Wearable Maps

I like maps in general. And they could easily have their own blog post on here. However, as we all know (do we?), I like to be hyper-specific. So I'm narrowing down my interest to wearable maps. Granted, I do not actually own at at present, but I always intent to buy them! Who knows why certain things fall by the wayside.


Maybe I like wearing maps because it sort of says to people, "Hey, I like going places!" or in the case of this picture pictures, "Hey, I come from Ixonia/Wisconsin!" Either way, I like wearing things like tee-shirts, and necklaces or pendants, and scarfs that tell people something about me. 


Don't ask me why I care, I supposedly just do.

Edwardian Lawn Dresses

"I consider lace to be one of the prettiest imitations ever made of the fantasy of nature; lace always evokes for me those incomparable designs which the branches and leaves of trees embroider across the sky, and I do not think that any invention of the human spirit could have a more graceful or precise origin." --Coco Chanel, April 29, 1939


I have been obsessed with these dressed for a long time now. They epitomize femininity. There really is nothing so delicate and serene as Edwardian lawn (or tea) dresses. And I love that they're called that! The name completes the picture. I want to be walking across a green summer lawn to a shaded table sweetly laid with tea and scones, and a gaggle of dear friends while our men (equally in white) play tennis nearby. I would have a name like Lucy Honeychurch or Anne Shirley and we'd whisper together about risqué topics while our prudish mothers looked on from the wrap-around porch.

Abstract Print Clothing

Okay, I know that this look is getting a bit old, (by fashion industry standards) but I am still in love! If I remember correctly abstract prints first started hitting mall stores in early 2010. Or at least that is when I started noticing them. For the longest time I hated contemporary art. HATED IT! But for some reason art museums have really grown on me, and while I'll always love classic portraits and landscapes, I finally opened myself up to abstract works (especially watercolors!). Richard Diebenkorn, Pol Ledent, and Mark Rothko are a few favorites--and I would gleefully wear their art on a silky dress. To have a color print option that is not floral is what I love most. Abstract prints are fun, cosmopolitan, and there's usually so many colors in them that they will match almost anything. Florals kind of make me feel like a little girl or a home-school mom*.

*I feel really guilty for hating** on that seamstress.
**Did I just use "hate" as a verb? Ugh.

Tights

See how much fun she's having in tights!?

I lived in tights and dresses when I was a little girl--and it was awesome! When everyone else at school was wearing their matching neon nylon tracksuits my mom had me in fabulously feminine hand-smocked dresses. And tights of course. But then I hit puberty and started wearing jeans and inside-out sweatshirts (it was the thing, okay). Puberty eventually made way for a dress/skirt revival in high school but by then I was awkward and (I’ll just come out and say it) huge. My experience with tights, or rather nylons, at this point was pretty negative. When there was some fancy church thing to go to I would steal a pair from my mom and hers were, frankly, awful. They were those basic Hanes control top nylons that would run at the drop of a hat (if you dropped that hat on them). And between then and about September 2010, I thought I would forever hate all hosiery. But guys, here’s the thing--I discovered that tights can actually rock IF you buy a larger size (screw the size chart on the back of the packages), nix the control top nonsense, and go with microfiber over nylon.  Like these. For the last seven months or so I have worn tights almost every day. They’re so comfy! And opaque colors make my pasty legs look slimmer and longer. And I feel super feminine again—especially now that I’m confident enough to wear mini dresses (the high school dress/skirt revival consisted of ankle length monstrosities). I can thank Lena and her Eurovision “Satellite” video for that. She reminded me of those teenage girls in the mid-nineties that I envied so much. And I’d also like to thank Sienna Miller, because (if memory serves) she was the one who brought opaque tights back in style after playing Edie Sedgwick in “Factory Girl”.