MOOP!

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.