The Space Between My Peers

Since this has been a print week and Coutorture has photos available from Oscar’s Resort ‘09 collection, and Dior Cruise ‘09 too, I thought we’d take a look at some prints, Fashion Lab-style.

Compare the use of scale in these first two.  Who is flattered and who is just plain overwhelmed?

In this second set, in addition to scale, we can study line movement and especially direction.  (Also note that the deep, square neckline, which is visually in balance, acts kind of as a solid to separate the print from the face.)

Just for fun, here’s thumbnails of some more pictures.

Which is your favorite look? That last picture is me. 

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Many thanks to Chrs for the question and the pictures for this sleeve-length fashion lab!  A previous sleeve-length fashion lab tested the affect wearing a 3/4 length (or pushed up) sleeve has on visual length of the legs; the question before us now is: 

what affect, if any, does sleeve length have on the apparent length of the top?  Do any of these tops look shorter or longer than they really are because of the length of the sleeves?

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Raging Rouge has done two “fashion labs”, trying on dozens of pink lipsticks and glosses and photographing them to share with us.

• Her favorites:  The New Pink IS Pink!
• More sophisticated options:  Pink, All Grown Up

With such a great layout, why should I do a fashion lab this week? 

But I know I really want to get back to doing them, so leave a comment if you have an idea.

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Alternative title: Why blogging is a frustrating way to spend a life.

Having the morning free before a lunch meeting and a later appointment, I was looking forward to getting some serious “blog puttering” accomplished. Fat chance!

First, I thought about posting about choosing eyeglass frames. Since I hadn’t brought along a photographer when I actually selected my new ones (although it would’ve been a good idea), I thought perhaps I could use pictures from one of the virtual try-on places. Like this one. Or the one over here. Except that you can’t copy those pictures.

In any case, here’s what I’m thinking about eyeglass frame selection:

• line movement in the face, and especially in the eye area, seems to have a greater bearing on what works than does face shape. My face is a combination of curved and straight, vertical and diagonal. Today’s horizontal frames make me look dull, flat, and tired.
• some styles may be unacceptable because they simply don’t mesh with the wearers personality. Such was the case when I tried on a round, completely rimless style. I had to laugh, although it didn’t look bad.
• glasses should be in harmony with the size of the facial features. Which is good news for me now, since small glasses are about all one can find.

More on this topic another time, I’m sure. For now, I think I’m addicted to playing with the frame-finder.

After failing to produce a post on frame fashion, I turned my thoughts to color, a topic never far from my mind, and starting looking at some of the links my mom had sent me recently and thinking about defining the beiges, as per eternalvoyageur’s request, only to find myself distracted by …

this pdf from the Utah Education Network, which reminded me of a quiz in the book Casual Power. To be completely honest with you, in my life I have often been disappointed in the way I am received on first impression. Until recently, that is. For some reason - could it be the long gray hair? - I have noticed more people smiling at me when I am out and about, young and old, and an overall willingness to strike up a casual conversation.

I don’t know about you, but I really want to relate positively to people.

I invite you to take the quiz. Unfortunately, when I tried to cut and paste the table over here, it disappeared.

Here are a few of the questions:

1. Do you attract people with whom you have interests in common?
   
2. Does your dress send an accurate message about you?
3. When you catch an unexpected glimpse of yourself in a mirror, do you like what you see?
4. Do other people ignore you or push you around?
5. Do you feel you look dull or boring?

Any insights you’d like to share? Any of these topics you’d like to see further discussion on?  Any of your own frustrations you’d like to spout off about?

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Intending to try out some of the outfit suggestions for my new “boring” sweater, but not having a photographer available, I rigged up a wreath holder on the inside of my closet door.  He hee.  If you like how it works, maybe I’ll be more inclined to take pictures.  Even without having to get changed in and out of the outfits, this project took me a long time.

Anyway, on to the pictures.  This first one is with my one and only scarf, which lately I have been thinking about using to fill in a v-neck sweater (scarf as blouse is an old scarf-tying era trick).  Anyway, this I like, and will probably wear to church.

Next I turned my attention to creating outfits for spring.  Here’s where the technique of showing the clothes hanging like this rather than on the body breaks down. Anyway, how do you like my $5 white quilted leather belt? About the pants: I bought them recently (for $1) when I realized I didn’t have anything between lined wool trousers and my short sleeved pants. These are light weight cotton, denim-y blue with neutral stripes, and while they are not wardrobe staples, I didn’t pay much.

And speaking of not paying much, here’s my new summer leisure/casual dress that I go t for $2.49 at KMart.  Most of you know that v-neck is less my thing than other necklines, but I’m comfortable in it worn over a collared shirt.   

(Parenthetically here, I took a picture of the sweater with my chocolate brown button-up shirt under, but lost it.  Worn like that, though, it basically goes with all my winter stuff:  jeans tucked into boots, wool patterned trousers, wool skirts and boots … .)

Anyway, I love how this summery dress makes a transitional outfit - sure to be a favorite next fall! - when combined with the sweater and wintery accessories.

Now, on to my jackets.  Most are nothing special when combined with this sweater.

(The safari-style jacket color goes fine with the sweater, and the sweater even fits under it, but I confess I am squeamish about the very lightweight fabric combined with a cable-knit sweater.)

Now I’m off to shopping with a bunch of teenagers.  These are the times when I really love my life!

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I’m trying to get back to a more regular posting schedule, including Fashion Labs on Fridays. Any what to wear questions on your mind? You, too, can be a model for a future fashion lab and benefit from the input of others. Drop me a line.

Ever since Vildy told me about Brenda Kinsel’s body proportion principles, I’ve been a cow. That is, I’ve been ruminating on the idea of the four zones. Grab your measuring tape, here’s how it works:

Zone 1: Top of face (I think this must need to be top of head/hair) to top of chest, approximately armpit. (Mine = 14)

Zone 2: Armpit to … legpit. That is, the break in the leg, aka the hip socket. (Mine = 18)

Zone 3: Hip socket to mid-knee. (Mine = 15)

Zone 4: Mid-knee to floor. (Mine = 18)

(Somewhere in the imprecision of self measuring, I lost 3/4 of an inch!)

In reality, this ends up being very close to taking two of the head lengths I have talked about before at a time, but the application is slightly different. Brenda Kinsel suggests considering each zone as a room in a house. The larger the room, the more furniture (line breaks, detailing, embellishments, bells and whistles) you can put in there. Which explains why I don’t want jeans that hug the thigh, tapering in at the knee; they just emphasize how short I am in that zone.

This has also got me thinking alot about tops, and just in time too! More on this to come, but for now:

1. Is anybody long in zone 1? If so, do you by chance have a more glamorous style, using more jewelry and accessories than most? I’m feeling justified in liking to keep things simple in that “room” in my house.
2. What is your “biggest room” and how have you already been filling it? For example, with my long torso I can easily wear short jackets (inches above the hip socket) which are fitted at the waist (the change of line direction has the opposite effect of a straight vertical line), even belted with pockets.
3. Can you think of ways to “borrow” space from one zone for the other? I just realized why it doesn’t really matter if my jeans are skinny, straight, or wide, just as long as the line is unbroken from hip to floor: that is effectively “borrowing” from my length in zone 4 to add to zone 3.

This is going to have a huge impact on my wardrobe! How about you?

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In a previous post on jean pocket placement, I said that

high and small pockets make whatever is below them look bigger.

To which I would now like to add:

the greater the lateral distance from the pocket to the edge of your rear, the wider you appear.

At least, that’s how it seems to me. (Pictured jeans NOT warranted to be affordable, but are used for illustration purposes.)

Does anybody have any ideas about what’s most flattering in pocket design (like the pretty designs that are on some jeans)?

Also, I am having a very difficult time jean shopping; since this time last year, I appear to have put on five pounds in each knee. Sympathy, please!  Even Zafu doesn’t seem to be able to help.  As usual, I have in my mind something simple and basic, which doesn’t seem like it should be so hard to find.  I want:

• a dark wash.  Because I’m more comfortable in it, it’s a little dressier, and if any part of me needs the benefit of a darker color to look smaller, yes, it’s my bottom half.
• a 9-inch rise.  Because it just works on me.  Without looking outdated or contributing to the gap in the back.
• tapered legs.  By that I mean that I don’t want the hem to be as wide as the knee.  And, as mentioned before, I certainly would like the knee to FIT.  (Is that too much to ask?)

Once again, today, I tried on big piles of jeans, only to leave the store empty-handed.  Express jeans fit, but they are so BORING.   Okay, one more question:  what do you think of trying to use spray bleach and a stencil to create my own design on the pocket?

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This year the day after Thanksgiving, versus last year’s office Christmas party picture. Actually, since this picture was taken, the one with the long hair, I got a trim — and came out looking almost exactly the same! Yay!

Which do you think looks younger? How many years?

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My husband named this project “Frankencoat” because it is actually a dress with pieces of other garments, plus fabric, sewn onto it. It may be used as a costume for a youth production of the Broadway (musical) version of Little Women. Or it may not.

Initially planned to be a hag dress, the gray tweed was deemed too nice by the director. At the same time, I was struggling to come up with ladies coats in the shape I wanted; most modern wool coats (at least the ones we can afford to use for costumes) are boxy and shapeless. So was the dress.

Here’s what I did:

1. split the dress up the front and cut off the bottom. The extra off the bottom became the little cape effect thing below the collar.
2. Next I took the top of a black velvet dress I had found, which wasn’t being used for anything. The top may actually end up being used now, I didn’t have to cut through the zipper and I serged around the bottom to keep it from fraying. Making a seam at the waist of the dress, I attached the full black velvet skirt to the inside. Then I sliced up the dress to allow the black velvet to show. How hack is that?
3. A sleeveless vest with fake fur trim donated the toggle closures.
4. Some random velvet I had laying around (for what purpose, who knows?) covers the collar, trims the little cape thing, and fills in as a faux back half-belt.
5. Lesson: baste everything first! Can you imagine having to take out little stitches from this stretchy fabric? And tweed?

There it is. One of the reasons I haven’t been around much. (I had hoped to get this posted in time for the fabulous festival on costumes at dramatis personae. Perhaps she’ll have mercy on me.)

What do you think?  I’m happy I made it, but this may be the most daylight (or spotlight) it ever sees. 

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Ah yes, I am still buried in crinolines and calico (working non-stop on Little Women costumes), thus quality blogging is on the back burner for the time being.

But still, I like these new boot cut jeans from Gap. I was curious which I would think looked better, the boot cuts or the skinnies. Too bad I can’t get them side by side. Victory is mine!

I think I like both.

Update: dcrmom wondered what was different about the new bootcut. So do I. Even before Gap came out with their curvy cut (Women: Curvy boot cut jeans - medium tint), it was obvious that some of their fits worked with - shall we call them “athletic”? - thighs and others didn’t.  Below left is the classic bootcut and right is long and lean.  If my suspicions are correct, between the two of these, Trinnys wear the classic and Susannahs wear the long and lean.  Not certain about the above.  Thoughts?

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