September Post the 1st: Fall Fashion and the Boot
So, for my first trick post in this month o' requests, let's talk about fall fashions.
First, this year's September issue of Vogue -- you know, the Big One -- is sadly uninspiring. I can't entirely tell if it's the season's clothes or the editorial spreads that have bored me. Even the ads are not quite there for me.
Second, I love fall and I love fall fashion. More clothes = more interest to me. There is so much more play of layers, textures, colors; there is so much more chance to show off. (I live in the muggy subtropics. From late May through all of September, one's clothing decisions are predicated on What Will Allow Me to Not Sweat To Death When I Step Outside. This does not give one a lot of choices.)
Third, I've been refining my own philosophy of clothes-wearing in the past couple of years, and something julia_here said elsewhere resonated with me: I have to be able to move.
My love of straight male dandies -- the way Lord Peter Wimsey dresses, for instance -- is, as Julia_Here suggested, about the way the body (shoulders, often; length of legs; forearms) is revealed through the clothing. Not in an ostentatious way, mind; it's about proportion and propriety as well as decoration. The dandies I love are men who can unbutton their suit jacket and then leap over a wall in pursuit of a baddie.
It's harder to find that in most stylish women's clothes, isn't it? So many of the year's fashion choices are about the still image: the shoes which won't carry one more than a block, the skirt that hobbles one, the sleeves (if one has sleeves) too tight to reach overhead. Justine Picardie's discussion of the pencil skirt in the Telegraph last week is a fine critique of one such trend.
This year's ads for the ready-to-wear clothing line St John feature Kate Winslet, who looks amazing, a sort of languid cross between 50s Kim Novak and late 60s Catherine Deneuve. The only bad thing is that in the linked video, she doesn't look like she can really move at all (despite the knitwear).
This just drives me back to Celine A/W 2011, also known as Clothes for Emma Peel. I can't carry these off -- a little too strict -- but they can inspire.
So, to answer gwynnega's prompt about fall clothes... I will wear straight skirts that nevertheless don't hobble me. I have my riding boots (black as well as brown) ready.
This autumn (when it arrives), I plan to be on the move, and my clothes will have to come with me. :-)
May all of you dream of clothes you love today!
First, this year's September issue of Vogue -- you know, the Big One -- is sadly uninspiring. I can't entirely tell if it's the season's clothes or the editorial spreads that have bored me. Even the ads are not quite there for me.
Second, I love fall and I love fall fashion. More clothes = more interest to me. There is so much more play of layers, textures, colors; there is so much more chance to show off. (I live in the muggy subtropics. From late May through all of September, one's clothing decisions are predicated on What Will Allow Me to Not Sweat To Death When I Step Outside. This does not give one a lot of choices.)
Third, I've been refining my own philosophy of clothes-wearing in the past couple of years, and something julia_here said elsewhere resonated with me: I have to be able to move.
My love of straight male dandies -- the way Lord Peter Wimsey dresses, for instance -- is, as Julia_Here suggested, about the way the body (shoulders, often; length of legs; forearms) is revealed through the clothing. Not in an ostentatious way, mind; it's about proportion and propriety as well as decoration. The dandies I love are men who can unbutton their suit jacket and then leap over a wall in pursuit of a baddie.
It's harder to find that in most stylish women's clothes, isn't it? So many of the year's fashion choices are about the still image: the shoes which won't carry one more than a block, the skirt that hobbles one, the sleeves (if one has sleeves) too tight to reach overhead. Justine Picardie's discussion of the pencil skirt in the Telegraph last week is a fine critique of one such trend.
This year's ads for the ready-to-wear clothing line St John feature Kate Winslet, who looks amazing, a sort of languid cross between 50s Kim Novak and late 60s Catherine Deneuve. The only bad thing is that in the linked video, she doesn't look like she can really move at all (despite the knitwear).
This just drives me back to Celine A/W 2011, also known as Clothes for Emma Peel. I can't carry these off -- a little too strict -- but they can inspire.
So, to answer gwynnega's prompt about fall clothes... I will wear straight skirts that nevertheless don't hobble me. I have my riding boots (black as well as brown) ready.
This autumn (when it arrives), I plan to be on the move, and my clothes will have to come with me. :-)
May all of you dream of clothes you love today!