The Text on Texture
Searching the October 2006 archives brought up this previously published discussion:
Vildy’s comment hits me right in the uncertainty zone (at least we’re there together:)
I’m not sure anymore how I feel about textures. I would wear this out to a casual evening but not stretch velveteen in the daytime. Not any more, anyway. I’ve just gotten rid of all of my flannel suit jackets, skirts, trousers. I realized I never wanted to wear them because I like smooth fabrics. I like fabrics with substance and crispness, too. This goes against the whole “there should be movement in your clothing” philosophy.
I get a lot out of reading your thinking about clothes and life. I’d love it if you’d write more about texture. Even though I’m rounded, I have a crisp personality and feel awkward in soft, draped clothes - like I’m selling a bill of goods.
The textbook answer to the taute vs drapy fabric question is this:
Skeletal (straight line) body types wear taut fabrics, muscular = semi-taut to semi-drape, molded (smooth, where the natural padding obscures the visibility of either bone or muscle) types wear drapy fabrics. Combination types wear taut on the straight parts and drapy on the smooth parts.
But that advice has never suited my personality either. And it seems to contradict Clinton and Stacy’s regular practice of making chubby people look slender by putting them in structured jackets.
Obviously I am not finished exploring this topic. What are your thoughts?
Related Posts:
Find Me Some Sassy Flats
Help! Karen says I need a sassier flat shoe. I have spent literally hours looking, both in town and online. If you lovely readers can find something suitable, I am willing to spend birthday $$ on it. And, frugal as I am, I don’t mind spending real money on shoes.
My criteria:
- I have to be able to walk three miles at a quick clip in them. (My ballet flats and Converse are only good for about two.)
- No black, no white. Preferably cordovan or burgundy brown, chocolate brown, pewter or other dark grey, possibly navy. In other words, a non-black dark of the same value as my darkest jeans.
- Tailored styling. Nothing romantic: no mary janes, no round toes.
- No elf shoes (no pointed or turned-up toes).
- I need to be able to wear socks with them. Wool or bamboo socks.
- Generally speaking, a shoe needs to be a lace-up to stay on my foot.
There you have it. And, who knows? Maybe there’s something out there that doesn’t quite meet every point, but would nevertheless be perfect. But, I’m beginning to suspect I’m just going straight to flat boots this year. Which would have been fine yesterday, but since I never left the house my feet were very happy in my old black “bowling style” flats.
So leave me a link in comments. I can’t wait to see what you find!
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Just Get Dressed
What I have called “everyday leisure“, Jennifer and drwende have aptly renamed “just get dressed“. How many days out of the week does that describe your wardrobe needs? And what activities might those days include?
For me, “just get dressed” (for which I have the option, in my geographic region, of wearing “outdoor leisure” or “everyday leisure”) encompasses most of my Mondays and Tuesdays, and approximately half of my Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Maybe more. On any given day I could be cooking, picking up after the dog, grocery or thrift store shopping, walking for exercise, or … ? And what’s easy for me to forget is I am always representing my own level of fashion authority. 
Here’s what I’m wearing today.
- old black “bowling shoe” style flats, resurrected because they are comfortable and they blend with my jeans (too old for the cost of them to signify, they were moderately priced, purchased on sale at JCPenney)
- dark skinny jeans ($15, Shopko clearance)
- white oxford button-front shirt, which - due to the fantastic flying collar and the perfectly placed darts- is becoming such a favorite that if I can find another I will be willing to pay real money for it (hand-me-over-for-$1 from a daughter, originally Costco’s Lady Hathaway brand)
- v-neck, cable-knit, cashmere sweater in oatmeal heather ($15, TJMaxx). Worn with the white shirt this illustrates the question I asked Imogen on her post “How to Choose Your Perfect White”.
- reversible belt, worn animal print side ($5 clearance from Wilsons leather), held in place by lingerie straps pinned onto the side seams of the sweater. he hee.
Since I’m an accessory retard, please tell me if this belt works. I know one thing: if I had added a necklace to this outfit, one or the other (belt or necklace) would have had to go.
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Accessories: Embellishments or Infrastructure?
“Accessories are also the infrastructure of a well-designed outfit. If you don’t have it, your outfit will crumble.”
Brenda Kinsel, from the book Brenda Kinsel’s Fashion Makeover
In the course of focusing on my own comeback, I have finally come to the place in my wardrobe life where I recognize my need for a basic assortment of accessories. Serendipitously, I am also reading this book. Allow me to go out on a limb here and suggest that if you, like me, are an accessory retard, this book could change that. The author does a fabulous job keeping accessories in their proper role, suggesting pieces which support your personal coloring and relate to the scale of your facial features.
She also suggests, after going through what you have and deciding what to keep, but before shopping, that you play with your accessories, grouping them by color (including metals). Take photos.
Without even doing the project I know what I need: necklaces.
- silver to support my hair color (I already have pearls),
- pink to add color near my face when wearing a neutral outfit, and
- brown to enhance my eyes and complete the infrastructure effect of brown buttons and belt.
Often when getting dressed, I know I need a third color near my face. Without a necklace (or scarf, but I don’t like them) my options are limited
Knowing that I don’t like to spend money AND I my stamina for accessory shopping is limited, where would you recommend I look for accessories and costume jewelry? Have you found any good deals lately?
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The Pie Chart
I’m re-running this, one of my very early posts, because I think the concept is basic. Whether you have a mental pie chart or actually use one of the links here to build one, you need to know how much of your life you spend in which kinds of clothes.
Recently the trend in fashion advice books has been to draw yourself a pie chart, based on some form of lifestyle segmentation, in order to visualize the level of need in each category. What I found for you: a web-site that will do your pie chart for free. You can even choose the colors! I also found a web-site where you can download applets to make pie charts and graphs for use on your site.
Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to build your own pie chart, based on your own lifestyle. Decide first whether you need to split any of my suggested categories into two or more; say, if your office has Casual Friday every week and you want to add a business casual segment. For the value of each segment, enter the number of times per week you dress for that lifestyle. I mean, each time you get dressed (every time the baby spits up or … ). That’s really all there is to it!
Related Posts:
Catching Up on My Makeover (and Etc)
Let’s see … where was I? Oh yes, I was blogging my “comeback”. By now, I should have:
- Lost 4 out of 5 pounds AND re-built the habit of walking (outside, midday) most days. Check done on the first, although I don’t recommend my weight loss method (being sick caused me to lose my appetite), and that same “method”, along with being in the hospital for a couple of days with my son, got me off-track with exercising.
- Scheduled at least my next haircut. I can see I need to explore this topic more. But, for now, yes, I do have my next haircut scheduled (Oct 22).
- Which is a good thing, since I wanted my hair shorter than I got it. A new concept I’m considering: asking my stylist, who apparently schedules half-hour appointments, to book me for 45-50 minutes and charge accordingly.
- Quit biting my nails. Yay! Now I really should schedule a manicure (and have my eyebrows done while I’m at it).
- I still need a magnifying mirror, so I can see to keep them (the eyebrows, that is) plucked myself.
- Fall wardrobe planning: I should have a shopping list and have purchased at least most of the staples. Still in process.
- An accessories post to come.
- Plan my “comeback” events. Later.
How is everyone else’s “comeback” and/or fall wardrobe season coming along?
Announcing the inception of Eternal Voyageur’s *Starburst Festival*:
The topic is “Things Every Woman Should Know” aka all the things that we have found out for ourselves the hard way, and we wish would have been told us in the beginning of this journey. Visit Venusian Glow to participate.
Lately I’ve also been empathizing with you ladies in the working world, specifically thinking about shoes. Have you tried Soffts? From their web-site:
…Söfft will be making a special appearance on the second season of Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style on BravoTV. We are thrilled to be a part of this show and hope you will tune-in.
Bravo has just recently scheduled the episode featuring Söfft, so save the date:
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9th, 2008 @ 11/10C. Don’t miss it!
The premier of Tim Gunn is scheduled for October 2nd @ 11/10C.
