Adventures in Refashioning

Creative Fabric Project

2012-02-02T20:41:00.000-05:00

Today I was in a mini fashion-show-of-a-kind for everyone who participated in a January workshop on creative uses of fabric and patternmaking, so I thought I'd share my final project here. Most of us spent the three-day workshop learning how to make a particular skirt from Tokomo Nakamichi's book Pattern Magic. Nakamichi's pattern-making process was really inspiring to me, particularly in the way that she encourages prototyping sculptural, 3D patterns with paper and then recutting the paper to form new pattern pieces. The skirt pattern we were working from used the same technique as Nakamichi used in this dress, the otoshiana (or "drop-hole").

source

So I set out to make a skirt with a drop-hole. I constructed it out of denim, since I needed something sturdy to hold the shape of the skirt and that was the heaviest material I had in my stash. While I've sewn clothing from patterns before, this was the first time that I ever drafted a pattern (given only the dimensions in a book), altered it to fit me, and turned it into a wearable garment. A really good learning experience, I think!

And then...well, the drop-hole in the skirt looked to me liked it needed to have something coming out of it. So I added a speaker cone in the hole, and a pocket to hold a little amplifier circuit, batteries, and an mp3 player. So now I have a skirt that can also play music. (A very, very heavy skirt, because of the weight of the speaker). A bit silly, perhaps, but it was a fun project!

Reflections on NaBloPoMo

2012-01-31T22:10:00.001-05:00

Source: Gekokujyo on Flickr

I wanted to take the last post of January to reflect a little on my experience participating in Blogher's National Blog Post Month. I published 27 posts this month, including this one, which is certainly a LOT more frequently than I've ever written in that time frame on this little blog. I feel it was a good exercise for me; I enjoy routines, and I find it's much easier for me to find time for things that are scheduled into my daily or weekly routines. I'm realizing this month the importance of establishing such routines, to make sure that I'm prioritizing the process of taking regular time to do things I find of value.

Something else that I think is nice about the frequent posting was getting a record of much of what I wore this month, and a little bit of a journal-like record of my month. I've often enjoyed going back in my blog archives, seeing how my style changes or remains constant and reminding myself of what I was doing during those months. I used to be a frequent journal-writer...between the time I was about 9 and 18 I wrote a page or two in a journal every night before bed. (In college, I chose to spend more of my precious bits of free time with friends and my boyfriend, rather than with my journal). There's still something that I find incredibly valuable personally about having any kind of record of what I was doing, thinking, and experiencing.

However, one thing that I felt was missing from this blog-writing marathon was the time to take a few days to develop well-articulated, more thoughtful posts. Given the generally limited amount of time every day that I choose to devote to my blogging activities, the post-per-day frequency generally meant that my posts were shorter and less carefully researched or structured. I didn't find the regular writing generally difficult (except the few days I wasn't available until late in the evening), but I also chose to write in ways that were easier to me. Perhaps I could have taken advantage of the NaBloPoMo discussion topics to spark some more variety in what I wrote about.

I'm not intending to join the NaBloPoMo group for February, but may pick it back up again at some point this year. It's been an interesting experience! For the time being, perhaps I'll try having a more-regular-though-not-daily posting schedule and see how that works with the other aspects of my life.

If you have a blog, do you post everyday/nearly everyday, on a less frequent schedule, or only sporadically? How come?

Another Installment of "Making Things Shorter"

2012-01-30T21:15:00.001-05:00

Yesterday's refashioned jean skirt wasn't the only item being refashioned...where "refashioned" seems to mean "hemmed significantly shorter." I'd thrifted this dress ages ago, loving the purple shade and the velvet, but didn't end up wearing it because the overall effect was just too much purple velvet for me, and a bit too shapeless. I haven't yet found the proportions that work really well for me with long skirts/dresses...I used to wear velvet hippie maxi skirts all the time in college, but haven't managed to integrate them into my graduate school style easily.

With a cut and re-hem, this is now a great winter dress! (With tights, of course. Wouldn't dare wear this out in Boston on a winter day without them. Maybe two pairs of tights, depending on how cold it was.)

Somehow the weekend went quickly and brought around Monday again! This should be a busy week; a couple of lab projects getting into full swing, along with a mini fashion show for the sewing class that I took over January. I'll have to share some pictures of the skirt I made, once I get them! Any exciting plans for anyone this week?

Simple Sunday Refashion

2012-01-29T20:07:00.005-05:00

I'd show you another blazer outfit today, but I barely went out of the house except to go to the gym...I did wear my tan corduroy blazer when I went to the supermarket, but didn't get a photo. I spent today primarily doing some cleaning and decluttering (the desk is...mostly...straightened up). I also dug into my refashioning bin. I really want to start actually refashioning the pieces that are worth my time and putting those that aren't into the Goodwill bin; there's only so much time that I have for projects!

One refashioning project I worked on today was this skirt. (I'm not entirely sure why I'd thrifted this in the first place.) I've been wanting a high-waisted jean skirt for the spring, and this had some potential...but what's going on with the awkward length and big slit up the front?

This wasn't a hard fix, though. I just cut it shorter, up to the level of the slit, and re-hemmed it. Now I have my new high-waisted skirt!

So it's time for spring to arrive now, right? Right?

Also, as I said earlier in the week...here's a linkup for anyone who's interested in sharing some of their favorite blazer outfits. Would love to see how you all have been styling your blazers!

Blazer Challenge #5 and FBFF on Trends

2012-01-28T12:53:00.000-05:00

(Well, I was going to post this yesterday. And then I was out for dinner with family, and it got very late...so. How's everyone's weekend going?)

Fashion Beauty Friend Friday is the creation of Katy of ModlyChic, and currently takes the form of a monthly set of questions for bloggers to explore on a particular Friday. If you're interested in others' answers, Katy's linkup can be found here

1. With Fashion week just around the corner, we are all beginning to focus on the upcoming trends for fall. But what about the trends hitting stores now? What are you coveting?

Hmm, I suppose all the stores are already into spring clothing, aren't they? Spring currently feels far away from the cold rainy January we're having (if it still mostly feels like fall and not winter, spring must still be months and months from now, right?). Right, spring trends. I'm looking forward to experimenting more with bold color-blocking, get out of my one-color-plus-neutral-colors tendencies:

Colorblocking by elnajay

Bold graphical prints are also supposed to be "trendy" this spring, which is great for me because I have a handful of beautiful print dresses, including two Catherine Ogust dresses that I absolutely love (though am surprised they haven't made it on the blog, yet)!

My dresses, both thrifted at different times and different places, are like this one on Ebay:

2. How do you incorporate new trends into your wardrobe?

Generally I bring in new trends via thrift stores...realistically, there are very, very few "new trends" these days that haven't been trendy at some point in the past as well (whether in the last few years or decades ago). So it's usually possible for me to find things at the thrift stores cheaply to try out a new trend and see how it works with my personal style. Sometimes items need a little updating (the print is trendy but the long length too dated), but there's generally inspiration for a low price!

3. What trend are you seeing and not loving?

I know that pastel colors come back every spring, but I also know they're not going to be finding too much of a home in my closet. Pale colors never look as good on me as saturated shades and darker colors.

Also, crop tops/bra tops are exceedingly far away from my style. I'm not even sure where one could wear such an outfit, except to the beach or at home...

4. Do you feel the pressure to constantly update your closet with the latest trends?

Not really. As someone who follows a number of fashion/style blogs, I'm certainly much more aware of trends than I used to be. Sometimes I get drawn to styles and start becoming more aware of them when I browse the thrift store, but I don't feel like I need to.

5. Where do you find inspiration that takes the trend and makes it accessible to you and your personal taste?

Mostly from blogs, but also from people I see around the city...I love looking at what everyone wears on the subway!

I also wanted to share my fifth blazer challenge outfit...this one paired together two of my favorite pieces, the dress and the velvet blazer. This is one blazer I didn't thrift recently...I got it at Forever 21 at least 6 or 7 years ago, and have worn it fairly regularly since. Velvet is definitely one of my favorite fabrics, especially this silky-soft one!

I'll post a linkup tomorrow for anyone who wants to share a favorite blazer outfit!

Blazer Challenge #4

2012-01-26T22:29:00.001-05:00

In searching for another blazer variation, I ended up with basically a copy of this one from last February, except with black patent-ish boots instead of black patent oxfords. It had to serve for a day at the lab, including this Creative Fabric class that I've been taking over January (at some point I'll have to show you all the sculptural skirt project I've been working on for that), and a belated holiday party dinner with my boyfriend's office. Also, I needed an outfit that could work with the rain/sleet mix that was predicted for the evening. This dress is one of my favorites, with its bold print and bright colors; always nice to liven up a gray day.

I seem to still be avoiding whatever cold my lab group is spreading around...but more sleep than normal is necessary, just in case!

Blazer Challenge #3

2012-01-25T22:40:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note tonight...going to try to get some sleep tonight, as I'm hoping not to come down with the cold that two of my officemates just got today.

For this third blazer outfit, I tried to keep a somewhat simple base to let the houndstooth blazer stay the focus. I think this is a blazer; it's lined, so I'm not sure if it's actually more of a jacket. Everything is thrifted except the shoes (Payless), jewelry (gifts), and tights.

Blazer Challenge #2

2012-01-24T22:30:00.001-05:00

Today was sunny, after a hard rain last night...and in the mid-50's! Definitely warm enough for me to promptly decide that it is now spring and I should wear bright colors accordingly. Therefore, I pulled out the bright green blazer. Since I'd gone the jeans route yesterday, today was time for a dress...I stayed fairly simple in color, since the blazer was enough boldness for one outfit (though I briefly debated wearing it with one of my crazy floral dresses).

With the warm and sunny weather, my mood was definitely lifted today. (I joke that as soon as I realize how much the weather affects my mood I'm going to get out of Boston and head straight to California...) Also, today was actually a really productive day of meetings at the Lab, which was encouraging. Multiple projects seem to be making a lot of progress in the planning stages(and I'm hopeful that this progress will stick for a while). I'm getting excited by ideas, hoping things can start being turned into concrete designs and programs and implementations and experiences soon...

Blazer Challenge #1

2012-01-23T22:20:00.000-05:00

All right, folks...I've decided to start a Blazer Challenge! The type of item in my closet that definitely gets the least used is my set of blazers/suit jackets...I counted this morning and I definitely have at least a dozen (all thrifted), most of which have (gasp) never been worn. Ridiculous. So this week is going to be a blazer-wearing week...let me see how many different ways I can come up with to actually wear my blazers! I'm going for at least 5 (workday) outfits, with bonus points if I find a couple of weekend blazer outfits too. To make this a bit trickier, I also have to wear a different blazer every day. Can't just stick with my one easy black blazer.

I think blazers are especially tricky for me because of how dressy they can make an outfit feel. I'm already often on the upper end of dressed-up at the Lab, and am careful how far I want to push that. (Though I've certainly developed my style a lot since the first year when my coworkers would ask if I had an interview any time I wore a skirt).

So I started off fairly easy today with this fitted navy blazer over jeans and a turtleneck. Not too fancy, but a nice touch to polish up a jeans-based outfit. However, I found that this one is a bit too tight across the shoulders...debating whether or not it should go back in my closet or in the Goodwill pile. I do like the way it looks, but comfort-wise this one didn't work as well as I'd have liked.

Also interesting to see how wavy/curly my hair gets if I air-dry it and then ignore it all day.

Anyone else interested in joining me for a challenge, break out your best blazer (or two or three)? If so, I can post a link roundup on Friday...

Outfit Log: Crazy Tights

2012-01-21T19:56:00.000-05:00

Another outfit from a few days ago...this was Wednesday's outfit for a day at the Lab. I didn't have any meetings or demos that day, so I decided to be a bit more boundary-pushing in my outfit (at least for me). I'd thrifted these tights last winter, but not gotten up the nerve to wear them until now. (Dress thrifted, shoes from Payless, earrings from Express, I think?)

Also, how's everyone's weekend going? It snowed a couple of inches today (the most it's snowed all winter, in an unseasonably warm year), so I've basically spent the day at home doing some cooking and a little bit of cleaning.

I've been trying to pare down my closet a bit more, but am currently pondering what to do with the category of things that I think are nice and that I want to keep, but that I haven't actually been wearing...Most of them are pieces I've thrifted but not figured out how to work into my regular style. I'm thinking I need to do a fashion challenge of some kind for myself to push me to actually wear these...a week figuring out outfits that incorporate blazers? A week of only wearing my least-worn dresses? A week where every day I have to wear something unworn from my closet? (I'll wait till warmer/drier weather to do something involving a variety of shoes, I think. Right now I'm stuck in the same couple of pairs of boots.) What would you all like to see?

Outfit Log: Green Velvet

2012-01-19T23:19:00.000-05:00

This was my outfit from Tuesday, when I wore another long-sleeve shirt that I made last weekend (for some reason, I was feeling compelled to make velvet shirts...I guess it really feels like winter these days, after a slow start). I started out with the shirt, pulled out the skirt in my closet that complemented the shade of green, and went from there. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the proportions here, though, especially as they look in the photographs. I generally prefer to tuck my shirt in when I'm wearing a fuller skirt, but this one bloused out in unflattering ways when I did. If the top were a bit longer, I'd wear a belt over it to define my waist. In general, I've found that I now almost always try to define my natural waist in the silhouette of my clothing. I've done that since I figured out it was more flattering on me, I guess. I think I need to now experiment more with variety on that theme, or at least being a bit more comfortable when an outfit (particularly a skirt-based outfit) varies from it.

Luckily, this shirt turned out to be incredibly warm and comfortable, especially because of the full cowl collar. I'm starting to think that keeping my upper chest and neck warm is a huge component to my feeling warm in general. (Does anyone else find that?) And being toasty warm all day is definitely high on my list of winter priorities!

This Post Not Brought to You by SOPA or PIPA

2012-01-18T23:54:00.001-05:00

Image source

I'm sure you've seen many sites on the Internet today, including Wikipedia and Google, going dark or posting banners to raise awareness of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). Both acts are intended to fight against piracy of copyrighted content, which is nominally a good thing. Currently, copyright holders have legal support for getting their copyrighted content taken down from a web site that is using it without permission. The proposed acts would extend this to make unauthorized use of copyrighted content on websites a crime, allowing the government to actually shut down a web site that is found to have unauthorized copyrighted content on it, force other websites not to link to that site, and force advertisers and sponsors to withhold money from that site. However, this ends up having much bigger repercussions than just being able to shut down foreign sites streaming pirated movies. It means that if I post a copyrighted video to Facebook or YouTube, the government would have the right to shut down Facebook or Youtube themselves.

Even the lolcat that I'm using to illustrate this post was originally created for icanhazcheesburger.com; according to their terms of service, copyright remains with the lolcat creator (though they have a license). By my using this picture, the proposed acts would allow my blog to be shut down. Actually, they mean that Blogger.com could be shut down, since I used that site to post copyrighted content.

More in-depth information available at these sites:
Google: More about SOPA and PIPA
Wikipedia: SOPA and PIPA - Learn more
Electronic Freedom Foundation: How PIPA and SOPA Violate White House Principles Supporting Free Speech and Innovation
Infographic: What is the Stop Online Piracy Act, and why should I care?

The amount of potential censorship that could result from these acts is quite contrary to the free and open dissemination of information that the Internet currently upholds in America. So go call your senator if you disagree, send a message using forms from several of these sites, or sign one of the petitions.

Short and Sweet...

2012-01-17T21:30:00.000-05:00

No post yesterday, as I had friends over for dinner and ended up with company until late. A lovely end to the day. I had the day off from the Lab, so spent much of it sporadically cleaning. I often invite people over for dinner partially to force me to do a nice thorough house-cleaning...

Actually, I had two other motivations for inviting friends over; first was my desire to see people and still actually take the holiday off. If I invite my coworkers over, I see them, without having to go into work on a holiday. Second was my long-standing desire to make this frozen Grand Marnier torte with dark chocolate crust and spiced cranberries. I've been wanting desperately to make this dessert since I saw it in December, but only recently obtained the necessary springform pan.

This was a bit involved to make, but very, very tasty (the spiced cranberry topping is AMAZING). So good times, good friends, good food. A nice way to spend the day!

Coral Velvet Shirt

2012-01-15T22:25:00.000-05:00

Here's the shirt that I mentioned yesterday...my Saturday afternoon/evening sewing project. The velvet was leftover from a skirt that I'd made with my mom shortly after I got my sewing machine several years ago. I had just enough to finish this shirt...well, at least by making the collar out of two pieces instead of one, and by ending up with 3/4 length sleeves instead of full long sleeves. And cutting the body pieces the wrong way in relation to the nap of the velvet...well, that wasn't so much for lack of fabric as by accident.

This pattern worked up fairly quickly, especially since I decided to try using pattern weights instead of pinning my pattern to the fabric. And when I say "pattern weights" I mean a few cans from the pantry cabinet used to hold the pattern down. I'm now quite a fan, especially as pinning pattern pieces on is one of my least favorite parts of sewing. Well, that and zippers...but at least I'm getting slowly better at zippers. This top has a zipper in the back, which went in fairly well.

I also hadn't realized that the sleeve would end up having quite so much gathering on it. I'd originally tried to skip the gathering step ("I can just pin the ease in!"), only to find there was quite a bit of extra fabric...so, gathering it was. I think this detail probably is accented by the heavyweight nature of the fabric, too...if I made this shirt again, I'd do it in a lighter knit. I might make this again, now that I've figured out how to do it (including the fold-down collar detail).

All in all, this shirt actually makes it into the "quite wearable" pile, I think. I wore it out today for dim sum brunch with a friend (so many amazing pork buns! Why have I not eaten in Boston's Chinatown before now?) and running some errands. Comfortable, warm, and doesn't obviously look like I made it? Works for me!

Sewing Project Sneak Peek

2012-01-14T22:22:00.000-05:00

I finally broke out the sewing machine today for a bit more complicated project... I was going through a box of random patterns that I'd stashed away because I wasn't interested in or didn't fit them, and found a few that were actually pretty nice. Since the winter weather has been making me realize I'd really use more long-sleeve shirts, this pattern was calling my name.

So here's just a little peek of what I made this evening...I'll show you the rest tomorrow, once I've styled it up and worn it out!

Hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend so far. Except for a run to the grocery store, we've mostly been at home today, cooking various things (including banana bread and some beef/vegetable stock). I've been thinking about doing some cleaning, but instead have been making messes with projects...

Finally Friday

2012-01-13T23:06:00.001-05:00

This morning started off gray and rainy again, so I decided to go for a comfortable outfit that feels less dressed up than it looks. This top (modified from an old shirt of my brother's) is incredibly soft and easy to wear, the black skirt is my go-to skirt, and the necklace is definitely one of my most-worn jewelry items. An easy outfit. (Though a little tight around the waist after going out for a nice dinner with family this evening...)

Not much to say today...glad it's the weekend, finally (and perhaps a long weekend? Not sure whether I'll go into the Lab on Monday or not). Anybody have any exciting weekend plans? I'm hoping to get some craft projects done, catch up on some sleep, possibly go to the aquarium while my discount tickets are still valid, otherwise maybe not leave the house much since it's supposed to get colder over the next couple of days. We'll see what other adventures I can find!

Outfit Log: Gray Day

2012-01-12T21:06:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning to dark gray skies and rain. I suppose this outfit came pretty quickly from that, with the bold red necklace to liven it up a little bit. Everything thrifted except for tights (and necklace via Ebay).

Overall it was a quiet, somewhat low-mood day... hasn't been a very productive week at the Lab, and I'm looking for exactly what to work on next. I often have a hard time not knowing what my next project will be, not having yet come up with an idea that drives me to work on it...I'm impatient and want the ideas to come immediately! Because of that, I was doing a lot of thinking today about the idea of having an artistic practice, and what that might mean for someone in my field of performance technologies. I think I still haven't figured out for myself exactly what to do when I'm running low on ideas, or don't have a particular large project to work on...if I were strictly a choreographer, I'd go into the studio for a bit every day and see what I came up with. If I were a writer, I'd do a lot of freewriting. But with software or technology, there's more of a need for me to have an idea before I can start experimenting...so what could that sort of artistic practice look like? I suspect it's time for me to do a lot of little projects. Temporarily forget about "having to have an idea no one's ever had before." Forget about "having to have a giant, exciting idea." Try many little things, give myself the permission to have some failed experiments, and see what ideas come out of that work...

Outfit Log: Lace Blouse and Wrap Dress

2012-01-11T23:02:00.000-05:00

I decided to dress up a bit more today, for a mid-week mood lift (though today wound up rather unproductive). I started with the silk lace-front blouse, then looked for what dress I could wear over it. The brown lace-up boots added to the somewhat Victorian feel of the outfit. (Everything is thrifted except earrings and tights).

I wore my hair down all day, then clipped it up when I got home and immediately forgot about it when I took these pictures. Yep.

Something I love about this black wrap dress is how versatile it is. The overall look can be changed quite a bit by what blouse I wear underneath. Other ways I've worn it on the blog:

January, 2011

April, 2010

March, 2010

Outfit Log: Print Skirt

2012-01-10T21:31:00.003-05:00

I feel like I've been living in black turtlenecks this winter, as well as these flat boots I got at the start of the fall. I don't wear this patterned skirt too often, but I always enjoy it when I do...comfortable, swingy, and fun.

Somewhat of a quiet day today at the Lab. Trying to hammer out details of a project I'm working on...seems like a number of the projects I'm involved in at the moment are right at the stage where we all don't quite know exactly what form they're going to take. Potentially an exciting stage, but also somewhat difficult to navigate through. It will be interesting to see where things go over this next semester, both for these projects and for the smaller ones I hope to start soon...

Outfit Log: Simple Stripes

2012-01-09T23:06:00.001-05:00

Somehow, Monday and the start of the week came quickly! A full day of meetings and talks at the Lab, an evening helping my mother assemble some furniture, and chillier weather today meant today's outfit had to be warm, simple, and comfortable. So just a simple outfit of jeans, long sweater, and loafers. Hair in a ponytail. Can I just take a minute to praise the effects of coconut oil on my hair? A couple of months ago I started using it as conditioner a few times a week, and it's amazing how silky it leaves my hair. I'd gone without it for a couple of weeks while out of town for the holidays, and noticed a huge difference. I'm definitely wearing my hair down or just pulled back much, much more often now, instead of pulling it up in a clip every single day.

On another note, I'm still amazed that it's January and we have no snow on the ground and have basically had no snow all year. We've also only had a couple of days dip down really freezing cold. If this is global warming...well, sometimes I'm a fan. I might be able to survive this winter after all...

Lazy Sunday

2012-01-08T19:14:00.005-05:00

It's been a nice lazy Sunday... my boyfriend K. and I had a friend over for a pancake brunch this morning, did the laundry, went to the gym, made pasta with meat sauce for dinner (one of my favorite comfort foods), and watched some television. Sometimes it's good to have a bit of time without doing too much...if I were a cat today, I'd look something like this:

Source: google.com via Nicole on Pinterest

We also got the opportunity to try out the culinary torch that K. got for the holidays on some homemade crème brûlée. K. makes amazing crème brûlée, starting with this vanilla custard recipe. Over the past several months, we'd tried a number of different ways to get the sugar crust on top without a torch; broiling just heated the custard and didn't caramelize the sugar, putting a bit of Gran Marnier on top and lighting that on fire wasn't hot enough to melt the sugar (though resulted in a nicely boozy dessert), and caramelizing the sugar in a pan beforehand made a crust that was 1/4" thick. It looks like a torch really is the best way to go! Unfortunately I didn't take pictures before the first one we made disappeared. Sidenote: this recipe also makes really, really good frozen custard. It's the same base, you just put it in an ice cream maker instead of baking it in ramekins. Amazingly decadent stuff...as might be expected from a recipe that solely consists of egg yolks, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla extract, and vanilla beans.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and don't have anything too stressful planned for the week ahead!

26 Things by 26

2012-01-07T23:22:00.002-05:00

In September, I started a list of 26 things I want to do before my 26th birthday near the end of March. In the spirit of having more adventures in the new year, I thought I'd share this here. The list is in no particular order (and stayed stuck at 17 or 18 things for a few months...surprising how hard it was to come up with things appropriate for the time range/seasons I'd be experiencing!). Many, many items involve food. Bold items have already been done. Italicized items are in progress.

Go apple picking. I did this last October out in Western Mass with the boyfriend and his sister. We were eating apples for weeks! (For future reference: a bushel is a LOT of apples. Also, fresh-picked apples can keep for weeks.)

Submit at least one project to the Make blog

See Sleep No More in NYC. I saw this site-specific show in Boston (three times), and it was amazing. Now it's in an even larger building in New York. Must see again!

Try aerial silks or trapeze.

Eat food from an ethnic cuisine I’ve never tried before (Afghan, Ethiopian?)

Go to the Brimfield Antiques Market A few friends and I went out to Brimfield, MA in September to see the giant show that comes to town a few times over the summer. Absolutely overwhelming and fascinating amount of stuff. I came home with a pendant and a set of Pyrex Friendship pattern mixing bowls that I was inexplicably drawn to. It became more explicable when I realized I'd pinned a picture of almost the exact set a few months previously:

Source: incolororder.blogspot.com via Elly on Pinterest

Learn Python.

Sew a dress from a 1950’s vintage pattern. I've used a few of my 1960's patterns, but not the 1950's ones.

Run a 10K race. I ran my first 10K in October, the Tufts Health Plan 10K for Women. When I registered for the race in the summer, I was looking forward to how easy it would be to run mid-October, when it had finally cooled down. That was...not a good day for the weather to randomly be 80 degrees. It was a tough run, but I did it!

See the glass flowers exhibit at the Harvard Natural History Museum.

Visit the Boston Aquarium. (I bought Living Social discount tickets, so this will happen by the end of the month.)

Learn how to make a cheesecake. Springform pan purchased with some holiday Amazon money, so hopefully this one will happen soon!

Finish a crocheted afghan. I made a crocheted zigzag blanket for my best friend's holiday present (which I probably should have gotten a picture of before I shipped it off to her.

Make cinnamon rolls from scratch. Preferably these cinnamon rolls

Go to at least 10 performances (theater/dance/music/etc.) (So far: Mary Zimmerman's amazing Candide, Vanessa Carlton at House of Blues, a school Chamber Music concert, Arabian Nights, La Cage Aux Folles, a Terry Riley concert)

Watch a Woody Allen movie. Surprisingly, I've never seen any.

Learn to make risotto.

Start some homemade vanilla extract.

Work through this set of iPhone programming examples.

Eat no refined sugar for a week. When I was a kid, my family didn't eat sugar...my sweet tooth kicked in as a teenager (and especially in college), but I'd like to see how I would feel if I totally avoided sugar for a bit.

Find (and wear in public) a great shade of lipstick.

Eat bagels in Brookline.

See at least 5 movies in the theater. I saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie and the Tintin movie over the holidays.

Complete NaBloPoMo.

Make this amazing frozen Gran Marnier torte with dark chocolate and cranberries. The springform pan is purchased...cranberries are in my refrigerator...this is happening soon!

Source: bonappetit.com via Elly on Pinterest

Spend a day without using the internet. (This one may be, perhaps, the hardest to complete. We'll see...)

What's on your list of adventures to try in the next few months?

Layering, Adulthood, and other Friday Musings

2012-01-06T23:40:00.001-05:00

Today's outfit shows off one of my winter-survival dressing techniques: take a dress. Then wear it over a turtleneck and fleece tights. It's like you have two outfits on!

Today was a pretty long day at the lab, including a couple of hours of giving demos of our group's work to a large number of sponsors from China. It made me wish I was one of the couple of folks in our group who speak Chinese, as it's always a bit harder to demo through interpreters. Though it seemed everyone was having a fair amount of difficulty trying to translate concepts like "14 independent channels of lighting" or "frequency domain analysis".

I then spent the evening going with my mother to Ikea to pick up a few things for her, and ended up getting a new little rug and lamp for by my bed to replace the tropical-floral-print ones that I got when I moved into my first college dorm room. Another goal of sorts for this year (formed when the boyfriend and I came back from visiting his family for the holidays) is Operation Make This Place Look Like Adults Live Here. Better cleaning and decluttering is a huge part of this. As is very slowly updating a handful of decor items. Anyone who considers themselves a "grown-up," do you have any suggestions for how to make someplace feel like an adult home rather than a dorm room? We don't have any posters or things like that, but the overall impression still seems young to me...

The Neverending Blanket Project

2012-01-05T22:17:00.003-05:00

I've decided that one of the crochet projects I most want to do this year is finishing this partly-made white blanket:

It looks so simple! It's done in one basic pattern stitch, one color of yarn...the yarn is soft and easy to work with, and the stitching moves along quickly. What this blanket is hiding is that it's fairly big (well, at least really wide). When I started making it, I made the first few rows too wide, and at that point I wasn't going to unravel it and start over...no, I was going to keep going until it was tall enough to become a blanket of balanced proportions! I was going to finish this blanket! So I kept at it here and there for...I think a few months, at least. Periodically picking it up and working a few more rows. Until I eventually got bored halfway through and stuck it in a bin with the rest of the yarn.

Now, the difficulty is that I'm pretty sure I stuck it in that bin about...10-12 years ago? When I went off to college, it stayed home (having not been touched for years). A couple of years ago, the bin of yarn and blanket ended up in my apartment. And now, having built my confidence by making an afghan for my best friend's holiday present, I want to tackle this one and get it crossed off my unfinished projects list once and for all! (Fortunately, my yarn tension appears to have remained fairly steady.) Hoping to show you the full blanket within the next month or two...

What's the longest time you've had a project only partly finished? Did you ever go back and complete it, or did you decide it wasn't worth your time?

I do believe it's winter, now...

2012-01-04T22:37:00.000-05:00

It may have taken until January for Boston to get really cold (well, a high of 26 degrees today, which is not as cold as it will get this winter, though significantly colder than December's upper-30's-mid-40's kind of weather), but now we're in what I'd legitimately label as winter. Not my favorite season, but I think this one will be short enough that I can manage.

Thus, today's weather necessitated pulling out my giant leopard-print coat. It's bulky and on the bold end for my taste, but also very warm!

Now where's that snow?

Fuzzy Crochet Cowl

2012-01-03T22:53:00.001-05:00

I'm finally back at home today, after spending the holidays out of town with my boyfriend's family. Now time for the cleaning/organizing/crafting to slowly begin! My major craft project today was finishing up the crocheted cowl scarf that I started over the holidays.

I used this cowl pattern and several skeins of fuzzy gray yarn from my giant freecycle stash. This worked up pretty easily, and I learned how to do a couple new stitches for it. Only problem is that the yarn sheds all over the place. My shirt now looks like I own a dog!

Craft Projects for the New Year

2012-01-02T19:30:00.001-05:00

Today I thought I'd share some of the craft projects that are inspiring me to make things in the next few months. I'm hoping to work on some stash-busting, going along with the decluttering resolution. Last year I at least made some progress with the stash-organizing...now to keep using what I've stockpiled!

I definitely want to make some progress with my stash of vintage patterns (mostly acquired via Ebay a couple of years ago). Working through a few of these would help with my fabric stash and my sewing skills...

Source: My Vintage Crafts

Also on my list are some lace-covered skirts and dresses. I have literally a dresser drawer full of lace and lacy pieces...thrifted curtains and tablecloths, bits of lace trim, etc. I've made one lace-covered skirt, but have materials for more!

Source: etsy.com via Elly on Pinterest

Source: outsapop.com via Elly on Pinterest

I'm also hoping to do some home-decor projects. Don't you love this paper-backed shelf?

Source: flickr.com via Elly on Pinterest

I've been wanting to re-cover some of the accent pillows on my couch and armchairs. I love the idea of using bold floral fabric like this:

Source: downandoutchic.blogspot.com via Elly on Pinterest

I also need to find some new crocheting projects to help me work through my giant yarn stash (mostly via Freecycle). I'd made a few holiday presents - an afghan for a friend and some baby hats for my boyfriend's young cousins - and am now just about done with a giant furry cowl scarf, looking for new patterns.

Maybe some of these Tea Cup Bunnies?

Source: littlegreen.typepad.com via Elly on Pinterest

Or a pullover?

Source: lionbrand.com via Elly on Pinterest

Anyone have any exciting crafting/DIY projects you're looking forward to tackling this year?

Entering the New Year

2012-01-01T22:30:00.002-05:00

Source: Uploaded by user via Kelley on Pinterest

Happy 2012, everyone!

While I don't think that January 1st is a magic date for world-changing, I do enjoy taking a bit of time to reflect on the year and think about ways in which I'd like to continue developing and improving my life over the next year. 2011 was a pretty busy year for me...I did a fair amount of traveling for work, moved into new stages in my graduate studies, and spent some nice times with friends and family. For 2012, I'd like to get some more progress in my work and more creativity and new things in my life overall...

So a few things I'm thinking about as we go into the New Year:

Overall: Do things to increase my sense of adventure and exploration, break out of my routines. Try to do at least one NEW THING every week. See more of Boston. Take day trips. Go to eat at new places, cook new recipes, take dance classes, go to shows and concerts and performances, try other classes and events and activities.

Work: Publish more papers, take and pass my general exams, finish a new project at least every week (hardware/software and/or performance. I love what I do!)

Home: I want to start decluttering on a regular basis. Try getting rid of A Thing a Day (an idea from the Unclutterer forums). Be more mindful of the things I bring into my home. Continue to make it a really happy place to live in.

Health: I want to keep up the exercise routine that I developed last year, getting some cardio work in at least 2-3 times per week. I'd also like to limit my white sugar intake...despite having been raised not eating sugar, my sweet tooth has been going overboard the last few years.

People: Make sure to take time for my family and boyfriend. Keep working actively to keep in touch with my college friends.

Blogging: I just signed up for NaBloPoMo, a month of posting every day! I'm hoping to use this as a push to get myself writing more here (and doing more craft projects/pushing my style further).

How about you all? Do you make New Year's resolutions or not? What are you hoping to do in this year to come?

Updates...

2011-12-09T09:30:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to pop my head in and reassure you all that I'm still here! The last couple of months, my spare time primarily went to directing a musical for the university's musical theater group...we did a production of Children of Eden, a show based on stories from Genesis retold to be about parent-child dynamics. I've done some directing/choreography of smaller pieces, but this was my first time directing a full-length musical (for which I also did almost all of the choreography). Amazingly fun, and kept me amazingly busy!

I wanted to share just a couple of pictures from our final dress rehearsal. At this point, the set wasn't finished (the beautiful, dangerous Tree of Knowledge made out of cut metal leaves was still bare) and we didn't have lighting cues... but it's a taste of the show.

Adam and Eve are banished from Eden.

Noah and his family on the Ark

At the end, the cast appeals to the audience to find their own Eden.

What else has been going on? I've been working on the proposal for my Ph.D. general exams, due next week; basically you pick three areas that you want to study (that overlap to form the area of your planned dissertation research), read a lot in all of those fields, and then be tested (in written and oral exams) on your ability to think through problems in those areas and how those areas can connect. I'll be taking these exams in June.

I've been doing some cooking and baking and holding brunch parties...the thrifted waffle maker has been getting some good use. Also, fresh cranberries in waffles are amazing. The boyfriend and I had also been talking for a while about getting a bread maker, but weren't yet willing to pay the fairly steep prices for one. However, we found a machine in a local thrift store, with an "as is" tag on it... since the tag read in full "$2, as is," we had to get it and at least give it at try!

Result: bread! I can now make INFINITE BREAD with basically no effort! I've since tried a buttermilk dill loaf, which was really nice. Raisin bread will likely be the next attempt.

And now we're already coming up on the holidays much, much faster than I realize. I can't believe it's December -- the sun seems to be setting so much earlier than I remember happening in other years. The dark and cold have really hit me harder than normally; with it getting dark by 4:30, I have no idea when it's actually time to go to sleep. Strange! Anyone else looking forward to the return of more light and more warmth, or are you excited for snowstorms? (or both?)

Visual FBFF: Refashioning!

2011-09-23T09:10:00.003-04:00

In alternate weeks for Fashion Beauty Friend Friday, we're doing visually-based posts hosted by a variety of FBFF members. I'm thrilled to be the host of today's roundup of refashioning posts!

As I told the group, a refashioned item of clothing is a piece of clothing that you've transformed in some way... whether that's by changing the color, changing the fit, using the fabric to come up with something new, adding details, removing details, whatever you can think of.

I decided to do a new quick refashion for today, starting with this thrifted wrap dress. I do like wrap dresses, and liked the soft, stretchy fabric of this one. But the sleeves were way too long, the hem hit at mid-calf (not my favorite length), and there was just too much of that bold print.

So, with the help of a pair of scissors to chop the hem and the sleeves, hemming the raw edges, and <20 minutes, I had a new dress that worked much better for me. (I could have probably even gotten away without hemming, if I'd made the cutting line a little neater.)

The pink shoes are possibly a little over the top. But I felt like something fun (and they're plastic, so will be okay if it does end up raining today...) I've got work, and then am meeting up with the boyfriend for dinner and a show tonight. Then onto a busy weekend!

Take a look at everyone else's refashions! And thanks to Katy for letting me host today!

Studded Skirt Refashion

2011-09-09T16:43:00.000-04:00

My latest refashion started out with this:

I've never really thought of "punk" details (studs, safety pins, etc.) as part of my potential style options. But...for some reason, when I came across this studded belt at the dollar-a-pound, all I could think of was how fun it would be to take the studs off the belt and use them for a clothing refashion. I used a pair of pliers to straighten the prongs of the studs so I could pull them out of the belt, leaving me with a pile of studs.

At first I was thinking about using a few on the collar of a shirt, but this thrifted men's shirt decided it wanted to be made into a skirt. (I'd grabbed it for the boyfriend, not noticing the big logo on the front...)

So I cut across the shirt from armpit to armpit, and folded over the top of the piece and sewed it with enough space to form a casing for elastic. This seems to be my recipe these days for making a simple gathered skirt from a shirt.

Then it was time to pull out the studs and decorate! I chose to put studs along the curved hem of the piece, as well as covering up the buttons on the front. These particular studs are made of very soft metal, so I basically was able to bend the prongs into place with my bare hands.

I like how the finished piece is still fairly delicate, even with the studs...and I've still got more studs left over from that belt (which are mostly going into doing something on the collar left over from the shirt...), and another set from a second studded belt I'd found the same day. Now, what else can I add studs to?

I wore this to the Lab last week, and thought it worked quite well. Though perhaps I'd prefer wearing it on a day when I wouldn't just be sitting in front of my computer...I could definitely feel the studs pressing into the back of my legs by the end of the day.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! I went to the Brimfield Antiques Show on Saturday, and brunch with my group at my adviser's house on Sunday...so a good weekend, but over very quickly...

FBFF: Looking Forward to Fall

2011-09-02T15:18:00.000-04:00

This week, Fashion Beauty Friend Friday is looking at our favorite trends for fall. It's about the right time to do that...there's a little bit of a chill in the air (it's only supposed to be around 70 degrees today!), the first few leaves are changing colors already, school's about to start back up for the semester... oh yes, it's September already, somehow... so I'd better start looking forward to fall, as that's what I'm about to get!

1) Velvet

I'm really glad that velvet seems to be back in for the fall, because it's always been one of my favorite fabrics! I love things with softness and richness and interesting textures, and velvet definitely fits those categories. Soon it'll be time to pull out my long velvet skirts, blazers, and dresses...

Velvet by elnajay

2) Ankle Boots

I haven't always been a fan of ankle boots on myself, though I like the way they look on others. Something about the line stopping at the ankle can make my proportions a bit too choppy. However, I actually just yesterday found a pair of awesome black studded ankle boots at the thrift store, and my friend convinced me to get them. I'll have to debut those later in the season!

Fall Ankle Boots by elnajay

3) Orange

This one surprises me, as I used to hate orange clothing. But it's been growing on me quite a lot...I have a ton of photos on Pinterest with orange accents, and I recently thrifted a lovely dark orange handbag that's going to get a lot of use this fall.

Orange for Fall by elnajay

Capes

There's something so cozy about a cape! This is one trend I want to be on the lookout for at the thrift stores.

Capes by elnajay

5) Leopard Print

I'm gradually getting used to wearing animal prints...they can definitely put some serious style into an outfit! But it's hard for me to work them in in a really sophisticated way. I've got a skirt that works, and a belt. The faux fur leopard-print coat...well, I've only worn that a couple of times, despite having seen a million beautiful pictures of bloggers in leopard-print coats.

Leopard Print by elnajay featuring a waist belt

I'm also interested to see how many "fall trends" are really things that we just saw for other seasons as well. (I had polka dots and lace on my spring trends list...apparently both are still quite big for fall!)

Hope everyone's got plans for a lovely, restful weekend...especially if you get a three-day one! I'll mostly be doing things with the boyfriend and various members of his family. Should be a nice time!

eShakti: My Honest Review

2011-09-01T19:35:00.002-04:00

Have you heard about eShakti yet? (You may have, as they've worked with a variety of different bloggers.) This clothing company, based in India, offers lovely clothing in sizes from 0 to 26W at relatively reasonable prices (dresses are normally around $50). The biggest feature of eShakti, though, is that they will customize a piece of clothing to your measurements for only a few dollars more. Even if you don't choose full custom measurements, you give them your bra size so they can fit you better. Additionally, you can pick a piece and customize other details -- hem length, sleeves, neckline, etc. I'd been seeing a lot about eShakti over the past year or so, and have spent quite a bit of time window-shopping their beautiful dresses. However, the prices were a little steep for me to take a risk on ordering something online, where I don't really have a sense of how well it will fit. So when eShakti contacted me a couple of weeks ago to ask if I'd be interested in receiving a piece to try out and review, I jumped at the chance to see if their pieces were as great in person as they looked on the internet! Disclaimer: though the dress was given to me by eShakti, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I set out to choose a dress from eShakti...challenging, because of all the great options! Some of the ones I was considering:

Floral embroidered color block dress

Corset style embellished sundress

Ruffle front cotton knit dress

I eventually decided on this dress.

Floral hem cotton poplin dress

In less than a week after I sent in my choice of dress and measurements, the dress was custom-constructed for me and mailed from India to Massachusetts. This is their standard shipping time, according to their website. That's really impressive speed, as far as I'm concerned! (Sidenote: while I'm aware that most of the clothing/other things I own originated in other countries, it's remarkable to focus on the journey of how this one piece traveled so far to get to me). The dress was shipped in a tiny package...no frills, no extra packaging. I'm not thrilled with how wrinkled it got in shipping, but most of that pressed out fairly quickly. So here it is!

Lots of terrific things about this dress. It's lovely and comfortable, and will make a good addition to my wardrobe...a good color to wear in basically every season, I think, but especially good for spring and fall transitions. The embroidery is awesome in real life. The back has a great V in a style I adore...(I think I hadn't even noticed the back when I picked this out!) The piece seems quite well-constructed as well. Stitching seems sturdy and clean, and the pattern has nice little details in construction. There are only two details I'm not thrilled with. 1) The little pleats in the front of the bust got kind of wrinkled in shipping, and I haven't figured out how to properly press them. So they're not as neat as in the picture. 2) I, personally, tend to sweat a lot (TMI?) and am terrified of wet armpit stains. The cotton sateen in this color does show sweat pretty quickly, though it also dried out rapidly once I got to my air-conditioned lab.

And how about that custom-fitting process? Does it work? I'd say so! This dress does fit me quite well; perhaps a hair loose in the bodice and waist, though that's compensated for by the fabric ties around the waist. Even though I was going to have the dress customized to my measurements, I still picked a silhouette and cut that I thought would work fairly well for my body. Perhaps they could have made an empire waist dress work on me (that cut usually doesn't!), but I didn't want to risk it.

Dress: c/o eShakti. Shoes: Nordstrom, thrifted. Necklace: ebay junk jewelry lot. Earrings: gift. Bag, Nine West, thrifted.

So thanks, eShakti! Have any of you shopped with them? What's your experience been like?

Post-Hurricane Pattern Mixing

2011-08-30T10:15:00.002-04:00

Well, Irene has come and gone and fortunately seems to have left fairly little damage or trouble in her wake around these parts. We had a lot of rain and wind...some tree branches and entire trees down here and there, but I didn't lose power or anything. Basically a quiet stormy weekend, ideal for the making and consuming of large quantities of eggplant Parmesan and zucchini bread. (Doesn't everyone else cook ridiculous amounts of food when stuck at home?)

Yesterday's outfit started with a blue floral scarf from a swap with the lovely Michelle. I'd been saving this scarf intending to use it as a faux turban (like in this tutorial from Keiko Lynn), but every time I tried that, it didn't quite look right...I suspect it's because I don't have bangs, which makes the wrap around the head look quite different. But I started this morning planning out with the white shirt and some gray shorts to keep a neutral palette to try pulling off the headscarf. When headscarf again didn't look good, I scrapped that outfit idea. Didn't feel like the gray shorts without the scarf, so I ended up grabbing my leopard-print skirt off a nearby pile of clothing and swapping that out. But the waistline didn't look quite right, so...Eureka! I could use the scarf as a belt! Sometimes it amazes me how complicated/random the process of putting together an outfit can be.

I still want to try the scarf as turban idea, though. I'm also resisting cutting myself some bangs (which I haven't had since I was probably 10). Though I did add some layers into my hair yesterday morning...I think it works (or at least I think it doesn't look like I randomly cut pieces of my hair shorter, which was basically the technique).

My camera's been having trouble over the last few days, which seems to be attributable to the memory card. Thus the limited pictures of this outfit. Too bad, as I really liked it... more pattern mixing than I normally do, comfortable, and fun.

On another note, I can't believe it's already nearly the end of August. Orientation has started here at school for the class of 2015 (feeling older? Check!), and classes will start next week. I'll probably sit in on a couple of classes, though with my Ph.D. program I don't have any required classes. Mostly starting to prepare for my general exams. Anyone have terrific plans for the remainder of the summer? Things to make sure I do before it's fall already?

FFB: Dressing to Please

2011-08-24T12:00:00.001-04:00

This month's Feminist Fashion Bloggers themed post is on fashion, feminism, and relationships. A topic that I found especially interesting is whether it's a problem for a feminist to let her style or clothing choices be affected by her boyfriend's/husband's preferences. Here I'm thinking more about long-term relationships, once you're no longer necessarily "dressing to impress." Most of us change some aspects of how we dress to please other people and/or to be "appropriate" for particular situations...and yet, I get uncomfortable at the idea of dressing not for my personal aesthetic/desires (unconsciously shaped, of course, by my culture, my work environment, the events of a particular day, my finances, my friends, etc.), but for a man's preferences. Even when that man is my dear boyfriend of almost seven years. (I haven't really introduced him here...let's call him K.)

See, while K. likes most of what I wear, he has a somewhat different sense of what he thinks I look best in than I do. To illustrate, I managed to convince him to style an outfit for me according to some of his preferences. Granted, he was limited by a) the return of summer weather, and b) the clothing and accessories that I own, which are items that I have primarily obtained for myself because I liked them. But he did come up with an outfit for me, which I wore to work last week:

A little insight into K.'s thought process... He definitely wanted me to wear a dress. This particular dress is one that I'd gotten from my mother and had been about to give away during my last closet cleaning, since it's quite a bit shorter than what I'm normally comfortable wearing, but he had convinced me it was fine and I should hold onto it. So...out came the dress. Silver jewelry to match. Yes, I should wear heels...but not too high. And I should absolutely wear my hair down, the way he likes it.

I know there are people who wear significantly shorter hemlines on a regular basis...I see them all over town. So why do I feel so uncomfortable with this dress? I suspect it's exactly because on my body, I think a short dress is supposed to be somewhat provocative...intended for the male gaze. Which, well, is why I ended up wearing it that day: because it pleased the male gaze of my partner.

Certainly, there are clothes that most men stereotypically just "don't understand." The Man Repeller blog is all about these sorts of fashionable-yet-not-"attractive clothes...the blog defines a Man Repeller as "outfitting oneself in a sartorially offensive way that will result in repelling members of the opposite sex. Such garments include but are not limited to harem pants, boyfriend jeans, overalls (see: human repelling), shoulder pads, full length jumpsuits, jewelry that resembles violent weaponry and clogs." (I admit to have returned a couple of jumpsuits to the thrift store due to skeptical expressions from K...he always gets quite disappointed when something that he thought was a cute dress turns out to be a playsuit).

So is there anything problematic with dressing occasionally in a way that makes your other half happy? Generally, I feel my style choices should be primarily about my own self-expression. I want to wear things that make me feel comfortable, satisfied, and very much my own self. On the other hand, sometimes it makes me happy when K. likes what I'm wearing... is that anti-feminist? Is there a difference between dressing to please men in general vs. dressing to please one man in particular? And are either of those too layered with patriarchal issues of control? Does dressing for a man automatically bring up the "male gaze"? Wikipedia has an interesting definition of the "male gaze": "In feminist theory, the male gaze expresses an asymmetric (unequal) power relationship, between viewer and viewed, gazer and gazed, i.e. man imposes his unwanted (objectifying) gaze upon woman. Second Wave feminists argue that whether or not women welcome the gaze, they might merely be conforming to the hegemonic norms established to benefit the interests of men — thus underscoring the power of the male gaze to reduce a person (man or woman) to an object (see also exhibitionism)." Is the gaze still objectifying if it is actually wanted, in the context of a romantic relationship? Or is any kind of appreciation for a woman's appearance automatically objectifying and therefore confirming a male-dominant power structure?

More problematically for me, though, is how dressing for the satisfaction of one's partner can be linked to some behaviors that are quite troubling for me, as a feminist. Abusive men can use clothing "suggestions" as control, such as forcing their partner to dress less "provocatively" in order to keep other men from looking at her. Clearly that's on the far end of a continuum of behavior...but I'm not sure I'm comfortable even with the situation the author of a recent Daily Mail article describes. She appreciates and enjoys her husband's transformation of her wardrobe (getting rid of maxi dresses, UGG boots, short skirts, sequin tops, anything "too short, too low, or too tight," and anything else he felt didn't suit her) and his strong "alpha male" opinions on what she wears. "Within minutes of waking, I’m expected to be dressed: smart Levis or well-cut trousers, crisp ironed shirt, buffed and shiny heels, even my hair should be glossy and styled, and I, of course, should be fully made-up — all before breakfast." She discusses how she thinks this has been terrific for her and that she's content with her choice. However, she also says things like "Some people might think I’m foolish for agreeing to this, but when you’re entering into a new relationship, you find yourself going to surprising lengths to fit in. I wanted to be accepted and I wanted to be desired."

I also want to mention the fact that these issues seem to be more...well, more of a "feminist" issue when we're talking about a woman changing what she wears to please her male partner. Is it a problem if a man changes aspects of his wardrobe for his girlfriend/wife? I feel like that's more stereotypically acceptable; the woman trying to convince her boyfriend to throw out his old hole-filled concert t-shirt, or to try a new haircut. Or what about one woman in a lesbian partnership wearing things her partner thinks she looks good in?

How much do you let a partner's/boyfriend's/girlfriend's preferences shape what you wear (if at all)? Are you comfortable with that?

If you're interested to see how other FFB members explored this topic, a roundup of the others' posts is on the group blog.

FBFF: Following Your Dreams

2011-08-19T12:31:00.002-04:00

This week's Fashion Beauty Friend Friday questions are about our dream jobs...Katy at was inspired by some recent posts about bloggers who are quitting their day jobs to focus on what they love (including Sal at Already Pretty). I'd been thinking a lot about this myself after reading a recent New York Times article on how the recession has given many people the opportunity to pursue their "dream jobs," only to find that the reality is much tougher than the dream. If you're interested in seeing what others have to say (I know I am!), the linkup is here. (EDIT: sorry for the broken link! Fixed now.)

1. Fess up - if you could do anything professionally what would it be?

My dream job is to start my own theater production company, with a focus on creating advanced technology for the theater. This company would both consult for other theater companies' productions (doing things like designing and implementing the technological aspects of productions) and allow us to produce some of our own work. We'd likely also create some interactive installations, as well as performances. As part of this work, I'd be not only writing software and developing hardware for performance contexts, but also doing theatrical design, running a theater company, and even choreographing some of my own pieces.

2. What draws you to this?

This sort of job would combine so many of the things I love to do, and challenge all of my abilities. (In a way, this is like the work I am doing right now.) I can be creative, scientific, analytical, intuitive, imaginative, logical...I solve problems in many different domains. I've always been a jack-of-many-trades, and would love to have work that challenges me on so many levels.

In everything I do (both technical and artistic), one of my favorite aspects is progressing from the hint of an idea to something actualized, made into a reality. For an example, my process of costume design progresses from initial ideas (perhaps images that echo the desired tone of the costumes and characters), to sketches and plans, to actual, physical pieces that come into being onstage. The same is true for choreographing a dance, writing a piece of software, etc. You start with a vision, and then you get to make it into something that actually exists.

For me, the performing arts have a strong sense of community and collaboration. I saw a piece last semester by the director Peter Brook. The three actors in the piece had been working with Brook for years -- one of them since the 1970's. I think it would be AMAZINGLY awesome to have creative collaborations for over 40 years with someone you enjoy working with!

Along those lines, it'd be amazing to have a lot of freedom over the people I work with and the projects I work on.

I can be a bit obsessive with work. I sometimes find the idea attractive of working at a "job" 9-5 and then having the rest of the day to drop that and do whatever else I want. But really, I'd rather work that I eat, sleep, breathe. The work that is consuming and compelling, that fills my head with visions as I'm going to bed and new ideas when I wake up. That periodically becomes my life for stretches of time. (Granted, I do want other things in my life along with work (family, friends, and whatnot), so there will have to be some kind of balance...)

And frankly, I love the theater. I love the creation of worlds, the development of new realities and experiences. The telling of stories, the possibility to really affect people and make them see their world in a new way. I want to be part of the theater's magic-making.

3. When did you first start dreaming about this ideal?

Me calibrating a giant musical instrument/set piece from my group's latest opera. I didn't design the set piece, but I did do the interaction design...

4. What's holding you back from going all in?

post today on why flamenco will never be her day job

5. Sometimes the first step is the hardest... what's one step you can take now on the way to realizing your dream?

An installation that I'd done with a colleague: 400 vellum butterflies suspended above a hallway on campus.

Lace on a Rainy Day

2011-08-15T22:10:00.000-04:00

Today's forecast was basically "rain all day, and a bit colder out," so I started out this outfit knowing I wanted to wear tights of some kind (easier with my rainboots than socks...) I finally worked up the courage to try out this pair of lace tights that I'd gotten a couple of months ago from Express (big sale + gift certificate = comfortable getting a couple of boundary-pushing things). I kept the rest of my outfit pretty low-key and dressy to make the tights the one edgy bit, and I think I like the result!

Also, does anyone else wear rain boots to work on stormy days but then pack another pair of shoes to wear for the rest of the day? That's what I tend to do, since I don't like wearing my heavy clunky boots all day, but have very few pairs of shoes that keep my feet dry when walking through puddles.

White shirt: thrifted. Camisole and tights: Express. Shoes: Skirt: J. Jill (purchased forever ago...this used to be one of my favorite skirts, until it got too small. I gave it to my mom for a while, but snagged it back during her last closet cleaning. Turns out, now that I wear skirts at my waist rather than right above my hips, this fits again!)

My clothing for the last few days has started to edge toward fall. It's still been fairly warm in Boston, but there's just a bit of a nip in the air, a hint that the heat we had in July is not infinite; that someday (soonish!) fall will be coming. I'm not sure I'm ready for fall. There hasn't been much going on this summer at the lab...mostly I've been reading a lot of research papers and starting to prepare for my general exams. So the fact that the summer is nearly over, that classes start up again in only three weeks, comes as a bit of a surprise. Mind you, it's still mostly been over 80 degrees here...there's just the first signs that someday it will be cold again. Is it still summer where you are?

Happy Birthday to Oona!

2011-08-06T18:29:00.000-04:00

So Oona of oonaballoona from kalkatroona is having a virtual birthday party today, inviting guests in their handmade finery...I thought it'd be a great occasion to finally refashion a fancy frock I've had waiting in my pile. (If you haven't stopped by Oona's neck of the woods, you should. It's full of pretty things and humor and sewing inspiration.)

My dress for today's virtual shindig started out as this Steve McClintock number from (I'm fairly sure) the 1980's that I'd thrifted a while ago. Let's see...giant puffy sleeves, turquoise brocade, front peplum...check, check, and check. I actually saw another one of these dresses in another thrift store recently, and the design used to have one of those giant wrap collars and a bow in the middle as well. That much was at least removed before it got to me. But still...not quite a fabulous party dress for this era yet. (no, I'm not just going to wear it like this...)

But the body fit me quite well, I liked the color, and it had a terrific openwork detail in the back. So time for a refashion! I hacked off the sleeves next to the seam.

I then turned under the edges and finished them off, and cut about ten inches off the bottom to rehem.

And here's a dress hopefully fit for the party!

So happy birthday, Oona! And hope everyone else is having a good weekend as well! I've got a couple more posts I need to get up soon...updates on, say, where I've been while scarce around the internets the last couple of weeks (vacationing on a lake in Wisconsin with the boyfriend and his family. I learned to waterski!), and some of what I've been wearing...

IFB Links à la Mode Weekly Roundup

2011-07-22T14:00:00.000-04:00

This week, I was honored to have my FFB post on the ethics of thrift shopping be selected for inclusion in IFB's Links à la Mode post. This was my first time being picked for this roundup, so I'm quite excited about it! Check out the other links...some interesting posts, here.

From this week's editor,Nubia of NubiasNonsense:
Style is what you make it. We are all different and beautiful in our own ways. Many of us have different techniques to display how we want to present ourselves. Some people are very "structured" "prim and proper" and live by a color scheme while others go wild with mixing patterns and have the "unpolished" and "don't care" look. It's all about where you get your inspiration from and your personality in general.
Here are some classic quotes on style:
"Fashion fades, style is eternal." -YSL

"Fashion is not something that exist only in dresses. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening." -Coco Chanel

"'Style' is an expression of individualism mixed with charisma. Fashion is something that comes after style." -John Fairchild

Links à la Mode: July 21st

a tout le monde: When You Smile, I Smile

Adventures in Refashioning: FFB: Fashion, Social Class, and the Ethics of Thrifting

Angela Osborn: Considering Color

Beyond Fabric: Pea(k)ocking

Blogging for Bucks: Why I Don’t Just Blog “For Me”

Castle Fashion: Fashion Blogging…In This Economy?

fashioned by love: Seaside glamour

Fish Monkey’s Writing Stuff: Project Runway returns

Forever Amber: Blogging for Bucks

i am sugar-stoned.: What’s Inside My 11’ Cambridge Satchel

Independent Fashion Bloggers: A Guide to Using Your DSLR for Bloggers

Leia’s Delights: Sunday Musings: Why Outfit Posts?

Kirstin Marie: DIY Floral Mary Janes

LAW OF FASHION: i wore this…to work [cocktail dress + marni coat]

Lifestyles of the Thrifty and Shameless: Can You Handle Me the Way I’m Are?

Lily Pepper: Figure Templates

{morbid glamour}: One Shot: Olsen Twins

QQueen of Hearts: Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty

Sugar and Spice: Style Inspiration from Kate Middleton’s shoe rack

The Fashion Igloo: Geishas like Sushi (Part 1)

TheStylishButterfly: How Becky Bloomwood’s Wardrobe ended up on my side bar

SPONSOR:
Bikini Sale at Shopbop: Parker bikinis, Tori Praver, Salt Swimwear, OndadeMar, Naelie, Zimmerman, Juicy Couture, Rosa Cha, Vix, Tyler Rose, & Brette Sandler

PLEASE READ IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE
If you would like to submit your link for next week’s Links à la Mode, please register first, then post your links HERE.

Like Lemonade on a Hot Day

2011-07-19T17:30:00.000-04:00

It's been hot here in Boston for the last couple of weeks, necessitating pulling out the summer dresses! This outfit started out with the shoes...I'd done something yesterday that strained a muscle in my foot a bit, so flat shoes were the order of the day. Then I realized they matched the lemon-print dress I've been meaning to wear, I found a top to go under it to cover up a bit more for my cold office (yes, I generally end up wearing a sweater all day anyway), and here's the result:

As I'd mentioned last week, I got this dress off Ebay after seeing the fabulous Annebeth wearing it. (Interestingly, this was the first time I've seen something in another blog and really wanted that specific piece, rather than just taking inspiration from the overall style/certain details of the outfit.) During my closet organization, I realized how much my taste in summer dresses has really swung towards big, bold prints, and this piece fit in very well with that. Overall, I'm thrilled with the piece! Just the thing for another hot day.

I had to guess on my size, and the one I ordered ended up being just a little too big, since it's got a stretch panel in the back(but was cheaper and easier to find than the size down). Currently, I've got a couple of safety pins taking in 3/4 inch or so on the top of each side...if that seems to fit well by the end of the day, I'll sew new side seams there.

Things stay busy...work's picking up at the Lab, had a busy weekend of cleaning and having friends over for a big waffle brunch, still trying to get things organized around the house (this week's goal is the fabric shelf!), and I'm getting ready for a vacation soon...looking forward to a bit of a breather!

FFB: Fashion, Social Class, and the Ethics of Thrifting

2011-07-13T11:12:00.002-04:00

For this month's Feminist Fashion Bloggers post, the theme is the intersection of fashion, feminism, and social class. If you're interested, check out the roundup of other posts on this topic. Today, I wanted to bring up a couple of related ethical issues about thrift shopping. You all know my love of thrift stores...the vast majority of my wardrobe is now thrifted (mostly at the dollar-a-pound store). Thrift stores allow me to experiment with my clothing and style choices, let me have a wardrobe I would not have bought new on a grad student budget, make me feel good about being frugal, and satisfy my treasure-hunter mentality. In general, it seems that thrift shopping (at thrift stores, charity shops, garage sales, etc.) is no longer stigmatized...thrift stores are not just frequented by people who can't afford higher-priced clothing and goods, but also by the hipster college students, the environmentalists, the Ebay resellers, and the bargain hunters. However, as the upper/middle classes descend on thrift stores in search of that $3 designer dress, are they (am I) taking away things from those who truly can't afford to shop elsewhere?

Image credit get directly down

This questioning was sparked by a couple of comments I'd read while idly scanning the Yelp reviews for my local Goodwill store. Along a number of comments praising things people had found at the store, or complaining about the raised prices ("$4.99 for a shirt?"), there were a couple of comments that stopped me in my tracks. One reviewer said, "This concludes my last attempt at a Goodwill Store. I love thrift shopping, but this just isn't for me. I can't shop alongside people who really are scraping by and need Goodwill to help them out. I feel so guilty." Another agreed: "[I've] found nice Armani X, Sigrid Olsen, Ann Taylor, Forth & Towne...Prepare to feel like a tool when you take these gems away from folks that deserve a break." In my place of privilege as a grad student (but one given a research assistant stipend) raised in an upper-middle-class household, my fashion consumption at thrift stores extends my fashion options, but isn't a complete necessity. Am I depriving someone who really couldn't afford a pretty dress for work otherwise? I generally don't think I'm doing something wrong in buying something for very cheap, or at least hope my money helps support those less fortunate than I am...but there are still some interesting class-related aspects to thrift-store shopping.

Certainly, more people are needing or choosing to shop at thrift stores these days. A New York Times article from 2008 discussed some of the ways the social classes of thrift store shoppers has been changing due to the recession:

"The Salvation Army said its average thrift-store shopper had traditionally been upper or middle class. Many came to hunt for designer clothing at rock-bottom prices...But thrift store operators say the demographics are changing. People who once shopped daily or multiple times a week for vintage treasures are making fewer trips. For some, thrift-store shopping is no longer a hobby but a necessity."

Additionally, there appears to be a difference in what people in different economic classes buy at thrift stores. A study from BYU looked at thrifting in relationship to class and economic situations...they found that people in the lower and middle classes tended to thrift for things like clothing and electronics, while the upper classes were more likely to thrift for antiques and trinkets. One of the authors of that study (quoted here) said that "...middle class shoppers have begun to see thrift stores as a place to pick up items they need at a reduced price…[during] hard economic times and still maintain their current social standing."

Photo of the dollar-a-pound store I shop at from vanberto

It's also interesting to look at thrift store shopping, especially for clothing, in relationship to feminism. There are a number of good aspects: often more sustainable/environmentally friendly to buy secondhand goods, not directly supporting sweatshop practices, frequently supporting charities, etc. However, thrift stores and their low prices also give me the opportunity to buy into fashion trends, to have an overflowing closet, to be able to wear a variety of "new-to-me" clothing on a fairly regular basis. In this way, am I participating in the gendered expectations that women "need to be" constantly consuming fashion? Even if most items in my closet cost me less than a dollar or two - even if I may not be consuming clothing in the marketed stores, or for the prices that I'm being told I need to spend, I'm still participating in the cycle of "more is better" when it comes to clothing. This is also something where I'm class-privileged -- at thrift stores, I'm able to afford to buy more than just the few pieces of clothing I really need. Am I thus raising the standards and helping make it seem "necessary" for women of all social classes to own a lot of clothing if they want to engage in fashion/style practices?

On another note, something I came across while reading articles for this post -- it appears the stigma of thrift store shopping = poor has still stuck around for longer than I'd thought. Did you know that a government investigation in 2009 found that credit card companies were tracking whether you used your credit card at a thrift store or other bargain store? Or that some companies were using that information to raise your interest rates or even lower your credit score if they saw you shopping at thrift stores? How's that for stereotyping rather than rewarding people for being frugal? (More from an NBC report) (EDIT: there was a law put in place in 2009 that makes these kinds of actions by credit card companies illegal, so hopefully that's limited some of this...)

Anyway. A lot of thoughts... these aspects won't keep me out of my thrift stores, but I've been starting to evaluate my thrifted purchases much more strictly to make sure I really need/want particular pieces, and not let the low prices convince me into buying things that won't have a valued place in my closet or home. Additionally, as I've been doing more home-cleaning, I've been attempting to donate things I'm not using enough in the hope that they'll find a home with someone who will really use them (or at least make some money for charities). What do you all think? Do you have other insights/ideas about class, feminism, and thrift-store fashion?

Sunny yellow days

2011-07-12T19:30:00.002-04:00

Today is this month's Everybody Everywear day! This time around, the unifying feature is the color yellow..

This outfit therefore got carefully constructed to highlight my closet's favorite yellow pieces. By which I mean, I have one piece of clothing that is actually yellow. This is it. And it's not the easiest shirt for me to style thanks to its low neckline, high waist-thingie, long drape, and fabric that basically shows the lines of anything underneath it. I've recently been a fan of white and yellow, so that color combination prevailed.

Okay, it's not exactly true that I don't have any other yellow clothing...a lemon-print dress arrived a couple of days ago from Ebay, a piece from the UK that I'd been stalking since I saw it here on Annebeth. This was really the only time I've ever seen a piece on another blogger and liked it so much that I wanted that particular item... funny! But I'd had to guess quite a bit on the size (UK sizing plus apparently running small), so I need to alter it a tiny bit before I can take it out for a wearing.

(This one's not a great photo, but it's in front of a yellow wall, so I had to put it in! Everything...everywhere... is yellow?)

Hope everyone is having a good week so far! Things are still fairly quiet at the lab this summer... I'm just reading a bunch of research papers, figuring out what directions I want to take my work next. Potentially in the next couple of days I may have a meeting with my adviser to talk about next steps, which will hopefully help with those directions. But all else is fairly quiet! Trying to stay cool in the ridiculous heat we've been having recently. Cleaning up and organizing things a lot at home, cooking a lot of vegetables thanks to the farm share, and watching tv shows with the boyfriend (anyone else a fan of Star Trek: Enterprise? I know, I know, I'm a nerd...but we'd already finished the original series and got hooked on this one!) Summer going well for you folks out in internet-land?

FBFF: Go-To

2011-07-01T22:24:00.000-04:00

Today, for Fashion Beauty Friend Friday, we're talking about our "outfit formula," that personal set of pieces we put together frequently/easily. Basically, what do we wear as our personal uniforms. See what the other participants have to say over at Modly Chic's roundup.

1. What’s your go-to outfit formula? What I wore today unintentionally epitomizes my current summer outfit formula: a bold dress (sometimes with a wide belt at the waist, sometimes not), a cardigan for the Lab where it's still ridiculously cold, and a pair of wedges. Usually this pair of wedges, actually. And a pair of earrings, perhaps a necklace. In winter, I'd say my formula involves a top and skirt, a belt, two pairs of heavy tights, and boots. Something like this:

2. How did you come about this formula?
For me, a dress has become a really easy choice. It's one piece...no tricky matching tops and bottoms. In summer, I like to take the opportunity to wear bold prints and colors. And I've got a couple of pairs of comfortable wear-with-anything sandals that only get more popular as I wear them more without hurting my feet.

3. Do you have different formulas for different occasions in your
life?
You know, I don't know that I have enough different occasions that recur often enough to develop formulas. I have a set of regular dresses that swing a bit more "dressy," like the one I wore today (went out to dinner with the boyfriend after work tonight). I suppose weekends are a bit of a different occasion; I'll often end up in jeans (or capris) and a fitted knit shirt on the weekends.

4. Has it morphed over the years?
My outfit formulas have definitely changed over the last few years. In college, my winter go-to outfit consisted of a long velvet skirt, a tank top, and some sort of open-front shirt. In summer, it was generally a tank top and jean shorts or a skirt. When I started at the Lab and moved to the city, I stopped wearing tank tops so much (seemed to be drawing too much creepy attention on the street), and basically retreated into a uniform of jeans, sneakers, and tops that were well-not-quite-t-shirts-but-still-fitted-knit-shirts. When I made the active decision to start paying much more attention to my personal style, I shifted toward dresses, heels, and hourglass silhouettes.

5. Which other blogger’s outfit formula would you like to swipe?
Keiko Lynn always wears such lovely outfits...delicate dresses, terrific accessories, and some bold color combinations like this one.

So glad it's finally Friday...really looking forward to this long weekend and the Boston fireworks spectacular on Monday night! (Also: since when is it July already?!?) Hope everyone has nice weekend plans...

A shoe refashion

2011-06-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

This weekend, I refashioned another pair of shoes. I started with some cream pumps that I'd gotten at the dollar-a-pound quite a while ago...I'd worn them once or twice, but cream wasn't proving a really wearable shoe color for me. Also, as they were fairly old, they were already scuffed and had some dark smudges on them. Worthy of a renovation!

So I grabbed some nail polish...

Covered the trim and soles with masking tape, and painted away with the tiny nail polish brush:

After some detail work and a couple of coats in a few places, I had pink shoes with cream trim:

I wore them yesterday with a black-and-white floral dress for a bold bit of color (no pictures, sorry!). Definitely a lot of fun!

And, for the IFB Challenge #2, a brief haiku:

Refashioning time:
Old cream shoes plus nail polish...
Presto! New pink heels!

What else? I've been keeping up with my goals for Me-Made June of wearing at least one refashioned or self-made piece every day, but I haven't really been documenting the process this time around. I'm also going through a major decluttering phase...am completely hooked on decluttering and organization and home design blogs right now! However, this desire to clean up and streamline my closet and my apartment doesn't play so well with my pack-rat/magpie/lover of collecting beautiful things tendencies. For example, I read the forum posts on Unclutterer about things people are giving away/trashing/donating/getting out of their homes, and I find myself both inspired to clean out more myself and wishing that I lived near their thrift store so I could pick myself up some of those rejected items!

So, last weekend, I worked on cleaning out the wardrobe where I store my dresses (of which I have a ridiculous number...my style has swung very heavily to thrifted dresses in the past few years). I wanted it to look like this, with a small assortment of my favorite carefully-chosen pieces:

However, while my wardrobe looked like that, my bed, covered in the rest of the contents of the wardrobe, looked like this:

Reorganized and after some dresses that just don't fit me/look good on me/end up getting worn were given to Goodwill, the closet looked like this (a major improvement from before):

And here's what I'm wearing today, now that it's finally back to summer in Boston (after a week of rain, clouds, and temperatures in the 60s)...cleaning out my closet has reminded me of some pieces that will work well this season!

Dress: thrifted. Tank top: Express. Shoes: Nordstrom, thrifted. Earrings: Me-made.

Hope everyone is having a good last week of June! Can't believe it's almost July...

Summer Adventures

2011-06-14T18:13:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! Hope your summer has been going well, and that it feels like summer where you are. We had a couple of days over 90 degrees last week, and since then it's been back to 60 and raining. I've been keeping fairly busy both with work and with the rest of life. Since last time I posted (wow, almost a month ago?)...

I went to Oslo, Norway for a conference where I was presenting a paper with a friend from the Lab. Oslo is a really lovely city. I was there for a few days at the end of May, which was perfect...it'd started to get around 60 degrees during the day, the sun stayed up forever (we're talking still light at 10:30PM), and spring flowers were everywhere. I spent most of the time at the conference at the University of Oslo, but also had some time to wander around the city, see the amazing Vigeland Sculpture Park, get a tour of the City Hall, and see the evening changing of the flags by the palace.

On the first day I was in Oslo, I also met up with the amazing Anika! She's every bit as awesome and sweet as she seems on her blog (and, by the way, if you haven't visited her blog yet, you should go over there right now. I'll wait...) She showed me around some of Oslo and we had coffee over at the Opera House (the iceberg-like structure rising out of the water behind us). Thanks, Anika, for being such a great host and welcoming me to Norway!

A mural in the main room of the Oslo City Hall

I didn't know very much about Norway before the trip, so was really interesting to learn about the country's history and culture. It's only been about the last hundred years that Norway has been a completely independent country...before that, it was in "unions" with Sweden for most of the 19th century, and with Denmark for almost 500 years before that. So the Norwegians eventually gain their independence, and have to figure out/define for themselves what it means to be "Norwegian." Norway was also apparently a fairly poor country until the discovery of oil resources around 1970. So all of that contributes to some very interesting art and design throughout the city.

One of the many, many sculptures in the Vigeland Sculpture Park

This was definitely a great trip, and makes me want to do a lot more travel! (Though at least it's satisfied my resolution for this year of finding some way to make it back to Europe.)

I also started the Me-Made-June challenge, pledging to wear at least one handmade or refashioned garment/piece of jewelry every day in May. I'll post some pictures of a handful of outfits soon... I've been doing well with the challenge, and there have only been a couple of days when my handmade jewelry was the only me-made piece in the outfit.

And a few other random things...
--I've been running a bunch. A week ago, I ran over five miles for the first time, going all the way into Boston to see a friend's art piece at a festival. The run wasn't all in one stretch, but had a couple of breaks (including the stop in a CVS trying to find someone who knew where the street I was looking for might be...)
--A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get a tremendous haul of yarn from someone on Freecyle who no longer needed it. (We're talking several large bags and boxes worth!) Now back to some serious crocheting/knitting!
--I've also been preparing for my best friend's wedding (!!!) this weekend. I'm one of her bridesmaids and just found out yesterday she'd like me to give a toast at the reception! (now have to figure out what to say...anyone have experience with this?) I'm really happy for her and looking forward to the wedding!
--I've been spending a fair amount of time with friends, including hosting a couple of fun dinner/cooking parties. The last one was cheese-themed (so...much...cheese), and tonight we're having a foods-from-childhood dinner.

How has summer been treating you?

Dress Me Up Like a Doll - republished!

2011-05-16T08:19:00.000-04:00

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...)

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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

2011-05-14T23:05:00.000-04:00

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

2011-05-11T10:03:00.004-04:00

(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

2011-05-10T19:47:00.001-04:00

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

2011-04-29T08:44:00.000-04:00

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

2011-04-26T12:03:00.000-04:00

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

2011-04-22T18:19:00.000-04:00

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!

Quick and Easy Refashioning

2011-04-19T13:23:00.001-04:00

After a month and a half of being completely busy (opera rehearsals and performances in Boston, flying out to Chicago the day after we struck the show, opera rehearsals and performances in Chicago, getting back just in time for the start of the lab's sponsor week, immediately followed by a set of concerts and lectures my group was involved in), Sunday was my first completely free day in a long time! And as Monday was Patriot's Day, I had the day off then as well. I think I'm not entirely sure what to do with free time, now. I did some apartment-cleaning, watched the Boston Marathon on television, and ran errands.

I also finally started tackling the pile of clothing in the corner of the apartment that's waiting to be refashioned. Someday I'll post pictures of that pile... (It is, in fact, a large pile.) First, I made two summer skirts from old men's dress shirts that used to be my brother's. They were both quite nice shirts, with light fabric and asymmetrical blue stripes.

I just cut a line straight across each shirt under the arms, then folded down the top of that cut piece, and sewed it in place with a channel big enough to thread some ribbon or bias tape through. Stuck a safety pin through one end of a piece of ribbon/bias tape, fed it through the channel, and tied the ends at the center where the shirt buttons meet.

And presto, two new summer skirts! The ribbon can be tied into a bow and worn out front, or tucked inside the skirt. (both of these could use a good ironing, I think...)

But today, it's cold and rainy and not nearly the summer weather I was imagining with those skirts. So I'm wearing another simple refashion in the form of a gray jersey tunic top that used to be a men's shirt. I just cut off about 6" off the end of each sleeve and rehemmed the edges...belted, I think it can pass for intentionally loose rather than just too big. For me, I've noticed that sleeve length is the major thing that signals whether a garment looks like it fits me or not. If the sleeves are too long, I look like a kid wearing my mom's clothing. So a simple sleeve trim here makes this comfortable top wearable!

Gray shirt: Express Men's from the brother, refashioned. Skirt: INC, thrifted. Boots, vintage via Ebay. Necklace, estate sale. Earrings, handmade. Belt, thrifted. Tights, LOFT.

So this outfit's comfortable and warm, which suits today's weather. Can't wait for the next warm and sunny days later this week! Is it spring yet where you are?

FFB: Finance and the Fashion Blogger

2011-04-13T11:27:00.000-04:00

Image from peoples50million

The Feminist Fashion Bloggers have now shifted to monthly posts... this month's topic is "Finance, Feminism and the Fashion Blogger," in honor of yesterday, April 12, being Equal Pay Day. This day symbolizes how far women would have to work into 2011 to earn the amount of money that men made in 2010. Clearly, money - earning money and spending money - can be a feminist topic. But how does it relate to fashion? I wanted to look at this topic by focusing on the often-gendered value judgements that are made about shopping and consumption: specifically, the fact that buying/consuming items coded as female is often seen as more negative/unnecessary than buying items coded as male or unisex. I've been thinking a lot recently about why there is still something of a stigma associated with owning a lot of clothes or shoes or beauty products, much more so than for owning, say, many video games or tech gadgets or DVDs.

For an example, let's take shoes. Stereotypically (and I know this is not true of all women!), women love buying shoes, own many pairs of shoes, see tiny differences between pairs of shoes, and spend money "frivolously" on additional unnecessary shoes. Women "waste" money on expensive, fancy, uncomfortable shoes.

Beautiful Shoes by elnajay

So why is there a perceived difference (practically a moral difference!) between a woman who buys a lot of shoes and a man who buys a lot of tech products? Or a woman who buys a lot of tech products? An argument can be made that the difference between shoes/fashion items/beauty products versus other items of consumption is in their inherent utility or lack thereof (in fact, I've had this discussion with my boyfriend). Getting a new computer, or iPhone, or the other latest tech device provides you with additional utility. It's faster, lighter, more powerful than your old devices. It provides you with functionality that you did not have before. If I already have a pair of shoes that are in good shape and comfortable, I'm probably not buying a new pair of shoes because those shoes are in better condition, allow me to walk faster, or are more comfortable than the old shoes. Perhaps they can be worn with different outfits, or are appropriate for different occasions. But more likely, my new pair of shoes is primarily useful for aesthetic reasons... they may not fill a particular need besides my desire to wear beautiful and satisfying shoes.

But why do we argue that purchasing for aesthetic reasons is less justifiable than purchasing for other kinds of needs? What's wrong with buying shoes just because they're beautiful? I suspect that part of this is because a focus on aesthetics, particularly the aesthetics of the body, is placed strongly in the domain of the female. And as a female-coded focus, it is given less weight than a "male" focus on utility or speed or power.

As an artist, I believe that aesthetics are incredibly valuable, including the aesthetics of self-presentation. Consequently, I'm lucky enough to have an overflowing closet and more clothing than I know what to do with. The great majority of what I wear has been thrifted at the dollar-a-pound...so my overall cost for this full closet is actually quite low (generally less than a dollar per shirt, skirt, or dress...perhaps a dollar or two per pair of shoes...maybe four or five dollars for a coat or pair of boots or other particularly heavy item.) But I'm aware that it may look like I spend a lot of money on clothing and shoes. And I feel like this is supposed to be bad. I'm careful to mention on occasion how much of my outfit is thrifted, lest people see me as irresponsible with money, buying all those fashion-related things. Have any of the rest of you experienced this? As a feminist, I would like to choose to spend some money on "female" things without guilt...

Thoughts? Other examples where consumption of items traditionally coded as "masculine" or "feminine" is viewed positively or negatively?

This post is part of the Feminist Fashion Bloggers group. To see other posts on this topic, check out the roundup on the group blog. If you're interested, you should join us!

FBFF: Spring Trends

2011-04-08T14:28:00.005-04:00

This week's Fashion Beauty Friend Friday post is all about my favorite season to dress for -- spring! I am so, so glad that spring is finally getting closer. (Perhaps it's even here? Trees are starting to bud, the first flowers are starting to bloom...and I'm in Chicago right now with the opera, which is even colder than Boston.)

(Also, I just started playing around with Polyvore to make some inspiration boards for this post...very useful!)

What are the top 5 spring trends that you are looking forward to seeing/sporting this season?

1) Floral prints. Because really, what better way to say "It's spring!" then to wear your own flower garden around? Spring's really the only time of year when half of my patterned skirts are appropriate.

Spring Florals by elnajay

2) Wedge sandals. I'm very glad these are still in style this year...much easier for me to wear around all day than heels.

Wedge Sandals by elnajay featuring leather wedge sandals

3) Layered neutrals. I've never owned a lot of neutral-colored pieces (besides gray and black with the occasional white skirt), but would like to try this look out. I keep seeing it being done quite well. It's sometimes difficult for me to find neutrals that work well with my skin tone (can't figure out if I need pink undertones in the neutrals or yellow undertones), but I'd love to work out how to do that. Perhaps this should be the focus of my next dollar-a-pound thrifting trip!

Neutrals by elnajay featuring a one shoulder ruffle dress

4) Polka dots. Perpetually in style, I think. And I'm getting more and more attached to the look, which I'd found too bold for me a couple of years ago.

Polka Dots by elnajay featuring high heel shoes

5) Lace. I perpetually love lace details and delicate looks, though sometimes find lace tricky for me to wear without it coming off as too sensual.

Lace by elnajay featuring lace earrings

For other people's spring trend favorites, check out the list on Modly Chic!

On a somewhat-unrelated note, posting has been quite infrequent due to traveling with the opera to Chicago! We've had two performances so far...another one tonight, and then the last on Sunday. Things have been going relatively smoothly, which is good, and it seems to be well-received, here. I'd never spent much time in the city (realistically, most of my prior experience with Chicago involved sprinting from one side of O'Hare International Airport to another), so I've been enjoying finding my way around the city, getting to know what's here. The architecture is terrific, and I keep being amazed at the scale of everything here. I'm from Denver originally, so I should be used to big Midwestern/Western cities, but Chicago keeps surprising me with just how large everything is. I've been walking all over the place, which did result in a sore foot and my being limited to tennis shoes most of the trip. Here are a couple of pictures from my trip so far...

And on another unrelated note...this is my 100th post on Adventures in Refashioning! Pretty exciting for me...hadn't necessarily expected where I'd go with this little blog. I've been doing some thinking in the last couple of weeks about how I want to develop and continue in a variety of directions, which I think may end up with a regular posting schedule...particular topics on particular days, for example. There are so many kinds of things I want to fit in here that I could use some more structure!

Hope everyone is having a terrific Friday!

FFB: The 1950's Are Back?

2011-03-23T16:37:00.001-04:00

For this week's Feminist Fashion Bloggers post, we again had free reign to write on whatever topics interested us. I was having a hard time figuring out what I wanted to write about, but then I took a good look at the outfit I'm wearing today...full skirt, belt, Mary Jane style wedges. Quite 1950's inspired, I think. I'm personally really excited that 1950's shapes seem to have come back in fashion over the last couple of years. As a woman with some curves, I find that the hourglass look works quite well on me...certainly far better than a couple of years ago's prevailing trend of empire-waisted loose-bottomed shirts. One of the less flattering things on me: tops and dresses with a line that serves to neatly cut my chest in two, horizontally. The Quadra-Boob is not a great look on me.

And you all know I've grown to love a nipped waist, a full skirt, and heels.

I enjoy how these items of clothing make me feel feminine, emphasize my shape in ways I enjoy, and are generally aesthetically appealing to me. (My collection of vintage 1950's sewing patterns may also speak to my enthusiasm for that era's style.)

But should I be worried about the repercussions of glamorizing the "feminine" clothing from an era where woman had a whole lot fewer rights than they do now? Northwest Is Best had an interesting FFB post a couple of weeks ago, Why 1940s Style Is Not a Fashion Trend arguing that it degrades the sacrifices made by women in the 1940's to adopt the "1940's Look" as a trendy style. Similarly, in the 1950's, women again lost the wartime freedom of working in factories, and moved toward being pretty suburban housewives. This 2005 post by LadyKalessia makes a few other interesting points about adopting 1950's styles today, including the danger of women trying to achieve the hourglass shape and tiny waist through diet rather than what used to be standard undergarments.

Now in 2011, I can easily choose to wear a skirt and blouse; my mother had no other option in elementary school and middle school (and it was BIG NEWS in her high school when the girls started to be allowed to wear jeans). I tend to think that my ability to choose pants or a full skirt makes the skirt a perfectly acceptable option, but I realize there's a lot of historical weight associated with the roles of women back when particular "vintage" styles were first in vogue.

What do you think? Is it possible to reclaim the 1950's silhouette and style without always referencing the housewife-in-the-kitchen stereotype? Does it matter whether one only adopts certain elements of a vintage style, or are any identifiable 1950's elements referents to that stereotype? Is reproduction vintage clothing any different than true vintage items? Or are we far enough away from the time period that the clothing can be considered for its aesthetics and style, rather than for its history and prior cultural context?

Outfit details: Red sweater, Forever21. Plaid skirt, thrifted. Belt, from a thrifted dress. Tights, LOFT. Shoes, Kenneth Cole Reaction, thrifted.

For other FFB posts today, check out the collection on the new Feminist Fashion Bloggers group blog. If you're interested, you should join us! We're only doing the weekly posts through the end of the month, but plan to continue some sort of coordinated posting monthly.

Fashion and Feminism: My Clothing, My Choice

2011-03-16T08:30:00.000-04:00

This post is part of a group event for the Feminist Fashion Bloggers network. This week, our posts are looking at the question "How do you express your feminism in the way you dress?" In thinking about my own answer, I realized that it's important to give a bit of my sartorial backstory...I've written some on here about the intersection of my stereotypically feminine clothing choices with my job in a male-dominated industry, but that hasn't always been my focus.

One thing I've always believed: part of being an independent, powerful, strong girl/woman is that you get to choose what you want to wear. You, not the fashion magazines or your friends or your family or men or your environment. (Granted, one's fashion choices are generally influenced by culture in many subtle and obvious ways, even just in terms of what kinds of styles you think are available to you/send the sorts of messages you want to send with your clothing/etc. But that's a subject for another time.) I grew up with this message and have generally followed it and worn exactly what I wanted.

I'm probably around 6 or 7 years old in this picture. This was my first pair of glasses...I wanted the largest frames I could, and picked them out myself. I also had a general philosophy of style of wearing bright colors, all the time. Also, I specifically attempted to pick pants and shirts that were "clashing" colors. A few potentially important notes here...first, my parents really did let me choose my own clothing. Second, I was homeschooled (until college) and thus didn't run into the sort of criticism of my clothing choices that I suspect I might have in a public school system. Third, my mother is also a feminist, and raised me to believe I could do anything and would not be limited by my gender or traditional gender roles.

However, there was a bit of a catch in my interpretations of feminist fashion theory. I grew up hearing and believing that a strong woman didn't need to wear makeup or heels or dresses, that she didn't need to doll herself up to please others, that she didn't need to worry about what she wears, that she didn't need to wear explicitly gendered clothing, that she was naturally beautiful and wonderful exactly the way she was. Her mind was much more important than her body. But what I internalized, in a way, was that a girl/woman SHOULDN'T wear makeup or heels or dresses, as she was beautiful exactly the way she was. She SHOULDN'T fall into dominant theories of what it means to be beautiful. She SHOULDN'T wear things that were too "girly" or "sexy." She SHOULDN'T care too much about what she wears, as what she thinks about is really what's important.

Additionally, many of the more stereotypically "pretty" items of clothing are not so practical for a young girl -- you can't easily climb trees in pretty skirts! I remember a pair of shoes I got when I was around 9 or 10. My father had taken me to get new shoes, and I picked out a pair of lace-up black suede ankle boots with embroidered flowers on the sides. The flowers had lights in the center that lit up when I walked. I thought they were the most wonderful, beautiful shoes. When we got home, my mother was quite unhappy with this choice -- they were too expensive for kid's shoes, they didn't have enough arch support for my growing feet, they just weren't practical. I kept the shoes anyway, and wore them as long as I could and loved them. But the message remained, that the sheer whimsical, fun beauty of those shoes shouldn't outweigh more practical matters.

This changed a bit as I went through my "high school" years and entered college. I still was wearing exactly what I wanted to wear, I think, but now that included more skirts and the occasional dress. In college, my personal style was mostly identifiable by its commitment to soft textures like velvet and velour. Also, by fuzzy socks. My standard outfit was either a top and jeans or a camisole and one of my several long velvet skirts:

Now, I've really been developing my personal style over the last year or so, which is part of why Adventures in Refashioning has shifted into a style blog as well as crafting/sewing/refashioning. With my position in the world of computer science and technology, I've gone from trying to blend in with jeans and casual shirts to embracing a love for pretty, delicate clothing, trying to show others that one can work in a male-heavy field and still be feminine. As I've mentioned, I use my work clothing partially to break stereotypes, to show that one can be a woman, even a feminine woman, and still succeed in male-oriented fields.

But more importantly, I'm realizing that it's okay for me to want to dress in ways that make me feel happy, whether that involves beautiful fabrics and textures, jeans and a t-shirt, or killer high boots. I feel like I'm reclaiming my identity as a feminist by accepting that I can still be strong, and valuable, and be interested in traditionally "female" things like personal style. Being interested in clothing is not anti-feminist, nor is my wanting to wear clothing that is highly gendered or skews to particular cultural trends, as long as that is my own choice. If I want to wear makeup, that's fine too. And heels. If I don't want to wear any of those things, that should also be fine. In a way, my clothing makes a feminist statement in the ways that I have separated it from my feminism...a feminist can wear whatever she wants. I've been consciously thinking about this for a while now. Almost a year ago, I wrote in a post touching on these issues:
"We are entitled to our own choices. If I WANT to put on beautiful shoes or a velvet skirt or a dress that makes me feel like a million dollars, if I want to take joy in my self-presentation and my creative exploration of clothing and my finding beautiful garments at thrift stores...then those are choices that are perfectly good too."

I still believe a strong, powerful, feminist woman can wear whatever she wants.

More posts examining this question are linked at Mrs. Bossa's blog.

FBFF: Balancing the world on our shoulders

2011-03-11T18:21:00.000-05:00

Today's Fashion Beauty Friend Friday questions are all about balance...how do we make time for our blogs in our busy lives?

1. When it comes to prioritizing your life, in what place does blogging fall?
It's a fun hobby, and it's increasing in priority as I feel like I'm becoming a bit more of a part of some blogging communities. However, my priorities are that blogging comes (should come) after my work; after taking time for my family, friends, and relationship; after getting enough sleep and exercise (or at least as much sleep as I can). When I started style blogging, I also tried to be a part of many other sites like Chictopia and Weardrobe, but decided that the extra time needed to also keep those sites updated was spreading myself too thin. I'd rather focus on reading other great blogs and writing my own.

2. We all wish we had more free time to dedicate to blogging and all it entails. What are your tricks for taking advantage of the time you do have to be as productive as possible?
I'm not sure I have any great tricks. Mostly starting to write posts when I have a few minutes of free time. When I can plan posts ahead, that helps a bit...particularly posts that are not primarily about an outfit of the day. I don't necessarily schedule posts for automatic publication later, but will begin a post one day that I intend to finish and put up the next.

3. Have you discovered any short-cuts that makes blogging easier or more time efficient?
I've been practicing with GIMP (open-source photo editing software) so that I can quickly crop my photos and color balance as necessary. If I can, having someone else take my outfit photos...always much quicker and the photos often come out better than when I do self-photography!

4. Do you have an editorial calendar or something similar that helps you plan ahead?
Not yet, but I think that's a really great idea. Now that I've been incorporating posts like FBFF questions on some Fridays and Feminist Fashion Blogger posts on Wednesdays this month, I'm starting to see the benefits of having regularly scheduled features.

5. If time wasn’t an issue what you would be doing on your blog/for your blog that you aren’t doing now?
I'd establish a more regular posting schedule, maybe 3-4 times per week. I'd also spend a lot more time reading and commenting on others' blogs. I have so many great things in my Google Reader, and some weeks many of those go unread...I'd love to have more time to comment and get to know other bloggers better. I'd also love to regularly do thoughtful posts on fashion-related topics other than my personal style. I've been really enjoying the feminism posts, but they take me a lot more time to put together! It'd also be great to regularly post outfits that I photograph within a day or two of wearing them. (The photos in this post are another outfit from two weeks ago...)

Outfit details: Cardigan, skirt, belt, and ankle boots, thrifted. Camisole, Express. Necklace, handmade. I wore this outfit a couple of weeks ago to work, as it's still pretty cold out here...I really loved the soft layers.

Hope everyone has some nice weekend plans! I will be in the theater basically all weekend. Load-in finishes today, and we begin our rehearsals with the cast tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully between now and then we're able to pull together the rest of the technical details...does this show really open in a week?

FFB Roundup

2011-03-10T09:57:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to share with you some of the other great posts by FFB members yesterday! Have a look...there's a lot to think about.

Alexa Wasielewski: Some Feminists Need to Spartan Up!

Aly en France: My Body Entirely

EBSnare [The Magic Square Foundation]: Body Policing/Fashion/Feminism

Fishmonkey: The Man Repeller and The Male Gaze

Interrobangs Anonymous: Millie’s Take on Modesty

Jean of all Trades: Qiu Jin: Modern China's First Feminist

Knitting up the ravelled sleeve of care: Knitting a Better World

Mrs Bossa: In Bad Company: Girl Tribes

Oranges and Apples: Some thoughts on Marthettes, blogging about ‘feminine’ stuff and perfection

Sidewalk Chic: Reclaiming leather skirts and other ‘provocative’ clothing

What Are Years? FFB Post #2: My thoughts on the CBC documentary, The F-Word

FFB: Soldering in Heels

2011-03-09T20:12:00.001-05:00

For today's post for the Feminist Fashion Blogger Network, we were given free reign to write about any topic we wanted. There's been some terrific discussion going on through the message boards, and lots of fascinating ideas. In particular, I was interested by the discussion about the phrase "I'm a feminist, but/and..." (That is, "I'm a feminist, but I do these things which are not generally associated with stereotypical feminism") So I wanted to write about being a feminist but/and performing a variety of behaviors that are often labeled "women's" behaviors, such as sewing, cooking, caring about fashion/style, dressing in a "feminine" manner, and even blogging about all of those things. In particular, I wanted to look at this situation through the lens of my personal identity versus my professional identity.

Here's me, in a fairly typical outfit I wore to work sometime last week:

As I've mentioned before here, I have very consciously attempted to separate this blog from my professional/work identity. As a technologist, I'm not yet comfortable with being judged for my hobbies by those who work with me/work in my field or related fields. (And, of course, I'm making the loaded assumption that other technologists might make a negative judgment of me for these activities!) And yet, I'm a strong supporter of increasing the number of women in technological fields, and making it more comfortable for women to work in and study technology. Part of this, I think, is the ability for women to dress in stereotypically feminine clothing if they choose. I've been making a concerted effort to more frequently wear skirts, dresses, heels, boots, jewelry...not to get stuck in the unisex jeans and shirt outfit. If I have a demo involving schoolchildren, I make particularly sure to wear a dress...silently spreading the message that you can be a woman who works with computers and still likes to dress in more "girly" ways. In a way, I use my sartorial choices as a statement: I would like the fact that I am a woman to potentially be noticed, and hopefully counter stereotypes of computer programmers. Besides that, I enjoy taking care with my personal style and wearing clothing combination that make me feel good.

So, while I make an effort to represent myself as feminine AND working in technology, I find myself not entirely comfortable with revealing the extent to which I occupy myself with female-coded pastimes, particularly my interest in fashion and style. Only one of my coworkers knows about this blog (and that's because he is a dear friend, and I occasionally have him take photos for it). Perhaps I draw a distinction between being seen as paying attention to what I wear and being seen as really CARING what I wear? Perhaps I think it's okay for me to dress up and dress in a feminine manner, but not okay for me to show the time or energy that goes into that process? Or even, fine as long as it's making a political statement, but not just for the enjoyment of it? Has anyone else encountered this sort of dilemma?

On a semi-related note, Franca wrote a great post earlier today about "Marthettes," the growing movement of Martha-Stewart-like bloggers with their perfect craft projects and lovely wardrobe and beautiful families in their perfectly clean and charmingly decorated homes. It's interesting to me to see how much these "Marthettes" are portrayed as/seen as an ideal to some of the same women who also value a woman being strong and powerful, CEO of a company/a well-respected academic/etc., etc. With the reclaiming of "women's" activities as acceptable for a feminist, I worry whether feminists now expect themselves to be not only successful in their professional and personal life, but also successful in the realm of "women's work," even if that's not so appropriate to bring up in professional contexts. What do you all think?

(Outfit details: thrifted sweater and skirt, camisole from Express, vintage boots and necklace, both via Ebay)

A Hard Day's Work in Polka Dots

2011-03-08T20:26:00.000-05:00

Today's Everybody Everywhere challenge was to incorporate polka dots into our outfits today. I've become a bigger fan of polka dots over the last couple of years, so have a handful of fun dotted pieces.

However, in picking my outfit today, the main limitation was the day's activities - the first day loading our group's opera production into the theater. Now through mid-April, I'm basically going to be busy on the opera. We've got a few days to setup now, then rehearsals, then performances, then we head off to Chicago and do it all over again! Exciting stuff.

This red shirt is one of my only polka-dotted pieces that is not a skirt or a dress. Add pants and flat shoes for climbing around in the theater, and all pieces that can handle a bit of heavy lifting.

Details: Red dotted shirt, Andrew and Co, thrifted. Pants, Old Navy. Tank: Express. Boots, Steve Madden, thrifted. Earrings, handmade.

Going to be a crazy busy few weeks...early mornings, late nights. Tonight may be the last evening for a while that I make it home reasonably. I'm not so good with the lack of sleep...but it should be a fun time.

Fashionable Feminist Icon: Hedy Lamarr

2011-03-02T11:30:00.003-05:00

This is the first of a number of group posts from the Fashionable Feminist Bloggers community. This group, begun a few weeks ago by a number of fascinating bloggers, examines the intersection of fashion and feminism. If you're interested in becoming part of the group, let me know and I can invite you, or you can request an invitation at the Google group linked above. Our first topic is on Fashionable Feminist icons: each of us was asked to write about a woman who, to us, is a personal feminist/fashion icon (which could be, for example a feminist with great style, a fashion person who also works on behalf of women).

When I started figuring out who I wanted to write about, I was a bit stumped. I realized that I don't have many true "icons" either in fashion or in feminism...so I chose to write about a woman who demonstrates a "feminist" trait I find particularly interesting, the ability to contribute to traditionally male-dominated fields. However, this woman also retained traditional "feminine" dress and activities, and was known for her beauty. As a woman who is a scientist/researcher/artist/student, I am especially interested in examples where technical ability and more traditional performance of femininity coexist in the same person. I don't think that one is necessarily more or less of a feminist for working in male-dominated jobs or female-dominated jobs, for striving for stereotypical beauty ideals or by actively avoiding them. So, I'm writing today about Hedy Lamarr, a major movie star in the 1930's and 1940's, as well as one of the inventors of spread spectrum wireless technology. I first heard about Lamarr in a class I took a couple of years ago on signal processing, and thought her story was fascinating.

Lamarr was born in Austria as Hedwig Kiesler, first made famous through German and Czech films, and then through her film work in America after she moved to Hollywood in the late 1930's. (She left her first husband, the Austrian Fritz Mandel, as his Nazi sympathies grew, escaping first to London and then to America.) She was particularly known for her good looks: Max Reinhart called her "the most beautiful woman in Europe." George Sanders, who costarred in several movies with Lamarr, said of her, "When I first met Hedy Lamarr, about twenty years ago, she was so beautiful that everybody would stop talking when she came into a room. Wherever she went she was the cynosure of all eyes. I don't think anyone concerned himself very much about whether or not there was anything behind her beauty, he was too busy gaping at her. Of her conversation I can remember nothing: when she spoke one did not listen, one just watched her mouth moving and marveled at the exquisite shapes made by her lips. She was, in consequence, rather frequently misunderstood."

So, what's less well known about Lamarr that she was also a mathematician, inventor, and scientist. In particular, she developed of an early form of spread spectrum technology with the composer George Antheil. In Hollywood, Lamarr met Antheil, best known now for his Ballet Mechanique, a composition for dozens of mechanical instruments including 16 player pianos, electric bells and sirens, and airplane propellers. It was World War II, and Lamarr had been thinking of quitting her job at MGM and going to work for the government developing new wartime technologies, like radio control for torpedoes. While she was married to Mandel, she had learned a lot about military technologies, including the ease with which a radio control signal on a single frequency could be intercepted or jammed. Lamarr determined that splitting a signal into many sections and jumping between different frequencies for each section would create a signal that a jammer could not significantly harm; the difficulty would be in synchronizing the sequence of frequencies between the sender and the receiver. Antheil thought that this could be done mechanically, using a player-piano-like roll in each part with timed markings signaling the change to a different frequency. Their patent for this "frequency hopping" system was approved in 1942.

An image from the patent:

The government was skeptical of their system (perhaps especially because of Antheil's comparison to a player piano...so they were supposed to put mini player pianos inside their torpedoes?) Eventually, Lamarr and Antheil's patent expired, without their idea having taken off. However, the military did end up using similar concepts (though implemented electronically, rather than mechanically) during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Now, the "frequency hopping" idea, called Spread Spectrum technology, is used in data transmission, wireless phones, and the government's Milstar defense communication system. Lamarr was finally recognized with the Electric Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award for technological innovation in March 1997.

Lamarr never did quit her job at MGM to go work for the military: it was determined that she would be of better service raising money for war bonds as a movie star. (In fact, at one event, she raised $7,000,000!) Lamarr's later life was also complicated, with shoplifting scandals and a total of six husbands. So, perhaps she's not much of a classical feminist. But she did push past the boundaries set on her due to her beauty, and people's tendencies to only look at her exterior, to make some valuable contributions with her technical abilities in a field that at the time (even more so then than now) was dominated by men.

Lamarr also said some interesting things (and some fairly complicated ones, in terms of feminist ideals):

On her own appearance:"My mother always called me an ugly weed, so I never was aware of anything until I was older. Plain girls should have someone telling them they are beautiful. Sometimes this works miracles."

On relationships: "Perhaps my problem in marriage - and it is the problem of many women - was to want both intimacy and independence. It is a difficult line to walk, yet both are important in a marriage"

"I must quit marrying men who feel inferior to me. Somewhere there must be a man who could be my husband and not feel inferior."

On fashion: "I think women are concerned too much with their clothes. Men don't really care that much about women's clothes. If they like a girl, chances are they'll like her clothes."

"Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid."

On using one's sexuality for success: "The ladder of success in Hollywood is usually a press agent, actor, director, producer, leading man; and you are a star if you sleep with each of them in that order. Crude, but true."

"If you use your imagination, you can look at any actress and see her nude ... I hope to make you use your imagination."

For more information on Hedy Lamarr, I found some nice pieces on inventions.org, madehow.com, and the official Hedy Lamarr website..

So, what do you think? Is Lamarr an appropriate "fashionable feminist icon"? Can women be stereotypically beautiful, specifically enhance and use that beauty in stereotypical ways, and still do work that leads to feminist goals? (I personally love that her job description is listed on sites as "actress/inventor"!) Why are we (or at least I) still occasionally surprised to find that a great beauty also has a great mind?

UPDATED: Other Fashionable Feminist Icon posts!
Björk - Oranges and Apples

Christine Lagarde– Rags Against the Machine

Cindy Sherman - Mrs Bossa Does the Do

Claude Cahun - Cervixosaurus

Diane Von Furstenberg – For Those About to Shop

Elizabeth Smith Miller – Techie Style

Ellen Page – SK{ru}SH

Frida Kahlo - La Historiadora de Moda from Fashionable Academics

Frida Kahlo – Knitting Up the Ravelled Sleeve of Care

Gloria Steinem – Ef for Effort

Gloria Steinem - What If No-One’s Watching?

Gloria Trevi - Feministified

Grandmother – The House in the Clouds

Griselda Pollock - Magic Square Foundation

Marjane Satrapi - Jean of all Trades

Joan of Arc – Interrobangs Anonymous

Julia de Burgos – Mad Dress Game

Margaret Cho – What Are Years?

Oroma Elewa - Fishmonkey

Rachel Carson – Aly en France

Siouxsie Sioux - Yo Ladies

Sydney Fox - My Illustrative Life

Vivienne Westwood - Seamstress Stories

New Commenting System

2011-02-25T22:06:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to mention that I made the switch from regular Blogger commenting over to Disqus comments earlier this evening. I've been really liking the Disqus platform on others' blogs (easier to leave comments and see replies to comments, doesn't require many page loads, no ), so had attempted to install it on several occasions. However, I had been having technical difficulties any time I installed it and went to import my existing Blogger comments. I wish I could say what I did to fix the problem, but it appears it just went away...so when I tried setting up the system again tonight, all the comments copied over just fine!

Anyone particularly love/hate Disqus?

Dressing Up for Dinner

2011-02-25T15:24:00.004-05:00

I'm a bit behind on the outfit-posting; this was what I wore on 2/15 for work and a day-after-Valentine's-Day dinner out with the boyfriend. (By going the day after, we were able to use coupons we had for a great deal on a lovely dinner and didn't have to deal with crowds...)

Outfit details: Red blouse, thrifted. Black skirt, INC, thrifted. Boots, vintage via Ebay. Belt, from a thrifted dress. Earrings, handmade. Necklace, gift. Bracelet, gift (from my grandmother's jewelry box). Tights, Ann Taylor Loft.

I'd gotten these boots from Ebay a few months ago but hadn't worn them yet. For some reason, when I'd first tried them on, they were uncomfortable and too tight. I'm not sure what was different here, whether I was wearing thinner tights or if the morning workouts have reshaped my calves already, but they were actually quite comfortable and fun to wear. I've been absolutely loving the cognac-colored boot trend, and wanted to try pulling it off myself.

Hope everyone has some nice weekend plans! I, for one, am planning to catch up on sleep. It's been a long, tiring week putting together this art installation...400 vellum butterflies now assembled and suspended in the site! We just have to hook them up to boards to run the lights in them. It's really satisfying to see a project come together as I'd envisioned it, going from an idea to renderings to a reality.

In addition, we've only got a bit more than a week until we're back in the theater for opera setup/rehearsals/performances...then shows in Boston, then we take the show to Chicago for a couple of weeks! It's going to be a busy, busy next couple of months. So this weekend is about fun and relaxation! (Also, I'm planning to meet up with some other Boston bloggers at Howl at the Moon on Saturday...I've never been to a blogger meetup, so I'm not quite sure what to expect!)

I'm looking through you...

2011-02-22T22:43:00.000-05:00

I'm a little late to last Friday's FBFF questions about body image and blogging, but they're good ones so I wanted to make sure I had time to think everything through! And this weekend was remarkably busy, working on an art installation that is being put in tomorrow morning. A coworker and I designed a piece that requires hundreds of suspended, illuminated, vellum butterflies...they're going to be beautiful, I hope. This does mean I've spent most of the last week constructing butterflies and wiring them up in preparation. The laser cutter at the lab is my new best friend (along with my old best friend, the hot glue gun).

So, the questions! (I was going to include some pictures with this post, but I keep leaving my camera cord at the lab. Soon!)

1. Since you started blogging has your image of yourself changed?

Yes, I would say that is true... though I'm not sure what part is due to blogging myself, what part is due to reading terrific fashion/style blogs and seeing a wide range of people looking fabulous, and what part is due to other influences. I do think that my body image has improved over the last year since I started being more conscious of/playful with my clothing choices. During my first year in grad school, I had slipped into just wearing jeans/sneakers/a fitted tee. Now, I get inspiration from amazing people all over the internet, and am inspired to have fun with my own fashion choices. I do think I feel better when I am pulled together and have put some thought into what I'm wearing. (A related secret: I often make sure to dress up if I'm sick to compensate!) So, blogging here about my personal style has encouraged me to make the effort to wear things I feel great in, as I know that at least a few people will notice.

The first image of myself I posted on this blog, and a picture from an outfit post a couple of weeks ago. I think there's been progress both in the style and the presentation...

2. Are you self-conscious about any aspect of yourself? If so, do you go out of your way to avoid it or do you post it/talk about it anyway?
Now that I think about it, there's fairly few things I'm self-conscious about physically, these days. I suppose I'm mostly uncomfortable with presenting myself in a possibly over-sexualized way...which sometimes results in discomfort with low-cut tops or too-high hemlines. Because I have a somewhat curvy body, I find that certain clothing choices can have much more sensual/sexual overtones than they would on a slender figure. Maybe that's just my imagination, but I'm definitely self-conscious of it.

So do I talk about these things? I guess I do on occasion. I'm still exploring how much I want to reveal in what contexts for this blog (especially about my work-related life, as I would prefer this blog not be easy for professional colleagues to find). I know I also select pictures for based on the ones where I think I "look good," but I'm not sure I have much of a mental model of how those images differ from the ones where I think I look less good. (Okay, except for photos from a side view. There, my photo selection is definitely influenced how much my stomach is sticking out. I guess I'm uncomfortable about that, too.)

3. Based on how you are feeling now, what do you think the future holds in the evolution of your body image?
I think (hope!) I'm going to continue getting more comfortable with myself and my body image. I'm taking steps to make sure I'm keeping my body healthy, like my morning workouts. I'm also having fun experimenting with my self-presentation through clothing and style, finding more things that make me feel good and look good to myself. I'd be interested to check back with myself in a year, or two, or five, and see how my feelings compare.

4. Do you photograph yourself for your blog? If so, how do you feel about the experience when you're having your picture taken? If you choose not to post pictures of yourself, what prompted that decision?
At this point, most of my entries involve photos of myself. Sometimes these are taken by the boyfriend or by one of my coworkers, but most of the time by myself with a tripod. I'm not sure I like the experience of self-photography, though I'm pretty comfortable being photographed by others, which may have something to do with the albums full of photos my mother's taken over the years. I feel much more contrived and uncomfortable posing for myself, especially if I'm outdoors where I might be observed.

Additionally, it's been interesting to see how outfits look different when photographed...there have been things that I've felt great in and thought I looked really nice in that are much less flattering in the photograph. (And as I still have a lingering belief in the truth of photography, this can make me change my mind on my original outfit.)

5. What would you want every person who struggles with body image to
take to heart?
You are beautiful right now. You don't have to look like a model or the girls you see in magazines or that pretty girl next to you on the train to be beautiful. You don't have to be a certain weight or shape or height or size or gender. You don't have to wear certain clothes or shoes or fix your hair a certain way. You are yourself, and I hope you will learn to accept and appreciate that gorgeous self.

Also, you should read Already Pretty if you don't yet...

On Fashion and Feminism

2011-02-15T16:27:00.001-05:00

Today, I mostly want to talk about a topic that I've been thinking about for a while in relationship to my personal style. Recently, I've come across a number of very interesting items around the fashion/style blogosphere discussing the intersection of fashion and feminism...something that's been quite close to my heart as a female, somewhat fashion-conscious student and researcher in a male-dominated technological field. In fact, the Fashionable Academics have a very interesting "call for papers" going on right now, asking for people who consider themselves feminists to submit brief descriptions of what feminism means to them. (If this sounds interesting to you, the deadline isn't till this Friday!). So I sent in my piece:

I am a female computer scientist: to me, feminism means pushing for a world where the description of myself as "female" does not affect others' perception of my skill as a "computer scientist." To me, feminism means equality of pay and equality of opportunity for men and women, without labeling either men or women as inherently, stereotypically, "better" at particular things. I believe we can recognize and be comfortable with differences (both societal and biological) between the genders while primarily supporting and honoring the unique abilities of each person regardless of their gender. If a person performs behaviors currently associated more with men or with women (or anywhere in between), I believe that performance should not reflect on that person's overall capabilities or their relationship to feminism. I am not more of a feminist when I wear a little mascara, or red lipstick, or no makeup at all. I am not more of a feminist when I wear sneakers or stilettos or boots. I am not more of a feminist when I study costume design or computer science or physics or cooking. In my ideal world, one's behaviors and ways of presenting oneself to the world are primarily expressions of self rather than expressions of a fixed or stereotyped gender.

On a related note, it's interesting for me to realize how much more comfortable I've gotten in the last year or so with wearing "stylish," "feminine" clothing. As I got more interested in computer science during college, I was aware that I focused on my clothing choices in the context of my field. Studies showed that girls do worse on math than boys only when they are made to think beforehand about their gender (and thus, it is suspected, remember the societal stereotypes about girls being bad at math). So, to fight this effect, I would make sure on test days never to wear skirts or dangling earrings or any clothing that was obviously coded as "female." Looking back, I find this effort a little bit silly...or at least troubling that I felt I had to make that effort.

Now, I'm almost doing the opposite thing. I take pleasure in wearing clothing that is coded as female while being quite competent in technical areas. Soldering in heels? Yes please! But at times this is a performance of gender as well; in my own subtle way, I'm attempting to subvert the expected relationship between femininity and technical ability. I'm particularly careful to wear a dress if I know I'll be demoing things to schoolchildren, to try to telegraph to the girls (and boys) that there isn't a discrepancy between being "girly" and doing computer science work. I'm certainly often performing femininity with my clothing (in a way that I think is consistent with my own desires for sartorial self-expression, even though I probably would revert to jeans and a fitted tee if I knew I wasn't going to see anyone that day.) But even with my recent efforts, I'm still careful not to seem too interested in fashion. I definitely try to make sure my blog doesn't show up on search results for me and my professional work. I'd love to see a time when I wouldn't have to worry about how some of my interests (especially the more female-coded ones like style, crafting, and sewing) would negatively affect the perception of my work-related capabilities.

Anyway. I'd love to hear what others think about some of these issues! If you're interested and want to read a couple of the posts that started me thinking and writing about this, check out Franca's thought-provoking post, and Those Grace's decision to become a feminist beauty blogger.

Quickly, about my Valentine's Day outfit from yesterday...didn't do much besides go to work, as the boyfriend and I decided to go out tonight instead (had a great deal for a fancy dinner on Tuesday or Wednesday nights). I still wanted to be somewhat holiday-appropriate, which led to the red dress that I had finally finished hemming over the weekend (it used to be floor-length with long sleeves. Far too much red plaid for me.) The overall ensemble ended up being referred to as "Gothic Lolita" by a coworker...not sure what I think about that!

Details: Dress, thrifted and DIY'd. Lace-trimmed slip, thrifted. Shoes, Nine West. Sweater, Express. Necklace, estate sale. Earrings, handmade. Belt, from a thrifted dress. Tights, Loft.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

True Colors

2011-02-11T23:14:00.000-05:00

This week's Fashion Beauty Friend Friday questions were all about color...something pretty relevant to today's bright outfit! (Don't ask me why I have plastic monkeys sewn onto my skirt. It's actually work-related, I swear! (and ended up being quite worth it.)) Basically, the outfit started with my needing to wear the skirt. And if I was wearing bright monkeys on the skirt, I needed to color-coordinate --thus the red sweater and blue necklace. I was thinking about wearing red flats too, but that just felt like too much.

Details: black skirt, thrifted and DIY'd by me. Red sweater, thrifted. Red camisole, Express. Tights, HUE. Black oxford heels, Nine West. Necklace, gift.

FBFF Questions for 2.11 - Color War.
1. What color dominates your closet?
I've got a pretty balanced closet (actually, I organize it by color, so I can tell what colors I have very easily), though it's starting to lean more and more to black/gray/white/neutrals. However, I think the more interesting question for me is what colors dominate the things I actually WEAR on a regular basis. My regular outfits really become heavily dominated by black/white/brown, with some deep reds and blues, occasionally purple. I tend to go for more saturated shades; I'm not big on wearing pastel colors. I used to wear a lot more color... maybe that should be a goal for the spring, to get some of my bright-colored clothing out of the closet and into some outfits!

2. If money weren't an issue how would you change the color emphasis in your closet?
I'd add more accessories in bright colors...I won't necessarily wear a bright pink or yellow shirt, but I'd definitely do so in a belt, shoes, or a necklace!

3. What is your mantra about mixing colors?
I don't have many hard-and-fast rules, here. Black goes with everything. White also goes with everything. I prefer to stick with colors in similar tones - several shades of purple, for instance. I'm not so much a fan of mixing bright colors (though when I was a little kid, that was my primary style rule: wear really bright colors that "clashed" with one another.)

4. For you, how do you incorporate color into your outfits?
I mostly stick to one or two bold-colored pieces at a time, and tend to tone things down a bit with black, white, or gray. I have many more colorful skirts and sleeveless dresses than I do tops at this point -- a secret fear of mine is sweating (which is not an infrequent occurrence) and making dark sweaty underarm stains. So I'm really careful about what color shirts I wear, which I'm finding seriously limits the amount of color I wear.

5. Which blogger(s) do you think do a good job of incorporating color into their wardrobe?
Franca from Oranges and Apples always has amazing, bright color combinations! (If you don't believe me, check out the images on her FBFF post today...)
I really love Sal's color mixing. Bold, but chic and not over-the-top. Seeing her outfits inspires me to wear more color, especially in accessories.
Lyddie from Chic on the Cheap can really rock bold colors and fun combinations.
And Marie from The Joy of Fashion wears colors that just make me happy!

Interesting stuff to think about, and makes me want to try some more color mixing in the next couple of weeks - get out some of my less-worn clothing and experiment! This outfit's a start, with the blue and red in the same outfit...though paired with black. I also find intriguing how much in my answers I assume that "color" refers to bright colors in rainbow shades. Really, black and gray and white and brown are all colors too, so skilled use of colors could include outfits that mix shades of these, or even an all-black outfit with many different textures and layers. I would also include these in "colors," though that's not my intuitive definition.

Hope everyone's having a good Friday!

My New Favorite Vest

2011-02-10T17:36:00.005-05:00

This was what I wore today, another work outfit for a day of meetings and demos. Today was sunnier and a little bit warmer, but I still ended up with a ton of layers...a dress over a shirt and skirt, and two pairs of heavy tights (my trick this winter for keeping my legs warm.). The vest was a late addition today... I was taking a bit of an easy morning and getting to the lab later than normal, so ended up stopping by the Goodwill on my way. I'm very glad I did, as I came across this gorgeous long gray vest...tailored impeccably, fits me quite well, was only $7, and may now be vying for my favorite clothing item. (And did I mention, it's Armani? I really some my thrifting luck today!) So the vest got added on when I got to work! I'm finding myself quite drawn to tailored items these days, which is an interesting style development...

Details: Sonia Rykiel blouse, thrifted. Brown Charlotte Russe dress, thrifted. Yellow skirt, thrifted. Gray Armani vest, via Goodwill. Tights, HUE. Brown oxfords, Aldo. Belt from thrifted dress. Earrings, Ebay jewelry lot.

Let's see, what else is going on? Still keeping up my morning workouts, which is exciting. I'm signed up for a 5K race in a month...now I know I can definitely run that far. Though I've never actually run a formal race, particularly not a road race, so it'll be a new experience for me. I think I'm going to want to get off the treadmill and start running more outside before then. If it ever gets any warmer!

Everybody Everywhere wears blazers!

2011-02-08T10:39:00.004-05:00

So my outfit today is inspired by today's challenge from Everybody Everywear. Basically, the goal is to construct an outfit around a blazer, and wear it on February 8. I particularly wanted to join in on this challenge as I have a number of thrifted blazers in my closet that I never/almost never wear... I keep thinking they'll be a good piece, I see great outfits with patterned and colored and tailored blazers, and then I have difficulty actually making an outfit work proportionally on my body. I think part of it is because many blazers have well-defined, often padded, shoulders, and I have somewhat narrow shoulders and a curvy figure... so I haven't quite figured out how to make the proportions come out in a way I enjoy. Anybody have any suggestions? (Looking forward to seeing a range of ideas from Everybody Everywear, too!)

I went through a couple of iterations of blazer + dress, trying to find something fun, and was drawn to this summery jersey dress I'd thrifted a couple of months ago but hadn't worn due to its non-seasonal nature. Adding all the black pieces winterizes the outfit, but the dress may reveal how much I would like it to be spring, and soon, please! (An earlier outfit version had a cream blazer, too...) We had a couple of days of sunny 40 degree weather over the weekend, which was a tantalizing taste before we plunge back to 9 degrees and snowing tonight. These pictures are taken in a stairwell at my lab...lots of natural light, though quite gray since it's currently raining.

Details: Calvin Klein Dress, via Goodwill. Max Studio black blazer, thrifted. Black oxfords, Nine West. Tights, Ann Taylor Loft.

What else? Weekend was very, very busy with all day Saturday spent at the lab working on an electronic music event that my group was mostly responsible for (panels, demos, and a concert in the evening). Then Sunday we had to strike everything we'd set up for the concert. Sunday night involved my hosting a Jewish food/Super Bowl party with friends from lab, which may become a tradition. This involved making enough latkes and noodle kugel to feed 8 people for dinner, and ended up with enough leftovers for 6 people for lunch the next day...

Also, I'm trying something new with formatting to get larger images...what do you think?

Hope everyone's week is going well so far!

Friend Friday: jumping on the bandwagon

2011-02-04T22:18:00.000-05:00

So recently I jumped on the Fashion Beauty Friend Friday (FBFF) bandwagon. Basically, each week Katy of Modly Chic posts a series of questions for people in the group to respond to as they want. Coincidentally, this week's questions are mostly about jumping on various bandwagons!

1. With all the blogging events out there how do you determine which ones to participate in and which ones to avoid?
I think it really comes down to which events inspire me - what drives me to do something creative or exciting. (Like the Thing-a-Day challenge, though I'm already a bit behind in that, or being part of Wardrobe Refashion.) Additionally, I've been trying to focus on what events fit my personal goals. For instance, though I love seeing everyone's 30 for 30 posts, I've got a closet full of items that I don't wear often enough and I'm trying to push myself into integrating the more unusual and bold pieces into my daily wear. I suspect that I could take 30 of my staple items and wear them in a variety of different ways -- but honestly, I'd rather be trying to take advantage of as much of my closet as possible. (In this way, I'm definitely fortunate to have had very cheap thrift shopping around!) Alternately, I really want to do the next Everybody Everywear

This thought process led to my deciding to join FBFF...I'd been seeing other bloggers answer each week's interesting questions and felt that it would be a nice push for me to be thoughtful about my style and blogging practices. And I've been loving the community aspect as well!

2. Be honest, have you ever jumped on the bandwagon of some blogging movement/event for the wrong reasons? How did that turn out?
Sure. Especially when I first started, it seemed that EVERYONE was on the other style blogging platforms - Weardrobe, Chictopia, Wardrobe Remix etc. However, the various picture-rating systems on some of those are not my favorite thing. I'm sure it's really helpful for new bloggers to get validation that others think they're "chic," (as it was any time someone commented on/voted on one of my photos), but took a lot of additional time. If I felt the need to post an outfit to tons of places, I often didn't end up posting anything at all! I still frequent Chictopia on occasion, but haven't really done anything on Weardrobe or Wardrobe Remix in ages.

3. How do you give your own flair to a blog event while still maintaining the general mission and purpose?
I suppose this partly comes from that previously-mentioned attempt at trying to only join in on events that are relevant to my personal goals for myself/my blog, so I can come up with content that's true to me.

4. When determining the best content for your blog what criterion do you keep in mind?
Right now, I'm still working on developing my own blog style and growing my personal voice. I do try to learn from the things I like or don't like in reading other peoples' blogs...for instance, I'm personally not a big fan of scrolling through dozens of pictures in a post, or giant pictures, unless they're really, really gorgeously done. So I try to keep the pictures in my blog fairly short and sweet.

5. While everything will not suit your blog, how do you try and support your fellow bloggers who are participating in something
worthwhile but not your style?
Just because I'm not participating in a particular blogging meme doesn't mean that I don't find it interesting to watch what others come up with! I try to comment on others' blogs as I can, and see what's going on.

In any case. Interesting questions to think about! Started this post early this morning, but now finishing late tonight...my group has been working very hard this week pulling together a day of panels/demos/performances tomorrow. So hopefully that all goes off well! And now for some sleep soon...

Day 2: Floral Hairpin

2011-02-02T21:10:00.001-05:00

Today's "thing" is a floral hairpin made from an old thrifted cashmere top. I just cut three sizes of circles out of the cashmere, and sewed a zigzag stitch around the edge to keep them from coming unraveled and put a slight ruffle in the edges. Then I stitched all the pieces together by hand and added a vintage button in the middle. A bobby pin is attached on the back of the piece.

And the snow keeps coming down...

2011-02-02T10:40:00.004-05:00

I wore this outfit on Monday, the one day this week where I could get away with cute shoes and not just snow boots. Tuesday it snowed even more, and all today we've been getting a lovely ice/snow/sleet/rain/"wintry mix." This outfit really started with the tunic top, which was Sunday evening's refashioning project. While cleaning up things last week, I had come across a number of black, gray, and red sweaters that I'd been keeping to refashion - some wool, some cashmere, some just acrylic -- all of which had issues like moth holes, seriously not fitting me, or being "I'm sure you can do something with this!" hand-me-downs from my family.

The body of a gray sweater of my brother's became the bottom. Then I took rectangles of fabric from two separate black sweaters, sewed a bit up one side to leave an armhole/draped sleeve, and sewed them to the waist with a zigzag stitch so edges didn't unravel. I attempted to leave as many existent hems and finished edges in place as I could! Then the middle seam was still pretty lumpy and not attractive, so I covered it up with a sash made from the sleeve of a red hole-filled sweater.

I'm pretty pleased with the result, though I think I still need to balance the sides a little bit and tack down the belt in more places around the waist. I especially like the open back, though it does require me to wear a tank top or something under it. But the whole piece was very comfortable!

Details: Sweater top, refashioned. Freestyle Revolution Jeans, thrifted. Black Roothy oxfords, Nine West. Tank top, Express.

And let me introduce you to my holiday-money shoes, deeply discounted Nine West oxfords. Ever do that thing where you put an item in your online cart and then leave it there while you try to convince yourself that you don't need it and should spend the money on something practical? Ever leave it there and keep debating for several days? Finally I figured that I really liked them if I kept coming back to them and having to try to argue myself out of them over again. And with a very good sale and free shipping, I think these were worth it! They're very comfortable, and I think I'll wear them a lot. Once the sidewalks dry out again, that is. Anyone else getting a bit tired of the endless snow?

Day 1 - Legwarmers

2011-02-01T22:12:00.001-05:00

One of my goals with the Thing-a-Day project this month is to make items out of my large stash of fabric and thrifted clothing waiting to be upcycled. Today's item is fairly simple: a pair of legwarmers from the sleeves of an old sweater, decorated with a few vintage buttons. (The rest of the sweater went into making a tunic that I put together on Sunday.)

Lavender Layers

2011-01-27T19:47:00.005-05:00

I really, really liked this outfit yesterday. I've worn the lavender over-sweater a lot before, but it's not so good in the winter because of the shorter sleeves. So I decided to try wearing it over a long-sleeve shirt and got comfort, warmth, and fun with shades of purple (especially with the patterned purple scarf)! And you'll notice the same boots that I keep wearing...again, more comfortable pieces. (I also am pleased that it was composed almost entirely of thrifted pieces...) And really, I just felt incredibly cozy in this. Perfect for a day of working at the lab. I had a project I needed to get done yesterday morning, and then some work on a paper I hope to submit to a conference in a few days.

Purple shirt, thrifted. Lavender Ann Taylor sweater, thrifted. Freestyle Revolution jeans, thrifted. Black boots, thrifted. Scarf, thrifted. Necklace, Wet Seal. Earrings, handmade.

Also, something I forgot to mention...I've been doing pretty well so far with the workout routine, actually making it to the gym basically every morning before work and a long run (on the treadmill for now) on Sundays. I'm getting back into shape much faster than I'd expected; I actually ran 4 miles last Sunday, which is huge for me -- that's probably further than I've ever run! I've also been inspired by the wonderful Kyla of Blue Collar Catwalk and her Sweaty Wednesdays series to set a few fitness goals for the year. I've signed up for a 5L race in March (though we'll see whether my rehearsals for the opera, which is coming to Boston that month, pose a problem), and plan to run a 10K in October. Plenty of time to build that up, right?

So anybody have any great weekend plans? Enjoying (or not) the giant mountains of snow that seem to be blanketing the East Coast right now? I was definitely in snow-boots-wading-through-piles-of-snow mode this morning...

Patterned Shoe DIY

2011-01-21T18:28:00.001-05:00

So I promised you all a shoe DIY this weekend! I started with this pair of navy Mossimo pumps...had gotten them free, but never had worn them because they were just a bit plain (though perfectly nice!)

I've also been seeing lots of amazing pictures of Jeffrey Campbell patterned shoes, like these Tick shoes in Tribal (image from stylediggers.com:

Gorgeous shoes, but far too expensive for me! So with the pattern elements of the Ticks as inspiration, and armed with a silver Sharpie, I started drawing freehand patterns on the pumps. The silver stood out well against the dark blue, though I had to be careful not to smudge it while still wet. I didn't try to make the patterns on the two shoes match, as I decided I preferred the "deliberately different" look more than the otherwise inevitable "close, but not quite a match" look. Here's the final result:

The backs:

From above:

What do you think? I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out and how simple it was! (Granted, we'll have to see how the Sharpie holds up once I've worn them a few times.) I should come up with a fun outfit to show these off. Now for the snow to melt so I can actually wear nice shoes outside...

Peacock Feathers and Suede

2011-01-21T18:11:00.006-05:00

This was Wednesday's outfit, for a fairly quiet day at the lab. My week's been alternating between days full of meetings and project workshops and quieter days to just work. Somehow I've gotten myself a full load of projects for the next month or so, which is a good thing.

This outfit was yet another attempt at dressing warmly enough for the cold, snowy weather we've been having. I'd gotten this suede skirt a while ago, but just found it again in my closet that morning. It's a nice weight and cuts the wind fairly well.

Details: Red sweater, Forever21. Suede skirt, thrifted. Tights, Loft. Shoes, Aldo (gift from my mother). Necklace, self-made.

I really like these Aldo oxfords. I wasn't sure what I thought about the high-heeled oxfords trend for a while, but as I've been seeing more and more adorable pairs of them over the last year or so it's really grown on me. So when my mother and I were out shopping after Thanksgiving and we found these shoes on a big sale, I was thrilled to have them be a holiday present. I've already worn them several times.

Closeup of the necklace. I'm trying to get in the habit of crafting things more regularly, and this was one of the pieces I put together last week. (One of my new year's goals is to craft something at least once a week.) I'm attempting to really jump-start this by signing up for the Thing-A-Day Challenge, where participants agree to make something every day for the month of February. I can do that, I think (even though some of the days may be fairly small projects). And that's just what I need to get my creative juices flowing!

What else? Somehow, it feels like this was a long week, even though I took Monday mostly off from work. The MFA was having a free day, so I went for a while and checked out a couple of sections, including an exhibit on the couture designs of Arnold Scaasi...some lovely, though fairly over-the-top dresses. (Including the one covered with white feathers, worn by one of his clients to the opening of a museum exhibit on birds!) The polka-dot dress here was one of my favorites, though the picture came out fairly blurry due to the low light. (Sometimes I really wish I had a DSLR...)

Then came the busy workweek. We got even more snow here today, and the weekend's supposed to be super cold as well. I'll mostly be working on writing a conference paper, though I'm planning to put up the shoe DIY over the weekend. Anyone have fun weekend plans?

Bold print and a black dress

2011-01-14T10:35:00.004-05:00

This outfit (which I wore on Tuesday) started with the blouse... a lovely silk thing with one of the loudest patterns I own. I'd picked it up at the dollar-a-pound because I really liked the colors and figured it was worth $0.50 or so to see if I could make it work. So on Tuesday, when I had the first day of a class and a couple of presentations where I wanted to seem "artistic/creative," I thought I'd play with the blouse. The first step involved toning the print down a little...so I added the black wrap dress. I've been wearing these boots a ton recently, as they seem to go with most things I wear (and are remarkably decent in the snow, too).

Here's a closeup of that pattern detail. Now imagine that all over the shirt. Not my style to wear a whole blouse worth of that, but glad I could fit it into an outfit!

Details: silk blouse, thrifted. Black wrap dress, thrifted. Tights, Ann Taylor. Black leather boots, thrifted.

We got a LOT of snow on Wednesday, so I worked at home...I'd missed the first round of Boston blizzards this winter, but not this one! Probably got at least 12 inches?

I'm not a big fan of the snow/winter in general, but I have to admit this storm was really beautiful.

Also, I've got a shoe DIY post coming up soon...but here's a bit of a preview! I started with these navy Mossimo heels that I'd gotten for free but never worn. And I've been really inspired by patterned shoes, including things like Jeffrey Campbell's Tick Tribal shoes...

I'll be posting the finished results soon!

New Year, New Beginnings

2011-01-04T10:15:00.004-05:00

Hi everyone! Realize I haven't been around these parts for a while...hope everyone's been doing well and had a great holiday season! Little bit of catchup: I spent September in Europe working on my research group's opera, which was amazing and turned out fairly successfully. October and November involved a fair amount of time with a production of Guys and Dolls, which I made the perhaps-overwhelming decision to both be a cast member of and costume design. December involved some small projects, visiting friends, and spending the holidays with the boyfriend and his family. And now, suddenly a new year!

This was yesterday's outfit, trying to start some of my fashion resolutions (well, I'm calling them "goals" rather than "resolutions" this year) about being more comfortable pushing my personal boundaries with what I wear. I also hope to do a fair amount of closet-editing this year...I've collected a bunch of thrifted clothing, some of which I don't necessarily love or look all that great in. I would love to have a closet filled with comfortable and fun pieces I really enjoy wearing and feel stylish in. Trying out whether this purple dress is one of those...comfortable, fun, but I'm not sure what I think about the shoulder pads. These boots, unfortunately, have to go in the giveaway pile... I didn't realize how tight they were across the tops of my feet!

Details: Dress, thrifted. Earrings, handmade. Boots, thrifted. Belt, thrifted. Tights, Ann Taylor.

Other goals for the new year include getting back in a regular workout routine, trying new recipes, doing something crafty at least once a week, reading a book at least every month, and getting a couple of papers published.

I love the buttons on the sleeves of this dress!

Happy New Year to you all! :)