On Fashion
May. 8th, 2020 01:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
practicalcatHello kittens and cupcakes! Long time no blog, but I've got a thing more suited to a journal than to other forms of social media, so it's going .
So, I've been doing research on fashion on and off for a few years now. Like any other project, the urge to work on it comes and goes, and a lot of it started with character creation and development until eventually I remember that I too am a character that I am creating and developing and that maybe I should think about it in regards to myself too.
The society and culture I grew up in spent a lot of time hammering into me that clothing and fashion was "silly" and "frivolous" and only people who were silly and frivolous cared about it. This is, of course complete and utter bullshit. For all that we're told not to judge a book by its cover, people will judge you on your clothes and the way you present yourself, when you fall the non-privileged end of any axis. But because clothing and fashion is frivolous and unimportant, the rules aren't neatly laid out and fed to us like arithmetic or how to write a basic five-paragraph essay. You have to go out and look for them yourself, and there's a lot of other extraneous nonsense to sort through, and you have to figure out the important keywords as you go; and eventually you get to the point where you throw up your hands and pretend that you don't care, even though the lack of knowledge gnaws at you whenever you come up against a situation where clothing and fashion rears its head.
(wheeeeeeeeeeeee, anxiety disorder!)
So I've been picking at it for awhile, reading articles and making pinterest boards and so on and so forth, and now I'm going to see what I can articulate what I've learned about what I like when it comes to clothes.
- I like a uniform. I don't like being assigned a uniform, but I'm pretty happy to wear the same thing every day and not need to think too much about what I'm wearing. I'll probably want to build this up into a capsule wardrobe eventually.
- I don't tend to accessorize much. That's something I may continue to work on, but in the meantime I should look for tops that either have a dense pattern or have their own neckline decoration. Or deliberately choose to ignore that 'rule', but it's nice to know that there is a rule to ignore.
- I have (largely arbitrarily) picked "burgundy" as my signature color. I've been picking up what accessories I do wear in that color (glasses frames, blazers, purses/bags, etc).
- I like marbled or watered patterns more than sharp lines. I've been sticking with solid colors so far, but only because I'm not quite sure how to DIY marbling or water color.
- Coloring-wise, my skin/hair/eyes are "low contrast", though I'm still working out whether it's warm or cool toned. But 'smokey', 'dusty', 'grayed', and 'heathered' colors seem to look good on me, so I'm working that angle.
- I like v-necks, surplice-, and wrap-tops and dresses. They are supposedly a universally-flattering neckline, but I haven't done too much research beyond that. I really want to modify all of my nerd t-shirts from crew-necks to v-necks.
- Speaking of, the nerdy shirts aren't going away. Though I'm leaning toward buying them as tank tops and using them as undershirts for my "professional" clothes, and then layer them under a blazer or cardigan for "casual" wear.
- Related: I like blazers, cardigans, and bolero for layering. Pretty much ones without buttons though, because the one-button styles that are currently in fashion are completely unflattering to my rack. (Keyword for buttoned blazers: "high stance". Or at least two buttons). In addition to burgundy, I might want to pick up one or two in a gray, for Nerd Shirts That Just Don't Work With Burgundy situations
- I'm not really into long sleeves. 3/4 sleeves are pretty great, though.
- Been sticking with basic black for pants, skirts, and shoes so far. Considering branching out into navy blue and/or a really, really dark brown.
- All-in on the dark wash jeans. Duluth Trading Company makes sturdy ones with functional pockets, they are expensive but worth it.
- I need to figure out how to accessorize my Little Black Dress because I don't care for how black looks up by my face. I think it's too...sharp(?) against my over-all low-contrast. Either that, or I need to pick a Little (Other Color) Dress to replace it.
- I'm not into shiny/reflective/sparkly. I like matte, textured matte, a little shimmer, and pearlescent. Iridescent is nice too.
- Colors so far: burgundy, black/charcoal (limited), medium gray, pearl gray, gray-blue. Colors I'm trying to add: dusky pink, really dark brown (possibly as a replacement for black/charcoal), navy blue (see previous), rose brown, something in the teal range. Rose gold?
- Aesthetics: fog, wet stone/sand, wooden bridges, fallen leaves, moss, cherry blossoms, rose petals, bird feathers, pearls on leather cord, bare tree branches, sea glass. Soft dramatic goth?
- Loafers vs granny boots vs uni-color sneakers. Shoes are hard.
- Decorative belts that are more for showing off my waist than for holding my pants up. Alternatively; waistcoats? That shit will need to be tailored due to the boob/waist difference.
- Gloves with no sleeves or 3/4 sleeves. IDK why, but I like it. Maybe if I find the right gloves, I'll wear them enough that I stop picking at my nail beds.
- Minimal daily maintenance hair. Miss Angela has been doing my hair for twenty years at this point. She laughs at me when I say I'm going to start doing stuff with my hair. I like it short enough that it's off the back of my neck; whenever it gets long enough I end up just pulling it back in a ponytail because I can't make sense of online tutorials. Thinking about going full Rosemary's Baby on it, but that might be more going-to-the-stylist maintenance than I can manage. I did inherit Grandma's between-salon-visits wig from before she went full-gray, I wonder if that can be lightened at all...
- Makeup: another thing that society expects you to wear if you're female-presenting, but you have to figure it out on your own. Ugh. I think this might be its own post, but overall: not a fan of the no-makeup makeup look. If I decided to spend time doing my makeup instead of any number of other things, I damn well want my efforts to be visible.
So, I've been doing research on fashion on and off for a few years now. Like any other project, the urge to work on it comes and goes, and a lot of it started with character creation and development until eventually I remember that I too am a character that I am creating and developing and that maybe I should think about it in regards to myself too.
The society and culture I grew up in spent a lot of time hammering into me that clothing and fashion was "silly" and "frivolous" and only people who were silly and frivolous cared about it. This is, of course complete and utter bullshit. For all that we're told not to judge a book by its cover, people will judge you on your clothes and the way you present yourself, when you fall the non-privileged end of any axis. But because clothing and fashion is frivolous and unimportant, the rules aren't neatly laid out and fed to us like arithmetic or how to write a basic five-paragraph essay. You have to go out and look for them yourself, and there's a lot of other extraneous nonsense to sort through, and you have to figure out the important keywords as you go; and eventually you get to the point where you throw up your hands and pretend that you don't care, even though the lack of knowledge gnaws at you whenever you come up against a situation where clothing and fashion rears its head.
(wheeeeeeeeeeeee, anxiety disorder!)
So I've been picking at it for awhile, reading articles and making pinterest boards and so on and so forth, and now I'm going to see what I can articulate what I've learned about what I like when it comes to clothes.
- I like a uniform. I don't like being assigned a uniform, but I'm pretty happy to wear the same thing every day and not need to think too much about what I'm wearing. I'll probably want to build this up into a capsule wardrobe eventually.
- I don't tend to accessorize much. That's something I may continue to work on, but in the meantime I should look for tops that either have a dense pattern or have their own neckline decoration. Or deliberately choose to ignore that 'rule', but it's nice to know that there is a rule to ignore.
- I have (largely arbitrarily) picked "burgundy" as my signature color. I've been picking up what accessories I do wear in that color (glasses frames, blazers, purses/bags, etc).
- I like marbled or watered patterns more than sharp lines. I've been sticking with solid colors so far, but only because I'm not quite sure how to DIY marbling or water color.
- Coloring-wise, my skin/hair/eyes are "low contrast", though I'm still working out whether it's warm or cool toned. But 'smokey', 'dusty', 'grayed', and 'heathered' colors seem to look good on me, so I'm working that angle.
- I like v-necks, surplice-, and wrap-tops and dresses. They are supposedly a universally-flattering neckline, but I haven't done too much research beyond that. I really want to modify all of my nerd t-shirts from crew-necks to v-necks.
- Speaking of, the nerdy shirts aren't going away. Though I'm leaning toward buying them as tank tops and using them as undershirts for my "professional" clothes, and then layer them under a blazer or cardigan for "casual" wear.
- Related: I like blazers, cardigans, and bolero for layering. Pretty much ones without buttons though, because the one-button styles that are currently in fashion are completely unflattering to my rack. (Keyword for buttoned blazers: "high stance". Or at least two buttons). In addition to burgundy, I might want to pick up one or two in a gray, for Nerd Shirts That Just Don't Work With Burgundy situations
- I'm not really into long sleeves. 3/4 sleeves are pretty great, though.
- Been sticking with basic black for pants, skirts, and shoes so far. Considering branching out into navy blue and/or a really, really dark brown.
- All-in on the dark wash jeans. Duluth Trading Company makes sturdy ones with functional pockets, they are expensive but worth it.
- I need to figure out how to accessorize my Little Black Dress because I don't care for how black looks up by my face. I think it's too...sharp(?) against my over-all low-contrast. Either that, or I need to pick a Little (Other Color) Dress to replace it.
- I'm not into shiny/reflective/sparkly. I like matte, textured matte, a little shimmer, and pearlescent. Iridescent is nice too.
- Colors so far: burgundy, black/charcoal (limited), medium gray, pearl gray, gray-blue. Colors I'm trying to add: dusky pink, really dark brown (possibly as a replacement for black/charcoal), navy blue (see previous), rose brown, something in the teal range. Rose gold?
- Aesthetics: fog, wet stone/sand, wooden bridges, fallen leaves, moss, cherry blossoms, rose petals, bird feathers, pearls on leather cord, bare tree branches, sea glass. Soft dramatic goth?
- Loafers vs granny boots vs uni-color sneakers. Shoes are hard.
- Decorative belts that are more for showing off my waist than for holding my pants up. Alternatively; waistcoats? That shit will need to be tailored due to the boob/waist difference.
- Gloves with no sleeves or 3/4 sleeves. IDK why, but I like it. Maybe if I find the right gloves, I'll wear them enough that I stop picking at my nail beds.
- Minimal daily maintenance hair. Miss Angela has been doing my hair for twenty years at this point. She laughs at me when I say I'm going to start doing stuff with my hair. I like it short enough that it's off the back of my neck; whenever it gets long enough I end up just pulling it back in a ponytail because I can't make sense of online tutorials. Thinking about going full Rosemary's Baby on it, but that might be more going-to-the-stylist maintenance than I can manage. I did inherit Grandma's between-salon-visits wig from before she went full-gray, I wonder if that can be lightened at all...
- Makeup: another thing that society expects you to wear if you're female-presenting, but you have to figure it out on your own. Ugh. I think this might be its own post, but overall: not a fan of the no-makeup makeup look. If I decided to spend time doing my makeup instead of any number of other things, I damn well want my efforts to be visible.
