Pin Me Up
I did a swimwear inventory. 'Cos I haven't been on a warm holiday for many years, or done any bogstandard swimming at home, I have *one* item of swimwear. And it's more 'lounging-by-pool' than 'lengths-in-it'. (I have a choice of Pool or Beach this year, hurrah!)
Hence, I'm going to be speedily making some swimstuff to take with me.
(Why don't you shop for some? you might say... I offer this hollow laffter in reply. Do you enjoy shopping for swimstuff? I bet you don't and you probably have more cash than me.)
Since I like even the most essential boring clothes to be fancy, I want some creative silliness in my swimwear. First step- look at my pin-up pictures!
Ok. There used to be this site called Gravure Idol Jo which collected pictures of Japanese gravure idols, simple enough. (These are lasses who do sort of pin-up sort of Page 3 modelling 'cept there's no toplessness and a lot more mad costumes. Usually the lasses are topheavy which makes it more interesting that they are not half-nekkid, as you can examine the engineering. Did I just say that? Seriously, bra construction is fascinates me.) Can't remember how I found the place but it was well-designed and fairly idiocy-free, so I did some browsing there once upon a time... that is how I got a collection of pinup pictures. (I'm probably being sloppy with my use of 'pin-up' but TBH I can't think of a better term.)
Not to say that our homegrown gravure idol equivalents are inferior, but I haven't seen as many of them. Plus, one main difference I noticed? These are happy pictures. Sometimes the girls have silly faces and they honestly appear to be having a jolly time. There isn't much of that faux-pouting and cheap lace and I'm-so-naughty tomfoolery that you get in crap ladmags. And, the end results are less likely to end up on Photoshop Disasters, because if the girl looks a bit squishy in one shot (being, you know, made of human), the photographers and/or post-production don't appear to care. Also, they get points for the use of 'photogravure' which is quite a funny word.
It is naive perhaps to talk of 'naturalness' when discussing pinup photos but I found them refreshing, at least.
I have purchased suitable Lycra (which normally I will not touch) in olive green, dark plum, red & white candy-stripe, and black corded lace.
I'm planning 2-pieces mostly, 'cos I likes my navel. (I do belly-dancing now, so it has an exalted position and can do tricks.)
Ok soanyway I have these pinup photos. Some of them obv. had really good stylists because their undies are just *fabulous*, therefore these are what I used for inspiration:
I think this photo (subject is Hanai Miri, who is cute as a button*) is a treasure; just about the most seasidey bikini on earth. Even if they couldn't afford one which fits properly. Stripes ahoy!
I also am most taken with this top (as worn by Kitamura Hitomi); ok you can't see the details as she is showcasing the goods a bit there, but the ruffly scoopness of it is fetching. Turned into swimstuff rather than impractical undies, it should be striking. I am doing my ripoff of this in the dark purple with black net overlay/trim.
I have no refs. for the other things, they are sort of a mishmash, but the dark green one will be sort of boyshorts despite my inability to wear the things, and *possibly* some very small ruffles. Not sure what I'm doing with the lace, might do a sort of darkgoffic version of the stripes.
(Oh, and bonus? I did not expect to see this: the lady is one Takizawa Nonami, and she is wearing Angelic Pretty. For sure! (I checked the skirt on the Wayback Machine. Besides, she wouldn't be able to accommodate all that tubularboobularjoy in a Meta blouse, rite?) Wish she'd gone for pink shoes, though. Once again, proof that one measures a circle beginning anywhere, and all. I enjoy the random coincidences.)
So, that's my emergency lastminute summer project, written up here with extra gurls. I intend to post in-progress pictures of everything I'm doing now, partly 'cos it helps me with future projects when I can't remember what happened in the middle.
*I don't normally like 'cute' as a complimentary descriptor ('Area Woman Judges Everything by Whether It's Cute'), but occasionally it fits. OTOH, I recently saw Coraline... so scratch the 'as a button'. Shudder.
Hence, I'm going to be speedily making some swimstuff to take with me.
(Why don't you shop for some? you might say... I offer this hollow laffter in reply. Do you enjoy shopping for swimstuff? I bet you don't and you probably have more cash than me.)
Since I like even the most essential boring clothes to be fancy, I want some creative silliness in my swimwear. First step- look at my pin-up pictures!
Ok. There used to be this site called Gravure Idol Jo which collected pictures of Japanese gravure idols, simple enough. (These are lasses who do sort of pin-up sort of Page 3 modelling 'cept there's no toplessness and a lot more mad costumes. Usually the lasses are topheavy which makes it more interesting that they are not half-nekkid, as you can examine the engineering. Did I just say that? Seriously, bra construction is fascinates me.) Can't remember how I found the place but it was well-designed and fairly idiocy-free, so I did some browsing there once upon a time... that is how I got a collection of pinup pictures. (I'm probably being sloppy with my use of 'pin-up' but TBH I can't think of a better term.)
Not to say that our homegrown gravure idol equivalents are inferior, but I haven't seen as many of them. Plus, one main difference I noticed? These are happy pictures. Sometimes the girls have silly faces and they honestly appear to be having a jolly time. There isn't much of that faux-pouting and cheap lace and I'm-so-naughty tomfoolery that you get in crap ladmags. And, the end results are less likely to end up on Photoshop Disasters, because if the girl looks a bit squishy in one shot (being, you know, made of human), the photographers and/or post-production don't appear to care. Also, they get points for the use of 'photogravure' which is quite a funny word.
It is naive perhaps to talk of 'naturalness' when discussing pinup photos but I found them refreshing, at least.
I have purchased suitable Lycra (which normally I will not touch) in olive green, dark plum, red & white candy-stripe, and black corded lace.
I'm planning 2-pieces mostly, 'cos I likes my navel. (I do belly-dancing now, so it has an exalted position and can do tricks.)
Ok soanyway I have these pinup photos. Some of them obv. had really good stylists because their undies are just *fabulous*, therefore these are what I used for inspiration:
I think this photo (subject is Hanai Miri, who is cute as a button*) is a treasure; just about the most seasidey bikini on earth. Even if they couldn't afford one which fits properly. Stripes ahoy!
I also am most taken with this top (as worn by Kitamura Hitomi); ok you can't see the details as she is showcasing the goods a bit there, but the ruffly scoopness of it is fetching. Turned into swimstuff rather than impractical undies, it should be striking. I am doing my ripoff of this in the dark purple with black net overlay/trim.
I have no refs. for the other things, they are sort of a mishmash, but the dark green one will be sort of boyshorts despite my inability to wear the things, and *possibly* some very small ruffles. Not sure what I'm doing with the lace, might do a sort of darkgoffic version of the stripes.
(Oh, and bonus? I did not expect to see this: the lady is one Takizawa Nonami, and she is wearing Angelic Pretty. For sure! (I checked the skirt on the Wayback Machine. Besides, she wouldn't be able to accommodate all that tubularboobularjoy in a Meta blouse, rite?) Wish she'd gone for pink shoes, though. Once again, proof that one measures a circle beginning anywhere, and all. I enjoy the random coincidences.)
So, that's my emergency lastminute summer project, written up here with extra gurls. I intend to post in-progress pictures of everything I'm doing now, partly 'cos it helps me with future projects when I can't remember what happened in the middle.
*I don't normally like 'cute' as a complimentary descriptor ('Area Woman Judges Everything by Whether It's Cute'), but occasionally it fits. OTOH, I recently saw Coraline... so scratch the 'as a button'. Shudder.