Want To Purchase Some Crafty Things?
Mr. Blankenship and I are proud to announce the official launch of Kingdom Boutique, our very own collection of modern American craft.
Couples Aprons
Some of my latest crafty creations. You and your man/woman can be domestically matchy!
Unfulfilled Goals, Boo
New Year’s resolutions are usually total bummers because our human nature (often) disallows the following through on commitments we make. Thus Mr. Blankenship doesn’t make New Year’s resolutions, only aspirations. I quit making them some time ago as well. However, I do like to set small attainable goals. And I get really mad when I cannot attain them.
All this to say, the aprons I promised at the beginning of the week have not prevailed. I was SO on track by Tuesday. One apron down, four to go! But then life happened. And now I’m on my way to Texas to be with my dying Grandfather.
How do you deal with failed commitments and unfulfilled goals? How do you pick yourself up again and start over? Is late really better than never? I would love to hear your thoughts.
Five Aprons in Five Days
Etsy is a wonderful website where a person can find all manner of delightfully handmade items. Technically, I have a store on Etsy. But technically, it is sort of defunct. That is to say, I have nothing for sale there. Today. So in the spirit of being EXTREMELY productive and reviving our beloved store, Kingdom Boutique, Joshua and I have decided upon a goal for this week. I’m going to make five aprons in exactly five days. Then the aprons will be for sale. I’ll be blogging about my progress, hopefully with a few pictures. I say “hopefully” because my current technological situation (computer, phone, hard drives, you name it) makes posting images of anything I do very cumbersome, even impossible. But the aprons themselves will prevail.
On Fashion Magazines & the Over-Mystification of Style
I like fashion. Actually I love fashion. I see it as a medium by which to express myself as an artist. But I am merely a novice, slowly learning the language of style and putting together visual sentences with care and apprehension.
In my quest to learn the language of style, I turn to what most would consider to be the dictionary, the Fashion Magazine. There I hope to learn the definitions of words, the visual signifiers that describe what clothes and accessories are and do. For instance: What is a bias cut dress, and why does it look good on some women and not others? Why does bright green look good on me and beige make me look sick? What is matte jersey, and why do I hate it? Why do most models have the bodies of 12-year-old boys? Why are tiny purses with long straps suddenly back in fashion? Who is Vivienne Westwood?
But instead of finding the answers to these questions, I encounter more words and images of which I don’t know the definitions, and other words to describe them that make no sense. My least favorite and the most overly-used word in fashion magazines: effortless. This is apparently the holy grail of what all women want in clothes. That “throw it on and leave without looking in the mirror” mystique that only Audrey Hepburn and Kate Moss seem able to achieve. Fashion virtuosos aside, I doubt even the most stylish of celebrities achieves their look without some good, hard work at some point. Discovering one’s body type, color palette, and taste takes work. I don’t care who you are.
All this to say, the very place I turn to discover what fashion means to me only serves to over-mystify the entire concept. I want to know how a one-shouldered dress is made or why a designer was inspired by Greco-Roman themes, not how Pantene Pro-V is going to help me wear a one-shouldered ensemble with confidence. That’s ridiculous. That kind of propaganda makes me think I can only be fashionable if I look like a five-foot-ten-inch model with long black or gold tresses, or if I had enough money to get liposuction, or if I had more money period. The writers of fashion magazines and the advertising that supports them want me to be in a state of constant dissatisfaction with who I am so that they can make money. And who can blame them? It’s a clever strategy. But it is dishonest and ultimately makes me mistrust everything they say.
I think fashion magazines would do better (as some have begun, but only meagerly) to teach their readers about the fashion industry and give them the tools to achieve their own personal style. Just because the archetype of the beautiful figure has changed over the past 100 years from plump and womanly to anorexic and emaciated doesn’t mean you can’t look good in what designers are putting in stores these days. It just means you need to arm yourself with the right information and devices to make them work for you–e.g. your body type, your color palette, your most flattering fabrics & fits, and your most important weapon, a tailor.
Armed with these tools, I know that bias cut dresses don’t usually look good on me because my Latina pear-shaped-ness makes the fabric fall weird; matte jersey seems like it’s always cut on the bias, and I don’t like its gritty feel; my winter complexion means I look best in jewel tones; tiny purses are back because the powers-that-be said they were; Vivienne Westwood made punk a style; and I look awesome in high-waisted, tailored jeans.
Where The Wild Things Are Contest
Grand Prize: two tickets to the New York City big screen premiere of this beloved children’s story, travel and hotel accommodations for two, and one $500 Urban Outfitters gift card, all courtesy of the hipster megastore. Donning of super-duper skinny jeans optional, but encouraged.
Daddy’s Girl
Model Coco Rocha and her dad, Trevor Haines, do a smashing rendition of The Jungle Book’s “I Wanna Be Like You.” Louis Prima would be proud.
Check out Coco’s blog here.
Uniforms Anyone?
I am absolutely LOVING The Uniform Project, one woman’s “[pledge] to wear one dress for one year as an exercise in sustainable fashion.” Reminds me of the time Lucie Shuker committed to wear the same shirt every day for several weeks as part of the More Than Clothes campaign. Back then anti-materialism led the charge in favor of regimented garb, whereas The Uniform Project is all about living eco. It is fascinating how one practice can have innumerable inspirations.
Igor & Andre Fashion Illustrations
Danny Roberts draws for a living. When he was five, he “convinced [himself] that pouring mud onto cardboard was how to make concrete.” Reminds me of the time my friend Tori’s brother and I tried to make a bomb by attaching a string fuse to a rubbing alcohol-filled tennis ball. It didn’t work, thank God.
Sea of Shoes
I have been reading Jane Aldridge’s blog for a while now, and I am AMAZED at how someone so young can have SO much style. She challenges me to follow my fashion instincts.
