Let's Mention Unmentionables

When you think of underwear generally its the standard bra and panties, but if you were a young woman in the 1600s your reply would be more like corset, bumroll, and petticoat. Oh sure on paper that doesn't look that so bad but have you really taken a close look at what woman had to wear? They look like torture devices, my complaints about under wire bras seem all of a sudden silly compared to what was worn from women in the past.

From what I do remember from my historical costume course, it wasn't unusual for a woman to just slump over and pass out and with good reason. Its a shame that underwear from the 1600s-1900s were so uncomfortable for women to wear ( they weren't exactly thinking about lightweight, sleek technology back then the way we are now) because they are beautifully made. If you really started to think about it being hot, itchy, stinky, and uncomfortable was  probably the norm back then for a woman. Of course not every woman back then wore all these pieces of underwear. It wouldn't be logical for poor working women to wear all of that underwear but I'm sure they wore more than what we wear today.

Where exactly am I going with all of this? As I was looking through the garments available online at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, it had me thinking of how far our underwear has come. Yes, I know its a bit of an odd thought but work with me here. Woman have been doing extreme things for the love of fashion for centuries and as I marveled at some of the beautiful work that was on display, I couldn't help but think of the underwear used in order to create the perfect look of that particular time in history. Oh and P.S. it makes me giggle at the thought that having a big booty goes in an out of style. That bum roll I mentioned before? Looked sort of like those doughnut shaped pillows old people put around their necks on a flight except it goes around your waist. It was a bumroll in the 1600s but now we have booty pops. If you don't know what a booty pop is, take a look. Yep, good ol ass pads.

Even if we zipped through history to more modern times, like the 40s-60s again you see women sucking, tucking, and pulling in every part of their body in order to achieve the perfect fit for what was in style at the time. As someone who dresses in vintage on a moderately normal basis I have to say that I even I am not comfortable going full on 1950s with my undergarments. A modern version of a bullet bra and occasionally high waist-ed underwear is about as far as I can go. I might have tried on a full girdle once and felt like my soul was being squeezed out of my body so after that I decided to just up my yoga sessions and not wear one.

Undergarments always seem to look effortless and comfortable when you're watching Elizabeth Taylor sashay around in them but really putting a bra, panties, girdle, garter, and stockings every single day is a pain. I know it is something you get used to and  will eventually become so accustomed to doing it that the process  in itself goes faster.( I got that bit of advise from my 86 year old grandmother who still to this day wears  something similar to the picture to the left every single day.)  Even with that bit of advise I still don't think I could manage it. As I write this post about underwear  it really makes a girl count her blessings for being born in the era where it isn't a requirement to wear extra undergarments but a choice. After all having the option to wear what you feel is part of the reason why women burned their bras in the first place. We've come a long way baby.

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Vanity Sizing: Is It Just A Little White Lie?

I'm sure I have mentioned one time or another about my trials and triumphs as a fashion design student and because I have been through the ringer of learning this craft I know I for one the creative process designers go through(which is why you should be reading this blog, I actually know what I'm talking about damn it!) but I also know some of the truths behind design that the every day Joe just doesn't realize. One in particular I keep seeing when I'm watching bad reality TV out of all places. Every time I see a designer at a boutique servicing their very rich client and then it happens...

" That's a runway size (insert small number)" I know the camera adds some pounds but come on, clearly some of these women are clearly not that tiny. I don't want to knock a designer for that lie ( because seriously, it takes some lady balls to be a working

designer) but the average woman who doesn't know there is no standardized sizing in fashion, and because of that they hold on to that number like an angry spider monkey. Of course it will make your client feel better in theory but does it really? So I ask you guys, how important really is that number on the back of your clothes? Would you be mad if someone lied to you about how big you were for a sale?

My personal thought is that I work on a don't ask don't tell policy. If you're not asking me about your measurements then I sure as hell am not telling them to you. My job is to make you look as best as humanly possible. Beautiful comes in all sizes so whether you are a plus size or petite if you're a good designer you can make any size look great.

Just my 2 cents now give me yours. How do you feel about that little white lie?

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Thoughts On Personal Style

I'm always asked about style in general and it seems as though the most people want to have great personal style but don't quite know how to develop it. So I'm going to give you some hopefully helpful tips on how to really develop your own personal style.




First things first, what exactly is personal style? Well personal style to me is really developing style unique to you that expresses who you are as a person. A lot of people get kind of caught up in celebrity style and what's going on in trends and let that dictate what they wear , but some of the best dressed people in history never followed trends or who whore what.

OK so what do you do then to avoid looking like frumpty dumpty? I will be the first to admit that having style does not come naturally to everyone so if you just don't know where to start, only then is a good time to use trends as a very light guideline but still stay true to yourself. If you're not into color blocking then why would you wear it? If you don't feel comfortable in something then simply don't wear it. Seems like common sense but you would be amazed at the amount of people that try to wear every up coming trend known to man in order to be stylish, but just end looking silly and in the end you're not really happy with what you're wearing.

Remember that fashion is fun! People spend so much time being so serious about something as surface as fashion and it sucks the fun right out of it. All the great designers before us that created looks not just add to them were experimenting. The only way to truly be fashionable is to be fearless in it. It's a cliche' but a very true one, you wear the clothes don't let the clothes wear you. Confidence is everything in this business and if you're not confident in what you're wearing then no one is going to nod you on your personal style. Remember its just fashion not brain surgery, it will take a lot of trial and errors and that's perfectly OK in the end you will learn what looks good on you and when you look good you feel good.

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Elizabeth Taylor February 27th 1932 - March 23rd, 2011

I was up and ready to write a new post on some random fashion find this morning until I got the news this morning  actress Elizabeth Taylor passed away. My morning started off a usual, get up write something, walk the dog, etc. but nothing hits you more than learning that someone you admire has passed away. I didn't know how to react at first but true to Cancer form I cried, No I didn't know Elizabeth personally but I didn't need to in order to love her as much as I do.

As an avid golden era movie watcher Elizabeth was the woman that always held my attention in the most in movies.Not because of her beauty but Elizabeth was a damn good actress. Her presence commanded a scene when she entered and she held an audience with her softness and sometimes vulnerability. You could relate to her characters, root for them, or despise their very presence and to me THAT is what acting is. To make you feel an emotion towards a character that doesn't exist but for those 2 hours in time they do.

I grew up watching Elizabeth the way America watched her grow up on screen, years before. I can't tell you how many countless hours I have watched Elizabeth go from the cute little girl in Lassie Come Home to her simmering command on camera as Cleopatra.

I loved her acting but the one thing I loved even more were her clothes. If I could get away to this day walking around like Elizabeth Taylor in the White Diamonds commercial I would. Her looks were always well put together and spelled elegance. My mother and I have spent hours talking about Elizabeth's clothes in her movies. She could wear anything and some how make it look regal, her gorgeous gowns from Elephant Walk and even her simple "everyday" clothes in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof  and Giant here always beautifully put together and reflected her character's personalities to a T.

Elizabeth is the very reason I design clothes the way I do, almost everything I have drawn up or created has been with the thought of if she would wear it in a movie. Designers draw inspiration from a lot of different places, mine just happens to come from a legend of the silver screen.

She has touched so many people in so many different ways, but for me it was  a simple love. She taught me style, elegance, and how to handle a man with in a 50 yard parameter. Elizabeth was more than just an actor to me she was there on a Saturday night when a date went terribly wrong and all I had was a remote and a pint of ice cream. She made me laugh, cry, and cheer for her characters so much that I forgot about the world for a second and just enjoyed a really good movie.

Elizabeth was a friend in my head to me and to many women. She was that brassy no holds bar friend that told it like it was whether you wanted to hear it or not. In a world where the word icon is used on people who have barely started their careers, Elizabeth Taylor is the true meaning of an icon and it is well deserved, leaving us a heritage of movies and memorable characters that will always live on. You will be missed.

 

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Mind The Gap: A Short Essay

" Man you can kick a field goal through that thing!" The one phrase I heard a million times a day growing up as a kid. Every kid has something they were picked on about but for me being a tall, gap toothed, chubby kid was the worse. Of course people made fun of those things about me as children are little demons..er..angels, but nothing bothered me more than someone talking about my the gap in my front teeth. 

My mother, also gapped tooth, always talked to me about how beautiful this trait was and to embrace it but as a child going into that awkward phase of puberty, it was nothing but a curse. I tried everything to get my gap to close, including putting putting a rubber band around my front teeth in hopes it would eventually close. I was down right obsessive about it, locking myself into the bathroom so I could stick some tissue between my gap to see what I looked like "normal". I vowed that as soon as I had the chance I would fill my gap, but something in me never did it. 

 Growing up having  gap never hindered me in any way in fact by the time I reached high school no one even pointed it out anymore. Even with people not seeming to take notice of it, I wasn't completely confident with my teeth. I did everything I could not to smile too much or when I laughed I would cover my mouth. All of that changed when a classmate asked me directly why I always hid my smile. Me being awkward as it is was a little shocked and even more self conscious if the fact that they even asked me such a question. I just shrugged and hoped they would change the subject, but they didn't. " You shouldn't hide your face your you're pretty" he said to me. He said it with boyish innocence, not meaning it in anyway except for its value, he wasn't trying to make a move, he was just saying what he thought.  I thought long and hard about it and I asked myself why the heck was I trying to hide this part of myself? Why should anyone including myself even care that I have a gap?That's when I realized that having a gapped tooth smile wasn't such a bad thing after all and that I should do what my mother had always told me to do, embrace it. 

Now that I am an adult I have accepted my gap as apart of me and I think its beautiful. I honestly don't know what I would do if I had gotten it filled. I would feel..well like everyone else and the artist in me never wants to do or be a part of the norm. Maybe this is one of the reasons why I love fashion so much. Fashion is the one place where being a tall woman with non Barbie like features is completely OK and it is considered beautiful to be have a quirky feature. Models like Georgia Jagger, Jess Hart, Lara Stone, and of course the original gapped tooth super model Lauren Hutton, have just verified the fact that gaps are damn sexy. So to all of the girls and women out there that feel a little self conscious about the space between your teeth, smile because you're absolutely beautiful  just the way you are. Respect the gap.  

Photo from: Examiner.com