OMG CLOTHES!

[sorcyress]

I went thrift-storing today!

I didn't get all that much --a really nice vest though, that I think will match my light striped steampunk pants quite well. It occurred to me as I was looking through things that there is a principle of fashion that I've never really cemented in my head before now.

Namely, if everything in your wardrobe matches everything else, you're set for life.

Figuring this out (which I'm honestly sure I'd known before, but this was the first time I really "got" it) is probably one of those painfully obvious things that everyone else knows, but it's nice to have it as an actual rule. And it's not like I wasn't aware of it, at least on a subconscious level --if you look at my steampunk stuff, you'll find that it's all earth tones --brown and khaki and army green, mostly, with a couple Soviet-red or rust-red pieces thrown in. My garb follows similar patterns --three green corsets, one red, two black¹.

Now, extending this idea, I can start to create patterns for certain looks. For instance, thus far my Regency/gentleman's formalwear has a lot of blue in it. Dark blue tailcoat², which means I wear it with dark blue hose and a navy blue vest³. While I don't have blue ribbons for my hair, or blue laces for my shoes, they're on the list --as is a blue feather to put in my tricorn⁴.

The only other costuming I've got where I'm trying to accumulate considerable amounts of pieces for --not just one outfit's worth, but maybe someday enough to wear something different to every event in that genre-- is my pirate stuff I suppose, which is all black and red. Or, if I'm dipping into the steampunk stuff and garb, green and brown. I'm okay with that.

But that does lead itself to a conclusion, namely, should I keep doing this when I find other genres worth costuming for. Among other things, Jane Austen's Fight Club may actually be enough to make me interested in procuring some amount of Regency ladieswear sometime. Now, I could go with pale blue, which would be partly to properly cosplay Fanny from JAFC but mostly to see if it can go properly with my gentleman's wear. But there's a certain amount to which I consider Regency era clothes to be partly the province of my denizens --my tailcoat is almost perfectly Gabriel's shade of blue, which means that the feminine Regency garments should be shaded in Alis's particular red.

(of course, that leads itself too easily to pastel pink, and while I'm very secure in both my masculinity and my femininity, I just don't particularly care for pink, especially light shades, and especially *anything* which could be called "dusty rose".

Unless we're talking this Caddy, at which point I am completely secure enough in both my masculinity and my femininity to say I WANT. I have no idea where I'd put it, and I suspect that a car, like virtually everything else I own, should be built to withstand an awful lot of dirt and damage, but it's so pretty.)

So yes. I suppose if I was really good at this, I'd go and figure out what colour(s) I look good in, as opposed to just picking my wardrobe based on the cute cheap things at the thrift store that fall into the categories of "colours I like"⁵. For the meantime though, I'm enjoying the fact that, even though I'm not actively looking for anything at the thrift stores I visit⁶, I now have categories of things that should catch my eye more than others.

Or I can continue to just find every vest in the store and curse the fates for making me too small for any of them.

~Sor
MOOP!

1: I have three garb corsets, all reversible.
2: This is practically my favourite thing I own, I *swear*.
3: Okay, sometimes I wear it with a salmon pink vest. Since I have a salmon pink vest that's exactly the same as my navy blue vest except for colour. I love both of them more than is reasonable. I almost obsessively love vests, shh, don't tell anyone.
4: If I'm going to be not period, I want to be not period in *style*.
5: For instance, I could look *gorgeous* in deep dark purple. But I hardly ever wear it, which is disappointing, really, as it's a great colour. I should find out somehow! Also, I'm pretty sure I don't actually look all that great in straight up goth girl black, which is why I've been trying to add colour to my Rocky wardrobe.
6: In terms of both cosplay and just generic stuff. I finished my Daria outfit last spring, and it's totally throwing me for a loop --I don't know what to look for anymore.

Comments

[macaroniandtuna.livejournal.com]

Dark blue tailcoat, which means I wear it with dark blue hose and a navy blue vest. While I don't have blue ribbons for my hair, or blue laces for my shoes, they're on the list --as is a blue feather to put in my tricorn.

Visualizing it in my head, that sounds like way too much dark blue for one outfit. My head could be wrong though. A bit of pale blue like you said would fit nicely though.

Caddy should be capitalized, it being a shortening of Cadillac. I totally thought you meant a pink golf caddy (although Google says that's spelled caddie) or something before I clicked the link. My favorite part is the skeleton driving. Lol.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

It's a little dark since my breeches are black --if I ever get around to white breeches, unless white hose is a must, it may look better. And may not. It's a little hard to figure out how to wear a coloured tailcoat, even though I'm told they're totally 1810s period.

Pale blue would be for girlclothes, and not for that particular outfit at all. I don't know that I'd look good in pastel blue at all, but it's a temptation, just for the cosplay.

Ah, thank you and fixing now.

The skeleton is _so great_. I love it so much.

~Sor

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

I've known that principle for years. Everything in my wardrobe matches, and it makes getting dressed so easy.

WARNING: This post contains definitions of 'matches' known to the State of California to cause temporary blindness and partial paralysis.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

:P

My day-to-day wardrobe perfectly matches, mostly because all my jeans match all my t-shirts. It's brilliant! And overshirts all match the jeans and t-shirts too!

"burn your retinas bright" has been my favourite qualifier for colours for a very long time.

~Sor

[kirby1024.livejournal.com]

Indeed. This may, by the way, be why pretty much my entire wardrobe is blues and blacks.

[miriampenguin.livejournal.com]

That's what, a 1960? It looks pretty close to a '59, but it doesn't appear to have the double-tail lights, so I'd guess a '60, maybe a '61.

... the 1959 Cadillac was my mom's favorite car. She had a collection of models of them on the mantel of our fireplace, which my dad and I would often add to on her birthday. There was even one on her business card.

I... yeah. I'm actually surprised that this is the first time I've come across one since she passed (about 2.5 years ago).

[miriampenguin.livejournal.com]

Also, I think my mom would agree with you, with respect to the color pink, and Cadillacs.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

I don't know offhand --I was never good at telling years or anything. I'm just proud I could recognize it as a Cadillac in the first place.

That's sweet about the cars. My mom has a tiny red either Caddy or Mustang that lives in her desk and has forever --since it was her dad's desk at least.

~Sor

[miriampenguin.livejournal.com]

Other than a few specific cars, I'm not that good at telling years either, despite my parents collecting old American cars (1940-1960) since before I was born (not in restored condition, though). Offhand, the ones I can recognize are the '59 Cadillac and the '47 Cadillac (her 2nd favorite), and sometimes the slight variations in the years around the two cars.

[werewulf.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

You philistine! It's a red M.G. convertible just like the one my dad used to drive when we lived in Florida.

[mrs-pansy.livejournal.com]

*thud*

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

That's about what I do with vests. I do occasionally find one that I'm not too narrow for... and then it usually turns out that I'm too tall for it.

That's also what I tend to do with my wardrobe in general. Of course, in my case that's largely accomplished by a large quantity of black. You do look good in black, though; it's probably just that you don't do it often enough to be used to it. And, of course, wearing all black is much more challenging than wearing partial black, since the blacks have to match, or be different enough in texture that it's ok, which is why I have about 20 black shirts and still sometimes have trouble finding one to go with a pair of black trousers. But since black goes with everything else, as long as I don't need to be wearing all black, it's usually pretty easy to put things together.

Good purple is hard to find. It's not that common a colour, and not every shade of it is as good as any other, at least if you're like me and very particular about your purples.

I'm with you on not caring for pink, too, though I really just can't wear reds at all, except for very dark ones.

And my thrift store find yesterday was a trenchcoat! Lovely dark grey, in excellent condition, and looks like it is probably actually waterproof, unlike my old trenchcoat (which will shortly be heading back to the thrift store to make room).

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Ohmygod, you and I *have* to go to one of the stores we went to to-day. It was the single largest collection of secondhand men's clothing I have ever seen in my entire life. We're talking a space the size of...hm...first floor of the garment district, and all men's stuff AND it's literally around the corner from another brilliant store.

You know, on a hypothetical where we're both in Chicago or something, which, considering I don't honestly expect to spend too much time up here is unlikely, but wevs.

Atanyrate.

Vests are so awesome. I love every single one I have, at least in part because they more or less actually really truly fit me.

I'm glad I look good in black or at least partial. I agree on the all black being harder than one black --again, definitely trying to add colour to my gothing out. You look good in black too, although it probably helps the vampire thing.

Oh sure, there are less and more good purples. But I run into very nice deep ones every second or third thrift store trip, usually in shirts that I otherwise can't justify. I have made it a point to own a dark purple silk shirt for several years now though --they pair beautifully with my grey flannel.

I feel you do or ought to look good in army red, or at least spots of it. Boy scout sock red? Does that make sense to you? Fah.

Yay trenchcoats! Almost bought an army jacket today, but it was 40 bucks, and for too big, I couldn't justify it.

(Now, a blue Eisenhower jacket that fit almost perfectly, and was only two dollars? So mine. Instantly.)

~Sor

[harena.livejournal.com]

i cheat by having everything in my wardrobe be a tshirt, green, blue, purple, white or black and Not Caring if any given combination goes together or not! ;D

*was wearing purple batik tank dress w/fabric front pockets with butterfly cap the other day*

Also, i totally plan on dragging you to the Vintage Thrift Shop in Chapel Hill when you finally get here for a visit!

[dhs.livejournal.com]

For a cool enough vest, you could buy one too large and tailor it down. Going the other way isn't so likely to work.

Oh, and I'm amused at the Caddy's driver.

[herbertinc.livejournal.com]

Lately, I've recently been getting around the necessity of matching by basically only buying dresses. I like the near-instant-outfit quality of them - add shoes and a hat, and you're done!

I've also gotten into kilt skirts for winter (I must have a half dozen of them), since they all go with several different colors and are warm.

I wish I had more things to wear my vests with. And more vests for that matter. Other item my wardrobe needs more of: hats (I have less than a dozen that I wear on a regular basis, and only two nice ones for summer (though also two more that I wear just for practicality). I should get rid of the couple that I don't wear often, for that matter), gloves, stockings (bonus for silk and wool or thigh-highs), earrings, hairsticks, scarves, and garter belts (well, just one really good garter belt). Notice a trend? (Accessories, if you didn't.)

Since I've been dating tirerim, I've definitely picked up wearing more black than I used to. Also less pink, which I am quite fond of and look good in, though not very pale shades. Also picked up knowing better how things fit.

I also now avoid buying dresses or skirts I can't dance in. And I've basically grown out of my jeans phase (which lasted from late freshman to early senior year - when I was too ill to care much about my appearance), though I still wear them more often than I did in middle/high school. Though I rarely buy new pants these days in general, focusing more on dresses and skirts.

If I had to pick a set of colors for the rest of my life, it would be jewel tones (particularly purple, burgundy red, green, and brown. Teal is optional and blue I could go either way on) with black and gray.

I am very tired. Hence the babbling. We should talk, as we haven't in a while.

[herbertinc.livejournal.com]

I also own very little garb. I'm not sure if this should change or not.