As i'm sure any of you with 'OOTD' blogs of your own have discovered, a style blog is a simply mahvelous wardrobe documentation/development/organization tool. Very possibly the best there is. Outfits that rocked, outfits that flopped, how you have and have not worn various pieces, the accessories you wore, the flippin' weather on that day (okay, sometimes) - it's all right there for a girl to review, organize, use for brainstorming, obsess over.........especially since i've begun tagging my individual pieces it's just so easy to use. If i'm thinking of wearing the palm tree jacket? Let's see how i've styled it in the past........conversely, when i'm feeling in a rut, i can see which items i haven't worn much at all, or ones i've neglected recently. Truthfully, it's a lot more useful and fun for just getting dressed and making new clothes than i ever thought it would be when i started out.
Today i'm going to do a selfish post. I've had a couple of outfits the past month that kinda...started out, and were going somewhere that seemed worthwhile, but never quite ARRIVED. So i'm posting these 'demi-looks' in order to keep them in mind. I'd like to develop them into actual looks. Definitely possible, but to do that i'll have to remember them......
Yesterday I started a project based on this post. I duct-taped and drafted a pattern for a wide, pleather belt - i just feel like a 'real belt' would work better on the plaid sundress and tee/silk skirt looks. Other than that.....i don't have a lot of ideas. Maybe i just wore these on the wrong day.....you know how that goes!
Do any of you have rules or guidelines for how you tell if a look is 'done'? In my twenties, after things had gotten a wee bit 'out there' and i was working on dressing in a more pulled together fashion, i had a couple of general rules - always throw on a belt and earrings, that type of thing. But over the last years, i've been going more by feel. Partly because of the super hot temperatures we get out here, partly because i'm at home most of them time, partly just because my aesthetics have expanded. If any of you have any ideas or philosophies, about your approach to dressing or any of these pics, i'd love to hear about them. There's nothing i love more than hearing about how people organize their clothing life!
A lot of times, in the Summer, when an outfit doesn't feel "done" I set it aside until Fall/Winter. In Fall/Winter you can add another layer, and most of the time, that ends up being what was "missing" for me...
ReplyDeleteSince I started blogging, I've noticed that the outfits that take the longest to photograph - for me, this means "require more than 4 or 5 photos to look reasonable" - probably aren't working, or "done." If I have to twist and turn and fiddle with the camera settings to capture what I THINK is going on, it's probably not going on at all. So I go back to the closet and start again.
ReplyDeleteI really like your outfit "starters" in this post. In fact, while I agree that an actual belt might work better in both cases, the black ensemble in particular seems good to go as is!
I have a really simple aesthetic. I used to think it was just that I didn't know how to cope with styling things up, but actually, it's that I don't like to have a whole lot on my body that I have to maintain awareness of. Cover my top half, bottom half, feet, and add a layer to keep me warm, and I'm basically done. I like my jewelry simple, silver, and goes-with-anything.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if that isn't going to make my blog a little boring though.
ask and ye shall receive, indeed!
ReplyDeleteHi Erin - great point. one of those ones that seems so obvious (AFTER the other person has pointed it out ; )
Hi A-Dubs - i've known for years that i come across very different in photos than IRL, so i just go with what looks good IRL. plus i like to do diff. poses, settings, etc. which changes how an outfit looks in the pix. that's one reason i like to do detail pics. and thanks! i also thot the black one looked good in the pic - i don't know if a hair crawled up a stray orifice that day or what. !
Hi Cynthia - i don't think your blog is or will become boring! first of all you have a distinctive writing voice and choose interesting topics. secondly a simple aesthetic can be just as wonderful as a 'maximalist' one.
that's why i like style blogs so much - you can see how real people with different lives, budgets, aesthetics, etc. approach dressing on a day to day basis. if i want to see something new and different with an unlimited budget every five minutes, traditional media has plenty of that around. but the rest of us have to deal with various limits, and i'm fascinated to see how women deal creatively with these limits over time. i hate that mass media has made ordinary people feel that their everyday lives don't 'measure up' to the vapid, celebrity culture crap cooked up in 'the media'. grrrrrrr.....
(not to say i'm reading your comment to say you don't think you 'measure up'. but for crying out loud - britney spears forgets to wear her knickers and it's splattered all over the press! it seems to me the 'boring' bar is set pretty low.)
I know I'm done when I can't think of anything else to do with my outfit. How's that for scientific?
ReplyDeleteOccam's Raxor in action!! : )
ReplyDelete