Fashion for everyone

though i remain a diehard fan of saucer-size sunnies, lately fashion's been trending toward a littler lens, and who wants to be the last lass onboard the steampunk express?



so. i'm widening my viewpoint on goofy goggles, seizing the surreally small, and desperately digging these twin peaks porthole peepers:


(please note: there's A LOT of brilliant accessorizing in that screen grab! enjoy.)

today i'm approximating the look with my oliver people's rims and my beloved blue velvet coat, which has just undergone another cosmetic procedure (after that first nip/tuck, you're on a slippery slope! improvery is addictive!!!).



it started innocently enough. i bought this vintage cabochon gemstone beaded belt on ebay:


{above: seller's pic, obvs.}

but it turned out to be a bit too big, so it idled about the backdoor of my wardrobe for a while, at some time sliding over the hanger of old blue eyes...



...and i guess they just fell for each other. there was a chemistry that couldn't be denied! never one to interfere with the will of Fate, i ripped off the belt's backing, salvaged the beaded top layer, hacked it in half, and basted the two bits over the coat's cuffs. it's ridiculous, but heck, so is love.


{above: before / after}



like a magpie marie antoinette, i am ever indulgent of my own over-the-top urges and couldn't resist washing down truffles with bon-bons, finishing this frippery with embroidered suede boots from spain. vive l'amour!

" i'm the original hunter-down-of-fabulous-things. twenty years ago i sat down and decided that i would create a really wonderful image, an unforgettable image. and now i'm kind of stuck with it. when i don't wear my fringy, gypsy stuff, people kind of look at me like, 'what's wrong?' "

fashion people talk a lot about abstract inspiration, about channeling the emotion or feeling of a look, rather than recreating the look itself - like when john galliano says the new dior couture is inspired by the flemish masters, but what waltzes down the runway looks like this:

no, it's not rembrandt, but if you look closely, you see the reference. that's abstract inspiration. it's about not getting stuck on a specific visual, but following the proposed stream of consciousness, and being open to where it leads you. in a small way, this is what i proffer on this page when i attempt to document the emotional or aesthetic pathways that lead me into a specific costume.

for instance, i bought this crazy fabric-scrap-cocktail years ago in texas, for the simple reason that it made me say: 'WUUUT. IS. THAT?!?!?!!!'

usually i just look at it fondly, hanging in my closet, and wonder who had the time, energy, and inclination to sew together the reams of lace, eyelet, cowhide, snakeskin, beads, velvet, dupioni, mink, mohair, etc, etcetera, ETCETERA... that comprise this curious piece. what were they thinking?

but i wore it today because, in my head, i keep mulling over the differences between steampunk and cyberpunk, between past medieval and future medieval, city of lost children and blade runner, little round-eye and big bug-eye sunnies...

... and somewhere in the middle of all that, it just felt right.