No, I'm not a fashion victim. I made the white eyelet skirt ~1997 with a remnant I found at SAS Fabrics. I cut out and interfaced the black and white rayon crepe blouse around the same time. Last year, Little Hunting Creek inspired me to pull out some UFOs and finish them. It took less than 2 hours to sew this blouse up. Why did I wait so long?
This skirt and photo makes my hips look really wide. Are they really this wide? Depends on the angle and what I am wearing.
Sociological Images asked why we dress to minimize our body differences. Why are magazines always showing tall people how to look shorter? Short people how to look taller? Fat people how to look thinner? Busty women how to look less so? The list goes on and on.
They asked, what if we dressed to .emphasize. our body differences instead of diminish them?
Don't we teach our kids to stand out, especially in their college application personal statements? Tell us what makes them especially them?
Then what do we teach them when we dress to conform to an ideal body image that has nothing to do with health and function?
These hips bore a healthy ~8.5 pound baby and carried me up many a mountain pass (by foot, by bike and on telemark skis). They don't need de-emphasizing.
After snapping the picture above, I saw this Chimayo weaving I purchased last year in New Mexico. It makes me happy.
Now I understand why you're ploughing through your UFOs. Go Grace.
ReplyDeleteThe book THE TRIUMPH OF INDIVIDUAL STYLE illustrates how to emphasize different parts of a woman's body by wearing different styles of clothing, inspired by fine art paintings. The "different parts" include a large belly or wide hips. It was refreshing to see the non-judgmental, creative approach.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the book is very expensive now, but at least still available.
Thanks for the book reference. I'll keep an eye out for a copy. I recently bought a copy of Seeing Through Clothes.
Deletehttp://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520082311
While it is heavy on the academic-speak, it's worth reading. I'm learning so much.
I love this skirt and blouse. Finishing UFOs makes me so happy. Also those hips look good :)
ReplyDeleteI really like the skirt and blouse together. And I've long thought that trying to dress to look more uniform really just does most of us a disservice. I agree that Triumph of Individual Style is good (my copy is very old) and I now think I want to read Seeing Through Clothes as well.
ReplyDeleteThis outfit looks great! I don't think it makes your hips look wide at all, and I think the point about dressing so we all look the same is well-taken. Hooray for finishing UFOs.
ReplyDelete