Material Considerations

    By passing a thread over and under a series of threads laid 90 degrees away from it, and doing so repeatedly, we make cloth.  Its one of the major inventions of humankind, and one of the earliest.  To say that the language of attire would not exist without it is erroneous, but that language would surely have far fewer words to work with.

    And the variation that becomes possible with textiles goes right off the chart rather quickly. So, in order to get a better understanding of this varied symbolic tongue, we can't just look at the finished products.  We also have to look at the very stuffs that made the garment up in the first place.
    There are thousands of textiles in production, with the definition for each being based both on the weave structure, and the type of fiber used. Once you add color and print on top of this number, the range of separate fabrics climbs quite likely into the millions.  This is not even considering such textiles as are no longer in production for one reason and another.

     There are a simple easy to grasp set of factors to look at when talking textile.  Weight, hand, color, texture, and pattern or print are the determiners for defining fabrics as different from each other.  Of these only hand bears a bit of further definition itself.  For those unfamiliar with fabric terms, Hand refers to how the fabric moves and feels. Is it rigid, supple, stretchy, firmly or loosely woven?
    But apart from these factors are the inescapable emotional and psychological reactions we have the instant we see and even more importantly, touch a fabric.  The sleek sheen of silk satin evokes feelings both of luxe and of sex.

  Woolens seem practical and hearty to us.

Polyester, especially these days, makes a lot of people shudder.

Rayons, because of their mobility and fluid drape can make people feel relaxed and easy.

Linens say summer months and warmth to us;

and cottons are likely to inspire feelings of comfort.

    Take a single design for a garment and make it up in differing weights, textures, patterns and colors of fabrics and you will see an enormous range of results from sublime to tragically bad.  As well, the tone, and expression of that self same design will alter each time, sometimes radically.  Imagine for example a design for a simple loose fitting coat in a kimono-like style.  Render that coat in a nubbly  wool, and you get one statement, render it again in silk chiffon, and the statement changes utterly, though the design has remained identical.
    So, the next time you shop for clothing, or go to a fabric store, take some time to just feel the fabrics in your hand. Close your eyes and let yourself go inward a moment.  You might be surprised at the depth of feeling you experience, or the things you remember. All of that adds to the complexity of the language of Attire.

   

Its Golden

    This is a different sort of post from my usual run.  Its more of a statement of intent on my own part, and a suggestion for all of you out there.
    As we get older, for many of us the tendency is to get more rigid in many ways, and this is no less true of our approach to Attire than anything else.  But we short ourselves when we allow this to happen.  Why?  Because as we age, we have the chance to not only jettison the things that mean less, or no longer work, but we have an increasing freedom to tell the world to just get over itself, and let our individuality shine forth brightly.
    I called this a statement of intent on my part, and its true to a significant degree.  I have been a full time kilt wearing dude for a decade now, and recently discovered that though I had felt freed by that choice in years past, that now I was feeling hamstrung by that same choice, as though I had no longer the freedom to wear pants if I chose to. Additionally, doing this blog, where I champion the notion of Attire as a language and encourage others to explore and play in this vast, varied world, it would be a disservice to you all were I not to play in that same world myself to as great a degree as I might.
    So I have created for myself a challenge to keep trying new things, new shapes, colors, styles and manners of dressing, both to grow my own vocabulary, and to walk the walk that I talk.
    The suggestion then, is that each of us take the golden chance that lays before us.  It needn't beggar us, as so much is out there to be had for less cost if you can bring yourself to thrift store shop. (And a friend reminded me once that very often, vintage clothes, if that's to your taste are better made and have more style that a good deal of what's new).  Step out of your sartorial comfort zone a bit, and find new ways to tell the world who you are, and what you're feeling.
    Herewith are a random sample of some amazing looking mature folk, all flying their particular flags of style proudly. They range from ferociously out there, to fairly conservative, but in each case the message is clear.

I Am Myself.

 

Big Hair Me

Scatter #10

    Here we go down the garden path of random beauties and oddities I call Scatter.
   
    First up today is this quietly sensual and timelessly lovely dress by Madame Gres, who was in her time considered the absolute master of this sort of goddess dressing.  Working mostly in solid color and almost always in silk crepe, as here, she created clothes that thoroughly transcend time, place and station.  This white crepe gown is a masterwork, particularly for those unusual gathered sleeves, which in someone else's hands might have been a failure.

    Next up, dancer Tony Ward as photographed by Ben Lamberty.  In this image Tony is wearing a ballet costume, clearly referencing the early Italian Renaissance. During that time, the sleeves were without question the most extravagant part of both men's and women's apparel, and in fact sleeves, which were separate pieces from the doublet, were sometimes given as gifts. These express the fashion for paned and slashed clothing that predominated for many years, and the volume of such sleeves added considerable swagger to a gentleman's appearance.

    In the 1820s this English evening dress graced the rooms of some stately home in Britain.  The cream silk underdress is edged at the hem with a box pleated lace ruffle, headed with a trimming of gold tinsel embroidery. The silk gauze overdress is in its turn heavily decorated with more gold tinsel work, and the bodice trimmed out, like the skirt hem with lace ruffles at sleeves, and neckline.  Imagining this dress in motion, and in candlelight, makes me smile inside.

    Say hello to Francois Verkerk as imaged in Apollo Novo magazine by Rock Armando.  Why post this sexy ginger fellow?  Well for me, its all about his hair in this case.  I haven't spent much time talking about hairstyles as part of the sartorial dialog, but they are a serious part of the language. But I find it intriguing that men's hairstyles, as boundaries seem to be fading a bit about sexual roles, are being allowed to express in more sculptural ways that previously would've been thought effete. And okay, I'm kinda in love with that jacket, and suddenly, I want a walking stick with a dog head.

    Continuing with the hair discussion a bit longer, this Edwardian lady is showing us her do.  Now is that all her?  Heavens no. Such vast amounts of volume were created by padding over which the natural hair was brushed, or by wiglets and falls.  And visually, it was part of the overall silhouette balance that a ladies head would be large proportionally to balance the volume at the skirt hem.  And then there are these amazing combs which were an essential part of keeping a lady's huge hair in place. They were an art form of themselves.

    Studded leather has significant connotations when we hear those words spoken or see them printed. We get instant images in our heads of what that might look like.  We would be unlikely to envision this though.  I like this for two reasons. One; it breaks that stereotype about studded leather and takes it somewhere else both visually and contextually.  Two: I love that the designer took the notion of a western wear shirt, and using the very snap studs that go into making such shirts covered the entire surface with them, making something entirely new.

    Oh, Cristobal Balenciaga, you do make me smile.  This evening ensemble is from near the end of Balenciaga's career coming as it does from 1963. The dress is a serene cone shape of ice blue silk taffeta, entirely without ornamentation.  The capelet in black beadwork and large scale paillettes creates a dramatic counterpoint, and draws the eye instantly upward, towards the face. Simplicity, perfectly rendered.

    Last for today is this remarkable lapel watch in gold, with black enamel and rose cut diamonds.  The watch face is on the bottom of the ball.  When I found this image it was erroneously listed as being Art Nouveau, but it contains none of the fluid naturalism of that design school.  Also, its from 1880.  It looks resolutely Victorian to me.  Whatever its true style, and its really an amalgam, its a unique and lovely accessory, from a time when great consideration was given to such things.

    More scattered stuff next week! 

The Power To Transform

    I've posted recently on facebook about the transformative power of the headdress both for men and for women.  It bears expanding on.
    When we put on a hat, there is of course a level of alteration that happens for us. we state something about ourselves loudly, or accentuate the major comments we are making with our other apparel by choosing a hat to finish the sentence.  There is a line, however, between a kind of headgear we wear for real life and one that makes the chameleon process complete.  We become someone or something else entirely from the real.
    Headdresses in history have been used for reasons, religious, political, sexual, artistic, humorous, revelatory and concealing.  But what makes them so powerful, and I believe that part of it comes from their tendency to completely cover the scalp, encasing our brains, is that they are not meant to be normal in any way. 
    We use a headdress to signal massive temporal power, access to divinity, and as a billboard to proclaim wealth, status and influence.
    Typically, I would go image by image and relay my thoughts on each one.  But I think each of these speak so loudly and effectively that I will let them do all the rest of the talking today.

    Think on how each one makes you feel.  What is your response to each person, transformed as they are?
    Hit it, Headressed ones!

I'm Voting With You

I See Rainbows Everywhere

    This morning dawns bright and sunny in San Francisco, and it is the the day of the annual LGBTQ Pride Parade and Festival.  So, with that in mind I thought it couldn't be a more appropriate time to do a post about the presence of rainbows in attire, and what that means and does.
    Now, when I say rainbows, I mean more than simply the literal representation of them in weave or print in textiles, but any time that the range of the visible spectrum is used, no matter how obviously, or subtly.

   Every color in the spectrum has its effects on us. These are graphable changes in our metabolism, breathing, heart rate and even synaptic response times.  That is no less true when we are faced with the spectrum in its entirety.  To be fair, no one has ever actually presented the entire visible spectrum in apparel.  Select colors are used, the ones that our minds perceive as representing the six predominating hues we can see; Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet.

    What is intriguing about the effect of the color spectrum as it gets made up in clothing, is that the effect is not a constant.  Where single colors have an effect that remains the same for most people, the visual spectrum response varies wildly depending on how it gets shown to us.  The most common responses are two.  We feel happier, and more centered.  But depending on how well the rainbow of color gets shown to us, we can also react badly.

    One of the other things that distinguishes rainbow hued garments from other things in the Attire language is that such things are always viewed to a degree as a novelty, not as something to be taken seriously.  The only time we take the rainbow of color seriously when its made up as apparel, is when the colors are removed from their correct spectrum order and thrown into new combinations, or when they are rendered in shades or tints that are distanced from the pure tones.

    So, we have two ways of seeing the spectrum when it gets made into clothing; the literal and the figurative.  Literal representations take the spectrum and show it in stripes, or ombre' the colors in their correct sequence; creating a range of reactions from us from memories of childhood, to political activism.

  Our response to figurative rainbow colors is more intellectual than emotional.  We engage the cognitive, first to reassemble the spectrum in our minds, and then view the garment again with the understanding of what we are seeing clearer in our heads.

    Finally, while a great many people find rainbow colored clothing energizing, pleasing and fun, many others find it both confusing and dismaying.  Why?  Well, since color evokes real physiological and psychological responses in us, some find the presence of so many differing cues to be internally overwhelming, and so an avoidance response kicks in.

    Whatever your own feelings about rainbow clothes and accessories, the fact remains that the expressive responses to them are as vast and varied as the rainbow itself; and that seems a perfect end to this Pride Sunday post.

    Have a grand day, whatever you do.
    Fly your own personal flag of Pride every day.