Sunday, July 26, 2009

The creative wardrobe :: part 1

When I ponder matters of clothing, I tend to swing between two extremes. At one end of the spectrum, I declare that fashion and trends are decidedly superficial, all clothing is going to rot someday, and we are more than what we wear. On the flipside, I decide that, since clothing is a necessary part of all of our lives, it is right and good that I should be creative in what I wear, choosing pieces that are not only feminine, modest, and affordable, but are also expressions of my personality.

At times, my attempts at wearing clothes of character have been hampered by finances (or a lack of them), my awkward sizing, and an absence of personal styling skilz. But in my internet wanderings lately, I've come across some lovely resources which inspire me in all sorts of ways.

The Uniform Project is one very cool concept: "as an exercise in sustainable fashion", Sheena Matheikin is wearing the same black dress (well, one of seven identical black dresses) every day for a year. She redeems the project from boredom by improvising around her classic piece with vintage odds and ends, new items, and recycled fashions, documenting her daily ensembles to raise money for educational needs for children in Indian slums.

While many of the outfits require a lot more courage and a lot more skin than I'm willing to offer (though the outfit in the top picture, particularly, is gorgeous), I think the project is creatively amazing, and brilliant from an ecology/thrifty perspective. I'm definitely inspired!
Stay tuned for more of my creative style-related finds!

3 comments:

  1. REALLY interesting concept. Thanks for sharing!

    You know, I was thinking today how cool it would be if you and I were neighbors. Or at least shared a continent... I'd SO love to be able to drop by for tea or invite you over for giggly movie fests. And we could poke each other with pencils when we weren't writing enough (ouch! stop that! ok, so maybe that wasn't a great idea...). And go shopping together.

    Hm. Maybe after I'm done living in Europe and have gotten tired of Asia I should keep going south and end up in Australia...

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  2. I also would like to share the same continent with you. See how I have changed. I used to think it had to be the same city.

    With the clothing project, I am not really sure that it would be very economical. Think how much all those "accessories" would cost. And does she wear the same outfit more than once. I am too practical to be creative at all. Oh well....

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  3. Asea -- your plan sounds exciting -- especially the poking-each-other-with-pencils-as-incentive-to-write bit! I would love to have you as a writing buddy :). Which I suppose I already *do*, really, but I think the occasional lead pencil stabbing would be highly motivational.

    Mothercare -- I think if the project wasn't such a public one, you could get away with lots more doubling up of accessories and extra layers. As it is, however, because it *is* a public project, she gets lots of gifts donated so it possibly is still somewhat thrifty for her.

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