if money was no object...

with the upcoming move (and needing to outfit the new apartment with a few new pieces, etc.) and some potential travel back east this fall (during which i will likely want to do some shopping, natch!), i'm thinking that putting the kibosh on most spending for some time to come is probably the best course of action for me at the momento.
but that doesn't stop me from looking or coveting, right? nah...i suppose i'll always be looking! doesn't cost anything unless one crosses the bridge into actual buying, right?
so, keeping in mind the description of my crazy aesthetic sense in my recent missal, if money was no object...i'd certainly go for thus:

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i've been wearing my classic gold elgin watch for several years now. ok, i LOVE gold, and i LOVE my elgin watch, but now i am kind of wishing for a watch that's a bit more on the sporty/colorful/chunky side. i quite like these two futuristic looking styles shown below, in my favorite color, orange!

the top one is the vega watch by nixon (via amazon.com), and the bottom is the zub 20 zot watch by matthew waldman (via momastore.org).

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san francisco can be a cold, windy, beastly place for much of the year. one MUST dress in layers, or you basically risk freezing. and somehow, my wardrobe is mostly bereft of thin, fitted sweatshirts and sweaters, which are actually just the thing when one needs to layer up but not look like the michelin man. i think this lightweight cashmere hoodie (or one like it) from j. crew would begin to solve my (lack of) hoodies/light sweaters problem:

maybe i've said this before (or meant to), but i actually really LOVE j. crew. they make classic pieces in bright colors, in nice quality fabrics, with nice finishes for a decent price point. their clothes may be marketed in a very preppy, new england sort of way, but almost anything they make could just as easily be styled to compliment many an individual's idiosyncratic sartorial expression. for example: the hoodie pictured above could just as easily been worn (my way!) with a barrage of contrasting, colorful vintage or handmade fabric pins splattered across one side of the shoulder/bust area, emerald green high waisted, wide-legged jeans (man, if those existed, they would be HOT!), and red woven leather vintage heels. or it could be popped over a simple, subtly patterned or solid colored structured shift, and worn with ballet flats, for someone who's a bit more conservative. and on, and on. and the darn thing comes in a huge passel of colors...one of them is sure to suit any given person.

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i still love my skinny jeans. i know some people are saying they are "out," my knee-jerk response to those people is: "who cares." but i am admittedly sort of caving and feeling the siren-song-like pull of the option to don a slouchier jean silhouette, something like these wide leg jeans from goldsign (via shopbop.com):

just looking at them takes my blood pressure down a notch...they look as comfortable as pajamas!

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the cracked leather on these t-strap heels from frye (via urban outfitters) is ace. it's a nice texture that seems to be popping up a lot at the moment. plus they are shinny. and i am all about the shiny!

is it just me, or is frye making some amazing styles these past few seasons or so? very classic really, and simultaneously more than a little fashion forward. and they are using superb materials and craftsmanship. the quality of the leathers and the stitching on all of them is super evident just by a quick glance at them, and the heels of many of the shoes seem to be made of wood. which, i think i have mentioned before several times, is really important to me. i loathe when companies use fake materials just to cut corners. give me the real thing, if possible, designers! if i love it, i'm willing to shell out the dough to get the nicer stuff! i'm not just interested in the *look* or a shysty, half-assed facsimile.

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(clearly i'm feeling a slouchy glamourous thing at the moment, with a dash of the sporty. so yeah, i'd wear all that together. *head spins*)

(not so) random links

i figure i'll make this a regular thing, as it's fun to curate links to amazingness and interestingness happening about the 'webs and beyond!

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-canadian artist/printmaker jodi green has embarked upon an intriguing (to me!) MFA project: in an attempt to integrate her studio processes, clothing designs and her "everyday life," she's embarking on a project to dye and then print fabrics using printmaking processes such as woodcut, lithography, and etching, which she then turns into clothing that she will then wear as she goes about her daily business. note that the inks used to make said prints on her clothing break down over time, so the garments also change over time. and she mentions changing the garment via printing processes each time. talk about remixing one's clothing! the results of her efforts are stunning. a deeper look into jodi's wardrobe project may be found on her website. jodi's keeping a record of said clothing in her wardrobe project flickr set, and her blog. (bonus info for the fiber junkies and people will cash to blow: jodi's also an amazing knitter and has her own etsy shop.)

-some months ago, the author of the boat lullabies found a cosmetics case full of old photographs at a chicago-area flea market. the pictures are a poignant look into the life of one (rather fashionable) woman over the course of approximately 50 years, from toddler-hood on into her middle age. fascinating to me from the perspective that we are able to observe the incredibly beautiful and complex metamorphosis that each and every human (or really, every living thing) goes through over the course of a lifetime. we change so much in the interim between birth and death, but there remains a common thread of self-ness that remains in the physical and spiritual being of any given individual. relating to the primary subject matter of bits and bobbins as a blog, it's also a enthralling look at one woman's singular sense of style and life-long love affair with fashion/style. (bonus: the rest of the entries on the boat lullabies seem to feature interesting old photographs, if you're into that sort of thing. i know i am!)

-andrea zittel, the conceptual artist behind a-z 6 month uniforms (a project dealing with concepts revolving around the basic needs of working artists), has a new project, the smockshop. andrea designed a simple double wraparound garment. a passel of artists re-interpreted her design, each in their own unique way. said artists make money off these one-of-a-kind garments, many of whom are not yet self-sustaining via their regular artistic endeavors.

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how do you define your look?

how do you define your look, if you do at all? is it easily definable? or are things a tad more complicated?
perhaps you are the type to have an answer readily available, on the tip of your tongue. you can spit it out rapid fire! you're most definitely "romantic," or "sporty," or "influenced by early 20th century french cinema," or "anime-influenced-raver-girl-circa-1991,"...or whatever! that's awesomely awesome. and a wonderful thing...to be sure of yourself, who you are, and what you love!
for others of us it's more of a challenge to do the defining-thing. it can be a hard task to observe oneself and make hard and fast declarations. maybe you are the type to be more democratic in your likes and obsessions, seeing beauty and feeling a resonance with a diverse amount of styles. you're in love with "bohemian" as much as you are with "modern," for instance. or maybe it's just a big mystery...you seem to love and want to play with everything! and you know what, being unsure or complicated is totally okay, too! i think for a lot of people, personal style can be a serendipitous, ever-changing, hard to nail down process. it's often about where you are at a given time, or what you're into at the moment: in other words, your personal style may morph with you as you move through different roles in your life, as you age, or as you uncover and play with different interests or move into or through different social groups.

me?
well...
as much as i love homespun things that brim with organic and perfectly imperfect, hand-wrought details, i also love sporty things, or modern, sleek, geometric, almost perfect and sculptural silhouettes and pieces. other times i like things that are blatantly glamourous, or super-duper classic and other times, that which is overtly cute or that which is verging on the tacky. sometimes like donning both or several of those categorizations at once. if you're into metaphors, i suppose you could say that i like my adornments the way i like my music (mostly electronic: breaks, turntablism, and hip hop)...loud, occasionally complicated, occasionally funny, real, and in your face! and essentially, if ya break it down to the brass tacks, i just like to mix and mash it up! but there is a method to my madness. it's not at all about clashing for clashing's sake.

i think for me it's all about the juxtapositions of the pieces and parts, like or unlike (usually unlike!): the interplay of color or texture or proportion, first and foremost. or the mix of two or more objects of adornment worn together that one may not think to put together at first glance. i like the idea of challenging people's notions of "right and wrong" when it comes to clothing, and i allow myself to be the embodiment of my philosophy and the vessel of my experiment.
where does this come from? what in my past has influenced my style?
(because personal style has it sources, natch!)
well, my father who grew up in southern connecticut, near yale. he always (and still) looks dapper and preppy, wearing well-made, classic ivy-league threads, and he is unafraid of bright hues. my love for mod and occasionally hand-wrought 60s, 70s and 80s silhouettes comes from mom, to some degree (remembering her clothes from then in my mind's eye), and some from perhaps my maternal grandma and her sister aunt diane, who were the crafty sort, instilling me with a love of the handmade and taste for doing it myself. they inspired and informed my sewing and knitting obsessions and skills. the modernist in me is part of my educational background: i was an art history major, and my favorite movements fell after the mid-1850s, and primarily after the post WWII era: the best of the best modern and post-modernist fare. and the tacky-love? well, that's just fun and just pure me, born most likely out of a love of thrifting that started when i was fourteen (around 1989). i've long been keen on rescuing an old fun piece from the past, even if it verges on that which others may think is weird.
interestingly, i'm not very into themes, fantasy or costume when it comes to dressing, in any overt sense. i don't subscribe to any one subculture, i don't try to be a character, and i don't really channel (or even really follow) any celebs/famous folks. i can't even really stomach crafting a look with the obvious intention of completely replicating something seen on a runway or in a magazine. some piece of something might inspire me, but an internal force makes me, even compels me, to want to reinterpret it in my own way, to do it differently, to do it my way, i.e., only if it makes sense within what makes sense to me visually and emotionally, and intellectually. or sometimes, i willfully don't want to be doing what's being done at all. just because.

i think that, really, i've always been a little off, and a lot curious when it comes to clothing. if i think something goes together and others don't, then i just feel free to take the rules into my own hands, break those rules, and define new ones for myself. i couldn't give a fig if i'm followed or felt to be a little crazy. i believe in the potential of anything wearable...almost anything can be worn, if worn in an interesting way, by the right person. it's not what you wear, it's HOW you wear it.
fashion for me is a playful, intuitive process, a means to an end with no end...i play around, tossing disparate parts together, REMIXING IT, and when it feels right to ME, i'm ready to walk out the door, with no apologies, and no fear.

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what about you? who are you? and why?
feel free to pipe in and define yourself, if you like...even if you feel you are "undefinable" and delightfully complicated!