Analogue Chic

Archive for the ‘Self-Health’ Category

I have no doubt that new acquaintances have this image in mind when I tell them I’m an independent fashion designer.  And I’m sure a few long time friends and acquaintances were a bit taken aback by the contrast between my hyper-intellectual social activist leanings and this apparently vapid new career path.  There’s much more to be said about the implications of fashion in society, and I won’t do it here, now.

I will, however, repost this rant about the stereotype of women in the fashion industry, from fellow IFB’er, 39th and Broadway.

We’ve written before about the ridiculous notion that fashion design is an easy career path.  There’s often this absurd image perpetuated in the media that working in fashion is a simple and mindless task.  How many movies have you seen, be it a drama or romantic comedy, where the fashionable creative lead finds her true calling to be a designer three quarters of the way through the movie?  After realizing her “passion for fashion”, a brief montage ensues of her touching fabrics, wrapping a tape measure around her neck, sketching in her spacious Soho loft, running into Bloomingdale’s with her samples, and then poof, she is magically a famous and successful designer.  There, of course, is no mention of college or any educational training, no clips of raising capital or finding investors, no trips to sample rooms and negotiating price-points, no hunting for sales reps or walking trade shows, and God forbid no tech-packing!  Be it television or movies, becoming a fashion designer is always portrayed as a fun and easy afterthought that can make an adorable girl immediately successful by a simple trip to the fabric store!

Read the rest of this entry »

I love it when several spokes of the collective consciousness cross paths in front of me.

One of my concerns in thinking about women, fashion, and society is the issue of body image and self-esteem.  We are our bodies, and our bodies, internally and externally, are so inextricably tied with our individual identity.  At the same time, our bodies are the body politic, and reflect the broader state of the society.  If the body is not healthy, strong, confident, and most importantly loved, there are implications to the individual and the social body.

Please take note of these 2 artists who are loving and honoring women’s bodies, and giving individual women a door to the path to positive body image and self-love.

Read the rest of this entry »

Since this month marks my personal New Year holiday, this post from Vintage Indie was a perfect find.  The rituals of making resolutions, spring cleaning, "shaking the house" are so fitting for this time of year (in the northern hemisphere) when new leaves are turning. 

1. Are you allowing toxic relationships to run your life?
2. Do you surround yourself with people who control your thoughts?
3. Are you hanging on to any bad habits?
4. Do you have a poor attitude?
5. Are you allowing fear to keep you from stepping out?
6. Is discouragement keeping you from your dreams?
7. Are you holding on when you know you should let go?

It’s clearly a good time to freshen up one’s priorities, and recharge one’s badass batteries.  Take stock.  Be gentle but firm.  Look at La Chanel up there, she is telling you to get it together!

{Sadly, this photo is bopping all around the tubes without a credit.  If you have a proper credit, please let me know. Thx.}

If you love clothes, there is one infernally annoying quality to them: they look impeccable when not in motion—but as soon as we have to put on a coat, walk up or down steps, or sit in a chair, or reach up, they move and wrinkle and bunch up. What’s up with that?! 

This has become a pressing issue for me in my latest temp assignment – I’m taking public transportation, and have about a half-mile walk on a wide, heavily trafficked road from the nearest stop to my office.  The wind is blowing, people don’t shovel the sidewalk, I’ve got sand and salt billowing in my face… and I’m trying to look good.  After my last office job, I summarily donated my entire stock of “office wear” (slacks, button-downs, sweaters, knee-highs), and resolved to wear what I want to wear, within the confines of business casual.

Photo by Richard Avedon via Alabama Chanin.

Read the rest of this entry »

I recently watched this film about Quentin Crisp, THE Englishman in New York, and was totally blown away by the steeliness of Mr. Crisp’s balls, so to speak.  This man made no concessions in being himself to the utmost, in spite of threats and physical harm to his body, not to mention his soul.  I found a new hero.

And a new holiday, as December 25 is Quentin Crisp’s birth anniversary.  Starting next year, I will be celebrating Quentin Crisp-mass at the end of December.

The name was familiar, but I knew nothing else about him.  A Naked Civil Servant kept showing up in my recommendations on Netflix for some reason, so I settled in to an easy chair a couple of weeks ago to indulge my love of bad-ass transvestites.  And it was genuinely inspiring.  A straight person at any time in history would have committed suicide or had an irreversible nervous breakdown if they had to struggle on a daily basis to the level he did just to live as he wished.  And he went beyond the call of duty, and lived with resourcefulness, wit and fabulosity for 90 years.

Photo by Joseph Mulligan, via Crisperanto

So, I’ve been musing on this example of self-assuredness and creativity all the while, and recently found a new favorite blog, Soul Shelter.  And this Monday’s post was a riff on John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, a favorite of mine from British Lit.

It is not by wearing down into uniformity all that is individual in themselves, but by cultivating it and calling it forth, within the limits imposed by the rights and interests of others, that human beings become a noble and beautiful object of contemplation; and as the works partake the character of those who do them, by the same process human life also becomes rich, diversified, and animating, furnishing more abundant aliment to high thoughts and elevating feelings, and strengthening the tie which binds every individual to the race, by making the race infinitely better worth belonging to. In proportion to the development of his individuality, each person becomes more valuable to himself, and is therefore capable of being more valuable to others. There is a greater fullness of life about his own existence, and when there is more life in the units there is more in the mass which is composed of them. …

This is the gospel I aspire to spread.

Be true to yourself – make it your very first resolution for the new year, and help others do the same.  And mark your calendars for next year’s Crisp-mass festivities…

Photo by Andrew McPherson, via Crisperanto

More Crisp-ness:

This very thorough, lovely, well-organized archive of all that is Quentin Crisp;

Another tribute site;

The Wikipedia page.