Dilemmas: I love my mom (or, My mom weighs in)

From: Me
Date: Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 2:06 AM
Subject: Should I keep these?
To: My Mom

Hi Mommy,

Please tell me what you think of these clothes.  

1. Beige sweater, $50 (on sale from $78).  It is soft and comfortable, just not sure it is worth $50
2. Gray felt blazer, $80 (on sale from $160).  It is very soft, but I'm not sure if it is practical.
3. Gray/black long heavy coat, $91 (on sale from $130, but I got it from Ross so the suggested retail price is more almost $300).  It is just a tiny bit big for me.
4. Dark gray sweater/jacket, $35 at Ross.  I really like it--it is warm and comfortable.  

Thanks for your opinion!
Steph

________________________________________________________

From: My Mom
To: Me
Subject: My Opinion

Dearest Stephanie
I look @ your 4 clothings that you sent to me for opinion,  twice.
this is my honest opinion on all of them, don't care about how much they cost,
I think they are all pretty "UGLY" 
even God bless you with a beautiful figure, all most like > 95% no matter what you put on ,
both daddy & me all ways say you look nice.
but not with these 4 clothings
they are not just UGLY by themselve, they made you look fat , heavy & UGLY too for no reason.
So, my advice is to  RETURN THEM ALL ASAP
When we 've a chance we shop together, I 'll HELP you pick clothing that will make you look cute & classic

 May God BLESS you ALLWAYS with his WISDOM & HEALTHY LONG LIFE
also KEEP YOU ALLWAYS  SAFE  from all evil harmfull things
LOVEEEEEEEEEEE
Mommy

Fashion Friday, 1 day late: The Look of 'Penelope'

I did a bit more digging into the movie--turns out the masterful cinematography in the movie was the work of the DP for Amelie after all, Michel Amathieu.  I'm proud I was able to spot it.

But what I was really interested in was the costume designer, Jill Taylor.  Turns out most of the pieces, though reminiscent of Anthropologie, were custom made, or at least custom embellished, for the movie.  I thought that was pretty cool--I assumed that most costume designers were just glorified shoppers, and I was hoping I could find out where they had bought that cool coat.  I went through and took screenshots of all the cool outfits Penelope gets to wear throughout the film.  This makes me want to get back into costuming--no money in it, but so much fun!

Stuff I just bought from Urban Outfitters

It's ok, I haven't bought anything for at least a month.  And these are all so useful =)

1. Set of 4 porcelain dinner plates for $11.96 (on sale)
2. Black jelly shoes for $3.99 (on sale)
3. Gold twisted t-strap sandals for $24.99 (on sale)
4. Stretchy belt for $16.99 (on sale)
5. Set of 2 white branch hooks for hanging jewelry, $20

Fashion Fridays: It's kind of hard out there for a hipster.

Or at least it's getting real expensive.  I get these e-mails from Urban Outfitters occasionally where they try to sell me stuff I don't need.  I really liked the brown Frye boots below.  I clicked through and turns out they are $188.  Um yeah.  Isn't the point of being a hipster that you get all this quirky sh*t for dirt cheap, rummaging through Goodwill or something?  Why does it cost so much money to look 'hip and edgy,' like I'm supposing Urban Outfitters wants us to look?

PS. I am decidedly not a hipster, by the way.

Today I am a ballerina

Ballerina skimmers: $50 Pink Studio, floral tweed with brown velvet bow detail
Cropped leggings: $5 Hue, from Century 21
Black lace skirt: $25 or so from Rampage
Sky blue layer tee: $10 Shade, from Costo (really!)
Jewelry: Gold heart locket, base metal heart charm, diamond-ruby heart pendant on gold chain

This entry needs a new Day of the Week: Fashion-Forward Fridays

I was trolling Urban Outfitters.com to look for other tasty sale items to add to my cart before I checked out (some of the things in there are more than a month old!) when I came across this thing called the "Pocket Bag Belt."  I thought, hey, that doesn't look half bad...and it's useful besides!

But after careful reflection, I realized that I'd been duped by a feat of well-positioned marketing, and that this item is nothing more than a glorified fanny pack.

Observe: the only real difference between the 'stylish' item in the first photo and the unattractive accessory in the second is who is wearing it: one is a thin young woman, the other, a rather heavy-set older man.  Ah, the power of context.

I threw in a third photo of a cute fanny pack that this woman made and blogged about.  At least she had no pretensions and called the thing what it is.

This online store took my breath away.

I know I kind of bounce around about 5 topics on this blog: food, fashion, music, art, movies.  And a recent sixth: the Olympics.

I'd like to turn my attention right now to fashion.  Vintage and historical fashion.  I'm not exactly sure how I got on this search, but I was looking for Brussels lace and flipped over to the image search.  Through that, I came across Vintage Textile, a store that specializes in high couture, vintage and antique clothing and accessories from about 1820 - 1970.  I'm amazed that textiles can last almost 200 years without falling to bits and pieces.  Their collection is of truly extraordinary quality and craftsmanship and handiwork, and I found myself weak in the knees at the utter beauty of it.  People just don't make clothing like this anymore.  Well, maybe they do, but labor is so costly these days that similarly detailed work would fetch closer to $10,000. 

I was especially swept away by their treasure trove of 1920s flapper dresses, tea dresses, capes, shawls, and such.  If I ever have $1500 to throw away on an article of clothing, I'm definitely investing in one of their offerings.  I'm attaching some of my favorites.