Ageless Adolescent Aesthetic.

I have a really odd obsession with the 60s. Not the whole decade, not the events of it or the politics or the whole "hippie generation", strictly the popular culture of the 60s. I love The Beatles more for the effect they had on people, and what they did. The macroculture of the 60s is what attracts me so much to certain parts of that decade. We still have elements of culture that are common to almost everyone in this generation but back then.....it just seemed even more together. And way cooler.

It all makes me want to be a Shindigger. I suppose years into the future someone might feel the same way about MOD or MTV Live or a similar show, but I think that the constant blather about celebrity and random "news events" takes away from (and gives less time to) having music on the show. Live music. Live music that can potentially be iconic (wow, how badly does the pop culture junkie want to be part of popular culture).

I really love what she's wearing in this (see, relating back to style). The tunic and the mary janes are awesome. I'm thinking of copying this, if I can find my t-strap shoes...

GIANT SHOES! AHEM! GIANT SHOES!

I have a lot of others bookmarked but it would take too long to go through all of them. These are just some that makes me feel really nostalgic for a time where I wasn't even a concept. It's popular culture at it's television-announcer-voice, sharp, spiffy, and well enunciated finest.

A Large Yawn and A Stretch.

I've spent the last week reorganizing my books, watching Batman 4 times, and then re-reading the Watchmen by Alan Moore after seeing the trailer 4 times. No, I have not taken outfit pictures. Nor have I updated on inspirations, ruminations or examinations of what I've been wearing. In part because I have not had time, in part because I've been really tired.

*whines all around*

So in order to reinvigorate my blog weariness I've created new rules.  Rules based on need and because sometimes restrictions create creative impetus.  For an example, see the first two albums of The Raveonettes.

Rule #1:  I'm only going to post pictures of casual outfits.  This is due to the fact that casual is what I have the most trouble getting my head around.  In a weird way it is easier to look put together when I have to look "put together" than when it doesn't matter so when it doesn't matter I end up reverting to the exact kind of outfit I was trying to avoid in the first place (t-shirt, pants, keds, socks, and some flair).  So I figure if I concentrate my efforts I'll resolve a problem.

Like this one:

I actually liked this.  I'm liking the mustard yellows and browns.  But this was really simple, fitting for a cloudy day, and because I ended up wearing it with heels I met myself halfway (ERROR: vocab not working - word wanted not found) and brought it all up a notch.  The second version brought it up yet another notch but you'll never see it again, because that was taken in the Holt Renfrew dressing room and as much as I'd love to, I'm not about to drop $90 on a caplet that I wasn't completely taken with.

So to sum up:  I will focus on the casual rather than posting everything in order to not turn outfit-picture-taking into a chore and actually be able to concentrate on something I have trouble with.

Rule #2: Influence.  Not inspiration: Influence.  This is purely my curiosity speaking.  Inspiration will show up again from time to time (but honestly, how often has it come up before?) but I want to focus on influence.  I have always been a bit of a collector of media and that has created for me a very large pool of influence to draw from.  I'm just curious as to how much of it reflects in my clothes.  Like music, and books, and whatever else I can think of.

And when I do think of it, I will put it here.  And maybe even try to find a correlation. 

All this preambleblather really means is that I might be posting less frequently than before and they might be even longer than before.  So if you are bored by my preamble and blather, I apologize.  You will only be ever more bored by my analysis and blather.

Hello again re-invigorated blog.

Tabula Rasa

I'm looking over my blog today in part because I have not had access to it for a week.  In this overview I've realised that there are no obvious clues to my personality.  Yes you do have a glimpse into my odd figures of speech such as: wickedcool, awesome, amazing, cool.  Oh and the fact that I sometimes bleed them into each other.  And the fact that I make up nicknames for about everything or abbreviations or hyphenations for those everythings.  And my magical dry wit and non-sequiturs that cure and fix everything with a chaser of sarcasm.

I'm also really easily distracted and have a tendency to ramble especially when I'm writing or speaking but am actually paying attention to something else.  For example: right now.  As I'm writing this little ramble I'm listening to "Seven Words You Can Never Say" an mp3 of a George Carlin act.  Very funny.  About the 7 words you can never say on television.

So.  Oh! another clue you have: is my short attention span.  And my ability to magically forget about projects and names and tasks I should/must do.  And the fact that I usually don't finish a thought so about 5 seconds later I add to it.  And I typically begin these sentences with "and".

So. Ahem. Also. Anyhow, anyways, anywhatevers.

In my boredom and half-bummed self reflection I made a (very large) winzip file.  A small selection of the 2665 songs I have on my ipod in order to put on display some of what is behind what is on here.  What I (people) listen to is closely tied to the clothing worn by me (them). 

My taste, in all its schizophrenic glory.

Florence and the Machine - Girl With One Eye

This American Life Podcast #293 A Little Bit Of Knowledge

Roy Orbison - Crying

Nouveau Riche - Love

Tom Lehrer - Poisoning Pigeons In The Park

Soul Hooligan - Algebra

David Bowie - Five Years

Florence and the Machine & Kid Harpoon - Going Down

Apes & Androids - Golden Prize

Kings of Leon - Knocked Up

Saul Williams - Talk to Strangers

The Duke Spirit - Drinking You In

David Bowie - Golden Years

Holy Fuck - Milkshake

The Zombies - Spooky Little Girl Like You

Otis Redding - A Change is Gonna Come

Nouvelle Vague - Dance With Me

Flo Rida - Elevator

The Last Shadow Puppets - Wondrous Place

Elton John - Grey Seal

Bloc Party - She's Hearing Voices

Clinic - Emotions

Bat for Lashes - Horrorshow

Santogold (f. Trouble Andrew) - I'm A Lady

Nancy Sinatra - Friday's Child

Lupe Fiasco - Dumb It Down

West Side Story sndtrk - America & I Have A Love

It's a lot. I know. But I challenge/invite anyone else to do this.  

Look through your blog and then look through your ipod (or alternative music organizing gadget), sort through it all to come up with a playlist that you think marries the two in some way.  Ties to you, if you will.  It doesn't have to obviously correlate, don't explain it at all (let someone else do the analysis for you) don't come up with a theme, repeat as much as you like, just go.  Do.  Make a fashion playlist that is not related to fashion.  Clear your plate by filling it to maximum capacity.

Be as annoyingly philosophical and restorative as you can (just as I am attempting to do right now).

Aimless Ranting 2

Heyyyyyyy. Again.
I forgot about these:>

It's like a mini vacation slideshow.  That one up there is from the night I decided to dance around my room and pretend I was somewhere fancy like Circa or Dance cave or whatever.
Oh and this one here is...uh....Oh!  Right. I went and saw this amazing play called Casa de los Fantasmas as part of the Toronto Fringe Fest.  It was in the CIUT (University of Toronto radio station) basement.  The dank, stone exposed room held only 30 people and we watched a 1920s style radio play about a young American couple going on honeymoon in rural Argentina when suddenly (dun dun dun) murders start happening!  And there's a vampire! And a crazy old lady! And a military man! And even a communist! It was crazy fun.  Especially the guy who was making all of their sound effects (he got a standing ovation) and the "messages from their sponsors". heheh.
When leaving, my friend and I saw this relatively well known Toronto stylist (I think his name is Maja something) and he did the "look over" thing.

Aimless Ranting

I've complained many times before of feeling like I am "stuck in a rut".  To me it seems really frequent but I think that may just be because I don't acknowledge when I'm feeling unstuck.

Blogger and Google related websites have been refusing to load on my computer for the past week or so which makes for a) no posting, b) no browsing, and c) procrastination in terms of fixing it and taking pictures to load up when the day finally came that blogger would would properly on my computer again (yay!).

I wandered around aimlessly today after going for a swim.  Kind of annoyed at a friend of mine but this isn't that kind of blog so I won't go into it.  Instead I went in to Holt Renfrew to check out their sales.  I found a D&G skirt for $99 (didn't get it, because my size was no longer available), and various other items.  Such as the jeans and caplet above.  The jeans are great, less than $100, with a nice cut and rise and all that other gibberish.

The caplet is the Kate Moss for Topshop stuff. Now I was under the impression that Topshop was more the-expensive-stuff-at-H&M than Holt Renfrew...I guess the currency exchange makes it so over here?  But this caplet was $90 on sale.  It didn't seem worth it.  The quality was the-expensive-stuff-at-H&M so......why is it so overpriced?  I know that Holt Renfrew overprices, I've seen the difference between the sale tag and the original garment tags enough but the piece was still too expensive to just chalk it up to that.  Is it all because the piece (the line) was "designed by" Kate Moss?  Obviously, look at me go, answering my own question.

Not worth it at all.  

Unless you're looking for the name as opposed to the clothes.

I walked around in this:

It seems so dull compared to fancy pants Holts.

Hiya.

Um....blogger (and many many other websites associated with Google) has decided not to work on my computer. Not sure if it's a virus or my connection or if it has nothing to do with me but this means that my posting won't be consistent or frequent until sometime around Sunday or Monday when I will actually have time to fix it.

Not that I have any outfits to post about. Or sources...oh wait I do!

Okay wait until Sunday. You'll see, it'll be wickedawesomecool.

Recurring Dilemma

Another day of attempting to dress casually.

I'm not sure why, but on the days where I'm really lazy, or just don't care it reflects in what I wear in abnormal proportions. It's as if my wardrobe is a tad too empathetic. When I'm upset, my trousers are upset. When I am lazy, my shirts slouch. When I'm happy as a clam, my shoes seem to dance on their very own.

I'd prefer my wardrobe have a mind of its own, thank you very much.

I keep scrolling through this draft to see the photos and explain something to myself or make some kind of observation but cannot think of anything. The elements seem to be there, but the execution is lacking? Too much black? Am I the one who is overthinking, or is my wardrobe trying to make up for loss of brain power?

Felix

Yesterday, while having dinner my friend exclaimed "I know what it is!".

Evidently, I looked like a mix of a trendy person and Felix The Cat. He said the Felix bit was because of some kind of 20's cartoon. Interesting. I'm thinking it was the blazer and the Keds. Note To Self: Take better pictures of this in order to break it down later.

P.S woot for H&M putting that doctorsesque bag on sale.

The Backlist.

Oh it's been awhile. I may have mentioned this before but these past weeks have been full-moon crazy. I've gone out more often than I have in the past few months. And now I finally got around to a) taking pictures of my outfits and b) uploading them to my computer.
So here is my back list.

#1: PRIDE WEEKEND

I had 5 minutes to come up with an outfit that would last into the wee hours of the morn. It would survive drinking, and a raucous street party with beads and drag queens and Ginger (a very good Vietnamese restaurant chain). To I was looking at my wardrobe and came up with a dress.....and pants.

Which I tucked the front in to a came up with this funny coattail outfit thing. With the blazer it looks like a coattail thing.
I dunno. I'm proud of myself for this. It is definitely far from the worst outfit I've ever put together. It is a long ways away from what I used to think about wearing in high school. And I came up with it in 5 minutes and not really truly considering what I wore. It is progress because I found a way to not think and still look acceptable/mediocre/good/okay. Which is nice. I don't want to jinx it through overanalysis but uh.....it's nice.








#2 A PLAY


I wore this to a play (as show and tell games go). It was a very good play, part of the Toronto Fringe Festival to which I suggest everyone go. There was also a blazer but I took it off anyway so...really whatevs on the blazer bit. Ahem.

The belt is H&M and was $10 at full price. Very useful. I'm really not into prints (as I have slowly come to accept) but I like having big shapes. Like, one big shape that is interesting and mildly intricate. I would prefer if it were just one big flower but hey. Beggers can't be choosers. They just sort of reach out and grab.










#3 DAVID SEDARIS (!)

I wore this and met David Sedaris.

Yeah. That's right. I met David Sedaris. Amy's big brother. Humorist and general awesomeist extraordinaire. From now on, whenever I read Naked or Me Talk Pretty One Day or even The Santaland Diaries (which everyone should read. Everyone and anyone who has had a seasonal temporary day job should read. Especially if that temp job was around the holiday season) I will hear his voice. He read from both his new book and an upcoming one. A gem? "(before I quit smoking) I recruited a teenager to take my place".

He gave me Turkish newspaper doilies. And I got him to sign the play he wrote with his sister and his stamped it with a Turkish stamp that he says meant Invalid. My response? "That is okay sir.".

I called him sir. I was also ridiculously nervous so he probably thought I was insane. When I'm a little nerve wracked I end up saying everything as if it were one continuous thought or sentence. He looked at me as if I were insane or about to cry.


Neither is true. But whatever. I wore a safari jacket and Calvin Klein via Value Village shorts. It was original. And maybe one day he'll be at another book talk and he'll tell someone about the crazy girl in a safari jacket who nervously told him a story about the doll she used to think was going to kill her.


OMG I MIGHT BE A SEDARIS ANECDOTE!

Ongoing Saga of DecoPunk

Eugh. I'm aware that today (actually....technically....tomorrow) makes a full week that I haven't posted on this ol' blog o' mine. It's been a crazy week, to full moon-esque proportions. In the past week I've gone out more often than I have in the past 3 months (party, Canada Day, two plays in one night, another party......and something else I don't even remember).
I managed to squeeze a picture or two out of it but right now I don't have the time to make witty captions for them all so I will leave you with one little blip before I dive into Decopunk.

Saturday. High Park. The essential elements that make up an outfit and the bag (and the glasses) are mine. My friend had this straw hat and I proceeded to act as obnoxiously hipsterlike as I could. It is the perfect beach hat but I'm not so into wearing it as an everyday thing. A beautiful hat, but not one that can be taken far (I think) without looking like you (read: I) really tried today.
Okay. Over and done with. Your outfit appetite has been whetted and I can move on.
----------------

A bajillion posts ago was around the time I met and fell in love with Eugenio Recuenco's photography. I love the images and settings he manages to create. I adore the little stories he is able to tell and I love that he can be and let us see strange characters and stories and etcetera without falling into the (slightly overdone) Tim Burton aesthetic. He always manages to be romantic and sinister at the same time or at least use elements of the two in his photographs.
I considered doing a post about his photography and my adoration of it in something titled RecuencoPunk. I even thought to myself "hah, I'm brilliant! I made a post called DecoPunk and now I can make a kitschy series about ___Punk! It's hilarious!"
But while sifting through the images I collected I found these (which are from his website and probably a magazine somewhere) and figured I may as well just add to my collection of why I love art deco and all its imitators.































































The swimmer is from something else, but hey, the point still stands. I love the lines in all these and in what I know from this period. I love that everything, the dresses, the building, the design looks as if it was once a third smaller and someone decided they ought to stretch it out. Dresses drape all over because a giant person stretched it out to be larger than a person (larger than life, if you will).

Maybe not now. But when I decide that I should commit to this I will. Until then you'll just have to listen to my uninformed opinion on it.

Re: DecoPunk

Deco Pantyhose from American Apparel.
In the store, the packaging says "Art Deco Opaque Pantyhose"

Kind of tempting. But I know that the detailed little pattern will be lost on those not holding a magnifying glass to my legs.

Also, is it just me, or are these a little too Harley Quinn to wear everyday? I dunno, I think they scream "I'm in love with The Joker" a little more loudly than "I'm hip and cool"

HAPPY CANADA DAY

TODAY: Fireworks and sand in my shoes.

YESTERDAY: A Canadian party. Where my friends and I wore red and white and ate maple candy, listened to the Barenaked Ladies and Nickelback, and drank beer and managed to remember to say "eh" and the end of each sentence (until it got really annoying)
I realized that I don't own any/many red shirts. Except this one - an (awesome) Editors band tee and an old shirt from Girl's Sports Camp (Basketball).

I somehow had a crazy busy weekend. I was the only person who showed up to work (and didn't go home sick) on Saturday and Sunday is a blur of work, the Pride parade, and drag queens (a Courtney Love imitator stands out in my mind.......I can't remember her name though). Sunday night (drag queen night) was an interesting outfit. I was rushing like a nut case and so I just pulled on a tent dress and tucked it into the front of my pants, leaving the rest like a kind of coat tail trailing under my trusty, multipurpose, new favourite blazer.

I'll post the pictures because that was interesting. Something worthy of a post.