Fashioning Manipulation

 I am engaging in what Jess calls Monogomous Dressing, which I do frequently.  I am once again wearing The Most Versatile Dress I've Ever Owned because I wore it last week when I visited my mom in Kansas City and promised myself that that would be the last time I wore it before I got it dry cleaned.  Well, what's one more time? Especially since I'll just be spending my afternoon in the library writing and students aren't exactly known for smelling great.  But that's what the Chanel No. Five is for.

dress - Corey Lynn Calter/Anthro (remixed)

cardi - GAP (giftcarded  & remixed)

tights - Assets/Target

boots - Plenty by Tracy Reese via Piperlime (remixed)

necklace - Urban Outfitters (remixed)

earrings - Anthro (remixed)

scarf and sunglasses - H&M (remixed)

 I'm at least a month overdue for a trim and because I have an important interview and a conference coming up I'm freaking out about the length of my hair again.  In the fall, I contemplated cutting a lot of it off because longer hair makes me look younger and generally connotes youth.  I tend to place a lot of anxiety on my hair because its changeable and I can't change my height, which has the biggest impact about the perception of my age and academic authority upon seeing me (as opposed to conversing with me).  For a few days last week I was convinced that I needed to cut off at least five inches otherwise my paper will not be well received and I will bomb the interview.  Then, Sara linked to a hair-do-how-to and since I saw that I've calmed down a bit and decided that I will continue to keep it long but start experimenting more with ways of putting it up that aren't a haphazard ponytail tuck thingie, i.e. Gym Hair.

Had I not been visiting my mom last Friday I would also have participated in Modly Chic's Friend Friday on Feminism. Many thanks to Katy for her questions and to the participating bloggers who took them on (and also, a congrats to Katy on the DIY publication of her YA novel, Aurora Undefined.) As it's Tuesday, I'm not going to respond to this now, but I was especially delighted to see questions 1 and 4, which were "Do you think there is an incompatibility between feminism and a love for fashion?" and "How is your self-image and the way you carry yourself informed by your beliefs?" All I will say is that there must be some critical navigation and self-introspection when it comes to feminism and fashion, even fashion is a verb and has a DIY quality to it. 

And I liked the other question even better because it cast a wide net about the intersection of fashion and our beliefs, convictions, politics, and ethics and about the place of visible public subjectivit(ies)y.  It's something I think a lot about as an academic and as an instructor, both in terms of research and self-fashioning.  My research into spectatorship and visual culture can also make me hyper aware of how things are "read" by others and how little control we have over reception and perception, hence my apprehension about my height, hair, and age in academic settings.  I think our knowledge of the wide variety of ways in which our appearances can be received actually causes more manipulation and dissembling through fashion than it does "authentic self-expression."  Not that that's necessarily a negative thing.  I wear pearls in the university classroom but have never worn them to teach  ESL (English as as Second Language).  Alternatively, I often forgo wearing a Miraculous Medal, which I wear on a nearly daily basis, in high stakes situations when I am initially meeting others (interviews, conferences, first day of class), but I've never taken it off for ESL.  I would be incredibly naive and self-deceiving if I said that the difference is simply accessorizing preferences from one day and time to the next.

What sartorial or accessorizing choices do you find yourself manipulating?  Do you have a "neutral" outfit that you wear when you want the focus off of yourself? Academics, is there anything you took off or put on for job talks or interviews?

Tea Time With SFE

 In the past I have used mugs to obfuscate my face for outfit shots.  Today, I'm drinking tea out of necessity because after a few nice days it's back down to 41(5)  degrees outside and I'm now an outdoor only kinda girl and you can't really photograph your outfit with a coat on.  It is making me jealous of all of the shots that Jentine, Kendi, Jen, Emily, Lisa, and Katy are posting from the Texas Style Conference in Austin which looks like it has lovely March weather.  Not like the upper Midwest.

 dress - Moth/Anthro (eBayed & remixed)

sweater - GAP (thrifted)

owl necklace - etsy (gifted & remixed)

amber earrings - Corocoran Gallery, DC (remixed)

tights - Anthro/Eloise (remixed)

scarf - H&M (remixed)

boots - Plenty by Tracy Reese via Piperlime

I'm also debuting my new black boots which replace the ones that died at the beginning of the month.  I tried on countless pairs, but finally settled on these when they went on super sale.  They're perfect for the weather and I'd probably be in my wellies again if I didn't have them. (And thank you all again for your recommendations!)

 

Today the weather is really crummy, but I'm amazed at how good the color comes out when there's a cloud covering.  I photographed in the middle of the day but even if it doesn't have the effect of morning or Golden Hour, there's still there's no streaky light across my photos.  I wonder if I can always use rainy days to my advantage?

A friend of mine asked me about my motivation for style blogging last night and I couldn't really give him a straight answer about why I started (other than Ray asking me to), but I know that right now my main motivations are a sense of community with other style bloggers and an increasing interest in auto-photography, which always makes me think of Cindy Sherman.  I've thought about the blogs I like to read and about how important both prose and layout is.  Looking back on my initial outfit shots starting in September, it occurs to me how horrible those were for readers! Seriously, it makes me cringe to see this post. Sure, I was camera shy and I hadn't figured out how to access the newest form of blogger that allows posting in XL, but to really give an account of sartorial choices you actually need to be able to see them.

Erin Go Bragh

My apologies about the blur, but I thought it seemed more hagiographical than the ones that were clear:

 cardi - GAP (remixed)

green glass earrings - Anthro

skirt - Ann Taylor (eBayed)

scarf - street vendor in Santiago (remixed)

sandals - Bear Tracks (remixed)

clover/hairpin - Anthro (gifted)

Guinness - sacred

So, what do we think?  How did my emulation of St. Patrick turn out? Of course,  I know that my hairpin has four leaves and I'm only supposed to have three in order to represent the Trinity. But I figured it was worth a shot. 

Despite my dark hair and olive skin, I'm actually 1/4 Irish and SME is 3/4.  We both grew up celebrating St. Patty's Day in various ways. And then we met at a university where at least 50% of the population could claim some degree of Irish descent and this day was always a crazy day full of the carnivalesque.  I do remember being offered a Guinness on my way to class at 10 a.m. one year. And then there was the year that I had two beers in my bag and they were gone sometime between Mass and a late afternoon class.  I'm sure the sort of behavior Irish Americans engage in on this most hallowed of days could be explained by a cultural theorist in terms of diasporic identity and traumatic memory.  But I don't see the need for that. I'm always happy to put on green and drink beer with friends.  In fact, I've already started:  Erin Go Bragh!

Do you wear green on St. Pat's?  What about you Italian Americans on St. Joseph's Day (March 19)--do you wear red?

Dressing Like A Feminist?

N.B. *This is in response to the Feminist Fashion Blogger event call that asked, How do you express your feminism in the way you dress?*

The IFC series Portlandia recently depicted the conflict between second-wave radical feminists, who were represented as frumpy flakes, and a young post-feminist or budding third-wave feminist, who wore short denim cut-offs and took pole-dancing classes.  The joke, of course, was about what a feminist was supposed to look like or at least how you know you're looking at a feminist.  You know, in an "indigenous pantsuit."

 I think this dialogue about fashion and feminism that Franca and other FFB members have started is great, especially because there's such a history of gate-keeping about what a feminist does and does not look like.  Must I defend my regular, earnest, and non-ironic wearing of makeup, a miraculous medal, and Anthropologie/Urban Outfitters to be a feminist? What about looking attractive in anything that might be considered target practice for the heterosexual male gaze? Recall, for example, the flack Liz Phair got for wearing only a slip on the cover of Rolling Stone. Her response?  She had self-fashioned with her own slip, something she wore on stage and something that she wore out to dinner.  There is nothing wrong with questioning how we navigate fashion and feminism.  Pointed questions can, in fact, be very good, but the condemnation of fashion choices without productive dialogue assumes that the wearer is just too dumb to understand how she (or he, but it's usually a she) has violated some singular universal code of feminist fashion(ing) ethics.

sweater - Limited via Marshalls (remixed)

arrow skirt - Fei/Anthro via Ebay 

leggings - Fylo (MIL-hand me down & remixed)

Fleur de Lys earrings - gifted (remixed)

scarf - street vendor in Santiago, Spain (remixed)

shades - H&M (remixed)

shoes - J-41 (remixed)

I really do think it is necessary to be acquainted with the wearer to know how exactly she expresses feminism through fashion, because there's no way you can tell I'm a feminist by looking at me. One of the major emphases of this blog is that fashion is a verb and not a noun dictated by someone else; fashion is to self-fashion and part of that is rejecting bizarre expectations about what the female body, especially, should look like.  I chose to photograph this outfit because I know that a women's fashion magazine stylist would never do this:  this skirt, leggings, and shoes on my body type make my legs look stubby and do not lengthen me.  And while I know that rejecting all the ways I could "lengthen" my 5'0" curvy frame is a fucking cardinal sin in their book, it is part of a pathology that I find ridiculous.

Special Occasion Pieces & Versatility

I'm working a fundraiser/gala on Saturday night.  Had I known how much of a pain in the ass this would become I would have never volunteered, but it's an organization that SME and I belong to and because we cannot donate money, we're donating time.  But because I do not currently own either a gown or a cocktail dress, it's also going to cost me money.  Also, problematic is that I will be on my fee for 4+ hours and that I have been warned about 3 times now by the organizers how important sensible footwear is.  Currently, my formal footwear are stiletto gold Steve Maddens  and equally unsuitable silver sandal BPs. They would be great for attending this event--not working it on my feet.
So, on Saturday I took a shopping trip with a friend and scored this dress for $45 at Nordstrom Rack:

dress - Eci (via Nordstrom Rack)

pardon the sports bra - soon off to the gym

I don't love it, but I really don't want to spend money on something that won't be worn that often. It's comfortable, it has a bit of pizazz and I could wear it to rehearsal dinners, weddings, or even an evening out. I could actually see it becoming a go-to dress for certain occasions.  But it still has its limitations.

One of these limitations is the gold accents (which also mean that it can't be worn to a funeral).  With this dress I also have to buy new black or gold shoes that are both fancy and walking shoes. I have looked at countless stores and online shops, but for a suitable pair of, say, Rockports, it will cost me another $120.  Granted, a pair of sleek black pumps wouldn't be bad for my wardrobe--especially considering how few shoes I have.

Detail of gold accent:  It's actually a zipper with rhinestones and it reminds me of swirl shapes of The Starry Night (that probably just made the Art Historian Chics vomit).

But another limitation is the fact that I'm on a budget and I'd rather spend that limited cash on a new and badly needed pair of jeans, another belt, a J.Crew necklace, or a metallic sweater jacket from BR.  And I was already resolved to not spend any more money for the month because I already purchased two pairs of shoes to make up for some recent losses. On top of all that I'm still building a more professional/professartorial wardrobe.  If I could wear it, say, to give a paper, then I'd feel less sick about spending money on a dress. For example, something like dress currently available at Ann Taylor for $98 pictured below and available here (and they're currently having a buy one, get one 50% off sale):

I go to two national conferences a year and the weather for one of them dictates lighter ware and it is always difficult for me to put together outfits for that one.  This dress, which comes in a petite, will look great with a cardigan for teaching/conferences and can be dressed up or down.  Although it is on the plain side, I could add a brooch to the knot on a hip, jewelry, sexy tights with black polka dots (such as the ones that Julia of Polka Dot Biker Shorts wore on the night she got engaged--congrats!), and pair it with my vintage-y black Clarks (which are not as fancy as I'd like but can withstand 6 hours of walking). It wouldn't be the best outfit for a gala, but my goal is to blend in, not be fabulously conspicuous.  And the Ann Taylor dress would be a real addition to my wardrobe as evidenced by the various ways that S. of Narrowly Tailored has styled her own Ann Taylor jersey knit dress.

What say you Style Nation? Should I rethink wearing those Clarks to a fancy affair? Do I need a fancier dress? How have you handled such conundra in the past? Any suggestions for wear I can find a blingy brooch by Friday?