mrs. jones & oxfam = DIY & restyle

a couple months back, the british charity/aid organization oxfam teamed up with "stylist to the stars" mrs. jones (who, according to their website, has dressed the likes of the killers, kylie, scissor sisters and goldfrapp) for a PR campaign that includes a spate of fun DIY how-to's (which include instructions on making a skirt from a pair of old jeans, turning a tee into hammer pants, and spiffing up a pair of shoes). they also have a very cool collection of refashioned clothing designed by mrs. jones available for sale on their site (which is just plain fun to peruse) and a gallery of styled up discards that look anything but (see bottom photos above, and/or scroll down to the bottom here). good ideas abound, for mere pennies and the cost of your time and effort!

(quick) fashion question(s): who is fashion for?

i have had this subject on my mind for a while: the relationship of class, social status/rank, and fashion...and how fashion firms see themselves and their target demographic. as well as how the wearers of clothes, meaning, you, me and everyone else out there, really, see themselves in the (inherent?) symbolic ranking system of fashion and style. -is it really only (or should be only) for the skinny, tall, young, famous or wealthy? are those special folks the only ones who are fit or entitled to enjoy fashion, the only ones who should be allowed to wear "nice" clothes? why or why not?

-as an astute commenter mentioned on style bubble's recent post, hogg roasted, is there a certain "physical archetype" to whom fashion belongs? has this person or body type changed over time? if so, how? should they be the only ones who are "allowed" to participate in the fun of fashion, especially high or luxury-level fashion? do luxury clothing firms perpetuate this notion?

-are clothes used as class markers? that is, does the source of our clothes define which class we belong to? do expensive clothes make us look rich? do cheap clothes make us look poor? is it a matter of the hirarchy of materials (i.e., fine materials look expensive, and low-cost materials look cheap), or is there more to it than that? if so, what? do some people use clothing as a way to separate themselves from other, often lower classes, or vice versa? is this a new development in fashion, or, is it perhaps one that has been existent since humans began donning clothes (i'm going with the latter myself!)?

-how much control can a designer have over who wears their designs, and in what way those individuals wear them? or how they behave in them? is money a factor in this? does one's income determine whether they will ultimately have access to a certain type of fashion?

book peeks: crochet adorned by linda permann

this book peeks is all about a book called crochet adorned, written by my old friend and craft maven linda permann. linda and i have known one another since we both lived in NYC in the mid-2000s. back then she was the founding craft and decorating editrix at (the now sadly defunct) adorn magazine (*sniff, sniff*, i miss it so!). she's since left new york for the wilds of montana, but she's still cheerfully chugging along, churning out a myriad of project ideas and patterns for publications like craftstylish/sewstylish, stitch, crochet today, and knit.1 and many more. linda's talented in many needle arts (sewing and knitting, etc.), but crochet is (i think!) her forte.
crochet adorned's subtitle (almost) says it all: "reinvent your wardrobe with crocheted accents, embellishments and trims"...this is a tome (primarily) about how to add creative crocheted accents to ready-made garments and accessories you already have in your closet (knits and wovens alike). the book boasts 20 fun, color-saturated projects, but flipping through it, i feel like it's really more of a book that provides instruction and inspiration, something that can motivate you to add your own original flair to garments you have or that you have fashioned yourself. in other words, each project stands alone, but can also serve to spark ideas within you, the reader.
good stuff in this book i think you need to know about:
-linda (of course!) covers the basics, telling you all you need to know about matters of hooks, yarn, stitches, patterns, blocking and the like. this info is especially good for the crochet newbies out there, imo.
-since she really believes in the ease of using stitch diagrams (every pattern in her book has a stitch diagram accompanying it!), she's included several pages in the book to how one may decode and use said diagrams. very cool.
-since this is (for the most part) a book on embellishing clothing, linda has devoted a whole section of the book to the matter of selecting suitable garments and accessories to decorate, how to approach a project, and how to actually (and successfully!) attach your hand-wrought crocheted trims and motifs to your garments (via certain suggested hand-and-machine-sewing techniques).
-the book has a gorgeous, thorough stitch dictionary, which is illustrated with photographs of stitch patterns, crocheted trims, geometric shapes and motifs, each and every one accompanied by linda's requisite stitch diagrams.

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here's a sneaky-peek at some of the projects in the book, ones i especially like!
love how this tank with a crocheted yoke totally looks similar to ones out these days in the stores...except, natch, it's something you can do yourself, *better*, tapping into your own personal style preferences and your latent skills:

this trim around the neck of this blue sundress is rather gorgeous. it looks vintage, almost, no?

love this idea...these are simple trims on shoes she's shown here, but hey, they are like, just starting points, right linda? what if you did bolder trims, or big flowers, or attached three dimensional shapes to your kicks, etc., etc, etc??? the sky is the limit!:

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just to give full disclosure...i have a project in the book, too! it's just a super simple mod throw pillow with granny square accents on both sides of it's surface, arranged in a cross motif. but this is but one iteration of a simple idea, you know? why not replace those squares with circles, triangles, or some other shape? or varied the colors? and so on, and so forth...

thanks (again!) for the opportunity to contribute, linda! it was so much fun.

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crochet adorned hits the bookstore shelves TODAY, august 11, 2009!
check out linda's website and blog, lindamade.com, for more information about her work and for news about the book, and more.
great job, linda! congrats!! the book is amazing.

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would you like to win your own copy of crochet adorned? i have a copy to give away!
to enter, leave a comment on this post telling me why you'd love to have crochet adorned in your personal craft library.
i'll have little miss p. help me pick a winner this week (by pulling a comment randomly out of a (crocheted, natch!) hat!) and will announce the winner this friday, august 14, 2009.
good luck!