Don’t you dare call me a smatter hauler!
(hanky thief)

[Slap]

I’m much more of a bawdy basket.

Visit the SORT Shop on Etsy.

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How many days do you have burned in your memory… something happened that remains frozen in time. We all have memories, but when pressed, even I, have difficulty at times remembering what I was actually wearing… sometimes.

I remember my 29th birthday dress, every time I wear it, which is pretty often, I tell people that’s what it’s for. Ok, so it’s nearly 4 years later. But that was an important birthday for some strange reason.

Learning To Love You More, is a website. I first encountered the book at William Stout, an amazing bookstore for design/architecture/art book junkies. The whole concept is a series of assignments by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher, and we, the public respond…

The best art and writing is almost like an assignment; it is so vibrant that you feel compelled to make something in response.

Assignments ranged from taking a flash photo under your bed, to making an inspiring banner. The assignment I felt was most relevant to this blog, was : Take a picture of a significant outfit.

“What I was wearing when I realised she would twist everything to get herself out of trouble.”
Alice A.

Birmingham, UK
“This is the outfit I didn’t wear because you said my thriftstore dress looked like a towel and had a hole in it. I wear it all the time now. Everytime I wear it, I’m glad we broke up.“
Ariel
Knoxville, Tennessee USA

“What i was wearing when the doctor said i was seriously ill of anorexia.“
Alicia Maria Pi
Wroclaw, POLAND

It’s projects like these that bring to your mind how powerful clothing is, how much it reflects our person, documents our experiences. How difficult it is to let go of some items like a birthday dress, or a pair of shoes I couldn’t afford, but bought them because I was on my first holiday in Europe.

What clothes do you hold on to, for nothing else but sentimental reasons?

AMENDMENT: per request…
Click here if you would like to buy the book Learning to Love You More
I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do!

My boyfriend organized an Amelie night… which was nice. I liked the film, very sweet. So like the rest of the world, who has seen the film. you’ll know photo booths play an important part of the film. I love the feeling of seeing shamelessly admiring a stranger. I believe that’s called voyeurism. But I also find it inspiring and exotic to see these old images, like windows into a time long ago. That in the past women also wanted to capture their hairstyles, and cool outfits… an arrow hat, or maybe even the perfect eyeliner. They just didn’t have a medium to share it with the global audience…

Super amazing website Square America feeds the hunger for old pictures of anonymous people Look At Me left me with. Only, Square America categorizes the photos, making it easier to have fun with your findings.
And thanks Liebemarlene Vintage for reminding me how much I love this stuff.

Which is why I was tickled pink to see my favorite SF collective, M.I.S.S. Crew coming out with a downloadable PDF calendar …. this is the one I’ll be keeping on my desk.

Thank you MISS!

Well… maybe if they knit fingerless gloves for the Statue of Liberty… or a scarf for the Prince Albert, or a beret for The Little Mermaid.

Amendment:
Ahh… Coquette tipped me off on the perpetrators of these knits… Knittaplease.com they tagged Jimi Hendrix in Seattle… Ha! This is excellent.

My Grandmother, has a keen eye for fashion. Her wardrobe was almost entirely handmade in her sewing room. She was always checking out the latest fashions, and had an amazing collection. As a girl I would ask her to teach me to sew, but my attention span and practice wasn’t that great. Yesterday, while over at the house, they told me I could have some bits and pieces, along with some furniture, I picked up some really cool items out of her wardrobe:

Her favorite winter coat. This is from the 60’s, handmade wool, with lining, and bell sleeves.

A plaid cape, my aunt Charlene said it’s been around as long as she can remember. It has really great buttons, and you can button the bottom to create sleeves too. This blouse is designed and made by my grandmother, it’s really amazing on. I love the geometric collar, and it sits right at my waist, so it has both and interesting and flattering silhouette.

I’ll miss my grandparents… but Hawaii isn’t too far away, and I’ll have these pieces as tokens of them in my daily life.

I know I’m going to put my foot in my mouth at someplace when I get into the whole what is art debate. Back in college I was almost lynched for saying graphic design is not art. Well, sometimes it’s harder to tell than others… but looking at Mia Marie Overgaard’s work (Miao Miao), this brings up a lot of emotion for me. She has a clear distinction between illustration (above) and her personal work (below). In her illustration, it’s clear highly stylized, sexy, and a bit aloof. Below in her personal work, the colors are muted, with low contrast, and moody… not to mention fashion inspired.

It leaves me to wonder, like in the painting below with the woman in the mask, how do you express that which has no words?

and then there is:
4. Watch scary movies with your friends…. or alone if you are tough enough.

I’m not a die-hard horror freak, but I do like a scary movie here and there, of course there is always Shaun of the Dead, anyone with a sense of humor can watch… but there are also some cool fashionable ones too….

1. Cat People (1942): For the noir at heart
This was the first movie to use your imagination as the monster. A low budget film with a great story line is really fun to watch. It’s considered horror, but it’s not that scary.

2. The Others (2001): Tasteful and creepy
Nicole Kidman stars in this Post WWII ghost story, in foggy England. It’s entertaining, and believable enough to give you the heeby geebies.

3. Night of the Living Dead (1968): A classic, that’s not for rookies.
I’ve seen this before, and written a critical essay on this movie, and I still won’t watch it alone at nite.

4. Cabinet des Dr. Caligari: A movie I want to see, but can never find.
It looks cool, and critically acclaimed, but has anyone actually seen it? Mysterious. If you can get your hands on it, let me know how it is, will ya?

5. Psycho & The Birds… How can you not want to watch Hitchcock?

If you are jaded by films and bad special effects, listening to Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell will creep you out any day of the week. This radio show is about the supernatural, and airs daily. The audience is pretty intense and most believe what they are calling in about is real. If you are not totally laughing your ass off, you may be shivering sleeplessly tonight.

OH and here’s another idea… if you live in a city or particularly haunted area, ghost hunting may be fun. When I lived in Clerkenwell, London, my friends and I would go ghost hunting at the old plague pits and old city of London at 2am. We never found anything except a couple of drunks.

Happy Halloween!

Unfortunately, I kind of wish I had admitted to not knowing anything about her because the movie was rather boring. It had no story, to get the gist of the whole movie you might as well just watch the above clip. As much as I hate to say it, a girl can not live on cake and shoes alone. Even if you were to watch my daily habits you may question whether or not I am being sincere in that statement. You may be aware of my shoe habit, and today, I have eaten a slice of coconut pudding pie, two slices of lemon cake (birthdays!), and two Halloween size packs of minikisses. You might think I was a candy addict, but to be honest, I think I’m going to vom.

On a completely different and more relevant note, I did love the film’s costumes and the colors. It inspired me to imagine the life of Marie Antoinette, her decadent wardrobe. It made sense for her life, however if I were to dress decadently, it would be out of place and costumey. Much like these beautiful polaroid shots by Mike Brody.