random fashion thoughts

[neparlepas]

I perform maintenance on my wardrobe at-least twice a year. There is something incredibly satisfying with clearing out items which don't serve much purpose to me anymore. Everything you purchased had value - but as your style evolves or you've jus worn a piece so many times - the value to you diminishes. It may still serve value to others - so resell or repurpose if you can. Any financial value reclaimed can serve towards those new hangers!

Not to preach on minimalism, but the Marie Kondo Japanese tidying up book has some great principles on managing a wardrobe. It helped me narrow down my closet to half of what it was. For years I thought more was better, but it got to the state where I just had toooo much of everything. I now get much more wear out of pieces I love and enjoy spending a half our or so each week folding and maintaining the order of things in my closet.

Because I travel a lot, I usually give away half of my stuff every winter. Not only I can refresh my look, but I'm helping others in need... win-win

[Faust]

I daresay that Haider's debut for Berluti was fantastic.

[deadboy]

My desire to own a three-piece maroon velvet suit went up exponentially.

[jurassicsnark]

So I'm trying to rearrange and simplify my wardrobe at the moment. I'm at a point where I have a genuine fondness for everything I own but I know I don't wear a lot of it. I need to downsize because I have very minimal space. I have many garments I've owned for five or six years. A lot of them are brands that are not "sz approved"... things I purchased along the journey of discovering my sense of style - no resale value - but all of which served me very well. Maybe it's time to let go but the sentimental attachment makes it difficult. Some pieces I think "I would wear this again if the right circumstance presented itself" - fancy dresses, etc. I used to be quite a social butterfly! But these days I just work work work in my studio every weekend where I spill chemicals on myself. Dealing with this is causing me so much anxiety for some reason. I DO have a pile of garments I can admit I need to part with, but still unsure how to - too close to my heart to donate to the salvation army - not good enough to sell to anyone, nobody would want it. The rest I can't bring myself to take out of my wardrobe yet. At least I can succinctly identify what gaps I have left - if you can believe it. Hardly any, I just love sweaters and would like a more diverse selection of them. Anyway this ramble of thoughts is caused by some maximum stress and attempted catharsis through wardrobe purging that used to bring me relief and now does not! Apologies :)

On a slightly related but not topic, I dream of replacing all my hangers with matching velvet ones. I want my wardrobe to feel like a store! But for so many garments (mine and my boyfriend who has twice as much as me) it is a hefty expense. A

AHN,
I did a similar wardrobe purge a few months back, and I was in a similar spot in many respects.
I shopped the things that were sellable to TheRealReal, and the rest of the stuff I found good homes for — namely, younger friends who are still trying on different style options or who know what they like but can't really afford it yet. It took a lot of the sting out of letting go to give things to a good home.

As for the hangers, yeah, I did that, too. Amazon sells velvet hangers for about fifty cents — happy to share the link with you if you'd like or to bring a bunch to Melbourne next month. My bags travel free, so don't hesitate to ask me to bring stuff for you!

[DudleyGray]

Every once in a while, I take breaks from fashion/shopping, thinking surely there must be something more worth my time and money when it comes to leisure, and every time, I'm only met with disappointment and/or inconvenience. Travel, culture, arts, entertainment, the smorgasborg of lifestyles for grownups, it all feels like facades of significance. It's hard to believe in their value, versus the immediate sensation of fabric and cut. It's such a dumb, privileged view to hold, especially given the current political/global climate, but OK, sure.

[Faust]

Every once in a while, I take breaks from fashion/shopping, thinking surely there must be something more worth my time and money when it comes to leisure, and every time, I'm only met with disappointment and/or inconvenience. Travel, culture, arts, entertainment, the smorgasborg of lifestyles for grownups, it all feels like facades of significance. It's hard to believe in their value, versus the immediate sensation of fabric and cut. It's such a dumb, privileged view to hold, especially given the current political/global climate, but OK, sure.

I love it. Design is a completely valid human endeavor. I know what you are saying, though I am not in the same boat, and I think that you can find things to enjoy and be fulfilled with in a meaningful way in all those things - art, travel, music, literature, etc. You just need to find the good stuff and that's becoming harder and harder to do because everything is so mass these days.

[oulipien]

I love it. Design is a completely valid human endeavor. I know what you are saying, though I am not in the same boat, and I think that you can find things to enjoy and be fulfilled with in a meaningful way in all those things - art, travel, music, literature, etc. You just need to find the good stuff and that's becoming harder and harder to do because everything is so mass these days.

It's easier than ever to find worthwhile music and literature, both old and new. The problem is making time to engage with it in a manner that it deserves.

I can't really comprehend the complaint that it's *harder* to find worthwhile literature (e.g.). What's the period of comparison? It's certainly easier if you're in a place sadly without a decent bookstore or library, both to learn about and to actually acquire things, and should you be fortunate enough to live somewhere where you can't walk a block without tripping over piles of remaindered little magazines and reviews outside impeccably stocked stores, how does the fact that there's more (if this is even true!) chaff with which you wouldn't sully yourself matter? (Never mind that there's also more wheat.) You don't even have to interact with it in the first, place, so…

[Faust]

It's easier than ever to find worthwhile music and literature, both old and new. The problem is making time to engage with it in a manner that it deserves.

I can't really comprehend the complaint that it's *harder* to find worthwhile literature (e.g.). What's the period of comparison? It's certainly easier if you're in a place sadly without a decent bookstore or library, both to learn about and to actually acquire things, and should you be fortunate enough to live somewhere where you can't walk a block without tripping over piles of remaindered little magazines and reviews outside impeccably stocked stores, how does the fact that there's more (if this is even true!) chaff with which you wouldn't sully yourself matter? (Never mind that there's also more wheat.) You don't even have to interact with it in the first, place, so…

Rereading, I see it a bit of a blanket statement, but not that much so. Of course, I am referring to contemporary literature, though my statement was more about art and music. Still, contemporary literature is not immune to marketing, hype, bought influence, disingenuous criticism, etc.

I would say it's harder than ever to find worthwhile music than before, that's for sure. But, I agree that the problem is making time to engage with any discipline in a manner it deserves.

[DudleyGray]

I've found myself unexpectedly turning to classical and jazz for my fix of music lately. I still like a lot of current stuff, but right now I'm this kick of "it's all a by-product of consumer culture and the themes/sentiments expressed tend to be very trite or hamfisted that don't align with my personal values!" I don't have a whole lot of hangups or strong emotions anymore, barring ennuie or minor annoyances with people, so it just doesn't seem consistent to get caught up in songs about relationships or whatever tends to be the content of current music. Whereas, my personal appreciation of classical/jazz music feel a little more "pure," for lack of a better word, or maybe more detached. It feels more like music for music's sake without the underlying stuff that comes along with the pop/indie/punk/electronic machines, like keeping current or pushing boundaries.

But to clarify my statement about the lifestyle smorgasborg, I of course enjoy those things to a degree, but more that I see other people ENJOY those things. Those things have meaning to them that bleed into their identities, whereas I feel incapable of believing in those things at that level. I would say that this is just getting older, but I don't think it is, given a lot of the older people I encounter.

On another fashion-related note, I felt parts of this:

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/i-wore-jnco-jeans-for-seven-days-to-find-myself?utm_source=vicefbca&utm_campaign=global

There's some odd consolation in the fact that people pay $200-$300 for JNCOs, and although it did take me a while to break the mental barrier of trampling the Firbanks hems, it's fun now to not give a fuck that much, to both look ridiculous and soil the pantlegs through salt and dirt and oil.

[Faust]

Ludwig van's 9th is where it's at.

[Pumpfish]

I daresay that Haider's debut for Berluti was fantastic.

Agreed. Haider will benefit from a little discipline and the superior materials and fabrication. Meanwhile Sartori going back to Zegna should harness the full strength of their fabric R&D.

[blackdeath]

just wrapped nyfw and my only thoughts are that there needs to be return to professionalism with the press backstage, if it ever existed in the first place. photographers outside of fashion shows.....

[FollowYourSeams]

Rereading, I see it a bit of a blanket statement, but not that much so. Of course, I am referring to contemporary literature, though my statement was more about art and music. Still, contemporary literature is not immune to marketing, hype, bought influence, disingenuous criticism, etc.

I find fashion much more pretentious than literature. Literature has a lot more structure to it (grammar, language features, purpose etc), making 'bad' writing a lot easier to recognize, despite who writes/reads/critiques it. Meanwhile, a fashion designer could put out a steaming pile of kitsch and people will find any excuse to call it "avant garde" (I've really started to hate that term). Miuccia Prada is a classic case for me. I mean that it's a lot easier to separate the artist from the work (and thus be less biased) when it comes to writing than fashion.

[DudleyGray]

I find fashion much more pretentious than literature. Literature has a lot more structure to it (grammar, language features, purpose etc), making 'bad' writing a lot easier to recognize, despite who writes/reads/critiques it. Meanwhile, a fashion designer could put out a steaming pile of kitsch and people will find any excuse to call it "avant garde" (I've really started to hate that term). Miuccia Prada is a classic case for me. I mean that it's a lot easier to separate the artist from the work (and thus be less biased) when it comes to writing than fashion.

I have to disagree with this on a certain level, the level that is outside of hype machines. Writing depends on both the reader and writer having shared points of references, cultural language, sentiments, etc. to even begin engaging, and not only does the writer need to be of a certain skill level in composing, but the work's interpretation relies on the reader's skill level to assess critically. The reader has to be sensitive to things like imagery, themes, and narrative voice and draw out "tissues" of meaning, so to speak. Otherwise, it's very easy for a reader simply to see what they want to see in the work like some strange confirmation bias, to think nonsensically what is not there.

Good clothing has a self-evident quality to it. When you pick up a Thom Browne coat and compare it with a fast fashion coat, there's no denying its substance or how much extra work must have gone into its construction and finishing. The larger Fashion machine, I can grant you the potential for pretense there; it, too, is a language that demands a prerequisite knowledge for any meaningful conversation. "F"ashion is certainly susceptible to the same kind of pitfalls as writing, but its content is (or at least should be) unmistakable, whereas writing is mere thought and purely abstract, unless you consider the paper and ink to be its form.

[Faust]

I find fashion much more pretentious than literature. Literature has a lot more structure to it (grammar, language features, purpose etc), making 'bad' writing a lot easier to recognize, despite who writes/reads/critiques it. Meanwhile, a fashion designer could put out a steaming pile of kitsch and people will find any excuse to call it "avant garde" (I've really started to hate that term). Miuccia Prada is a classic case for me. I mean that it's a lot easier to separate the artist from the work (and thus be less biased) when it comes to writing than fashion.

I don't mean that - I mean the marketing culture created by publishers. It's certainly not immune to hype. To be sure, there is much more in the way of serious criticism in literature still, but it's also increasingly rare to find. I doubt (m)any major outlets would call out the sacred cows of contemporary lit (Jonathan Franzen, Zadie Smith, etc.) when they put out a new book. At least I haven't seen it. Granted I don't read that many book reviews, but I do follow the NYT, New Yorker, and the Atlantic. I wish I had time for the NYRB.