The Sheila Skirt

 Tule fog or no, i've been spending productive time with my Bernina the last few weeks. I just finished a straight skirt in a linen/rayon blend on Sunday morning, and wore it for errands and walking in Berkeley that afternoon. Success! Between the shape of the skirt and the wonderful rusty-red tones of the brown, i started calling this one 'The Sheila Skirt' before i even knew what i was doing.

While wearing my skunk skirt (what can i say, the name just stuck) in total comfort, i realized that the 'base' on which i'd applied the ruffles is simply your basic straight skirt, cut off just above the knee. It occurred to me that with the addition of a modest slit, this silhouette should work well for a comfy, workaday item. The beauty of the straight skirt is it's un-fussiness, ability to play well with just about any jacket shape, and low fabric needs. There's some times when you don't feel like dealing with a lot of fabric, from the psychological as well as financial perspectives. I'm very tickled that this pattern has worked out so well, and look forward to whipping up a couple more skirts along these lines.

Saturday i had a 'blogger meetup' of sorts. Ilegirl invited me to check out the local American Cancer Society thrift shop's vintage extravaganza when she received their e-mail notice of this event. Of course i accepted and we had a great time. However, ilegirl and i have known each other for going on thirty years now, and have gotten together for shopping, dining, and basically hanging out literally hundreds of times before....does it still 'count' as a blogger meetup in those circumstances?

The most enjoyable part of the day for me was getting a look at the labels in some of the vintage items.  So many were from old, venerable San Francisco institutions that i remember frequenting with my mom as a girl. I had a blast getting photos of all of them to share with you. I've never heard of FANYA before, but i loved the graphic on the label of this mint-green silk shantung suit.

I remember when we were little and our mom would take us to Union Square in San Francisco for a little window shopping. When it was time for a 'rest', mom would take us to I. Magnin. This was old-style class and glamour - green marble rooms for each 'throne', gold-plated faucets, a nice big lounge with couches, coffee tables and mirrors. How sad when I. Magnin went out of business!

 And how strange when the most disparate areas of your life turn out to be intertwined. Years ago i listened to the 'grande dame' of conspiracy researchers, Mae Brussel, who broadcast her radio show 'World Watchers International' every Sunday afternoon from down the coast.  Her programs were bristling with information you'd be hard pressed to find addressed anywhere else, but mostly i loved her larger-than-life, joyful, and raucous personality. She'd been dead for over a decade when i learned that she was a scion of none other than the venerable Isaac Magnin himself! If anyone could floor you long after they were dead, it'd be Ms. Brussel!

At least Gump's is still around. And with the opportunity to market and buy specialty items on the web, and the availability of all types of style inspiration from street style to couture coverage to do-it-yourself tutorials, access to great style continues forward. Isn't it funny how many memories can be triggered by a couple inches of ribbon...

Jacket: Issey Miyake for Vogue Patterns, made by me
Sweater: Royal Robbins
Belt: Betsey Johnson
Skirt: own design (in tribute to Sheila)
Scarf, Earrings: own design
Over The Knee Socks: Target
Shoes: Bass Lacey Oxfords

An Editorial (warning: this is a long one)

A couple of posts ago i mentioned the book The triumph of Individual Style by Carla Mason Mathis and Helen Villa Connor.  The basic concept laid out in this book is that each individual person has a unique aesthetic. Certain colors, textures, shapes, lines, and proportions will flatter the inherent aesthetic of that individual's physical form, while most other colors, textures, etc. will not.  The authors truly focus on bringing out each individual's particular beauty - this isn't How To Not Look Old by any stretch. The authors draw upon all of art history to find hundreds of portraits which they use to illustrate these principles of shape, form, and color. As i recall, they don't address typical 'style' or personality concepts at all (ie. 'romantic' vs. 'professional' vs.'rocker' style).


The artistic and graphic design concepts which the Carla Mason Mathis and Helen Villa Connor teach the reader of this book are invaluable.  I cannot recommend it highly enough as the one resource which you can use to learn any concept of art, color, proportion, line, form, etc. that you will ever need to dress your form exquisitely.  But i was never convinced that their focus on an individual physical aesthetic got to the heart of personal style. Flattery is fine, beauty is even better. But what about the psychological, personality, historical, hobby, lifestyle, and other factors that come into and express themselves through people with amazing style? What does a person do when their body looks good in pale pinks and baby blue frothy lace, but they lead a rock band? Or, worse yet, a law firm?

Style blogging, particularly blogs which feature one person's outfits several times a week, is a radically new form of fashion/style media.  It provides the opportunity for your average jane to see what incredibly stylish people wear, on a day to day basis, for months or years on end.  Prior to style blogs, you either had the blessed good fortune to live near one of these stellar individuals, or you saw highlights culled from photo shoots or paparazzi by Anna Wintour. It was just a taste, and the people featured were so many times starlets who are styled by the really interesting style mavens behind the scenes, like the Beckerman family. Now we can see what Calli and Sam are wearing, not just *lithe blonde of moment*.  

I started to notice that color, texture, line, etc. really did make a huge difference in how people looked. Cynthia of Be Fabulous Daily just glows in berries, red, and blues. Erin at Work With What You Got uses every trick in the book to make her long long legs somehow look even longer. Sal of Already Pretty - she loves her newts and wears them well. But put her in a cobwebby-violet or a rusted out forest green with a medium grained pattern and her face and hair suddenly  incandesc on up to 11.  So i became convinced that there are certain elements which flatter people, which best frame and bring out their own unique features and coloring and shape, and others which do not. But this still seemed to only address part of the style picture. What about the person inside the body?

All this thinking and mulling around came to a head during Style Underdog's recent Color Explosion Birthday Week Extravaganza!  Of course Bev looked gorgeous and chic and perfect and the color combinations were so on the edge it made my teeth hurt, like strawberry gelato.  But it also let me see the wisdom in her love of neutrals.


I had no idea that Bev's facial features and complexion were so delicate, even though i've looked at her face hundreds of times over many months now.  Her choice of neutral colors and fine-grained textures allows space for her features and complexion to shine - i felt like those amazing colors shouted down her face a bit.  The neutrals also provide space for her to direct our attention to her elegant curation of accessories. Her accessory choices often appear quite bold, but put them next to a purple and black zebra print and you'd take a week to find them. Her precise color and texture palette also seems very in keeping with her dry, spare wit, her writing style of 'just enough. It's all of a piece - the physical, the personality, the creative choices.

And it's not just because i'm on 'Team Newt' that i love the 'Neutral Underdog'. Sheila of Ephemera rocks the newts, but her masterful use of color knocks your socks off and really makes her face and skin and hair glow.  Her eclectic and agile use of color, texture and pattern also tips you off to her incredibly wide ranging interests - nature, hiking, reading, travel, art and painting, even Weight Watchers! Not to mention her off-beat sense of humor. She uses tons of color, but the colors themselves are very unusual and the pairings extraordinarily sophisticated.  And it's always grounded in classic fit and traditionally feminine shapes - pencil skirts, fitted jackets, well-cut denim. Just by looking at how she presents yourself you can tell she's a very creative lady with interests all over the place - and she's got it all together.


Then it hit me - the graphic elements which flatter an individual's physical form will be limited. But they still are pretty numerous. It's the melding of a particular set of flattering elements with the 'style signifiers' of a person's choice that create true style - from the inside on out. Here's an example. One person's rocker chick could be all shiny black vinyl and red patent leather with one huge shiny stainless steel buckle on each platform boot.You can just picture this on an amazonian lady with straight black hair and strong facial features which stand up to all the stark textures and contrast.

 A smaller lady with curly medium brown hair and soft grey eyes could choose to project a rocker vibe in ripped gauzy tees, spiderweb grey-violet lace, bleached and torn denim belted in silver chain, and a cluster of brushed-steel buckles on her delicate wrists. These elements would let the world know who she is without overpowering her physical form. The high-contrast look of the first outfit would blast out her low-contrast coloring, the same way too much light destroys the detail in a photograph.  And the Amazon would look like she's trying to disguise herself in lace and little chains, as if she's wearing her baby sister's clothes. But when each lady chooses the elements from the 'rocker library of style' that flatter her particular form, she makes that style her own.


Finding which graphic elements flatter your particular form is half the work. The other is finding out how to weave these graphic elements in with the style elements that express who you are. Frankly, it's a lot to handle - no wonder true style seems rare!  But it can be learnt, with time and persistence. And this learning is a very interesting, creative, and rewarding process. We all need to get dressed every day, so the knowledge we gain will always be useful to us. 

I find that teasing this process apart and getting at some of the underlying concepts helps me to refine and make conscious my own style choices and ideas, which really streamlines shopping, designing, making outfits, etc. I hope that some of my ideas help you, the way all of your ideas and outfits and photographs have helped me.


First Look:  
Jacket: Issey Miyake for Vogue Patterns made by me
Pants, Scarf, Hat: gifts
Shoes: Clark's Passion


Second Look:
Poses: inspired by Beckerman Bite Plate
Top: gift
Petti: own design, inspired by Alisa Burke
Shoes: Maine Woods

Can Clothes Be Too Comfortable?

Everyone loves comfortable clothes. But can clothes be TOO comfortable?  In fact, most of my readers (except mom : ) will agree that today's emphasis on comfort above all else isn't doing much for the looks of the public at large.  But i'm not talking about dressing for comfort alone in bagged out, stained and faded sweats and cracked Crocs. I'm talking about clothes that look stylish, flattering and appropriate. They just feel much more soft, unconfining, and unconstricting than those we are used to wearing.

I wore this outfit without the jacket (with the belt) for most of the day.  I liked the look - a long column of grey with textural details at hem and neckline, waist defined in the middle - but it just felt like i was wearing pajamas or a floppy nightgown all day. It never felt like i actually 'got dressed', though i was demonstrably not naked. It was all just too floppy and 'comfy'. There's no way i would have worn this outfit without the jacket out of the house. I just couldn't convince myself i was actually 'dressed', no matter what i saw in the mirror.

I tried to figure it out.  I know that i tend towards a degree of structure in my clothes - woven materials, leather belts, waist and shoulder definition, stiff-brimmed hats and skirts with bulk.  I was born in 1962 and graduated high school in 1980, and i've seen many purely technological changes in clothing materials since then. I cast back to what clothes were like growing up - the only knits were bulky polyester double knits (which i think i never wore, i found them that hideous from the beginning) or stiff, scratchy men's underwear (tee shirts and waffleweave long johns).  No fabrics approached the sheer buttery deliciousness of today's rayon/lycra blends, for example, until i was in my late twenties.  The only fabrics which had that wonderful soft, smooth feel were my flannel nightgowns that i wore until the shoulders busted through.

the fairy thorn bush along the walking trail by our house

Well, i never thought my outfit blog would take such a Freudian turn!  But what do you think? Can clothes be TOO comfortable, just on feel alone? Or is this another of my personal eccentricities?

Top: Aeropostale (from the Petaluma Outlet store)
Skirt: own design
Jacket: Issey Miyake for Vogue Patterns
Shoes: Dansko Marcelle

sapsucker holes on the fairy thorn bush. sapsucker drill holes in this characteristic pattern of lines, which is a good thing - sapsuckers are notoriously shy birds and otherwise i'd never know they are around! this tree is covered in sapsucker holes, with fresh ones all the time. but i've only seen the sapsucker once.

How This Outfit Came About

Hi everybody! I hope you all have had a nice week or so. When i got back into town and got a little caught up on my blog reading, i noticed Sal at Already Pretty had posted a suggestion box. Many of the commenters requested information on how to build smaller wardrobes, how to dress in the heat, and how to put together new outfits. It heartened me to realize that some people actually are interested in what i'm talking about here! And it also encouraged me to write more explicitly about my ideas and practices in these areas, since everybody has different ideas and experiences.

I've also noticed that many of my readers and commenters create some stunning outfits on a regular basis themselves. So please 'tell all' in the comments and feel free to post any links to posts you may have written on this topic. I'll copy them to the body of the post so people will be sure to see them. (p.s. if anyone wants to do a guest post please let me know - i will contact you immediately upon regaining consciousness.)


UPDATE: i should've gotten farther on my 'catching up' before posting - here's a great profile of Gitte Lee on Advanced Style. Ms. Lee takes the concept of a template to it's strictest extreme and ends up looking consistently elegant. Some might use the term 'uniform', but that's way too boring to apply!


As a rule, i wear outfits comprising a top, a bottom, and a jacket. It's one of my basic 'templates' for getting dressed. Using the template process will really help you come up with new outfits, find the holes in your wardrobe, and 'shop your closet'. If you haven't already, it's a good exercise to look or think through past successful outfits and find the common structure. Can you develop one or more 'templates' from your successful outfits? Any time you create a great outfit, make a note of the pieces and how you put them together. Does it fit a pre-existing template or can you use it to create a new template?


If you write or sketch out your templates you can use them to help you generate more outfits from your existing wardrobe. Pick a piece of clothing you want to wear and a template you'd like to work with. Identify which part of the template that article will fill, then add more items piece by piece. A little later in this post i walk you through this process using this outfit as an example.

Templates can also help you identify which pieces to acquire in order to create the most new outfits from your existing stock of clothes. For example, in my case (many moons ago), i identified the 'top, bottom, jacket' template. If i go to my wardrobe and notice i have plenty of tops and bottoms, but only two jackets, i know where to focus my efforts. Get more jackets! At the same time, can any of my existing tops 'work' as that jacket layer? Any button-down shirt with a little structure will fit the bill, as will many sweaters.

So. This outfit here. I confess, i don't plan my outfits the week or even the night before, barring some big event or an out of town trip. I wake up, flail about, and get dressed. This morning was a little cold and foggy, so i decided to go with pants. These cargos are the only pair i have light enough for summer, so these cargos were the starting point. I got the bottom. For some unknown reason, i was in the mood for a little sparkle or glitz. This Ann Ferriday tank or shell has metallic details in the lace and metallic beading at the base of the 'vee'. I pulled it on. However. It's pretty low cut, and this was going to be a bopping around the house and a walk kind of day, no nightclubbing or fancy dinners. Using a scarf to 'fill in' a neckline is a centuries old practice. I rifled through my scarves - this one was the right shape, i liked the muted grey-blue next to the berry tones of the top, PLUS it has mild metallic gold stripes.

On to the jacket. This outfit already had enough color for me, and i liked the overall 'fitted' line that was developing (that top is skin-tight). The palm tree jacket is just about the same color as the cargo pants and when belted creates a longer lean type line. I wanted a stronger waist so i wore the Coach belt instead of the tooled one. It's not that cold out, so i rolled up the sleeves and the pant legs. I thought a small head would look better with the overall leaner look. I have two hats that create a smaller head, and the other one is a dark brown leather that would look a little harsh against the light khakis of the rest of the outfit. The dark brown of the belt and of the (again, smaller) shoes add a bit a structure or grounding to the palette without calling too much attention to themselves. The earrings are comfortable and go with everything, so that wrapped it up.

I use this process quite often when getting dressed. I decide on a likely template for the day. Then i choose a piece of clothing i'd like to wear that day, based on the weather and whatever i'll be doing. I plug that piece into the template in my head and start filling in the rest of the template, based on weather, my activities, and the color and style of the first piece. As i add more pieces to the finished look, my choices for the remaining pieces generally become more restricted, which makes the process less overwhelming and more natural than it might appear to be upon description.

What tips, tricks, theories or spells do you find helpful in creating new outfits? Any that are especially helpful when you are stuck or feeling worn out of ideas? Let it out!

Jacket: Issey Miyake for Vogue Patterns, made by me
Top: Ann Ferriday
Pants: Columbia
Belt: vintage Coach
Shoes: old Borns
Hat, Necklace: gifts
Earrings: own design

Issey Miyake

For a number of decades Vogue Patterns has published patterns by various internationally known designers. This outlet has been my only way of getting to live with designer clothes, as the pattern pieces and construction techniques vary widely from standard sewing patterns and traditional higher-end clothing. This is especially the case for Mr. Issey Miyake.

The pattern i used to make this jacket is the top left one on this page (i did make alterations to the pattern). The web author has collected all published Issey Miyake for Vogue Patterns and posted them on this site - i suggest you all take a look. The clothes are all fabulous and so original and unique, to have the opportunity to make them up yourself is - you just get to know the clothes in a completely different way.

I'm running around 'like a chicken without it's head' today, so this will be a short post. Mr. E has vacation time coming up, and we're going to take full advantage of it! So tomorrow's post will likely be the last one for a week, but i should have some fun things for you to see when i return to the blogosphere...


The tank is grey. I don't know why it turned blue in the third picture - i tried to fix it. It didn't really work.

Hat: Tula hats
Jacket: Issey Miyake for Vogue Patterns, altered and constructed by me
Tank: Jockey
Skirt: own design inspired by The Hidden Seed
Necklace: gift
Earrings: Tail of the Yak, Berkeley, CA
Belt: vintage Coach
Shoes: old Borns