Dress Me Up Like a Doll - republished!

It appears Blogger thoroughly ate my Paper Doll Project outfit post from last Wednesday, and never returned it! So here it is again, republished. Apologies if you've already read this. Now I'm glad I subscribe to my feed via email so I have copies of posts!

Today's outfit is part of the Paper Doll Project, started by Suze of Miss Vinyl Ahoy. Two bloggers are paired up, each picks an item they'd like in an outfit, and the other designs them an outfit for the day incorporating that item. I had the pleasure to be paired up with Laura from A La Mode et Plus. If you haven't seen her lovely blog yet, go over
and take a look!

For today, I wanted to see if Laura could figure out an outfit for me incorporating a pair of Chinese Laundry embroidered velvet wedges that I had seen on sale several years ago, fallen in love with, bought, and promptly never worn. Which is tragic, because they're so pretty! Look:


So Laura styled me up a fun pattern-mixing outfit for the day, incorporating my polka-dot skirt and blue belt.


Details: polka-dot skirt, thrifted and shorted by me. Blouse, thrifted. Belt, thrifted. Shoes, Chinese Laundry. Ring, gift (used to be my mother's). Watch, gift.


I like the polka dots and floral print together. Not a combination I would have tried without some prodding, but fun to wear.

You know what the trickiest part of the outfit was, though? Laura had specified that I wear a ring...which made me realize that I really don't wear rings. As in, at all. Ever. I think the last time I wore rings around regularly I was probably elementary-school-aged This one, from a box of old jewelry of my mother's that she'd given me a number of years ago, happened to match the belt...but I definitely was fiddling with it much of the day! Anyone else distracted by having things on their hands/wrists? Or is this just something I'd get used to if I wore more cocktail rings? (Which I've been tempted to do, seeing others pull off all sorts of fun accents...)


Hope everyone is having a good middle of the week! It's gray and drizzly still, here, which makes it hard for me to really focus... something about not being able to tell that time is passing during the day really throws off my sense of timing, I think.

Also, check out Laura's blog later to see how I styled her in this vest!

And now, after this blast from the past, I return you to your regular Monday.

New dress refashion

It appears Blogger ate my last Paper Doll Project post and hasn't restored it, so I will post that again in a day or so if it doesn't come back up!

This week was pretty quiet, so I had a couple of relaxing evenings at home trying to dive into my refashioning pile. One of the items that emerged was this dress/coverup/thingie:


I'd gotten three of these cheap cover-ups that had been tossed into the dollar-a-pound pile, intending to piece together the fabric into a 60's-style dress. I actually managed to get the fabric for a new dress (made from a vintage pattern) out of just one of them, so I've got two more to play with still! Any ideas on what I should do with the rest of the fabric?


This was the second dress I'd made from this particular pattern...the first was an orange dress I'd hinted at a couple of weeks ago but haven't gotten decent pictures of yet. This time I'd fixed some of the errors that I'd made in the first attempt (like putting in the zipper too low), and I think this one turned out fairly well!


Hmm, you can see my slip in this one! I do like the back of the dress, though...I'll be using this pattern again, now that I've got the details worked out.

Details: Dress, refashioned. Belt, thrifted. Leggings, H&M, thrifted. Sandals, Miz Mooz, thrifted. Pink cardigan, thrifted.


Hope everyone is having a nice weekend so far! It's fairly quiet around here, which is nice for a change. Time for some organizing and cleaning, even a bit of reading and digging back into the sewing pile...

FFB: Culture Porn's Alexa on Men and Feminism

(Today's post is a guest post from Alexa at Culture Porn. As members of the Feminist Fashion Bloggers, Alexa and I are swapping posts today, both looking at the role of men in feminism. You can find my post on Alexa's blog.)

Hello, my name is Alexa and I write a blog called Culture Porn, which can be found here.

I think it's safe to say that there is one fundamental misconception about feminism. The irritating thing is, this misconception is embedded within the name: feminism. As if the term, and everything that goes with it, can only be applied to the female gender. Now, I am of the belief that the feminist movement will always remain a movement - a group with ideas and opinions contrary to the popular grain - without a male edge. This earth has a lot of males in it, and for people to think that feminism is an exclusively female preoccupation is hindering its ideas and indeed, support.

A lot of feminists neglect the fact that males are perfectly capable of being feminists too. After all, the idea of gender equality cannot be applied to only one gender. And indeed, of the males I asked, every single one of them shunned the idea of feminism. It was only after I rephrased the question; "do you believe in gender equality?" (as opposed to "are you a feminist?") did I get a response. The power of a name eh?

So I suppose, the issue facing feminism right now is how to remove this misconception. Is it just all about a name, or are there other factors at play as to why males tend to refute the fem in feminism? I'm sure there are some men out there who actively reject gender equality due to a number of draconian concepts; a cling to tradition, dominance, social spheres, religion, cultural expectations, taboos. But i'm equally sure that they are a minority. I keep my confidence in the modern, educated male who appreciates the immense value and humanity behind gender equality, even if the name feminism is decidedly 'girly'. Although a revamp of the English dictionary would go a way in helping this, I think trust must be placed in curiosity; that the modern, educated man I previously spoke of will do his research before casting off the title of a feminist.

On a side note, I just want to say that I do not consider women who dislike men as feminists. Equality swings both ways, after all.

(If you like this, go check out Alexa's great blog full of art, feminism and fashion. And check out the other FFB posts in today's roundup!)

Bright Flowers for a Gray Day

Today's outfit is part of Everybody Everywear, a monthly event where style bloggers all take a particular clothing item or pattern and incorporate that into their outfits on the same day. May's pick was "florals," so I decided to use that as an excuse to wear this incredibly bright floral dress that hadn't made it out of my closet yet. The day's gloomy weather wasn't completely consistent with my cheery outfit, though! Hence the layering...


The dress is vintage from probably the 60's or 70's, and came via a neighbor of my mom's who was cleaning out her attic and passed on a handful of items to me. It actually has a trapeze shape that's just overwhelming on me. I found recently that belting it gives it a shape that suits my body much better.


Dress: vintage, gifted. Sweater, thrifted. Tights, LOFT. Shoes, Jeffrey Campbell via Ebay.


Look at that bright pattern! I was glad I finally had the nerve to wear this out in public. Through my last year or so really playing more with my outfits and keeping this blog, the range of clothing I'm comfortable wearing has really expanded.

Hope everyone's week has been going well! I had a busy last week and weekend, finishing up a couple of projects, making a dress for a wearable art show, and spending the weekend at a festival where one of my art installations was included. Lots of fun, now trying to figure out what my next projects look like!

FBFF: Fitness on Friday

Source.

This week's FBFF questions are all about fitness! How we keep fit, and how/if fashion comes into that.

1. Do you keep some kind of fitness routine? Why?
Generally, I go to the gym or run outside for 30-45 minutes before work on weekday mornings, with a longer run on the weekend. (though haven't been as regular about this for the past few weeks as still recovering from some knee and foot issues partially related to a race I ran in mid-March, partially from walking miles and miles around Chicago without enough padding in my shoes.) As far as "why" I do this...that's a good question. I think I have more energy when I exercise regularly. I like getting up earlier and feeling like I'm getting something done immediately. I tend to sleep more and eat more healthily when I'm working out, too...one step of caring for my body snowballing into others.

2. Has working out, maybe training for a marathon or something of that nature, helped with your own perception of body image?
You know, the workout routine that helped me the most with my body image was my informal parkour training from about two years ago to about a year ago. A few of us from my lab (myself and a couple of my male colleagues) had gotten together and decided that we wanted to do something to make working out more enjoyable and to give us some goals to reach. We decided to try to learn parkour, which basically involves traveling at great speeds through a city from point to point by the most direct route, even if that involves going over objects, jumping gaps, and climbing structures.


Source. This is clearly not me, though it's a move I learned how to do.

So most mornings for a year or so we'd meet at the gym and do things that we thought would help build parkour-related skills and strength and stamina. It was really gratifying to see myself improve along measurable lines, as I became able to do more repetitions of certain exercises, master particular moves, and simply do the same thing but be less sore the next day! I also discovered that I was able to push myself past particular limits that I'd set on my body beforehand and still be fine. I could be physically pushing myself and maintain that for a while and that would be fine. These sorts of results and seeing my body's capabilities were really inspiring. The focus wasn't on working out for weight loss/management or for some vague concept of "fitness," but for expanding what my body could do and preparing it to do some cool things. The day that we were first able to push ourselves to do 100 "Burpees" was a huge feeling of success. And believe me, it's a thrill to do crazy parkour things like running to the edge of a set of steps, leaping to the bottom, and landing into a forward roll in the grass below! Somewhere, there exist videos of me doing this...

3. When you are hitting the gym or just going out for a long walk what do you wear? Is it about functionality or fashion?
Normally I'm in a sports bra, t-shirt, workout pants/shorts, and running shoes. It's pretty completely about function, though I've been thrifting some more sports clothing under the idea that the more I dress like a serious gym-goer the more comfortable I'll continue to feel.

4. Do you feel there is a cultural perception of what you ‘should’ be doing for your own physical fitness?
I don't know that there's a particular cultural perception about what, specifically, I should be doing for fitness -- just that I should be particular levels of fit. And that I should be working out several times per week. Actually, there's a general cultural prevalence toward "going to the gym" or "running," I think. Things that one does "regularly." Does anyone else have this experience?

5. Dream big… what would be your ultimate fitness goal.
My major fitness goal in general is making sure to incorporate it as a part of my regular lifestyle long-term. My goals for this year are to run my first road races - a 5K (ran it in March) and a 10K. Though Katy has got me tempted by a half-marathon she's trying to get a group to run in October...it would be amazing to be capable of doing that! I try not to make weight-related fitness goals (though there's a weight about three-five pounds lower that it'd be nice to reach...), primarily focusing on increasing my capabilities.

Hope everyone has a great weekend planned! I'll mostly be spending it with my college best friend, who has her wedding shower this weekend. It's unreal that this girl is getting married! I remember when we first met moving into our dorm room freshman year...

And on another note, it looks like the performance piece I was working on for next weekend unfortunately won't be able to happen then after all. Another one of my cast members dropped out midweek, leaving only three of us, two of whom had some scheduling issues anyway. So I decided to just call it off, since we didn't have what I needed to make the piece I needed by next Saturday. I'm pretty glum about that, but hoping to continue working on the piece and develop it for another venue/time. We'll see what happens.

Men's Shirt to Blouse refashion

Last weekend I managed to make another stab at the pile of things waiting for refashioning, and ended up with this blouse.


I started with another dress shirt from that bunch of old clothing my brother had given me a bunch of months ago. I liked the delicate floral-ish print on this one, but clearly it needed some redoing to fit me.


I cut off the sleeves right outside the seam line so as to leave a somewhat-finished edge, then tried on the piece and pinned where my waist and bustline were. I then stitched a curve along the side to reshape the side seam to match those waist and bust measurements, flaring back out to the original seam at the hips. (You'll see in the photo on the right that I had to do this twice...the first new line still was too loose.) There's probably a better way of quickly refitting tops, but this worked all right for me! Then I trimmed the side fabric closer to the new seam.


And there we are...a long blouse/tunic thing. I'd started out hoping to be able to make it a dress, but there just wasn't enough fabric in the sleeves to compensate for how far away the hemline was from being a dress! So I can wear it as a tunic, or even better, tuck it in for a long blouse that won't pull out of my skirt if I lift my arms (anyone else have a problem with that?).


This outfit was basically what I wore yesterday, but with tights, a sweater, and oxford flats. Because apparently it is not QUITE spring yet here in the Northeast...or at the least is fluctuating back and forth between warm weather and colder weather unpredictably. It was amazingly lovely on Sunday, then cold yesterday and today... I'm now completely confused about how heavy of a coat I should bring at any given time.

Also, a sneak peek of my other weekend sewing project! (which I'm wearing today...so photos to come later!)


This week is off to a busy start... I'm choreographing a dance piece to be performed a week from Saturday, so my evenings are being spent leading very long rehearsals. It's also really an exercise for me in choreographic self-trust. I've been trained to create choreography with my performers in real time, but it's still a leap of faith for me to go into a 4-hour rehearsal without much idea what we'll be doing, trusting that I will have interesting things emerge from being in the space improvising with my cast of three others. It's a sustained, focused, creative effort, and one that I thoroughly enjoy, even when it scares the pants off me!

FBFF: Feeling Inspired

This week and last week, we're celebrating the 1-year anniversary of Fashion Beauty Friend Friday (Congratulations, Katy Rose!) As part of this, we're looking at the first set of FBFF questions, about what inspires us.

1. Which celebrity (celebrities) do you look to for fashion inspiration?
I don't really follow celebrities for fashion inspiration. There are celebrities whose views on fashion I find inspiring (like Sarah Jessica Parker, who basically wears what she finds wonderful/beautiful all the time), but I don't generally follow what celebrities wear or their general style. I'm more inspired by vintage movie stars like Audry Hepburn...and that perhaps less for their individual style, and more about the style of the era they come from.


Source

Say what you like about this dress on Sarah Jessica, it's definitely a bold and personal statement!

2. When it comes to your own personal style, what inspires you?
I have to say that these days my primary source of style inspiration is other fashion bloggers! Before I got into the fashion/style blogging world, I mostly viewed fashion/style as something that required buying the "trendy new items" that magazines demanded you wear. As I wasn't doing that, my personal style primarily was influenced by what I found comfortable. Fashion/style bloggers showed me that style can be the art of combining the clothing I already own, finding amazing pieces at thrift stores, incorporating vintage clothes with their own history, and creating a look that works for me, personally. Enjoying trends, perhaps, but fitting them into a real person's life. Treating clothing as fun, self-expression, a joyful statement. Seeing clothing as something to make or alter to suit my own taste and interests, to fit to my own body (as it is, not an idealized version). Engaging thoughtfully and playfully with clothing. Wearing a world's worth of clothing in hundreds of different, individual ways.

Occasionally I still look to fashion magazines for some inspiration, even more rarely to the runways. I'll also sometimes get an idea from people I see on the street or riding on subway. But my primary source of inspiration from other people is definitely style bloggers!


Image from Dear Golden Vintage

Besides that, textures and patterns and beautiful fabrics inspire me to wear them (or at least have them in my closet). I love lace and velvet and silk and beading and ruffles and clothing with elegant lines. I really like unique patterns. In general, clothing that is aesthetically and tactilely pleasing to me is a huge inspiration.

For some more things that are currently inspiring me, check out my Fashion Inspiration board on Pinterest

3. How do you hope to inspire your readers?
I hope I can give my readers some examples of wearing what I love and having fun with personal style even in an environment that doesn't require attention to style. I would like to inspire my readers to be creative with thrifting and refashioning clothing, and realize that refashioning doesn't have to require a lot of sewing skill. I also hope to get people thinking about some topics or points about style in ways they might not have otherwise.

4. Outside the realm of fashion who/what inspires you?
Goodness, a lot of things. As a performing artist, I am often quite inspired by dance and theater and music. A powerful performance is incredibly inspiring to me, as are the people who create them (the Punchdrunk theater company, Pina Bausch, Bill T. Jones, many others...). The other people at my lab are also doing amazing, fascinating, creative things and inspire me every day!


Pina Bausch's "Nelken." Source

The members of the Feminist Fashion Bloggers inspire me that fashion can be thoughtful and empowering. Bloggers who deal with positive body image like Sal have been huge influences on me. (okay, these are kind of fashion-related, but I felt they fit better in the general inspiration category...)

5. Which songs inspire you?
I've been on a big Imogen Heap kick for quite a while now. Also always love the orchestral works of Karl Jenkins (especially "Passacaglia"). The soundtrack to the film Once. Lots of musical theater stuff. I've got some fairly eclectic taste in music...

Hope everyone's having a good Friday evening and some nice plans for the weekend! I'm mostly going to be relaxing and continuing to get things in order from my crazy last month or so. Then I have the first rehearsal Sunday for a piece that I'm choreographing and hope to have performed in just two weeks. That's going to be a bit of an intense rehearsal period, I suspect...choreographic mind, don't fail me now!