Style icon: Religious ladies from the 19th Century

Here's a lovely accessory that popped up on Craft the other day: a Reversible Folkloric Felt Bonnet. A bonnet!


The regular reader(s?) of my blog will know that I am very interested in ironic fashions and I love referencing things that are deeply uncool, hence my penchant for librarian chic, etc. For some reason when I think of folksy fashion I think of Chloe Sevingny, who everyone loves and knows is the indie style queen sans equal - maybe the folk thing is because of her recent-ish role in Big Love, although she's obviously a New York gal all over, so who knows how my mind is making these connections. My point is, if Chloe Sevigny is wearing a pastel-coloured, high-necked, long-sleeved, ruffly blouse made by a little old seamstress in a teeny tiny town in Utah then...uh.... so can you?? oh forget it.

These modest dresses and freaky 19th century undies for the conservative Mormon in your life are being sold without irony all over the Internets right now, although my sources are unable to verify if anyone is actually buying them.


It all seems a bit too matchy-matchy - where's the individuality? Oh, right, of course. I am quite partial to maxi dresses, but I think this takes it a bit far. And ladies, let me dispel a myth for you: brushing your hair a hundred times won't make it healthy, and just because it's long doesn't mean it's pretty. Sorry, but I had to say it.

The beauty in simple things

(Existentialist poem about the economy)

Too broke to shop, what's a gal to do?
The economy is stumbling
on its proverbial high heels, and
it might fall.
Like in this video!
Fashion imitating life.
Je suis perdue...

Beauty tip #4 - Threading

This is an actual traditional Indian beauty practice for removing body hair, and not one of my made-up beauty tips. It has several advantages over other methods of hair removal like waxing and tweezing in that it is 1) fast, 2) cheap, and 3) even more painful. Fun! No amount of Bonjela can ever prevent or relieve this particular burning stinging pain. And speaking of burning stinging pain, there's that other traditional Indian beauty tip, the madras curry. For.. slimming and cleansing..?

Sassy redheads

Thanks to the magical internets I have been able to nourish my obsession with the show Mad Men: the women, the men, the gender roles, the fashion! I am especially partial to Joan Holloway, the sassy redhead, intimidating in both body and attitude. Some sartorial advice from Miss Holloway:

"Try to stay away from pattern prints. Stick with solid colors. Your mother wears pattern prints, not you."

Meow! Ooh and here's another gem:

"You’re not much. Enjoy the attention while it lasts."

Missing socks

This image fits my extremely vague criteria for relating to fashion, and I have no other ideas today. It's kind of appropriate, missing socks and everything. From A Softer World.

50 years of... peace?

It's the anniversary of the peace sign! It was created by British artist Gerald Holtom for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in 1958, and paraded around in a London peace march, and then on everything else since. Says its creator:

"I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad. I formalised the drawing into a line and put a circle round it."

Isn't that beautiful? Cut to 50 years later: we know the planet is messed up, we want to spread love and peace, and that's why we express our deep emotions with 4.8 carats of round-cut diamonds set into platinum, in the form of the Tiffany pendant for $6,650 NZD! Hmmmm... now something about that just ain't right. Blood Diamond, anyone?? Why not throw in a gold wedding ring produced with environmentally unsound practices - nothing says love like water pollution and slave labour!

This is exactly the kind of consumerist nonsense that I have come to expect from humans today. Other examples include: really flash yoga gear (to make the other people in your yoga class jealous while you reach a Zen state and look HOT and RICH all at the same time!) and antioxidant-rich organically grown acai berries from the Brazilian rainforest, flown directly to you, the consumer for the benefit of your valuable self. (Hypocritical, much?)

Is it a skirt? Is it a flower?

I'm not gonna be one of those bloggers who says boring things like "Sorry I have not blogged much lately, blah blah blah". People are probably glad that I've shut the hell up for a month. There are 50 million other blogs on the Internets, read something else! A selection of cool blogs and websites is on your right there. Meanwhile, look at this lovely picture of a skirt-flower. Thanks, Anyways.