Closet

That time of year again. When I switch over from my winter clothes to my summer clothes. I feel pretty safe in guessing that it won't get cold for the next few months.

Last night I moved all my winter clothes into some plastic bins. Took out my summer clothes, the ones that made it all the way from Texas.

So hello strappy tinker tanks!

Ballet flats

Got these today. Cracked patent leather ballet flats.

Whenever I get flats or heels, I have to go down a size or two from what I normally wear in oxfords. These I got in a size 6 1/2 instead of 7 1/2.

A shoe-man once told me I had narrow feet, which was why shoes slip off my heels all the time. Probably why I have to size down, too.

Summer at the thrift store

The best books have just appeared at all the thrift stores around town. Usually, you mostly find thrillers and romance novels. But today I got
. Gnomes
. The White Hotel, D.M. Thomas (a pretty sexy, but literate, novel)
. Wuthering Heights
. Heart of Darkness
. Gulliver's Travels
. The Sun Also Rises
. The Iliad

The other day, I found
. The Complete Guide to Birdfeeding
. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Seeing as how I have mostly nothing to do this summer, I may as well start a reading program. Reading helps me feel normal.

I've also resumed the shopping. First thrift stores, then it became online shopping. These days, I hate going into the stores, where you have to talk to overly friendly SAs and make decisions on the spot. I like to relish the idea of having something, and imagine what it would be like, which o.s. lets me do.

Thrift store haul

From the 70s
. High-waisted pants with contrast stitching on the pockets
. Pleated floral 2-piece dress

From Ireland
. Striped canvas belt with tin metal closure

New pleasures

Rather than clothes. Plants, curtains, music in the background. Laying flat on my back, staring at the ceiling, daydreaming. Reading on the stoop outside my apartment. Opening windows wide.

Baby girls and boys

I was thinking about babies, and the baby wishes of the people I know and have read about. If a preference is stated, it usually comes down to a parent who wants a boy to teach how to throw a football, or a girl that can be dressed up in pretty things.

I think in its way, it's the parent's desire to give their children a social advantage. A social advantage mostly in adolescence, before we diversify and become more sophisticated and removed from the crudely sketched-in fascimiles of the people we will become, that we are in adolescence.

Okay. I mean that for a boy, popularity can most easily come from physical prowess. And for girls, being attractive.

Thrifting

Haven't been thrifting much lately. I used to love to thrift, when I had lots of time and little money. That's the ideal calculus for thrifting.

Sometimes, being in the thrift store depresses me (although, what doesn't these days). All the racks of clothes and things, turned out and discarded. All the people in the stores, quietly going through the racks.

Still, my favorite things have come from thrift stores:
. bright blue and white polka-dotted blouse with pocket ties
. leather belt with assymetric buckle
. Dr Marten striped sneakers
. black cocktail dress (worn to the rehearsal dinner for my wedding)
. cognac leather peeptoe slingback heels

So I return and hope. You never know, in the sea of crap, there might be one or two fantastic, unique things that you can't find anywhere else.

...

Those masterful images because complete
Grew in pure mind, but out of what began?
A mound of refuse or the sweepings of a street,
Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can,
Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut
Who keeps the till. Now that my ladder's gone,
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.

an excerpt from W.B. Yeats' "The Circus Animal's Desertion"

Budget

I have put myself on one. Rather than going monthly, however, I've decided to go by season. First is spring/summer, and then the other half of the budget is for fall/winter. I don't quite remember what the remaining budget is for this summer, but so far I'm sure that I've done rather well since I've bought very little this past month.

All I've gotten so far was two shirts from the sidewalk sale yesterday at Anthropologie. I didn't intend to go shopping (the boy was only going to get a cable from the Apple store), but when I saw that they were having a sidewalk sale. Mon dieu! How could I resist.

But, at least, one thing was marked down from $118 to about a fourth of that. So I am still way under budget.

Returned

Went to Target today and returned a bunch of Luella Bartley stuff, part of the Go International collection. Luella, also known as Crappella. Funny how a little time takes off the shiny veneer.

"Vacation"

I love living out a suitcase. I like having everything I need, reduced. And I like wearing the same thing over and over, 5 different ways.

Not been shopping much lately

Relatively speaking.

I try to compare the pleasure of getting something against the unhappiness of being weighted down by things. Most things seem more like a drag than anything else these days.

I think it's heartbreakingly sweet

When people try, and you see evidence of their trying.

And I don't mean that in a condescending way. I mean in the way that we all have to get up every day, invent who we will be. That, despite the suggestion of futility, we try anyway.

This is someone from the Fashion Spot. A lawyer in Scotland.

I think she looks pretty cute. (Never mind the headless shot. Forum convention.)

Once

These two hipster guys asked to take my picture. They said they were taking photos for Diesel, I guess as street style inspiration.

I said no.

Beauty

I think I'm just chasing beauty. I have accumulated files and files of pictures on my computer, images of pretty things. Mostly they are in the vein of "street style" pictures, just ordinary people dressed to go out in the world. I have few pictures of models or editorials.

Although I like runway pictures because a runway show is a cohesive story. Something to set the imagination going.

But the pictures of what people wear are inspiring.

It's like when I see a flock of birds alight. They look to me like torn pieces of confetti, thrown skyward.

So with these flashes of people going past.

Hmmm

The skirt I bought off eBay turned out to be a dress.

Service industry

I feel strange when the SAs really help me out. Yesterday, I went into Nordstrom to return a handbag (oh my God, the trauma with this bag...I didn't even want to blog it), and the girl very perkily helped me out. She offered to bring out similar bags from the back, and place any that I liked on hold until their big sale next week. She came out with a half dozen bags on her arm. She showed them to me. Took out stuffing so I could try them on more easily. Kneeled down to wrestle them out of their dust bags.

I felt bad. I wanted to reach down and pull her up, tell her that I can unpack my own bags. I am reminded of what the boy's best friend said, about the unhappiness he sometimes detects on the forced cheery facade.

Yet, I remember that I truly did enjoy helping people sometimes when I worked in retail.

But I also remember that my manager looked on my sales numbers to determine next week's hours, which would in turn determine how well I would eat the week after.

I don't know.

New York Times review of Anthropologie

I'm still puzzling out Anthropologie. I still can't put my finger on why I feel so depressed when I go there, as much as I like the clothes. The boy feels the same way. Sometimes he refuses to come into the store. But when he does, he installs himself into a loveseat somewhere, reading a book on the French countryside or manners or the like. He, at least, doesn't have that hunted look that the other DHs get in the store. I think men go into systemic shock from the abundance of ruffles, lace, and aromatherapy in the place.

The writer of this article speaks of the "profoundly depressing" aspect of Anthropologie. He gestures to the obvious: the fake vintage, the misplaced nostalgia, the imagined reality.

I think that's a pretty good assessment. But I still feel that there's something else I haven't thought of yet.

June 1, 2006
Critical Shopper
Peter Pan Collars in a Vintage Never-Never Land
By ALEX KUCZYNSKI

THE first thing you see when you walk through the doors of Anthropologie's new store on Rockefeller Plaza is a large glass case filled with old bicycle parts.

The bicycle parts — not a whole bicycle, mind you — serve as a kind of sculpture, but they also set the philosophical tone for the store. In fact, they blare it. A rusted bicycle, even an assemblage of pieces that once made up various bicycles, is a symbol of (in no particular order) childhood, innocence, independence, summertime and nostalgia. And the nostalgia smells awfully new in Anthropologie.

Anthropologie, a chain with 82 stores across the country, has taken the sensibility cloyingly referred to as French flea market chic, cleaned it up and made it available to mainstream American shoppers. According to the company literature, the company, founded in 1992, sees its customer as a woman who is 30 to 45; she is "affluent but not materialistic," well educated, well traveled and "relatively fit."

The stores offer a mix of clothing and accessories, bath and body products, home décor, bedding, antique furniture and decorative items some people would refer to as objets, but here I prefer the term tchotchkes. (A candleholder in the shape of tree branches on which painted songbirds perch, at $188, is a tchotchke.) The antique furniture and collectibles, which vary in each store, serve dual purposes as ambience-enhancing props and for-sale inventory.

From an architectural perspective, the store can't miss. Housed in the Art Deco former home of The Associated Press, it occupies one of Rockefeller Center's most thoughtful original buildings, a soaring three-story space defined in this new rendition by wrought-iron railings, enormous crystal chandeliers and a dramatic limestone staircase. At 12,000 square feet of selling space, the Rockefeller Center store is larger than most of those in the chain, which are typically half that size.

The focus of the main floor is women's clothing: inventive, often vintage-inspired pieces by Anna Sui, Tracy Reese, Isabel Marant, James Coviello. Farther back, in what the store literature refers to as the "theater," are home furnishings, which range from crystal drawer pulls and teacups in mind-blowing Mitteleuropa tones of violet and turquoise daubed with gilt all the way up to a $45,000 antique French cabinet.

Downstairs, accessories and a separate sale-only room share space with a spacious, well-lighted honeycomb of dressing rooms. The sales clerks show you to a room, then write your name on the door on a miniature erasable board. I love the dressing rooms, but I have to wonder how long that personalized touch will last.

What strikes me about the store's clothing is its heavy reliance on vintage looks. A knee-length Anna Sui dress in a green-and-black geometric print looks like something Anne Sexton wore on a book jacket in the early 1970's. Grammar-school-style pleated skirts billow out from cotton dresses with Peter Pan collars; they put me in mind of Oscar Levant's famous line that he knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.

A blue silk dress by Odille is printed with nosegays and encircled with black grosgrain ribbon. It's a look I think of as Aggressively Innocent, and I'm not sure it would work on the New York customers I saw in Anthropologie. At a certain point, you just can't wear Peter Pan collars without looking as if you are trying to reclaim your virginity or are, worst case, a cosmopolitan version of Bette Davis in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"

But these are matters of taste. On a practical level, I have only one small criticism. Anthropologie is owned by Urban Outfitters, and it succeeds in distinguishing itself from that parent brand on most levels. But something in my brain clicks when I look at a price tag in Anthropologie, and I recognize that it is the same computerized price-tag system used at Urban Outfitters. Rather than feeling transported to a French flea market, I feel transported to a warehouse selling brightly colored flokati rugs, paper lanterns and cheap T-shirts.

ON a philosophical level, there is something about Anthropologie that is well intentioned but makes me profoundly depressed. The old bicycles, the old-fashioned Marvis toothpaste, the etched-glass candleholders, the calico pajama sets, the teacups and saucers — all are the trappings of a grandparent's or a parent's home.

But the 30-something generation that shops at Anthropologie, among the first to be widely defined as children of divorce, no longer has access to those homes, which have long since been dispersed. There is no longevity in their parents' houses. The romantically weathered chests of drawers and stacks of pristinely aged National Geographic magazines were all put into storage, sold or dispersed among the various interested parties.

This is where Anthropologie steps in: It helps the shopper create the illusion of household continuity by allowing her to reimagine a place where Grandma might leave out her pre-fluoride tooth powder, to simulate a life in which Mom and Dad still live together in a house with European teacups and flocked bedspreads. In a world of Anthropologie furnishings and clothing, the consumers can reclaim lost childhoods, lost marriages, lost virginities. The store's philosophy takes the colloquial and sad world of regrets and realities and wraps it up in a swath of vintage calico, tied with a satin bow.

But the bicycle of the Anthropologie customer's summertime memories has disappeared; it is now in pieces, on untouchable display behind the sealed walls of an enormous glass box.

Anthropologie

50 Rockefeller Center; (212) 246-0386

ATMOSPHERE Reclaimed oak parquet floors, etched mirrors, scented candles.

SERVICE Aims to please.

KEY LOOKS Doris Day meets Carrie Bradshaw.

PRICES American Retro eyelet blouse, $158; 22-karat-gold Sonnet hoop earrings, $248; painted brass robin on a stone perch, $24; milk-and linden-flower-scented Lollia candle, $30.

Strategy

It's a bit of a game, figuring out when to buy something full price and when to wait for a sale. You have to assess how popular you think this item will be, how much you love it, how much you're willing to risk not having it. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose.

Certain designers in certain designs from certain stores will sell out faster.

I've noticed a few things:
. boutiques sell out much quicker. they probably make smaller orders.
. trendier items will sell out quicker as well. but they have to be wearable trendy items. so the Isabel Marant pinafore dress sold out immediately, while the Vanessa Bruno bubble mini skirt did not.
. obscurish, indie, or edgy designers may sell out quickly, depending. truly edgy stuff will not. cute designs from indie designers will.
. every season there are "it" items. those you have to get on a wait list for and hope. definitely no waiting for a sale.

Budget

I need one. It will be reasonable. It will keep things in check.

I have become the voracious female of mythological import. The succubus. The vagina dentata. The one who is too much, too much.

Mark my words

Overalls are coming back. Another revival from the eighties.

Nicholas K flint slim pants

I'm enamored with them. But I don't think I'll get them. I end up never wearing cropped pants. They always end up being kinda "momsy."

Designer brand review

Marc by Marc Jacobs...Super cute stuff. The brand I knew before I really knew designer brands. While I still enjoy his runway shows (the styling, the grunge influence), now that I've had a chance to see some of his work up close, it's not quite the same love affair. His stuff tends to be a little overly cute. Cutesy rather than whimsical. Worse, the cut and the material is sub par. I've tried on a bunch of different things--a cami top, boucle skirt, the jacket, cord skirt--but nothing felt special. They all seemed like things I could get for a lot cheaper elsewhere.

Isabel Marant...A name I heard of through TFS. I acquired a pair of pants a few weeks ago. Love! The material is soft and cool to the touch. It's lightweight but still feels substantial. I noticed that the outside seam of the pants curves around the leg, which I think makes it lay closer to the body. So even though the overall cut of the pants is loose and slouchy, it's still body-conscious.

Ann Demeulemeester...A Belgian designer, part of the Antwerp Six of the 1980s. Another TFS favorite. I got a sheer cotton & cashmere sweater a few weeks ago at the same time that I got the IM pants. Very nice. The material just feels better. This sweater, like the pants, is also cut along the bias. The seams curl around the entire length of the arm and around the middle. To the same effect: it lay against the body even though the overall cut is loose. Interesting.

Birkenstocks...I don't know if this counts as fashion designer. Probably anti-fashion, especially if you ask a German, I think. But they sure are comfortable shoes.

Which reminds me...Repetto...A resuscitated brand of ballet shoes based in France. They've come out with exquisite new lines of modern ballet shoes meant for wearing on the street. At first, I was not altogether happy with the soles on the shoes. I could feel every pebble, like the Princess and her peas. But now I'm back in love. The suede has molded to my feet and feels so nice on. The style itself is simple but well-made, and so should last for years. Which makes the price okay. I also like the fact that the left and right shoe are identical and made on a last. You have to break them in to your own foot.

Studies

I am studying my closet. It's time to clear out the things, weeding bad choices, editing down the selection. But I think I better figure out why I get some things, and they end up being well-loved and -worn, and other things I hate a few months later.

I think where I most trip up are two places:
. the SALE
. the trend

Hence, I have ended up with leggings (cute when I had to search for it. tacky now that it's ubiquitous) and bubble skirt. It's like the detritus that gets blown into a cul-de-sac. I don't know how they ended up here.

Then there's the sale items. Hard to resist. The voice of my mother rises up, says, "A bargain! It's practically free."

Help me.

100th post

Those Repetto shoes kill my feet. There's hardly any sole to them. I think I've gotten used to Birkenstock's shock-absorbing cushion. I was thinking fondly about cork soles as I walked around in those dang ballet shoes, scrupulously avoiding gravel, pockmarks in the sidewalk, miscellaneous stained street parts, etc.

But interestingly enough, the shoes make me take smaller steps. And step more daintily. Maybe the definition of a feminine shoe isn't the looks of it, but how they alter your walk. It's like foot-binding, except without the crippling and curling feet. But I certainly felt hindered walking around.

The boy said that those shoes are only meant to go small distances. I think, like women in general. My uncle once said that he liked having all girls in his family, because girls stayed close to home.

I've got too much crap

I need to stop the madness.

The closet is stuffed to the gills now. I can still get things in and out of there easily, but just barely. It makes me think back to just a year or two ago when all my things fit into two Rubbermaid containers. What with all the moving, they mostly stayed there.

There are two related pleasures for the whole endeavor. That of acquisition (small episodes of rapture) and de-acquisition (purification). I like both. Now I think I'm on to the pleasures of getting rid of stuff and winnowing down to the barest essentials.

It's all so indulgent I can hardly stand myself.

Woot!

I am now "Front Row" on thefashionspot!

(based on my number of posts. I was only a rising star, prior.)

Note to self

Keeg's, Eggbert's, Miller-Pollard, David Smith & Co.

Bar

Went out to a bar last night to meet my bro-in-law and his friend from college for drinks. Some stupid ritzy queen anne bar. Bunch of yuppies. The women were cut and primped to within an inch of their lives. The men wore suits. The drink of specialty were big 'tinis, as they called them. The women were all angling like they were bait.

I had come straight from class so I was wearing my teacher-wear.

APC denim countdown

Two wears. Only 118 more to go!

I need a new username

...for the fashion forum I frequent. I want something nonesensical. But personally meaningful. Perhaps I should draw from my old well of nicknames. Of which there are many, in part because I have an older sister who loves bestowing nicknames. The others are from friends and BFs.

*an edited selection*

Nicknames
. Moose Caboose (On the Loose)
. Boo Boo
. Moo
. Little Bittle
. Swittle
. Banderkovitz (means something like marauding viking invader)
. Gorgeous Gorgeous Crankypants Princess

New silhouette

Short dress, demure high heels (no stilettoes).

The "falling down broken baby doll" look.

As interpreted by Vogue, May 2006.

Spring transition

It's that weather I remember from my elementary school days. Being overdressed in woolens and layers by mom to wait out at the bus stop at 7 in the morning, shivering. Then coming home in the early afternoon, sweating under the hot sun.

Looking for

. sleeveless white shirt
. black pants

Boy's blazers

I found two at Value Village in Ballard. One is a wool Christian Dior. The other is a very snappy grey one from a brand called "Tom Sawyer." Both look like fitted, tailored cropped blazers. I guess they're about the size for an eight-year old boy.

Repetto

I really like this brand of shoes.

Button

Another button, chipped.

Argh.

Encumbered

It's funny to wear overalls that fit. It's weird to feel the press of fabric on your body. I think that must have been one of the reasons I liked overalls before. Because you can't feel the clothes. It makes me think of high school, when I always kicked off my shoes in class. And I had a strict no-socks policy.

Perhaps that explains my clothing choices over the years. The Birks, the overalls, the flippy skirts, loose tees and baggy jeans. That I didn't feel encumbered when I wore them.

Trying stuff on

I really like getting things in the mail. I always have. As a child, I signed up for penpals and eagerly anticipated the arrivals of the next letter from India, Finland, or Spain.

Now that I'm older I basically have to send myself stuff to get things in the mail. I like to buy things online because, as I told the boy long ago, it triples the fun. There's the fun of shopping around and considering, the waiting and checking the mail every few hours, and finally the arrival and opening of the box.

THREE things came today. The Tsumori Chisato blouse, the Michael Kors handbag (love!), and the Diesel overalls. I like trying them on and running to the various mirrors around the house to look at myself. I wonder a little bit if I just buy stuff as self-recognition. To look in the mirror and say, "there I am."

Shoes

I got two pairs yesterday. I think I really wanted them. I felt so happy afterwards. It's been awhile since I've gotten shoes that didn't have other people's feet in them prior.

Repetto ruched suede ballet flats with leather tie
Jeffrey Campbell flats with cutout and seam detailing

We also got bath products for Nelson's mom for Mother's Day. I'm on the hunt for a pair of pj's for my mom.

Adventures in raw denim

So when The Fashion Spot went down a few weeks ago, I wandered elsewhere for my fashion fix. Lo, there's Supertalk, a mostly boys' forum for street style.

I got hooked into the raw denim discussion. Apparently, this is one of the few safe areas for fashion obsession available to guys. It's where you get denim in the raw, unwashed state, and break them in yourself.

A few points I picked up:
. Nudies and APC brands seem the most popular, and then there are the more esoteric Japanese brands
. Looms...Levis's sold theirs to the Japanese in the 80s, and this was a very bad thing.
. You want to wait as long as possible before washing, to increase the contrast in wear marks. Six months seem to be the target mark.
. Of course, your denim will start to stink. Febreze is the method of choice.
. Detergent--Woolite Black, Dr. Bonners, nothing, or esoteric Japanese denim soap.
. Temperature of the water should be either 40C or 60C, depending on how dark you want your denim to remain. A soak and rinse then hang up.
. Don't fold your denim. They must be hung up.
. Get them as tight as possible so they shape to you. This also speeds up the breaking in process.
. Wait about 6 mos before the first wash. About 120 wearings. Some folks track this with tick marks. I'm considering a spreadsheet.
. Pics of the breaking in process is referred to as denim porn, complete with crotch shots. I guess so that you can see the hige.
. Hige: the wear marks radiating from the crotch. Honeycomb: the creasing behind the knees.

And it goes on.

I don't think girls get into this as much. For one thing, they are not so sartorially boxed into a corner. We've got other things to satisfy our creativity, like color. Even the trad style adherents (see Style Forum) obsess over tiny details of "purity." Also, I think girls care about the fit and trendiness of things over than anything else.

In any case, I decided at some point to start my own denim project. I was completely unenamored with the ridiculous washes of women's denim, anyway, and had been looking for a dark wash skinnyish jean for awhile.

The APC arrived the other day. I've been wearing them around the house first. They're stiff, and there's a little bit of a sheen to them. I had to have the boy help button me up at first, and he couldn't do it on the first try. But they're already starting to relax. I'll post pics of their progress as time goes by.

Rhetorical effects

One of the students in my class said to me after class, in her broken English, "you should gain weight. Be more sexy."

I was shocked into silence. So she takes it as a sign to continue, "I need to lose some weight. But you need to gain. Do you eat?"

The conversation ends with "You make all girls jealous."

Dionigi coin wallet

It's nice. Vegetable-dyed leather, entirely made in Italy. Very small. Only big enough to fit credit cards and money. And I can attach my keys to it as well. The inside is lined with cotton plaid.

I think I'll be keeping this one. When the Lodis one arrives, it's going right back. It was kinda bulky anyway.

A bad thing happened

When I looked into my bank account some weeks back, I found out that I had about a third more moola in it than I expected. I went about remedying the situation in earnest.

In the mail:
APC New Standard raw denim
Michael Kors Astor satchel in luggage and black (I'll only keep one)
Tsumori Chisato for La Redoute blouse
Lodis red snap wallet
Italian leather coin purse (I'll only keep one)
Diesel overalls

On hold:
HOBO Hayward clutch

With the tags still on:
peacock tee (anthropologie)
rasberry ruffled hem skirt (anthropologie)
brass drop necklace (anthropologie)
grey tee (Luella for Target)
trapunto strapless dress (Luella for Target)

Dust

I've been picking up a lot of dust on the front of my shoes. They're ashy now. I think it's from the park that I walk across every morning. Maybe from chalk.

I also pick up a lot of gravel in the folds of my pants. They skitter across the floor when I change at home.

Baseball caps

...make me feel jaunty.

Overalls folderol

Every few years, I have to replace my overalls. I know they're just grubby clothes, but I still like to freshen them up when they get too faded or worn. Over the years I've had Old Navy, Todd Oldham, and JuuJuu overalls. The trick is to get lightweight denim so that they don't weigh you down too much.

The newest incarnation is in the mail from yoox.com, made by Diesel.

Earth Day at Buffalo Exchange

They were having a dollar sale of all the crap they couldn't sell, I guess. Nothing really remarkable, but there was a swarm of people picking over these things. I just wanted to say, People! You can find cheap stuff at Goodwill or St. Vincent de Paul, too! This stuff is not that good a deal!

Nevertheless, inside I found a Piazza Siempone (spelling?) sheer polka dotted top that I plan to wear over tank tops. I love tank tops. I love the freedom of feeling the wind on my bare shoulders and moving around unemcumbered by my clothes. But it's always so cold in Seattle, so I've slowly been amassing a small collection of cardis and light sweaters to wear with tank tops. This top fits that function.

Things I'm looking for right now

. shoes to wear with summer dresses (something solid looking, perhaps not completely flat, but not high heeled either)
. knee length skirts with some structure to them
. sleeveless and short sleeve white tees
. coin purse/wallet

Laundry day

I'm trying to stay awake for the remaining loads. I may have to have the boy retrieve the duds.

For school today I wore my sheer pointelle sweater under striped babydoll tank with my jeans and polka dot belt.

Then for cruising around town, I changed into a summery babydoll linen dress over the sweater and Converse with my Miu Miu bag.

a few more things

Unisa black flats (Goodwill)
two layering tanks with ruched details (F21)
black and white floral jersey dress
yellow dangle earrings
shorty shorts

Got the Mondays

I don't feel so good. I think I ate too much yesterday. What a mistake, wearing the tight pants over to G's for Easter dinner. G is a terrific chef, and I gorged myself to the limit of my straining pants button.

Today it's comfort in the mood of blue:
. long white tank top under
. fitted dusty blue tee shirt
. dark blue corduroys (with a bobby pin holding the tabs together {I told you I have an issue with errant buttons})
. striped Dr. M sneakers

Stuff

Acquired:
Diesel cropped jeans (thrift)
Striped s/s tuxedo shirt (J.Crew)
cropped bell-sleeved sweater in mint (Anthropologie)

Returned:
madras plaid bikini bottoms (J.Crew)
turquoise headband (Ant.)

Weekend outfit

soft lavendar tee (J. Crew) under
skull tee (some indie designer)
slouchy jeans (Levi's, thrift)
striped canvas belt (thrift)

Taking the bag out for a walk

So we've had a few excursions, what I like to call, "taking the purse out for a walk." A few observations:
> I feel special carrying it. I think that's kind of stupid, but it's true.
> I walk a little bit taller, according to the boy.

It is a bit like armor. Perhaps I am more willing to barrel through the tough girl lines with this bag in tow. Meaning that people have to go around me now, rather than the other way around. I did notice a lot of "excuse me"s. Usually, people just push me aside.

Weird.

Miu Miu!

I had been laying in bed all morning listening to the door for sounds of the mailman. It was still grey and quiet outside. At last, I heard some rumbling and then the sound of a thud. I pulled on some pants and scurried outside.

The box the bags came in was much larger than I expected--standing almost halfway up the doorframe. I dragged the box inside and carefully slit the masking tape.

It was like Christmas, with layers of tissue paper, more boxes underneath, and then inside the grey box, the grey dust bags that held the handbags. The dust bags were cinched with long strings that had to be untied.

I'm going to keep the buffalo sac. The leather is thick, soft, and squishy. I kept running my fingers over it and smelling the leather all morning. The whole experience is quite tactile, really. I like how it looks. It's large, but not ludicrously so. It will fit all my books and papers. It also looks nicer than anything I've ever owned, but it's casual enough for everyday. And while it looks very nice, it's not obviously logoed or designer.

(the white one...eh. Too schoolmarmish and plain.)

Success!!

The waiting...

...is the hardest part. The Miu Miu bags will arrive on Saturday and the Un Apres de Chien bag will arrive on Monday. I'm so excited! although I know that there is a good chance that these bags won't work out. They are both a little bit different than what I would usually get, a little bit outside my comfort zone.

In addition, I am waiting on a necklace from Alex + Chloe.

Things boys like that you wouldn't think they would

Flannel nighties
Overalls
Headbands
No makeup

Handbag mania!

So I finally bit the bullet and ordered a few handbags this weekend. I had visited Saks in Portland but they had a pretty slim selection, and not of the designers I wanted to look at.

So here's what's coming to me as we speak:
This is a messenger from Un Apres-Midi de Chien, a French handbag company. This one comes from Luna Boston on sale.

Then I have two Miu Miu bags that I have to decide between:
The FedEx package with the Miu Miu bags weighs 10 pounds!

My current EBay searches

vintage teal
vintage puff sleeve
Repetto
A.P.C.
Isabel Marant
Vanessa Bruno

Thriftin'

Value Village and Goodwill on the Eastside today. Got a bunch of books, a pair of Dr Martin sneakers, and Haribo gummy bears.

Anthropologie

For a few years, Urban Outfitters was my go-to place for clothes. I thought everything there was amazingly cute, and I liked the idea that I could just put on a top and skirt from there and look current, sassy and cute. At the time, I couldn't afford most of the stuff (yes, it is way overpriced), so I just waited until the sales came around and would pick up a piece or two.

Then at some point I shifted in my age bracket. I crossed the thirty threshold and started thinking about what looked good at my age, rather than what I saw in magazines or what was visually cute. The stuff at Urban Outfitters started to look a little too try-hard, and then I moved onto the other store, also owned by Urban Outfitters, designed for women my age.

Anthropologie always smells good when you enter. It's kind of a total shopping hypnosis. The vaulted ceilings, unfinished edges in the decor, tiny spaces in which to navigate, and piles and piles of clothes. The salesgirls always look like your overdressed friend who's on the verge of fashion victim but whose closet you covet. I started buying a lot of things from this store, just about the time when my price/pain threshold was raised.

I did a little research into the company, as I wanted to know where my dollars were going. The Anthropologie store struck me, besides, as an odd duck.

Things that stuck in my craw:
* the prices are about double what I would expect, about double that of comparable brands
* the girl in the dressing room always asks for you name and writes it on the board instead of handing you a number. she tells you her name, too.
* she then talks to you through the door. very annoying, as you can only answer back sweetly, "fine! thanks!" as you're half-dressed, half-entangled in their fripperies
* lots of different clothes, but in very small numbers
* at some point the salesgirl pinpointed me as potential consumer prey and started telling me things like, "i just love that dress. so flattering!" or "I love your shirt!" all in this confiding tone. I have to admit, I was flattered until I heard the same thing about four times on separate visits. They must have had a team meeting in which they came up with these phrases.

So as it turns out, that's part of their empathetic marketing strategy which is supposed to encourage the customer to buy. "Empathetic" was the word they used in their investor profile on the website. Here...let me go look it up.

Our established ability to understand our customers and connect with them on an emotional level is the reason for our success.

The reason for this success is that our brands - Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People - are both compelling and distinct. Each brand chooses a particular customer segment, and once chosen, sets out to create sustainable points of distinction with that segment. In the retail brands we design innovative stores that resonate with the target audience; offer an eclectic mix of merchandise in which hard and soft goods are cross merchandised; and construct unique product displays that incorporate found objects into creative selling vignettes. The emphasis is on creativity. Our goal is to offer a product assortment and an environment so compelling and distinctive that the customer feels an empathetic connection to the brand and is persuaded to buy.

Anthropologie tailors its merchandise and inviting store environment to sophisticated and contemporary women aged 30 to 45. Anthropologie's target customers are, for the most part, focused on family, home and career.

urbanoutfittersinc.com/profile/index.jsp

Okay, so that was slightly disturbing when I read it. I'm not sure what they mean by "empathetic connection to the brand," but I think it has something to do with the fact that middle-aged women are lonely and insecure.

I'll have to take more field notes.

For the season

For winter, I bought a new coat that held up really well. That was the big investment for that season.

This spring, I think I'm going to "invest," as they say on TFS, in a leather handbag. By invest, I mean spend way more than I think is reasonable in my saner moments. I've been scouting around for a prospective candidate. I've narrowed it down to Miu Miu, who last season had one that I was tracking the entire time. That one might have made me happy. This time, though, I'm thinking about their Buffalo Sac Hobo.

Otherwise, I've been collecting dresses at small prices. About 20-30 dollars at Forever 21. Little neglible tops. I would like to get a pair of snazzy pants, but haven't run across any yet. And, as ever, I'm thinking about shoes.

Another weekend haul

I keep telling myself that I need to lay off the cute, trendy stuff. I need to be grown-up! with grown-up clothes that will last a long time and be above trends. But then the weekend comes and I get bored and I just want to find something cute to wear when it's warm. And I'm not sure what I want clothes to do for me anyway. Sometimes I think it's just for fun. To enjoy being a girl, to wear frilly little things that flutter in the wind. At least half of the time. And then sometimes I look at pictures like the one below and want to wear clothes like a cocoon. Romantic, imaginative stuff that sets the mind to dreaming...



Dries Van Noten is about pitch-perfect for understated, romantic, grown-up clothes.

Question and answer

When you shop what do you typically buy?
These days, I try to consciously buy more tops. I used to have a very imbalanced wardrobe of lots of bottoms and few tops. Also, I started trying to find the perfect shoe, and now it's a bit of a rampage.

What is the ratio of tops to bottoms to dresses ...etc?
tops... 60%
bottoms 30%
dresses 10%

How often do you buy swimwear?
about once a year, but I have two I like now

How often do you buy underware?
These days, only as needed. Which means whenever I spy something cute.

What colors do you typically buy?
Blue, teal, green, grey and yellow.

How much do you spend a month on apparel?
I don't want to count.

Where do you shop most often?
Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, J. Crew, online
and thrift stores!

What about designer

So I made it back to Nordstrom Rack yesterday and pawed through all the designer clothes. Found a few to try on.

* Stella McCartney strapless black cocktail dress...interesting undergearing on the dress. There was a built-in padded bustier bra. Nice shiny satin black flowers on a black background. A kind of overgrown bow material at the bustline.
* See by Chloe pants...Heavy material. Notch at the back. Very long legs.
* Sara Berman cardigan...way too big.

One thing I've noticed about designer clothes is that they tend to be heavier weight fabrics. Also, they are "engineered" in the sense of darting, undergarments, details. Lots of attention paid to how it will flatter and hang on the body. It's like the apartment I live in now. Small details, the thoughtfulness in layout, the soundproofing, etc., remind me that an architect built it. In the same way, the engineering of the garment lets me know that a designer made that piece, I think.

Been looking for a handbag

But nothing catches my eye. Pretty surprising.

Oh, well, that's not true. I've had my head turned by several bags, but none to such a length of time that I bought it. And I'm unwilling to buy a bag that's only going to be trendy and tiresome after awhile. I'm okay with spending some moola on it, but alas...alack...my expectations go up once the price tag does and I'm not sure that I could find one that meets all my expectations.

But I suppose that's the thing about handbags. They are emblems of aspiration and desire.

APC redux

I've had the APC shirt for about a month now. It's just a plain grey s/s top with pintucking at the neckline, but it cost $88, which is why I was tracking the shirt's success.

And it has held up better than shirts that I've bought at cheaper places. There has been no pilling and no wear. When it gets too wrinkled from being piled on the floor, I only have to hang it up and the wrinkles go away.

It's also more versatile than it seems. It's plain but has a little bit of specialness in the pintucking, which makes it drape well. The material is viscose rather than cotton, and that makes a difference in the way it hangs, too. It's also a longer length than most shirts, so it's good tucked in or out, or layered under or over.

So in my small experiment, my conclusion is that some brands do justify the higher cost. This will, of course, require further research.

Spring

Girls in summer clothes are the first sign of spring. These heedless, impetuous creatures loosed upon the burgeoning world signal warmer days to come.

New template

It's officially spring and I thought the blog could use some new duds.

Allergy season

So I'll be wearing glasses for awhile.

Recent finds at thrifty places

A vintage (maybe 80s) s/s batwing sweater with color blocking. I figure I'll wear these with my green cord shorts in the summer. I was getting tired of wearing tee shirts all the time.

Lace-edged yellow bed jacket from Urban Outfitters, via Crossroads. A little rumpley. It'll be good with camisoles in the summer.

Once the evaluations are in

I feel a lot more freedom in what I wear to class. These days, I won't wear pigtails or overalls, but I might don the Converse or the jeans or the layered tee shirts.

Figuring it out

Beauty is a knowledge. It's something that you can learn. Knowing what looks good on you and how others might react.

For example, empire waists look good on me because I am skinny and my figure gets lost under clothes sometimes. The gathering under my bust gives me definition. Tops with pintucking do the same for me, which is why my recent purchases of the green wool vest and APC top were successful.

My education in fashion started only a few years ago, relatively speaking. I think most girls start thinking about clothes in middle school. Probably earlier, these days. But I think that's maybe why so many of them make the mistake of dressing for vanished youthful figures. Or else they dress for the whims of adolescent boys.

V informed me that clothes do matter. I was under the impression, until grad school, that people would be able to see through to the "real" me. But when I wore something more feminine, prettier, in fact, people did treat me differently. They were nicer to me, which was disappointing in a way.

It was when I started my first professional job and was living on my own that I started to really take an interest in my appearance (I was always interested in fashion as something creative, beautiful, and unattainable). Another friend advised me to take out a subscription to Lucky, and so I did. I also started observing, trying things out, and making mistakes.

Continuity

I've broken out the Birkenstocks. I wore them today and yesterday and felt a pleasant continuity with the past. In fact, with the angle and clarity of the light, and the cubbyholed landscape on my walk to school, it felt almost like being in Austin again.

I remember these things about my undergraduate years:
. the high, Texas sun
. wearing Birkenstocks all the time, only changing into socks for the winter..."land of a thousand Birkenstocks," as a fellow classmate called it
. all the in-between spaces, like alleyways and tiny lawns
. seeing the world at a pedestrian pace
. being all the time inside my head

White button down

I think it's true what people say about white button down shirts. How they're a staple in a woman's wardrobe and all that. I didn't believe it at first because I found it to be so stuffy. But when I came across one in Value Village--practically new, very soft, with french cuffs, and from J.Crew.--I finally acquired one for my wardrobe.

My favorite outfit with it is with a holey Cacharel scarf knotted low, along with slouchy jeans or pressed pants (depending on the level of dressed up I need). Et voila. It's offhand, but it always works.

Overalls

I have a thing for overalls. It started back in college when it became my everyday uniform. I favored androgynous looks back then, which is to say that I dressed like a boy. Big flannel shirts, oversized tee shirts, Converse shoes, etc. Overalls fit into that aesthetic. Perhaps it would be considered anti-aesthetic?

In any case, I wore them all the time, in graduate school particularly. I even wore them out on a date. I was that clueless. I liked pairing them with a black cardi and Birkenstocks.

So these days, I've moved onto more grown-up, girly, even elegant clothes, but I still have a favorite spot in my heart and my closet for my overalls. They remind me of who I've been.

Note to self

Go into Nordstrom Rack with a lot of time, a lightweight coat (that place is overheated), and on the weekday.

Something about going elbow to elbow with a bunch of bargain-hunting women is depressing.

(I had to buy a pair of sunnies to cheer myself up.)

Review of C&C and Paper

Today I wore a few of my new items. From top to bottom:

red/white striped tank under
black scoop tee
sage green pants
black all stars

What is this thing called quality in clothing? I'm observing and taking notes. So I've noticed that my Old Navy tee has not worn very well. The colors are already faded, and not in a cool way.

The C&C tank seems to resist fading and getting misshapen. The Paper Denim pants fit a little better around the bottom. These are just slight adjustments, but they make a difference. In looking at the forum thread "What are you wearing today?", I've realized that proper fit elevates even the plainest ensemble. I can't otherwise explain how some people, in just a top and pants, can look so put together.

Quite a haul

This weekend. Perhaps it's the warmer weather.

sage green pants...Paper Denim...Nordstrom Rack
black leather moc flats (Chloe knock-offs)...Steve Madden...NR
cowboyish boots (Frye knock-offs)...Steve Madden...NR
striped racerback tank...C & C...NR
spread-shawl collar sweater...Anthropologie
yellow button down with vintage pattern...Anthropologie
grey cord capris...Anthropologie
metallic white ballet flats...Calvin Klein...TJ Maxx
cashmere sweater...7 for all Mankind...TJ Maxx
blue spaghetti-tied empire waist dress...Forever 21
crossover empire waist top with cube patttern...F21

New silhouette

I am over the tiered skirt, puffy boho look.

Here's what I'm thinking for the upcoming season:
something slouchy. not tight. but body conscious in the skim of loose, fluid fabrics. layers. covered up but still sexy in a less immediate way.

Miscellaneous pics on my desktop

hip six, french style...nytimes article

zero by maria conejo

chloe s/s 2005

A.P.C.

Once you break some arbitrary price point, it's difficult to go back. For most of my life, I had the requirement that whatever I bought had to be on sale. Sometime after college, that requirement fell to the wayside. What remained was the requirement that any article of clothing (besides dresses) be less than 40 dollars.

Slowly that has been inching upwards. At this point, I'm not sure that I have a firm price barrier. I just bought a full-price wool vest for $100. And a s/s top from A.P.C. for $88. I could justify the wool vest because it was practical and warm, but I have no excuses for the stuff from A.P.C. (I have more things on pre-order). I had just heard a lot about their quality, and I wanted to see for myself.

I'm tired of disposable clothing. In its way, it's wasteful as well.

Dries Van Noten

I like how soft and subtle this outfit is, like a watercolor, or a watery street on darker winter days.

Miu Miu

This is how I dress when I bother to think about what to wear: scarf, vintage skirt, and clunky shoes.

Brooch

This seems like something I could try crafting at home. Save me $160.


(source: satineboutique.com)

Siren calls

The coupon codes this time of year are siren calls, shipwrecking my budget.

I have boxes coming in from J.Crew, Virginthreads, Urban Outfitters, and the Gap. I can't even keep track of it these days. The UPS lady, I'm sure, curses my name.

Winter coat

This might be the first winter in a long time that I'm actually warm.

Yippee!!!


J.Crew Hooded Coat with thinsulate

What's wrong?

I get a frenetic feeling when I shop these days. I don't know what's wrong. I don't know what I want from acquiring these things. I find something new and pretty, and after a few weeks or months, I'm completely tired of it. It's a cycle, and it keeps replicating itself.

Dissatisfaction

There's got to be something better than this. Beauty found somewhere besides these places. Is that what I'm searching for?

Books as backdrop

I was paging through an Anthropologie catalog today. Looking at all the vaguely exotic clothes, reinterpreted for a non-hippy, kinda dreamy American audience. I noticed that in one of the spreads for bed linens, they had set up the bed in what looked to be a library--the bedpost smashed up against the shelves of books so that anyone looking for a copy of Pride and Prejudice would have to climb atop the bed to reach it.

At the shopbop.com Web site (home of my ill-fated Marc Jacobs run), there is a picture of someone's pert tush in some True Religion jeans as they stand defiantly among rows of books. Which makes me wonder when books became an object of style, like a pair of designer shoes or the latest handbag? When did it become some aspect of your identity that you could just assume, without any real knowledge or history of it?

Products

I've gone Sephora-crazy. I can't pass one up without going in there, smoothing on some lotions, smelling perfumes, trying on lipsticks and blushes. I like reading what the products claim to do, imagining a newer, brighter, more exfoliated me.

AND, did you know, you can ask for free samples. The salesgirl (who stalks you mercilessly as you try on products) slid open a drawer and handed me a fistful.

Today, I walked out only with Terax hair treatment, the big tub, with its accompanying pump.

"Christmas sweater"

The Urban Outfitters stuff arrived. Everything goes back but the Nordic-print thermal that I'd been eyeing for weeks. It's as cute as I thought. But why is everything sized so small these days? I went up a size to the small, and it fits perfectly.

The boy calls it a Christmas sweater, though. I tell him that it's a Nordic print, and he tells me that there's some Norwegian somewhere snickering in glee that he was able to pawn off last year's Christmas sweater. Hmmph.

Friday writer's meeting

The writer's group. Missing a member today, but I think she may have permanently dropped out.

last night's white button down, now all wrinkled
jeans, droopy...didn't add the belt because the boy said the flash of skin was nice...
south sea pearl necklace

&
winter gear!
Kangol cap
long polka-dotted scarf
shrunken peacoat

...
I envy everyone I see in knee-length coats. It's raining hard today. Folks dashing across the street from under eaves and awnings. Nice to be home now, changed into dry clothes.

Armor

Today is dirty work. The tenor of the group will likely change. After they get my criticisms, the group is then likely to go on the attack, finding weaknesses where it might benefit them.

Hence, the need to wear armor. Metaphorical armor. The clothes of the ruling class, as my psychiatrist ex once said. The expensive pants, the neatly pressed white shirt, the silver-linked watch, hair pulled back and black-frame glasses worn.

Rugby stripes

I like the rugby stripes on my shirt. Although it isn't a rugby shirt, but rather a top with a little bow on it. But I feel British and collegiate in it.

I feel sad, though. For no particular reason, so it's really more like a melancholy. The purchases of late have come out of that depression, as I like to buy things when I feel down. It gives me momentary pleasure.

But it doesn't work for long.

Rain beads on wool

Another wet, cold day. The rain falls steadily down, not in torrents that expends itself, nor in drizzly dots that sometimes disperse. But steadily, incessantly, from impenetrables clouds of grey. The grey is thick here.

I ventured out to pick up lunch--tempura dinner from Yummy Teriyaki. It was cold, cold, cold. I felt the wind penetrate my jeans. I kept my head lowered, so that the brim of my newsboy cap could protect me from the wet. The rain beaded on top of my cap and kept me a semblance of dry.

L'Occitane Daily Face Cream SPF 15

Currently trying this moisturizer, courtesy of Sephora samples. It's thick and takes a little work to spread, but a little bit goes a long way. The cream is a little bit yellowish-green, and sits in a pool of oil. It's derived from olive oil. It seems counterintuitive to put oil on your face (especially when it's acne-prone and combination skin like mine), but good moisturizers actually are supposed to help balance your skin's natural oil production. The boy enjoys the smell, which is light and fresh.


So far, it's been working fine. Too soon to tell if it will replace my Oil of Olay. I have two more samples to test out before I'll be satisfied with a new winter replacement. Dr. Hauschka Toning Day Cream and Weleda Skin Food.

When you have to deliver bad news

It's a good idea to dress professionally.

Online order

Early mornings, my mind is fuzzy with sleep. My guard is down. I am susceptible to the little voice reminding me of something I saw, somewhere, that would be so nice to have.

This weekend

* grey peacoat (Banana Republic)
* l/s scoopneck grey ribbed tee
* 3/4 sleeve layering tee
* red and black striped tee with bow (all Forever 21)
* birthday card for my neice
* Thank You cards for the wedding
* Christmas countdown chocolate calendar