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

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

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)

"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

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.

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

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

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.