RANDOM THOUGHTS ON FASHION

Boy, women (above) sure like fashion! 

What's in now are thick eyebrows and unibrows. You see them everywhere. Some people attribute that to the influence of Joan Crawford in the forties. Maybe, but my guess is that it started big time with the rediscovery of the feminist communist painter, Frida Kahlo (above). Kahlo did a zillion portraits of herself which not only emphasized bushy eyebrows but also her girl mustache and jaw line hair.

That's Kahlo in real life (above), proudly displaying her mustache.

The Kahlo mustache failed to catch on but, as I said, thick eyebrows are everywhere.

Imagine how that makes girls like this one (above) feel. Lots of girls permanently removed their entire eyebrows thinking that thin, painted on brows were the height of chic, and would be with us til the end of time. Aaaargh! Fashion can be cruel. 

On another subject, I observe that a lot of women still like to knit (above).

And they still knit for their boyfriends (above), too.

On yet another subject, here's an outfit (above) that was around when I was a kid: bottle cap hat, loose top, ultra-tight calf-length skirt, and long, long cigarette holder. It was the "Pepsi Generation" look.

This (above) was around at the same time: Scoop-back dresses with face fish net festooned with little black balls or cloth bugs. John K is obsessed with these bug nets.

The latest fashion is sneakers with toes. They make everybody's feet look like Goofy's. This (above) is the most popular brand: "Vibram Five Fingers." It started as something for barefoot runners but now they're regarded as chic, and even couch potatoes have them. They require socks with toes.

Interesting, eh?

MEN'S FASHIONS TO DRAW

Here's (above) some men's fashions that might be fun to draw. The first is from Life magazine circa 1949. Life liked this style, and so do I. Thin people look great in over-size clothes.

Here's (above) Glenn Gould in the 1970s. I wonder if "Lawrence of Arabia" influenced this look. It reminds me of the flowing robes that Bedouins wore in that movie.   

Here's Elvis Costello wearing the thrift store look. How do you like the "Saturday Night Fever" style on the guy on the far left?

Above, author Antoine de Saint-Exupery wearing a short, wide, hot water bottle tie.

Here's Gerry Mulligan in profile (above), looking like he was drawn by Wally Wood.

Mike sez that the "Double Cross" fez (above) is no longer available. Joe just wrote in to say that the company reconsidered, and the fez is once more for sale. Better order it fast before they chage their minds again. 

There's Ed Sullivan (above) again. I couldn't resist. How did he think of those poses?

Above, John Ford wearing the tight sweater and baggy pants that were popular in the teens and twenties. That look returned in the 70s. 

Above, the plaid jacket and saddle shoes that were popular with young "angsty" intellectuals in the 60s.

Here's (above) the way saddle shoes were worn in the late 40s and early 50s.  Interesting, huh?

SHORT WOMEN

Okay, it's time to discuss science. I'll begin by conceding that some girls (above) are bigger than their boyfriends...we've all seen a few couples like that. 

Most girls, however, are significantly shorter than their men. I mean a LOT shorter! Standing beside them is like standing next to a kid.  They're such tiny little things!

I grant you that women (above) are not without gifts...

...but the fact remains that we men could all have million dollar bills taped to the tops of our heads, and most women would never know it. It is we males that see over the world's fences, we that commune with the gods of the sky.

The result of this inequality of height is that women have become obsessed with appearing taller. By the millions they painfully walk on stilts (above) to buy a few extra inches.

  

 Women are always complaining that they can't find comfortable shoes, and no wonder...there is no such thing as a comfortable stilt. High heels can also cause serious damage to bones and muscles, but women wear them nevertheless...so great is their desire to look their boyfriends in the eye...or at least the chest. 

The desire to appear taller also affects the way they dress. They wear miniskirts because it makes them appear taller. That's fine by us men, but it really limits the way women can move.

It even effects their hair styles! They wear long, straight hair (above) to give them added verticals to fake height.

Have you ever wondered why women carry such big handbags? Part of the reason is that they have to carry a big old pair of sneakers with them. High heels hurt so much that they need to constantly switch shoes during the day. It must be a drag to carry those big bags around, but girls think the added height is worth it. 

All this is puzzling to a guy. I mean, women look better than we do, even when they're small...why  obsess over height? I don't know. Can anyone out there explain this?

BTW: Thanks to the brave soldiers, past and present, whose sacrifices made free expression in blogs like this one possible!

SCHIAPARELLI

I admit that I don't know much about the fashion world, but a couple of weeks ago I thumbed through a giant book (above) about designer Elsa Schiaparelli, and I'm glad I did. She was one of the makers of the modern world.

Her first Parisian designs were heavily influenced by Surrealism. She had a great sense of humor. What do you think of the fur shoes (above), or the hat (also above) that deliberately looked like an upside-down shoe?

After a time she set up a second studio in Britain,  to be close to the wool manufacturers. They were experimenting with all sorts of new weaves and she wanted to be the first to see if anything interesting could be done with them. Seeing that a famous designer had set up shop right across the street, the mill people went out of their way to come up with new fabrics for her. It's a case of art and industry combining for mutual benefit.

She designed funny, over-the-top clothing all her life, but the designs which most interest me (above) are the minimalist, almost military designs she did in the thirties and forties.

She was going for simple shapes that emphasized quality fabrics and careful cutting. I imagine that Calvin Klein must have been influenced by Schiaparelli, only he took the additional step of making this kind of elegance available for a price that most working women could afford.

[Let me digress for a moment to defend Klein against his many detractors. Like a lot of people I was dismayed when Klein turned jeans into a high fashion item. It seemed to defeat the whole purpose of jeans, which was to break down class barriers and promote a youthful, adventurous approach to life. What I failed to realize was that tastes change and jeans were doomed to drop out of sight anyway. By adding design to them Klein gave them decades of additional life on the shelves...and they still functioned as class levelers. No small achievement, that. Klein was a hero.]

Over time Schiaparelli developed "The Knack." It seemed that everything she touched, even scarves (above), were characterized by simplicity and elegance.

I don't think Schiaparelli designed this (above), but it owes a lot to her sense of fun and surrealism. Lots of things we take for granted now began, at least in part, in Shiaparelli's head. One writer credits her with the idea of the fashion show, with it's combination of runway, art, music and long, skinny women. Man, some people just write their names on an entire age!

SHOULD YOU GO WITH THE LOOK THAT'S RIGHT FOR YOU?

I remember how shocked everybody was when Pat Boone, the world's most wholesome and clean-cut singer, tried to recast his image as a bad dude homeboy. Meg Ryan did the same thing. Both were tired of being typecast. Maybe it's a sign of the times.

I'm amazed how many people would answer the question, "Should you go with the look that's right for you?" with a "No." Lots of people deliberately dress in a way they know doesn't match their physique or their personalities.

It's all about image and lifestyle. People dress to conform to a lifestyle or to express their rebellion against a lifestyle. People want to look good, but are willing to accept just plain okay, or even positively bad, if it means they can lead "The Life."

The girl above is a case in point. With her physical type she should probably dress neat and casual like a 70s airline stewardess. It's not a bad look, but instead she goes for an awkward dominatrix feel. Now there's nothing wrong with looking like a dominatrix if you have the face and body for it... but does she? I don't read her as being particularly edgy. She strikes me as someone who'd just doesn't like to be thought of as old-fashioned.

One of the reasons people dress against type is because they're afraid that looking like the detested type will actually cause them to act that way. Maybe they're right. I always act a little like the way I dress. I guess that's why schools insist on uniforms (above). The idea is that if you look neat and studious, then you'll behave that way.

But there's a counter-argument that says you should dress for physical type. There's an intuitive rightness about it. People who do it are often charismatic and envied by other people. Take the girl above: the mod Peter Sellers look isn't right for everybody, but if fits her like a glove. No doubt her personality's had to deform a bit in the Peter Sellers direction, but she looks confident and happy, and you get the feeling that the trade off was worthwhile.

Did this girl (above) change her personality to fit her hair? Who knows? In her case it doesn't matter because she's a perfect physical fit for the Barbi look and when a fit is that perfect, the wearer has no choice but to go with it. Her parents, her friends, other women, kids, people on the street...everyone would have conspired to push her in one direction. People instinctively want you to play the cards you're dealt.

For my part, I truly believe that if you're lucky enough to have a physical type that fits a certain look, then you should commit to that look 100%. If you don't, you'll come off as a person who's not comfortable in his own skin.

If you're a conservative but you look good as a goth or a hip hopper then you should go for it. If you're a liberal but you look good in golf shirts, then that's the look for you. It'll change you a little bit, but you'll be happier, and I don't think really deep convictions are easily changed by the way you dress.

WHAT THEY'RE WEARING IN BULGARIA

Embroidery is a huge subject which I won't even attempt to do justice to here. I just want to promote an exceptionally good book on the subject, the one pictured above by Sheila  Paine. 

The book has a number of pictures of textile bazaars, like this one (above) in central Asia.  If you're there and you're an artist, then this is where you'll spend most of your travel money. 

Here's (above) a market place in Guatemala. A riot of color!


Above, a Peruvian textile scroll depicting all sorts of deities, including river gods. Ma-a-a-an! Very Nice!

Embroidery is still alive and well in Spain and Portugal. The guy above is wearing a shirt with symbols of love on it.  I find that touching. The man proudly wears a shirt that declares that he's loved by a woman who's handy with a needle. It's so charming and primal.

White shirts with understated red trim like this also used to be common in Poland and North Germany. 

 

Oddly enough France, which taught the world about color during the Impressionist period, put most of its embroidery energy in recent centuries into plain white lace.

Not so with the Czechs. Here's a Moravian girl (above) in traditional dress. A long time ago Moravia used to be a separate country but is now incorporated into The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany.


Elaborate embroidery is often associated with power or status, as it is with these African chiefs (above). It's a mostly woman's art.  You could say that it's a gift that women have been giving family members and the powerful for possibly thousands of years.  It's a terrific present, but I find myself wondering how people who live in the outback manage to keep it clean. They must sell a lot of stain remover in those countries. 

You've probably seen variations of this Pakistani costume (above) before. There's a village there that outdoes everybody in the region.

Here's (above) a small hanging from Tajikistan, which I assume is near Afghanistan. It's mostly blue anchoring down red with an amazing greenish-grey highlight. I've never seen grey used as a highlight color before.

Here (above) a Transylvanian woman wears an outfit consisting of different kinds of wool. The region is still famous for its embroidery but it's transitioning into weaving and other techniques. Embroidery is becoming a lost art; it's just too labor intensive.

Did anyone do more elaborate embroidery than the Chinese? Here's a detail from an official court robe, replete with the dragons, cranes, and traditional flaming pearl. The multiple shades of blue blobs (clouds?) with white highlights are an awesome background for the dragon.