The Space Between My Peers

This is what I wore to church today. Despite it being a very nice, well-coordinated outfit, made up of some of my favorite pieces, I still had a momentary twinge when faced with other people in their new coats, etc. Believe me, I’m over it now.

BTW, this shirt and sweater combo is the same one I wore
Christmas Eve, with jeans and my birthday belt.

But will I wear it again tonight? Attending a game night, with the same group we were with for the Thanksgiving Leftovers Party, the big question mark is temperature. How many layers will I need? At the previous event, the wife of the pastor in charge runs just a little colder than I do. Perfect. But I don’t think they will be there tonight.

My first choice is actually the outfit pictured back here. And since my hero just informed me that he knows how to work the heat in the fellowship hall, I guess I will wear what I want.

Update: What I want will be the sweater I wore this morning, topped by the jacket pictured here, which my hero just bought for me. We only paid $35 American, though. Washable suede, the XS fits (!), and it’s my signature color. Yay!

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When Grandmother Adella said in comments back here that she’d see me soon, she really meant it. I am so excited that in 2007, within the next several weeks/months, depending on weather, etc, she will be moving closer!

This random post comes to you simply because I set my alarm clock this morning, and then actually got up. I have washed and dried my hair, made and drank my coffee, started dinner, and I’m sitting here eating my breakfast, blogging, with time to spare.

Crockpots and alarm clocks. Fabulous inventions.

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Recently I reposted a classic early post featuring a strategy to avoid Sunday morning wardrobe trauma. I still need improvement. Perhaps I’ve been blogging too much?

Well, here’s how I plan to use the blog to get me out of endlessly playing dress-up and being late to church every Sunday:

I’m planning a Month of Sundays feature, where I will dress up in four different outfits all based on one trouser or skirt that I would wear to church that month.

The tricky part is whether I will wait for primary photographer, with camera that actually works, to return from vacation before shooting the initial installment. The good news is I already have the outfits selected! And, yes, I do know what I’m wearing tomorrow.

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I really should get some modeling lessons or something, rather than continually subjecting you wonderful people to these hack photos.

Typically I choose not to focus on the type of advice that picks some “less-than” body part (”I hate my thighs!”) and uses “fool-the-eye” techniques to compensate. It’s all too confusing. In most cases, learning and employing the basics (line, shape, proportion, scale, and, of course, personal idiom and color) will create a much more integrated, simple, and aesthetically pleasing look.

But an outfit I threw together recently caused me to think about a principle I had previously run across:

To camouflage or draw attention away, surround the feature with something larger or more eye-catching. In these pictures, the “feature” is my thighs and the “something larger or more eye-catching” is the line of the t-shirt hem(s) and the belt buckle.

In which of these pictures do I look most normal to you?

And another question: How would this principle be used if the “feature” being camouflaged was a slight tummy bulge?

On one thing I’m sure we can all agree: Use tunic-length tops with caution! (They never worked for me in the ’80s either.)

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Or should I have titled this “I love fashion research?” And it’s not just an excuse to avoid doing any work. At least I don’t think it is.

Vildy asks:

Can I ask a question about balance in design here? I have a silky dark navy raincoat with white pin dots. I like the contradiction between the feminine fabric and the full-out trench detailing. It isn’t my best look - the fullness, the belted trench, the epaulets and belted sleeves, the full cape back bodice, the half cape front bodice, the semi-dolman sleeves - but I like it.

Here’s what I’m wrestling with. It was an 80’s style with the rounded extended shoulder pads. I replaced these with smaller and somewhat crisper. The former length balanced all this “design.” But it was ankle-length on me - I’m 5 feet with that all around hourglass.

My first thought was that I had to be careful how much I shortened it because of needing to balance the top fullness. So I have it around mid-calf, perhaps a bit higher. Looking at runway pictures I see many similar full cut trenches that are knee length and even above the knee. It gives a very wide poofy effect even on the slender models.

What do you think?

My off-cuff-answer was “not above the knee”, but here’s what I found after a bit more research.

• Generally these looks measure two “units” above the belt and three below. That is in accordance with the basic laws of proportion governing the universe.
• But I think some of them are belted above the natural waist. Okay for a skinny model, not actually workable for a genuine Type X figure.
• And then there is the matter of the sleeves. Nearly all of them were 3/4 length or at least pushed up. I suppose that is merely parenthetical to the actual point here.
• But shape is the elusive element. If you belted the coat at the first natural-looking spot below the bust and then hemmed the coat to a length (from the belt) 1 and 1/2 times the length from shoulder to belt, would the “skirt” of the coat poof or drape? Would the overall silhouette be an hourglass, a figure eight, or a mish-mash? And would the length be above the knee or below?

If it worked, it could be fresh, pretty, and springy.

Picture “borrowed” from Elle.com. Subscribe here for even less than Vogue.

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Given the fact that my primary photographer took her camera and went on vacation for a week, and that it took much of yesterday to get her there, presently I am awaiting back-up photographer’s arrival; I have not yet taken the pictures for today’s fashion lab.

In the meantime, I posted a small thought over at my Titus 2 blog and it has become obvious that all is not right with Blogger. The post is there, somewhere, but not at the top of the main page. *?*?*

So I am at the mercy of Blogger (and my back-up photographer). Will we indeed have a fashion lab today? I hope so.

Update: In the end, it was neither Blogger nor my back-up photographer that scrapped, or at least postponed, today’s planned photo shoot. It was equipment failure. To avoid these kind of technology-based problems, follow the Bargain Queen’s advice. Admittedly an old article, but the truth of it (especially #1) affects me everyday. Have I ever mentioned that I blog from a Windows ME operated computer?

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In the spirit of my previous Vogue cover art reviews, I will be calling out just a few of the artistic principles employed here:

• Color choice: With a persona as glamorous as this, what other choice is there but red? Note that the red here is the “little to the dark, without going burgundy” I mentioned in my recent post Steps to Successfully Wearing Red & Black, a wonderful red for those with deeper coloring.
• Visual weight: Clearly the dress is of a light-weight fabric. I am confident that if it were not so, we would see more of the actress’s hair. Adjusting the volume of one’s hair is the primary way of adapting to fabric weight.
• Taut vs drapy: Generally speaking, taut fabrics are congruent with the hardness of visible bone structure, drapy with soft roundedness. Pictured is an example of a slender person of soft roundness. Agreed?

Read more on this issue at the Runway Scoop. Unlike Maria Palma, who identifies with Angelina Jolie, I feel no connection to her at all. She’s just an extraordinarily pretty face.

BTW, you could buy me a subscription to Vogue for pretty much less than the price of a tee-shirt.

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Two considerations compel me to try harder in this next year to plan and post my outfits prior to an event:

• KNOWING what I am going to wear. No small matter.
• Just in case one of my real-life friends is curious. Probably a small matter.

But it did happen. Christmas Eve, to be precise. The hostess of the party we went to had checked the blog that day to see what I would be wearing. Her diabolical plan: to wear the same thing!

The eerie thing about it is that, although I didn’t post what I planned to wear, or even have a plan earlier in the day, we were not dressed that different. Chunky shoes, bootcut jeans, v-neck sweater over collared shirt. My daughter even pointed out that our sweaters matched our hair: hers - dark brown, mine - heather gray.

Evidently she’s been paying attention.

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As my husband took today off from work, I will not return to normal blogging until tomorrow.

Just a few hints as to what’s on my mind:

• Things I’d like to improve in my personal wardrobe planning process in 2007. Like low-pressure New Year’s Resolutions.
• A Vogue cover artistic analysis. Yes, the US January edition featuring Angelina Jolie.
• This week for Friday Fashion Lab I will be dressing up in jeans with different lengths of tops layered over and thinking about line placement as it relates to body particulars. Anybody care to play?

From last year’s post-Christmas post, Style It Yourself:

Ever wonder about statistics for being sick on Christmas and/or the day after compared to any other day of the year?

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Did you get any cool clothes? (I don’t think anybody dares to get me any. There was a nice pair of hiking socks in my stocking, though, and plenty of $$$. I’m happy.:)

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