Sayonara, fashion police

Guess what: Good news! I am the mayor, the governor, and the president, and I am hereby expunging any and all notions of the so-called fashion faux-pas.

(According to my Dictionary Widget, the informal use of ‘faux-pas’ connotes ‘boo-boo’ or ‘blooper.’ Adorable!)

As mayor, am having to make some nonsense cuts in WELIKEITHAUTEville. Tough times. So. Fashion Police – you’re fired. Fashion rules, same.

Because I’m making black-with-brown OK. And brown-with-navy, too. And black-with-navy, three! And wearing white whenever you want. (Speaking of which, if anyone can provide an accurate historical context for the Labor Day rule, you will be made Vice Mayor.)

The most basic point here is enough with cockamamy rules. On the one hand, bless their hearts, because they’re a lot of fun. Here is an “Accessories Faux Pas,” found on The Internet, for example:

Dark socks with white shoes. Also, white socks with dark shoes. (Think Michael Jackson.)

From Fashion Faux Pas: Dressing Mistakes to Avoid.

Wrong again, womensfashion.suite101.com! Saw this done about two days ago and it was beautiful. (Full disclosure: my dark socks, my white shoes.)

The only rules worth subscribing to are shape shifters with great flexibility and relativity, that prefer to delicately suggest rather than prescribe. (Unless it’s something about wearing what fits your body, because that is the truth.) From what I can tell, fashion — much like other arts and fun — has a lot to do with testing and stretching boundaries, when not totally disregarding them to begin with. So why establish rigid, mutually exclusive rules? Maybe to later have something to break, but otherwise, forgetaboutem.

Fit for a Disney princess

In the middle of browsing through Spring 2009 ready-to-wear shoes.

Wouldn’t these:

Chanel Spring 2009 RTW - Oh, Karl

Go just perfectly with this:

?

Neon red

Am determined to define what it is about a singular, solid pigment in primary colors that has me fixated as of late.

I am talking red lips and nails. And sweaters. Completely unnatural color, but bold and bright and entirely itself, to be studied. To fall into, deeply. Like minimalism, maybe. Like this:

Aurelie Nemours - "Quatre fragments droite rose XI" (v 131)

And this. And this is where it walks around and flattens itself against walls for pictorial illustration:

K is not an it. She says she looks like a frog or something here.

Street style: Joe knows

Great color on the denim. Great sweater. And a good mixed-patterns-vs.-cohesive-palette duel. Necessarily have to add that Joe knows how to dress his body. Allow me to explain. One of the biggest mistakes in dressing oneself is throwing one’s shape and proportions out the window in favor of a trend or idealized outfit. Don’t do it. Get to know your figure and work with it. It’s important. Joe works slim jeans well. He found the right ones.

This is a topic deserving of greater discussion than I can fairly allot in this context and using Joe as an example. However, I’m going to call attention to the fact that I feel uncomfortable calling attention to the way Joe’s clothes fit his body, for fear of making him uncomfortable. But isn’t nearly the whole point of clothing the fit of the garment on one’s body?

And would this nervousness figure into this kind of post if I were writing the same thing about a woman? “This woman’s dress flatters her figure.” Totally normal. I don’t think it would, because it’s somehow more natural to discuss the female body in relation to fashion. Or at all. Let’s have a discussion.

White lights, tights, legs, bright

Finally saw some, nearly. Have entertained the idea of opaque-ass white tights for some time now. Would they exist? How could I track them down? Would it have a weird little-girl effect on an adult woman?

And I partially answered a couple of those questions. Yes, they must exist, as evidenced by these off-white pinkish deals worn by Sara Idacavage. And no, it didn’t have an nine-year-old-nymphet-at-Sunday-mass feel at all. Good.

White tights have a subversive edge. I know – counterintuitive. The last time you wore them probably falls in the realm of girlhood. So while a woman playing up her girliness has less than progressive connotations, the white-tights edge comes from some other place. Maybe it’s turning the expected form something typically takes on its head. Tights are either neutral or black, when they aren’t any number of colors. Bright tights are easy. Make them white. Likewise, lips are neutral or mimic one’s natural color – make them bright red. That’s the next topic of discussion.

Sara chided me for breaking up her outfit into isolated blocks, saying it was all about the whole. And she’s mostly right, but in my defense, I was searching out an exemplifier of this tights point I have to make.

And there is more – click the red “Read more and comment” if you please. Comments on this site’s layout and readability are welcome.

Street style: Class o’clock

Extra, extra: Some students don’t need an occasion. Some students just do.

Black patent high-heeled maryjanes can’t fail, and the Holly Golightly updo is nice, too.

Why not?

Street Style: She lightly alighted and tried to take off…

…but I caught her before she could.

Maybe the most precious thing around on a Friday afternoon.

Lady, you are too adorable for Athens, Ga., but we’re glad to have you.

And she was returning video tapes! On a rainy day! Even her pose is the cutest! Talk about a burst of sunshine in Gloomsville.

The best part is something I love about a number of the folks I photograph: consistency. They’re all repeat offenders, and rarely have off-days. I saw her again today and she was lovely in a high-waisted red pencil skirt and low, scoop-back top.

Blogboat christening

This blogboat wouldn’t be a blogboat at all without an inaugural J. Swish photo. One can count on J. to look at once dapper, fluffy and decidedly stuffed with Greek infinitives and philosophical trail mix.

I like his cuffed pant legs.

The usual suspects

A surplus of handsome humans at Cine last night for Hope For Agoldensummer’s performance, in conjunction with the State of Change Tour.

We switched between the debate and Project Runway

And Leanne won! Her collection was a favorite, at least among the couch-bound group I joined to watch. It projected a cohesiveness that didn’t suffer from petal overload, like Nina Garcia suggested. And the colors were gorgeous. And the shapes! The volume, the silhouettes! Coolly architectural.

See?

Another favorite Leanne look.

And to anyone wondering what the Kensley Balenciaga copycatting was about, behold (and click through for more):

Rollerchic

How high can you go? Pushing limits of trends is fun, especially on wheels. High-waisted skirts and pants are by now a less jarring sight to Joe Sixpack and Wanda Wishywash, so the logical next step, much like the way low rise jeans were taken to indecent lows, is to up the pants ante.

These shorts lend a a streamlined appearance that belies shaky roller rink two-stepping.

Backstage at a fashion show is champagne and foot massages, right?

Big fashion mess

 

Lots of hot heels

Rodarte’s 2009 spring ready to wear line showed at Bryant Park in NYC in September. And these are great photographs taken backstage (style.com), for the simple pleasure in looking. You’re welcome.

John Galliano, you rogue!

John Galliano Spring 2009

No, that is not that shoe’s reflection. Lots of fun conceptually, but visually Marc Jacobs’s trompe l’oeil Spring 2008 shoes win:

Less vampy. Nice modern twist on a vintage throwback.

Three cheers for surrealism and absurdity and a sly restructuring of order and sanity — especially in something like a shoe, which in most cases plays such a basic, foundational purpose.

Weird-ing up a hat is an easy way to cause a stir, but turning a shoe on its figurative shoe head is a highly subversive and subtle way to provoke a coupla double takes.

A coupla penguins on a Friday night

Ran into these gentlemen downtown last night. Where was the party?, we asked. Oh, we just get dressed up once a month, they replied.

GOSH! I thought. I love it. Hear lots of friends say they’re weary of getting fancy or going further than the basics because of Athens’ intrinsic dressed-down, casual, can’t-be-bothered-to-put-pants-on attitude. And I hear you.

But if these two can make tux-wearing a monthly thing, then hey–do whatevs. (I have to add that their glasses frames were handsome, too.)

Although my pal K, who was with me, suggested they were actually on their way back from some secret male society event, which isn’t quite as adorable as playing dress up. Unless the hats with the tassels and tiny cars were involved. But, either way. The point is one I’ve made before and will make again. Don’t have to use the masses as a barometer to wear what makes you happy.

WE do not flirt

Flirt Fashions

Question: What is Flirt Fashions?

Answer: Good question.

F♥F♥ stands where Opulence once was in downtown Athens (153 E Clayton St), staying consistent in a number of the lines and designers it carries, like Kensie and Mink Pink, and generally maintaining the same set up.

To the casual customer, the space’s changes seem minimal: A short hiatus for renovations. New ownership, same basic vibe.

To those allergic to the Girls-are-Pretty-and-Sweet-as-a-Rule Rule, the renovations — painting the handsome steel blue walls a flat pink, naming the place FLIRT! and incorporating hearts into exclamation points — are going to provoke nervous ticks and twitches.

Fashion serves many purposes. Employing it for the sake of “flirting” may be be one, but how reductive is it to assert that the sole function of a woman spending time, energy and money in dressing herself and developing a personal style is to flirt? (The answer: a billion. A billion reductive.) And what is flirting, aside from a dated ’90s verb most relevant to some bullshit game like Girl Talk?

And while we’re on the subject, “blonde” as a name for a boutique (Five Points) isn’t thrilling either. For fun times, please read their “Why the name ‘blonde.’” mantra. Here’s a quick excerpt:

“Blondes (and anyone who has ever had a hint of blonde highlight) are notoriously confident and sparkling; they have an edge and are enchanting; they can be fun and flirty or sophisticated and sexy”

Adorable! And, obviously, so true, in every instance, like blanket generalizations always are.

But all of this isn’t to say either business isn’t good at what it does, or that it doesn’t stock hot-ass, quality clothing. They do. In fact, I’m the proud owner of an adorable, bow-having white blouse from F♥F♥. But come on. Come on! (Come on.)