Jeans: Rigid or Stretch?
Update on my jean hunt: while I’m still hunting for the perfect pair, I picked up a simple pair of j crew button-fly, straight-leg, five-pocket, you know, just-plain-jeans. For $1 at the thrift store. Then I went back to the thrift store I mentioned previously and found that the jeans I had liked on me, but declined to pay $6.98 for, were now 75% off of the $6.98. These are gap long and lean, with flap pockets and the crease thing down the front. Not everyday jeans for me, because I don’t wear heels every day.
But back to the question at hand: rigid or stretch jeans?
Conventional wisdom says stretch. And I know all the reasons: you get a personally fit pair of pants, you can wear a smaller size without worrying about shrinkage (my husband wonders how many women prefer stretch for the primary reason that they can wear a smaller size), and so on, yada yada, ad nauseam.
But. Consider the wisdom of Clinton and Stacy
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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?
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Fashion Lab: Cap Sleeves
Remember I mentioned that Angie said cap sleeves often aren’t flattering (at least as flattering as sleeveless)?
Here, from a previous fashion lab, is a picture of me in cap sleeves. For some reason I thought this tee-shirt was going to work for me.
What was I thinking?
Actually it will work well this fall, as an under-layer. The neckline hits a good spot on me, it’s brown (my eye color), and long enough to wear with any pants. Presently it’s hanging in my closet underneath a soft black v-neck.
(Please overlook needed ironing and etc. in the picture. I had to hurry up and grab the shirt and get shot before someone ran off with the camera.)
Here, though, is a cap sleeve shirt I love and I can wear with or without something over it (not to mention my daughter found it for me at Value Village for $1 with the tags still on). So what is it that makes the difference?
My money is on the tautness of the fabric.
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How to Wear a Dress Over Pants
Over at Individual Chic, Icy shows how to wear a dress over pants with style. (It’s easy to get it wrong and wind up looking messy.)
Her two rules:
- Match the colors.
- Keep the dress above the knee.
Additional artistic principles to keep in mind, if you are going to try this:
- Stay within one of the six silhouettes.
- Make sure the fabrics weights work together.
- Go monochromatic, or break up the look using the 60/40 rule.
Why I will probably never try it:
- It’s complicated. I’m not.
- My rise is long and my thighs are short. Because of that I just don’t like or have short dresses.
Nevertheless, I know people like this look; so I wanted you to see Icy’s post. (Just for fun, here’s what I said about it last spring. I still like aprons!)
What about you? Are you wearing dresses for shirts?
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US Vogue Cover: January 2007 Picturing Angelina Jolie
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
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Taut vs Drapy Fabrics: Combining for Congruence
This vest is on sale at Gap. Click on the picture to buy. Contact me if you need a place to have it shipped to. 
Maybe we’re all sick of discussing taut vs drapy fabrics and relating them to the body, but I still have a few ideas left in my brain that make some sense. After that, I throw up my hands and declare, “cashmere and stretch cotton for everybody!”
As I explained in this recent post, my own body-type, speaking now of fleshiness vs angularity, is combination: straight on top, curvy on bottom. What about the combination pictured makes it so right for me?
- The crispy white shirt, which is what I need most and should buy with my remaining birthday money, would both support and hide the straight lines in my upper body.(What could be grosser than a smooth, drapy, lightweight tee-shirt with collar bones showing through? Okay, maybe a smooth, drapy, lightweight tee-shirt with rolls showing through. But it’s close!)
- Although barely visible here, the jeans appear to be more on the softly broken-in side. And clearly heavier weight than the crispy white shirt.I’m beginning to suspect that my distaste for drapy fabrics on bottom is because the fabrics I am picturing are too lightweight for my body-type. In terms of jeans, softer, either because of wear or spandex, seems better.
- The vest, being both soft and medium-weight, seems to link the top and bottom harmoniously.And note the patterning created by the combination of vertical ribbing and cables. Because my face is primarily vertical, with some rounded features, this is good. All cables, however, emphasizes the tip of my nose. Crazy!
Actually, there are a few other things I like about this combination as well, but since I’m not writing a book here, I’ll stop now.
Your turn. Does this give you any ideas?
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The Books Vildy Mentioned
Two books which reference the angularity vs fleshiness we’ve been talking about, but which I have not read are:
Color and line in dress, by Laurene Hempstead
David Kibbe’s Metamorphosis: Discover Your Image Identity and Dazzle As Only You Can
I’m going to try to get to the library and/or used book store today.
Mentioned in the Amazon review page for Kibbe’s book were his list of style-type designations: Dramatic, Romantic, Theatrical, Classic, Natural, Flamboyant, Gamine.
Nothing to Wear?: A Five-Step Cure for the Common Closet only lists 5 style types; my sporty/FUN daughter was quite offended that her elegance didn’t even rate a designation. Personally, I’m still trying to some up with a set of names I’m thoroughly comfortable with. I’m stuck at Sporty.
Which one of Kibbe’s styles do you think that is?
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Two Ways to Create Harmony: Repetition vs. Contrast
This post is totally unrelated to my “gingerly wading” into a sea of shower water in my basement this morning. I’m putting myself on a plumbing bleaching schedule!
Gingerly wading into the sea of confusion surrounding the “flowiness” of fabric, I’ll start by calling out the idea, as requested by Jennifer, behind the rule of the thumb prescribed in The Triumph of Individual Style:
The principle is to create straight lines where your body is straight and curved lines where your body is curvy. (Remember this saddlebag solution? That was a medium taut fabric constructed into a curved shape. Hmmm … like a fitted jacket or blouse with darts.)
In this, and most of the other artistic principles I have blogged, harmony is created between clothing and the body of the wearer by repetition. Using a color palette based on your own personal coloring is an obvious example.
Contrast is another way of achieving harmony, and emphasis. (Boy, do I feel the need for an art teacher about now!) In color, the example would be to use the complement of your natural color.
(No doubt Wendy is correct in suggesting that fabric choices are related to personal idiom, even as Vildy had noted that she has a “crisp personality”.)
But what about Jennifer’s other question: Doesn’t that make you look more extreme? Which emphasizes the natural straightness or curviness of the body more, repetition or contrast?
More thoughts? If one learns best by discussing a subject, I suspect I’m going to be on this one for a while.
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O Magazine June 2006 Cover Art
Likely it is not necessary for me to explain why I have chosen this detour in my series on Vogue cover art. I’m sure you’ve seen the Uma Thurman in bikini, June 2006 Vogue.
So, why not do Oprah? For a dose of reality dressing, her looks are closer to where most of my peers live.
First principle I want to highlight is that of line in the body. It’s no secret that Oprah’s body is primarily soft, curved lines; notice how the smooth stretch fabric of her clothing harmonizes with her soft curviness. Perhaps you are already employing this principle in your own clothing choices.
- Identifying your body lines: Look for soft, smooth curves (like Oprah’s); harder, muscular curves; or the straighter lines of visible bones. Many people (like me) have predominantly straight lines above the waist and curved below; you could also be the other way around.
- Creating harmony with fabric: Drapey fabrics, such as smooth knits, flatter soft smoothness; crisper fabrics, such as cotton twill or linen, suit more skeletal bodies. In the case of the combination, my preference is to dress to match the top half (after all, the face is the natural focal point of every outfit).
- Creating harmony with tailoring: Among other considerations, line in the body contributes to preferences for straight or angled details vs. rounded lines in things like necklines and collar construction.
- Creating drama with contrast: Once you’ve assimilated this idea and feel comfortable working with it, you may want to try the opposite for dramatic effect.
Okay, now for something simple. How about the color harmony? Monochromatic (Oprah’s own coloring is monochromatic). And a bonus thought: Note how the line movement in the print relates to the lines and shapes in Oprah’s hair and features.
Ugh. I so wanted to do a helpful and analytical post. Unfortunately, due to Blogger issues, I have to be thankful for whatever this turns out to be. For some reason, I am unable to use preview. Oh well.
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Vogue April 2006 Cover: Jennifer Aniston as Art
Due to the popularity of my previous Vogue cover art critique, I thought, “better late than never”, and decided to do this one.
Ms. Jennifer Aniston is the epitome of clean, outdoorsy, natural beauty; if I may say so, the kind of beauty men understand and appreciate most.
Notice how the cover artist(s) used repetition for emphasis:
- Line shape: The arch is the predominant line present in this star’s facial features. Notice how the hair is positioned to repeat the arch of the eyebrow and emphasizes the diagonal curve of the jaw. The drape of the neckline of the dress is a similar curve.
- Surface sheen: How else to pick up and emphasize the metallic glittery quality of the golden hair but with the golden strands of –since I didn’t actually buy the magazine this time, I know not what– repeating the texture of the hair. Her skin even appears to sparkle. (Speaking of sparkle: if only I could smile naturally like that for pictures, you people might actually see my face. Alas, glare is my normal pose for the camera.)
Do try this at home:
- Line shape: Choose hairstyle, neckline and construction details to be worn near your face that repeat the lines of your facial features you wish to emphasize. Also be aware that you may be calling attention to lines you’d rather weren’t noticed. Think flippy-outy hair next to neck wrinkles. Shudder.
- Surface sheen: Think of your skin and hair in terms of shiny or matte, and wear fabrics and metals which repeat the natural reflectivity (many people are combinations). Think prom dress vs. mother-of-the-bride dress.
One other thing: if availability decreases desirability, how can wearing a sheer dress be a benefit?
