I love fashion but absolutely don't get it emotionally. No matter what clothes I put on, it's still me wearing them. Left to my own devices and unconcerned with durability or cost, I would dress either like Huggy Bear or the natty African guys who have tunic and pants made from matching excellent fabric.
My current sewing project is a yoked sleeveless top made of plaid madras. I did a kickass job matching the pattern at the front yoke and totally forgot to do it at the back. (I made the main back so that I think the patterns will match horizontally across the zipper, but there's going to be a line where they meet the yoke where they don't line up.) I'd put piping across the front and it looks adorable, but piping on the back seems kind of stupid. I'm about to finish the seam and see how bad it looks, but on the other hand I'll never have to look at it since it'll be on my back and this may not turn out wearable at all. Should I just grow my hair out so no one can see? That way I don't have to undo the binding I've already sewn around the neck while assembling the pattern out of order.
No, no, the fashion should be its own thread. Did you ever track down that black and white motorcycle jacket?
Oh, the masses want fashion and who am I to deny. Let's dish.
2 needs a photo in the flickr group.
I love fashion but absolutely don't get it emotionally
Not sure I understand -- are you saying you enjoy looking at it, but don't get any pleasure out of wearing it?
One of my top complaints about pregnancy is how much I miss wearing my regular clothes. It adds to the feeling like I'm masquerading as someone else for months on end.
Also I'm hot and uncomfortable and have to push a baby out my hoo-ha. But aside from all that, fashion totally.
2 will eventually get a photo in the flickr group, but Lee has my camera right now. There's also a possibility the shirt will be see-through and yet I decided against lining it. I just realized I could buy another half-yard of the fabric (which would cost about 50 cents) and have enough to recut it so the plaid lines up, but I think I don't care. It's going to be pretty obviously homemade-looking anyway.
6. Sort of. The clothes that I like looking at are basically costumes-- I can appreciate lovely fabric and bright color, not much else. Certainly for me but I think also for my appraisal of other people, I'm pretty tone-deaf to the meaning of various clothes.
Nevertheless, I keep on trying to keep in touch in a half-hearted way.
Holy shit. How jarring is it exactly when the parachute opens?
Not that bad. The landing part is tricky though and the whole thing made me pretty queasy.
Then again, I wasn't 100 when I did it, so maybe that's something you grow out of.
8: Polar vortex will help with all of those, depending on the relative shrinkage in the cold of babies and hoo-has.
I think the hospital is heated. But afterwards, I am done with maternity clothes! Sort of!
No wonder health care costs are out of control.
I thought immediately after pregnancy that women are typically the equivalent size to roughly the second trimester and still need to wear maternity clothes- things don't shrink back down for another couple months. Or maybe you're just saying you're planning to walk around naked to facilitate breastfeeding.
It doesn't take a couple months, but it does take a couple weeks. After that, you're bigger if you've gained weight. I managed to lose basically no weight last time, so those clothes should fit reasonably soon!
"Couple weeks" is optimistic. Maybe 5-6 weeks?
In other words, a couple of months.
Well, less rounded after a couple of weeks.
There's a pretty fast transition, IIRC, from needing literal maternity clothes to just needing kind of loose, stretchy stuff a size or so bigger than your norm.
That's my recollection as well. Also, your stomach isn't hard anymore, so as long as you have access to non-maternity clothes that fit, they'll fit. I think the common problem is that the woman doesn't own any much-bigger clothes, and doesn't feel like buying all sorts of temporary clothes.
I kind of think of all clothes as temporary clothes, but I know what you mean.
Eventually, my clothes get holes in them and they get demoted to rags or trash, depending.
The kind of clothes where you don't bother to buy a back-up to prevent hoarding of the first.
All my clothes are basically the same.
Which is why they're great when you want to blend in, on a safari.
We watched that Bill Cunningham documentary on Netflix I think it was Friday, speaking of fashion. Despite how charming the subject is, it reminded me how repellent I find fashion as a...as a...thing. Like it's interesting and fun to see and thinking about but there are people out there who think it is REALLY IMPORTANT, and they often have a lot of money and are kind of stupid.
It reminded me of the little monologue in The Devil Wears Prada where Anne Hathaway laughs because she can't tell the difference between a light blue belt and a cerulean belt and Meryl Streep gives her this whole spiel about the very vast difference therebetween.
Actually comment 1 maybe says what I mean to say without referring to a stupid movie.
No matter what clothes I put on, it's still me wearing them.
I like fashion, because it often involves butts.
Fashion trends come and go, but butts never go out of style.
Some borrowers say their cars were disabled when they were only a few days behind on their payments, leaving them stranded in dangerous neighborhoods. Others said their cars were shut down while idling at stoplights. Some described how they could not take their children to school or to doctor's appointments. One woman in Nevada said her car was shut down while she was driving on the freeway.
On the one hand, I really don't want anything horrible to happen to any of these unfortunate people. On the other hand, something horrible will (inevitably) happen--a bad wreck from a car being disabled on the interstate, a child dying from not making it the ER--and when it does I really, really want these despicable companies to be sued into oblivion. On the third hand, the most depressing part of the entire story would be when the plaintiffs lost that lawsuit, which I have a sinking feeling might happen, depending on the state.
It reminded me of the little monologue in The Devil Wears Prada where Anne Hathaway laughs because she can't tell the difference between a light blue belt and a cerulean belt and Meryl Streep gives her this whole spiel about the very vast difference therebetween.
Someone named after a river in hell defended that speech to me once.
The riverine person is, however, always very well dressed!
the most depressing part of the entire story would be when the plaintiffs lost that lawsuit won their lawsuit but had it overturned 5-4 because a subprime lender claims his 4th amendment rights are violated by not being able to do whatever he wants with his property.
Speaking of rivers, a person or persons unknown appear to be engaged in a continuing effort to put articles about minor rivers in Pennsylvania into the "Did you know" section of the Wikipedia front page.
Fighting the good fight. I recommend they follow the lead set by the Mid-Century Indonesian Cinema Collective.
41: Was your interlocutor possibly named after this? (Totally rocks out about 40 seconds in after an excellent solemn intro!!)
48: It was Sterling "Duchess" Acheron.
We hear all these anecdotes about the famous pimp Phlegethon Jones, but he's really pretty boring.
that speech
It is a plate on which is delivered Meryl Streep's imperious hauteur. On the page, it ain't much. Except I guess it's clever enough that it stuck with me. I don't know; I've lost any sense of the extent to which things I like are good.
I'm gonna bring this bad boy home by linking to a 4-color screenprinted concert shirt.
Analog technology, the color separation for the halftone silkscreens was done with cellulose filters. The shirts were bootlegs profitably sold to crowds out of the trunks of Vegas and Gremlins parked near the lines of fans who wanted to get into the venue early for a good spot.
You'd begin by offering what you describe as a dime in trade, though it would be two joints short, and if your original guy didn't think much of you would have been short before you touched it. The shirt seller might be tempted, but he needs cash to pay his rent, and there's a bunch of New Trier kids trotting over who will pay full price. Your best bet is to stick them with the short dime for full price as they walk back with the cool shirts and then buy the shirt with your proceeds.
I wrote a game. You people should play it. Requires a desktop browser. Chrome works best - in Firefox it's a bit slow.
Well, your 33% of the way finished, then.
I think you may have a fundamental misunderstanding of how horses deal with very small bumps.
I won.
I think there also may be a lack of realism in horse/bison interactions.
I think you just don't know how to jump.
I had a job that required a suit from 2001-2006, and bought my last new work suit in 2003 or so. I considered myself moderately well-dressed among mostly functionally dressed colleagues. Shortly thereafter men's tailoring went from moderately billowy to very slim, and I have not a fashionable, well-fitting suit for some time.
I have bought suits since then, but I do not have an all-purpose one that works. I got what I thought was an unbelievably good price on a bespoke black suit (along with two shirts and much more for Mrs. K-sky) in Chiang Mai in 2008, but I didn't quite have it together to insist on an English cut and the suit is as billowy as everything else. Not to mention it's black, which is not really everyday suit wear. It would be good for funerals and nightlife I suppose. It does have a bright purple lining selected from the Thai royal colors.
I also bought a tuxedo for my wedding, thinking that I would have occasion to wear it. When I had a suit-wearing job, I had the occasional semi-formal work event, not to mention the occasional black-tie-optional wedding. But those have both tapered off and I have not put it back on. My father, who lives in a colder clime, bought me a very nice overcoat for the occasion. I only ever wore it walking from the hotel to the wedding venue. I fear the moths have had at it, but I do not wish to check. I would enjoy a life that once a year or so requires an overcoat worn over a tuxedo, but it would require substantial changes from this one.
I bought a seersucker suit on eBay for $50. It was billowy as all get out but three tailors later it is a sweet thing. This was a victory.
I had a wedding last weekend (about which there may be more to tell, pending a waiver of the sanctity of off-blog communications). Despite the warm spell it was not the right time for a seersucker suit. I bought a suit! I may have spent too much money on it, but I was ready. So now I have a very slim suit. I may have to exchange the 38R for a 40S, because although it cut a good silhouette, it was constraining about the shoulders, especially when I reached up and back to adjust my collar. Also it is a goad to stay in shape. I already saw a bit more tum than I wanted to in photos.
Question: how long will it be before my decently fitting but unfashionably billowy early-2000s-era suits come back in style? Should I keep them, or just move forward?
Question 2: I totally blew it on the slim tailored suit, right? Fashion marches forward and personal decrepitude ever wins the day, and I'm not actually ever going to need to wear a non seersucker suit to anything ever again. Right? God that would of bought a lot of chilaquiles.
Magic floating horseshoes aren't realistic either.
You can't roller skate in a buffalo field because the buffalo have all the skates.
Anyway, interesting game, but I can't finish level 3.
Was your early '00s suit really "billowy"?, or is that just relative to the current, ultra-slim style? I'm just thinking back to the suit I got for my wedding, and I feel as if it was reasonably in fashion (4 button) and also reasonably non-billowy.
Nonsense. Fashion hasn't changed since 1991.
64: Your second question answers your first one. Put on enough weight and personal decrepitude will make a billowy shirt more snug.
it reminded me how repellent I find fashion as a...as a...thing
O dear God yes. My bff from way back was married for a time to someone high up in the fashion press, like just a step or two from Anna Wintour level, and the glancing view he gave me of fashion week in various places made me want to puke. The entire industry could be put into forced labor camps* with no loss to humanity generally.
*That is, excepting the people already employed in the equivalent of forced labor camps.
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This has nothing to do with anything. I just want someone to say "that's irritating but it's not that big a deal," ideally in other words so it doesn't look like a cut/paste job.
I found a social work bloggish thing and offered to write for it, mostly so I can say "contributing writer" in a line on my resume. The person who runs it sent me something to write, which was essentially to plug a reality show someone made about inmates. So I wrote something, and I've written better things but it was ok, and now she's edited it and I didn't even read the whole thing because this thing under my name has sentences with words missing, lots of stuff I didn't write, and at least one mixed metaphor. She also I think took out something critical I wrote and considered important. I guess the thing to do is to write a couple more things and then start to push back if there are further hatchet jobs.
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Sorry, little fashion OP.
The weirdest part about the post-baby body was the point where I had mostly bounced back, in that I didn't look pregnant, but I'd bounced back to someone else's shape.
Argh. So you can't even show it to people without having to explain that it's not your fault.
I guess the thing to do is to write a couple more things and then start to push back if there are further hatchet jobs.
Maybe bring up the objective errors, like sentences with missing words, and sympathetically ask if you could offer to be a extra set of eyes to look for that kind of typo/mechanical error next time you write something for her? Giving you a shot at correcting the rest of the damage before it went live?
The US Ugly Betty was set in the offices of a fashion magazine, had lines and characters nicely critical of the problem with paying too close attention to clothes.
I think I've written here before about the TV show with Stacy (bitch) and Clinton (nice guy) where they make over some sucker who agrees to televised humiliation in exchange for a few thousand in store credit. Clinton usually confined himself to saying something vague and positive about coherent presentation, coupled with practical suggestions about horizontal stripes or shiny fabric. Stacy would explain how stupid anyone who would touch this item of clothing must be.
Ok. So I hate the ED. There are no beds, and somebody else is ahead of me. I have a kidney infection, and I'm starting to experience more pain. I can't figure out who I'm supposed to talk to. The reception people said that there was 1 person ahead of me but it could be an hour or more. I've already been here a couple if hours.
Want to cry. I mean I'm not having a stroke or a heart attack, but I think my kidneys are pretty important.
Is there someone you can call to be there with you? (Obviously, your boyfriend, but if he's not available then anyone else.) Anecdotally, you can get really sick, really fast, with a kidney infection, and if the hospital isn't paying attention to you that's not good.
72: You have my sympathy, as I've been in similar positions, but the thing is do is not to write a couple more things but instead insist that material you didn't write not be published under your name. Period.
In related news, I discovered that a former client has extensively plagiarized work from me after dropping me as their program annotator content provider. I have no idea yet if there's anything I can do about it, but I'm too livid to think about it right now.
76: You also have my sympathy, BG. Good luck with getting swift attention.
Sympathies, BG.
I've lost a bunch of weight recently and my formerly excellently fitting suit now hangs on me like I'm a kid playing dress up. I'm planning to continue to lose weight, though, so I don't want to replace it just yet. Thing is, I'm (always already) in the middle of a job search--what do I do if I actually need to wear a suit?
Question 2: I totally blew it on the slim tailored suit, right? Fashion marches forward and personal decrepitude ever wins the day, and I'm not actually ever going to need to wear a non seersucker suit to anything ever again. Right? God that would of bought a lot of chilaquiles.
Dude, not at all. I think the skinny suit is here to stay for at least awhile - I haven't seen any inklings that it's disappearing and my husband has to buy for his shop several seasons ahead. Plus, even if it does go out of style, at least you'll look good - full suits look best on men with something to hide (paunch, etc) but the majority of men look way better in a more slim-fitting suit.
I told somebody that I had more pain. There are 21 people waiting to be admitted to the hospital, because there are no beds up there.
They put me on a stretcher. Need some IV antibiotics, because the oral won't stay down.
He had gone to get a sandwich but is back.
I'm sorry, BG, that sounds awful.
83: Do not use the kid-playing-dress-up suit. Maybe Goodwill + tailor? That is, if something comes up with more than 72 hours notice.
Banana Republic and J. Crew sell pretty good suits as separates with ready-to-wear pants (no need of hems). It might be smart to go see what fits you, then buy and return it if you need to (although check policies, you might end up with $600 in store credit). Sometimes H&M and Zara have stuff too, in the $300 range IIRC.
84: OK, will tighten my shit up and dig in. Thank you for the vote of confidence.
I hate the idea of buying something and returning it after wearing. I totally get that I shouldn't wear an oversized suit. Maybe I should preemptively see what a tailor can do with my old suit, at least to get it down to where it at least sort of fits me now. Any sense of what something like that would cost? I don't want to spend 50% of what a new suit would cost for a temporary fix.
Bostonienne, your kidneys are totally worth making a ruckus over, they can go south very fast.
On the fashion front, i recently hesitated too long on a dress in an unusual print and a fine hound's-tooth check pencil skirt, both now sold out. Very disappointing.
BG, hope you feel better soon.
I like the suit discussion! The boyfriend's was purchased (without my input) in 2003. He needs to wear it maybe once a year, but it's very out of date (pleated pants). He wavers between not wanting to spend the money to replace it and dreaming about very expensive (think: Tom Ford, John Varvatos) suits. So, how much should a nice, well-made suit cost? Where should one shop? Details I should pay attention to?
I come from a family where my father didn't own a suit at all. I think he got one for a cruise he and my mother went on several years ago that required guests to dress for dinner. Not sure he's worn it since.
83: Is everything else about the suit good? I'd lean towards a new, inexpensive suit that fits you now, but if the previous suit is great except fit, take it to the tailor and fix it as an intermediate measure. Taking things in is pretty easy unless the shoulders/back on the jacket are now really off.
90: Let's just say I like the way I look.
93: Shoulders are OK, I think--it's more that everything wraps around a lot farther than it should. Good to hear that taking in isn't too bad. I'll try to get in over the weekend and at least get an estimate.
95: Congrats on the weight loss, too, although you were perfectly handsome before. I was asking about shoulders because I think they are hard to get right on alteration, but taking in chest/waist and re-hemming should be easy.
Bostonienne, your kidneys are totally worth making a ruckus over, they can go south very fast.
For the record, if I'm ever mention on unfogged that I'm seeking medical attention and somebody replies that whatever it is might, "go south very fast." I would not consider that a message of encouragement. . . .
Good luck BG.
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Fashion story.
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ydnew, you might read this. It's woefully undernourished at the low end, though.
I took a friend shopping for his wedding and found a very good deal at a Macy's sale on a dark grey Calvin Klein suit. I think that was around $300-$400 all together, three years and change ago. We also found some promising items at Nordstrom Rack.
A friend of mine just found a simple black suit for $99 in the L.A. garment district and spent a little more for tailoring. I assume it's made of meringue, but it looks good on him, and it never rains here.
89: The waist and the seat of the pants, think $25-$35; the jacket, $50 or so. I'm assuming that your arms, legs and shoulders are still the same lengths and width.
99: Fuck a bunch of J/esse Th/orn. (Apologies if you know and like the dude. I only know him through the internet and mostly via that site you linked.)
And to be more useful, for not-hateful suit discussion Ask MetaFilter is a pretty good resource. These questions are a good start, and will give you pointers to other resources.
And hopefully Frowner will show up and school us all.
101: No apology needed! I like a couple of things on his network but don't know very much about him.
Oh, one smart thing I did before the wedding -- I got my ties tailored. I have some really nice ties from 10 years ago, but they are all around 4" or more. $12 per to have them taken in - I got one at 2.75" and the other at 3", so they're not superduper skinny but they match the width of the lapel (a recommended guide I found).
Really just this one thing on his network called Song Exploder. Which I highly recommend.
IV antibiotics at last! My first urine sample was clean, but the nurse just asked for a new one.
Still have pain. The nurse asked about a CT scan to rule out a kidney stone. Maybe they will get to the bottom of this. Still lying in the hall, but I got fluids and an antibiotic, so it's good.
It's a start. Good luck on getting rid of the pain as soon as possible.
55: I finished the game. It wasn't that much easier in Chrome, but it seemed to help. It was neat, but I found the buffalo too frustrating. The margin for error is just so close. Also, no boobs.
Since I've apparently decided to be a video game reviewer (I'm in it for the bribes), it also seems a little weird that there isn't a guy on the horse given the name and the intro scene about wanting to hire orphans.
101: I enjoy his podcast and think he's a funny dude. I'm not particularly dapper but his advice generally sounds sound. Maybe?
55: That was fun. I think it does a good job of teaching you what to expect (e.g. how bison work).
I have a good nurse here. I think she will make sure that they rule out kidney stones.
That GPS + remote shut off works out pretty awesome for me when someone with shitty credit gets their car stolen. It's like someone rolled out a personal bait car.
I think it's how they tracked the guy who kidnapped that woman in Philly recently.
99/102: Helpful, thank you. Living in DC has impaired my sense of how much things should cost and where to buy them. This seems like a more manageable undertaking than I'd been guessing.
115: Yep. The look on someone's face when they get swarmed is fantastic.
It was neat, but I found the buffalo too frustrating. The margin for error is just so close.
Thanks for the feedback on the game. I've been trying to keep the margin for error fairly tight - because I think that makes it more interesting - but I've played the game a million times so whats tight for me could be pretty darned difficult for thee. Maybe I'll add another gold horseshoe to that level to ease things up a bit.
I find the best strategy on the buffalo is calmly walking through some while jumping over others. If you try just walking through or just jumping over you will likely fail.... you got to mix both in there.
it also seems a little weird that there isn't a guy on the horse given the name and the intro scene about wanting to hire orphans.
Yeah, I wanted to do this, but damn, do you know how difficult it is to animate that shit? I was going to animate a rider to go on to the horse, and have him get thrown off from time to time, but after hours and hours of pixelfucking the horse, I didn't have it in me to animate a rider.
You don't walk through them, you just mosey along at their pace for a bit.
I have no idea how difficult it is to animate anything. The horse is very nicely rendered. But I still can't walk it through a buffalo.
122 before seeing 121. Trying to mosey.
You will notice I couldn't be bothered to animate the buffalo.
The snake was easy, though. All I had to do was move a few pixels around on its tail.
I need to get to sleep before I wind up trying to jump buffalo for two hours. Goodnight all.
Is there any way to avoid losing a point on the first buffalo?
You can walk through buffalo?
Some of the Chinese tourists in Yellowstone seem to think so. Every summer I think it's the year I'm going to watch a live goring in the wild. Fingers crossed for 2015.
No, you always lose a point on the first buffalo.
I just spent a whole bunch of time jumping buffalo, so I'm willing to admit that part is too difficult. You really got to nail all the early horseshoes to make it happen.
ZOMG, just saw Django Unchained for the first time. Best. Movie. Evar.
Snowing again here tonight, so more shoveling and listening to suburbanites whine about their commute for me tomorrow.
Waiting for a CT scan. It will be a long night.
Wait, is your name actually Spike? Or at least your real life pseudonym?
Yes, its is actually a real-life pseudonym. I've had it all my life. My mother-in-law calls me Spike. So does my old dentist.
Waiting for a CT scan. It will be a long night.
A grumpy left-wing philosophy professor will be miniaturised and inserted into your kidney, and then several hundred borderline psychotics will disagree with each other about what he's doing wrong.
I hope you are feeling better BG. I've had kidney stones and they hurt like a motherfucker, so fingers crossed that it's something more benign. Hopefully it's something where they can just shoot you up with antibiotics and painkillers and have you right as rain in a day or so.
99: Fuck a bunch of J/esse Th/orn. (Apologies if you know and like the dude. I only know him through the internet and mostly via that site you linked.
Funnily enough, Put This On is just about the only Jesse Thorn vehicle/enterprise I'm not a fan of.
