volunteer lyfe #3

Last week I helped the local Dress for Success set up for a sale.

When I say we have inventory: for three hours, with music blasting, a dozen of us moved boxes and crates, swept and organized and stashed, hiding the bras and boring suits and displaying sequinned tops and immaculate jumpsuits on velvet hangers. Another volunteer and I swapped out work shoes for sale shoes, arranging towering heels and swanky boots by size and shape.

Young sorority women came in for the day, the first group torn between helping out and trying on sale items to purchase later. One rocked a pair of white cowboy boots, each of us hooting and wow’ed as she sashayed through the shop. Another modeled the latest in Gen Z style, an eyelet festival skirt with a crop top and Chucks.

My co-volunteer found at least six cute work dresses, two blazers and some strappy gold sandals for less than a hundred bucks.

There’s nothing like the power of fashion.

rest in power ALT

 This loss truly hurts. André Leon Talley was an iconoclast yes, and also someone I looked up to and even identified with. I too found transformation in the very white very privileged pages of Vogue. He was enthusiastic and gracious and made room for so many. Rest easy wonderful human. 

NPR's Sam Sanders, writer Saeed Jones and others discuss ALT’s success and precariousness in the white world of fashion. Also feeling like it’s time to re-watch “The Gospel According to André.”

me...then

I've been working on a project that involves going back through old journals and letters and pictures. I started systematically documenting my life when I was thirteen. It's been fascinating to get to know my teenage self (and more than slightly embarrassing). 

It's telling, what I spend time writing about, and what I mostly omit.

There's a lot in there about fashion, style, clothes, looks. If I were a Gen Z'er I'd probably be living my best life online as a would-be influencer. But, I was low tech back then, and filled my journals with wordy descriptions and pen or pencil sketches.

Here's one from 1987 showing an outfit I longed for. Sleek, with long lines, a wide belt cinching the waist, and topped with a flapper's bob.

teh hype

I managed to get my hands on the September British Vogue.
Interested in how Meghan Markle aka Duchess of Sussex performs as editor.
It's glossy, for sure. I haven't had time yet to settle in with it. (Although a cursory scan of the features includes a lot of the samo-samo whey-faces. Hmph.)
*
For context, I do buy most of the September fashion magazines. It's the biggest issue and for me, the best deal. I look at them year after year, sometimes cutting out intriguing designs.
I added Bust to the mix this year. Loving its strong feminist messaging.

where i find peace (new video!)

My new video highlights some of the beautiful things in my life.
Things I retreat to/gaze on/try on when I feel most stressed*.
(*not including chocolate or whiskey)
 Enjoi!

style-ish

I'm thinking about starting a sometimes blog feature called Style Icon.
Beautiful objects have saved me, so many times.
I exaggerate not.
Now, the city in which I live is not known for style, as such. But some of us do have steez, style, lewks, whatever you want to call it. Oftentimes it's an unpredictable mix of thrift store finds. Or a particular genre, strictly adhered to. Or a passion for color.  Or maybe just an irrepressible sense of fun.
I know folkx who rock the oddest ensembles and the best part is, especially in my neighborhood, no one blinks an eye, unless it's an admiring one.
So, I'm thinking about ?'s to ask--influences, likes and dislikes, most and least spent, etc--and how to make it visual and I'm excited already.
*
As the ever-irrepressible Santino Rice sang, "Lighten up, it's just fashion."

vogue was my escape hatch

Same.
*
Check out this interview in the Guardian with the great Andre Leon Talley.
I've enjoyed his editorial missives in the pages of American Vogue and astute, loving, judging-slash-mentoring on ANTM ("it's gauche, darling").
Read about him finding his place in the fashion world:
"It didn’t occur to him to question whether he would belong in this crowd. 'I felt like I was included, because there were people I wanted to be like – eccentric, original, people who were artists, writers: Truman Capote, I so identified with him.'"
*
Growing up homeschooled, religious and poor in the PNW, growing up before internet and cell phones and almost never allowed to watch TV, I relied on the public library as my peephole to the secular world. I wasn't allowed to bring home fashion magazines, so I'd plant myself in Periodicals with a stack. Vogue was my favorite; I loved the fantasy and aspirational nature of the ads and the fashion spreads. The beautiful ridiculous breath-taking clothes and shoes and jewels. Of course I couldn't wear Christian Lacroix, there was no place within 100 miles that would ever remotely even carry the label, but I could look at the glossy photos, the glaring models, the airbrushed oddities, and dream.