there is much in the way Alaïa talks about women that is problematic. He is essentialist, idealizing, lumping all women together as seductresses and muses. Feminist this is not.

Anyone have a pedestal?

On the other hand, Suzy Menkes defends Alaïa in her article "10 Years Ago: Alaïa Launched His Revolution: Landmark for King of Curves" for The International Herald Tribune. She writes, "So while many women have rejected the body-hugging look as only for the young with beautiful bodies, the unsung fashion hero who started it all aims to dress every woman so that her body looks a cut above the rest." She implies that even though his body-conscious, curve-hugging designs of the early '80s "seemed a deliberate challenge - throwing down a sexist gauntlet in a feminist world," Alaïa's work is truly liberating for women.

But this liberation seems to consist solely of giving women "beautiful bodies," bodies that look "a cut above the rest." This may make individual women feel better, more beautiful, and perhaps eventually more confident, but it does so by saying to these women, "You must be beautiful." Not only that, it says, "You must be beautiful in this particular way. You must be thin, toned, and appear young."

According to even Menkes' defense, then, there is no celebration of a variety of body types, no celebration of individual quirks, no celebration of the changes that age brings. There is no sense of community, no sense of connection with others, no sense of aesthetic other than the controlled and modified body itself as a source of beauty. As Menkes also points out, "he still has as clients or customers women who look to him to iron out or reshape the little bulges." Instead, there is uniformity and competition between women whose bodies must be reshaped and bettered.

Generally, I defend fashion. I see no reason why fashion and feminism cannot go hand in hand. But that can only work if both fashion and feminism are a bit more flexible than they have been and have been perceived as being, if they prize joy, beauty (not just of the perfect body, but of colors, shapes, textures, and the individual woman wearing the clothing), and experimentation.

So really, it's not the body-conscious clothing itself I am objecting to. Much of his work is indeed beautiful. It is the ideology that seems to accompany his clothing to which I object. When that ideology is challenged, when the experience of the wearer trumps the ideas of the creator, that is also a beautiful thing.

Susie Bubble (over at Style Bubble writes the following:

Anything tight and figure hugging used to freak me out and completely, but having recently experienced the feeling of vintage Alaia (trying things on in One of Kind is too much fun...), which I thought would constrict my body but actually liberated it. I felt exposed but not uncomfortably so. It was a different kind of uncomplicated look, and defintiely something that I could see myself (and others) delving into.

This entry illustrates the way in which the clothing itself is open to different women's experiences and reveals the very reason I am loathe to object to the clothing itself (in this instance and in others). She is able to challenge her own limitations, stretch her boundaries, through wearing the Alaïa dress. That is wonderful.

Off the Wall: Fashion from the German Democratic Republic

2007-09-17T15:33:00.000-05:00

Another small, picture-heavy book I've seen popping up frequently at Half Price Books stores across Texas (like Worst Fashions in that regard) finally seduced me: Off the Wall: Fashion from the German Democratic Republic. The book includes only a few very brief paragraphs of text at the beginning, much of which you can read at the provided link from the Strand Bookstore. There is no real cultural context given for the photographs aside from this:

Despairing of the drab, colourless apparel surrounding them, photographer Gunter Rubitzsh hired local models, chose the locations that inspired him--oil factories, worker canteens, concrete office blocks--and set about creating his own unique and daring style.

It is assumed that "what was produced in earnest is now a catalogue of camp," but there is no indication of what it would mean in East Germany during this time (and none of the pictures are dated, which is annoying, since it clearly covers a fairly wide span of time) for these photos to be produced in earnest, who would see them, what effects they might have.

Despite these rather major flaws, the book is worth at least glancing at for the pictures. This is another book that I find inspirational and full of creative energy, even if it's not particularly informative.

Here are a couple more pictures that I particuarly like. There really are just a lot of great photos in this small book. I may have to dedicate another couple of posts to exploring it in the future. For now, though, take a gander at the following two photos.

The "beltfit" or, perhaps, the "beltkini":

This is not something I can see myself wearing (I don't have that many belts and I have more boob than this girl does), but I like its combination of simplicity and complexity. It's a simple basic shape: a bikini (plus a couple of embellishments on the upper arm and leg) but the execution of the bikini requires careful planning.

The jumpsuit:

Seriously, a red bell-bottomed jumpsuit with ethnic embellishment and fancy shoulders? Yes, please. Truly. I don't know if I could pull off a jumpsuit, but for this kind of awesome, I'd certainly try.

Battle of the Dresses!

2007-09-14T17:56:00.000-05:00

Last spring I found this wonderful pinafore dress on ebay and knew the second I saw it that I must have it. I paid more than I ordinarily would for a dress, but I got it and ever since it has been queen of my closet.

Two weeks ago, however, I found this:

It may well dethrone the pinafore dress. Tonight is its first outing, a test of its suitability as queen of my closet. We shall see how it performs.

Perhaps I should simply count the pinafore dress as spring queen and the brown dress as autumn queen.

Worst Fashions?

2007-09-13T09:25:00.000-05:00

I found this book Worst Fashions: What we shouldn't have worn...but did at a used bookstore and just had to get it. It has lots of pictures of and commentary on what author Catherine Horwood consideres some of the worst fashions of the last forty to fifty years.

Of course, I didn't want this book in order to make fun of those poor benighted fools who wore such crazy clothing. Instead, I wanted the book because I was inspired by the pictures.

A few examples will suffice. Horwood condemns knickerbockers as "fine if you are a Royalist cavalier in the mid-seventeenth century, but less amusing if you are a women in the late twentieth century."

I beg to differ. I have wanted a pair of knickerbockers for months. I have yet to find a pair that fits or is actually appealing, but I truly do like the shape and the details.

Horwood also decries the sweater vest (on men and women) as silly-looking and embarrassing.

I, on the other hand, just bought myself a sweatervest at Target last night. I have always liked this look, even though I've not always executed it well.

Another look that she lambastes is batwing sleeves.

"Sadly often worn by women who could not cope with the clinched-in waists that the power shoulder outfits [of the 1980s] required," she writes, "they usually ended up looking as broad as they were tall." Ouch.

It is possible for pretty much any style to look bad if it's worn without a good sense of balance and proportion--and an equally good sense of when to flout the "rules"--but I don't like to think of a given style as a "worst fashion." In fact, there are very few styles she discusses in the book that didn't cause me to think, "Hmm...It might be fun to try that." Horwood condemns overalls (for men and women), patterned trousers, palazzo pants (which I love), skinny pants and jumpsuits (which I don't so much love for myself, but which other people wear well), knitted dresses, maxi dresses, bubble skirts, leggings and legwarmers, paisley and tartan. For me, this attitude of condemnation takes all the fun out of fashion. For me, fashion is not making fun of others (even if I don't personally like or enjoy their choices); fashion is freedom, experimentation, creativity. I'm prepared to look stupid occasionally for the sake of these things.

Horwood's book was an interesting find, but I will not recommend this book wholeheartedly. The judgmental and snarky tone was far too negative for me. I will, however, recommend looking at the pictures in this book for inspiration and ways to make old ideas new again.

Inaugural Post

2007-09-11T19:40:00.001-05:00

Inspired by so many other great fashion bloggers (many of whom are already linked to the right), I thought I'd have a crack at my own fashion-related blog. Here goes!

Lately, I've really been wanting some cute T-strap shoes (preferably flats), so imagine how excited I was to find these amazing mod "pale grey-taupey-bone" suede T-straps on ebay a couple of days ago.

Unfortunately, they're a size 8.5 narrow! My feets are not narrow. Oh well. The search continues.