the cheap date guide to style

here comes another installment of ...reviewed by me, for you, as yet another book has been added to my (severely clogged and nearly sagging) bookshelves!

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the cheap date guide to style by kira jolliffe and bay garnett: i first read about this book in a blog entry written some time ago by miss susie bubble of style bubble. of course, susie being far more eloquent than i could ever be, describes the book to a tee:

After I read through the whole thing in about an hour, I concluded that for me, the book would be better named 'Style Affirmation.' The book, far from adopting a 'Do this, don't do that' methodology is about encouraging a unique personal style, cultivating eccentricities and really putting your own stamp on things.

in other words, this ain't your typical style guide...it's a completely different animal, one that celebrates realness, quirkiness, risk-taking, and being offbeat, if that's your way. or really, whatever your way is, if it's really *you*. it's probably not for those people who need a lot of help trying to figure out who they are, but rather, a little mutual-admiration for those who already embrace the beat of their own style drummer and create their own look or looks.
the book has an imperfect, scrapbook-like, teen-magazine-in-the-80s-sort aesthetic, and is filled with loads of photographs that have a flash-lit, harsh, "i took them with my little old point-and-shoot film camera" style, i.e. the whole affair is not a high-fashion glamorously glossy and perfec production, and is thus approachable. it's more grassroots, like an anti-fashion fashion magazine in the form of a book. inexplicably, in it's realness, it takes on a magical chicness and honest glamour.
(fyi: bay (a british-born stylist) and kira are hard-core thrifters from way, way back, and together they penned a style zine called "cheap date", which apparently focused heavily on secondhand shopping and gained a sizeable cult following. the book is a result of that zine's success, from what i can garner.)

one of things about the book that really makes it for me are, as susie also mentions, are the quotes peppered throughout, from the authors, and from other style mavens. here some words from the book i quite like. in fact, they are sentiments i am forever beating to death in this blog and over at wardrobe_remix, ad nauseam:

"Stylishness is elusive, yet everyone is innately stylish. It boils down to confidence about your appearance. One things for sure: there's no specific type of dressing that's more stylish than another....style - to state the bleedin' obvious - is in you. It's not something you can buy."

"For anything to be stylish, there has to be an honesty behind it."

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i love this quote by the recently deceased eccentric british stylist isabella blow:

"I think thinking is stylish. Looking is stylish. Culture is stylish. I think you need to be inspired by something in order to look good...I think style is about a person recognizing what their best features are."

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when asked what inspires him, karl lagerfeld said:

"Everything. Inspiration comes from having open eyes."

and when anna piaggi was asked the same thing, she said:

"I take inspiration from myself."

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"Being stylish is a way to project whatever we like, to be who we want to be in our fantasies and to manipulate reality."

"There are no rules...By listening to your own opinion, the possibilities are endless."

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"style affirmation", indeed. thanks, susie.

good(bye), good(buy): an over-the-top ode to an orange sweatshirt

do you own a piece of clothing that you feel completely attached to?something you found, and grew to love extremely deeply over time? is that piece one that seemed to work its way into many an ensemble, in the most perfect of ways? in the words of susie bubble, was it a cog of your style?

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i form strong personal attachments to certain pieces of clothing or other wearables. i know i can't be the only one!
sometimes those items are found new at retail, or perhaps they have uncovered by scouring the racks and bins of a thrift store or other shop. i spot them, and something about them resonates with me so deeply, so perfectly, it's almost as if i am somehow fated to have that piece. the piece was, in a sense, waiting there for me to discover it. sometimes the immediate attachment, the need to acquire something makes sense at the time, and other times, the inherent perfection of the item becomes clear over time, as it gains context and meaning in one's life and one's closet.
this simple red-orange sweatshirt, of all things, was a wardrobe cog to which i formed a particularly deep attachment:

i found it for a song at a williamsburg, brooklyn A.P.C. sample sale. i fondly remember the day of discovery like it was yesterday: peter and i had to stand outside the building door with large numbers of various and sundry new yorkers, waiting to be filtered into the bustling sale by a sample sale bouncer. the woman in front of me was wearing an HBO baseball cap and talking on her cell phone, and one of the women behind me was a children's wear designer, waxing poetic about her work with her friends.
it was a relatively warm january day (hello, global warming!), so the outdoor wait wasn't completely awful. once inside, we were confronted with racks, boxes, and tables of gloriously french ready-to-wear clothing and accessories, all priced to sell. the orange sweatshirt was one of many in a massive pile on a table in the back of the sale.
and she stood out to me, gloriously almost leaping into my grateful arms...
okay. not really. honestly, being a color whore, i was immediately attracted by her bright red-orange hue, and right away, i know i saw her potential to be an integral part of my working wardrobe, because of her simple, sporty fitted shape, understated but modern details (like the slightly ribbed orange fleecy fabric and plastic zipper), and promise of warmth.
and that she did become, a huge part of my wardrobe. i wore that sweatshirt all the damn time...with everything and anything, as evidenced by many a wardrobe_remix photo. when going to school, out to dinner, lazing about the house...always as a layer among layers. it kept me warm without adding bulk, it added another shot of color to already riotous color combinations i felt compelled to create. it became almost a part of me, and was essentially a perfect aesthetic representation of my personal style through it's shape, color, and style.
but the relationship was not to last!
*wash, wear, wash, wear.*
eventually, my little orange wardrobe workhorse started to get a little pilly, a little faded, a little threadbare. the orange paint on the zipper pull began to chip off, leaving it looking more than a little shabby (a look i don't love). and then, a fortnight ago, the last straw: some strange, subtile but unremovable brown stains appeared all over her, like a terrible pox that only those perfect clothing pieces have the fate to befall. i had to face the facts: the last days of the orange sweatshirt had come.

*cue me screaming to the heavens, lifting up the sweatshirt, shaking her with grief, willing her to live another day*
i'll miss her so deeply. if only she could be replaced! if only A.P.C. had a secret stash of these sweatshirts i could buy and then hoard away for years! if only clothes (especially those made in the modern age) weren't ethereal items prone to entropy! if only i had worn her into the ground, you know? oh, my heart is breaking.

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but on second thought, i suppose it tis better to have bought and worn into the ground with extreme love and obsession, than to have hidden such away in the closet and never worn at all.

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the end.

circle(d)skirt

i have been doing a tremendous amount of sewing lately. once upon a time, not so long ago, i was addicted to knitting, and my sewing projects had fallen to the wayside. the reverse is now true...sewing is the obsession in my creative life that appears to be taking the lead as of late.

on that note, a recently completed design/sewing project:

it's a simple full circle skirt, made of vintage denim that i thrifted way, way back. the pattern was drafted by me, to fit myself. super simple. all seams and the hem were finished with hand-cut bias binding, cut from the scraps of some hand-dyed indigo blue cotton i bought at a quilting fabric shop many moons ago.

i've been loving the idea of circle skirts lately: the sheer volume of their fabric, the swish they make when one walks, the ease that is inherent in their both their creation and their wear. very feminine, very classic, very versatile. sometimes on-trend, but also outside of the trends...always and forever relevant.

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