Style, and how to get some
I hate shopping for clothes. I'm terrible at it, and it takes forever, and it is miserable. I have stories.[1] This is no doubt part of the reason that I'm getting close to the point where my entire wardrobe needs replacing
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Luckily in my line of work, well-fitting jeans and a minecraft T-shirt will get me quite far, but when I have to go to the meet-and-greet events at my children's school, now I'm actually aware of the fact that everyone else is wearing fancy things that I generally wouldn't be caught dead in and would never pick off a rack. I bought 3 collared shirts at Costco a few years ago, but those are now wearing out.
I think my awaking came at a comment you made on LJ a few years ago when you were trying to learn how to read webcomics. You said something along the lines of having painfully developed an ability to read fashion trends, and didn't yet have the visual language to read comics and you were wondering how to get it.
It was then that I became aware that what people were wearing was something that I should consider paying attention to. I feel odd sitting at the mall eating a pretzel with my kids and trying to notice and judge the clothing of people walking by, but now at least I've done it. I still can't visualize myself in most of it though.
I'd love your female oriented links if they are easy to share.
--Beth
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http://www.amyherzogdesigns.com/f2f/ was really helped to me, but unfortunately is no longer available as it's been turned into saleable books and classes and so forth. Although most of the material is probably in Knit to Flatter (and you can ignore the knitting part if it isn't relevant to you :)
Useful books: Nina Garcia's The One Hundred (judgy, but a good basis for a shopping list, and a straightforward enough way to discover what items of clothing people might think you ought to own); Tim Gunn's Guide to Style (the least judgy book I read; his general principles can accommodate a wide variety of styles/garments); stuff by Stacey London or Trinny & Susannah (hosts of, respectively, the American and British versions of What Not To Wear).
Mainlining old episodes of What Not To Wear (the US version) will give you a sense of how to dress like an extremely cisnormative circa-2005 woman. So that has pros and cons, but Stacey is good at distilling things into simple rules. (The UK version is more likable TV but uglier fashion IMO.)
http://corporette.com/ will tell you straightforwardly what norms are for women with high-powered careers in places like NYC or DC (which may not be what you're going for, but starting there and stepping several levels of casualness down can be good). I never did get around to following http://www.alreadypretty.com/ but I hear good things about it (it's more artsy than Corporette). Again, there are a bazillion things in this space, so it might be worth poking around their blogrolls and their blogrolls-of-blogrolls and so forth until you find people who dress in ways you might actually want to dress, or who dress for lifestyles compatible with your own, and follow them.
https://www.stitchfix.com/ is a woman-oriented version of Trunk Club and if you message me I can get you a referral code. I've been trying them out and I have mixed feelings.
I don't think of it as "judging" their clothes so much as "analyzing" - if I like this outfit, why? if I don't, why? If I think it works *on them*, why? If I think it almost works but could be improved, what changes would help? (This last one is the most informative for me.)
If you can't visualize yourself in it, there may be lots of useful info in that gut feeling (like, it may not just mean that you can't see yourself as a stylish person). Maybe they are wearing colors that wouldn't flatter you, or their clothes are best for body proportions that you don't have.
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I think the great secrets of women's fashion are:
1) layers;
2) mainstream style is an attempt to emphasize, or create the impression of, an hourglass figure. Examples: belts (draw attention to the waist and may actually physically cinch in the clothes to create narrowness there); full skirts or wider-leg pants, if your shoulders are broader than your hips (creates a visual impression of balance); likewise, narrow v-necks (visually narrows your shoulders); wide lapels or boat necklines on people whose shoulders are narrower than their hips (visually broadens the shoulders - strong horizontal lines broaden what they are near; verticals narrow it). Trends of *fashion* may or may not be of any utility for you in this regard, but an overall style which follows this principle will be pretty timeless.
3) The body is a system of thirds (ground to knee, knee to waist, waist to shoulder) and clothing should respect that. Clothing that breaks you up into two halves will make you look dumpy and unproportional; clothing that follows the thirds will lend you graceful proportions. So the classic sheath dress (runs the 2/3rds from shoulder to knee), or a blouse and knee-length skirt (likewise), or a blouse and long pants (the top 1/3 and the bottom 2/3). In point of fact, your SPECIFIC body may have proportions that depart somewhat from this (and that is *totally okay*); this may suggest some garments that will be better on you and some worse. For instance, if your torso is proportionally short, a tunic-length top will create the impression of lengthening it, and may be quite flattering; if your torso is proportionally long and you wear the same garment, you will be emphasizing halves, not thirds; you, and your legs, will both look shorter than they actually are. (To go all nerd, in the first case you'll look more elven; in the second, more dwarven. Most people prefer the former.)
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Thanks so much for the references. I'll have to track them down.
--Beth
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