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Actually, before they were called skorts they were called culottes; that's what I called them when I was a kid in the late 70s/early 80s. Not sure why that changed.
Some of that stuff isn't tied to age, IMO- everyone should be tossing the really ugly Laura Ashley dresses, it's not the late 80s anymore. Unless you're 6, then you'll look darling. Several of those pictures were like a walk down memory lane- I had all sorts of those cheap polyester skirts, LOVED 'em.
And I must say re:#3, I had always figured denim jackets were "classic", until I tried on the one I own this season and discovered, gasp, I looked ridiculous. That was a sad discovery. I had felt so cute in it just a few years prior- heck, I had bought the thing at H&M! Disposable fashion for the disposable fashion, I suppose.
I agree with all of these rules. I just went through my clothes looking for things like that. I think most of them were pretty much gone already, but I did have things that were just too tight. I think "trying things on again" should be another rule there, because I had some memories of how I looked in those clothes that did not match up to the reality.
Sorry-I'm keeping my Northern Thai rice farmer's shirt...yes, it's denim, but it's awesome. Deep pockets on the front, comfy, and it's over ten years old and doesn't look worn at all.
And I'm 49!
(Mind you my stylish daughter/mother of the grandbun wants to get me on the show What Not to Wear. I'd do it-but not before hiding my denim shirt!!!!!)
I used to have some of those polyester skirts as well. They are horrid. Equally as horrid are the polyester knit tops that are everywhere. Sometimes I am drawn to them, especially sleeveless ones in a cute print, but I always make myself walk away. I'm not a clothes snob in any shape or form, but they look so cheap and synthetic.
My mom used to have a ton of those "church dresses" back in the eighties. You know, the ones that tied in the back. I wore them on a few occasions myself. We always joke, "what were we thinking!?" but everybody wore them.
I have a cropped denim jacket in my closet. I think this article convinced me to give it to charity. I bought it five years ago and never wore it. I liked the idea of it.
I have a lot of flip-flops, not necessarily a lot of rubber ones. I do have a few pairs of Reefs and Havaianas that I wear to the beach. I wonder if shoes like this count as flip-flops? I wear them all the time. I was about to wear them out pub crawling the other night. I put one high-heeled shoe on and one of the sandals linked above. I thought for sure my husband would vote yes on the flat sandal because they are more practical for walking, but he voted for the high-heel. I forget how casual these shoes are.
I just this summer discovered the joys of flip flops and I LOVE them. They're leather and have an extra couple of straps, though, so they look like sandals.
You can pry my flipflops out of my cold, dead hands. (Although I have matured since college and now have a wonderful pair of flats that I wear all the time instead of the flipflops. Which I did wear ALL THE TIME. Including during a Wyoming winter.)
I guess I'm ahead of the curve because I've always, always always LOATHED flip flops, and would like to permaban them from any professional setting. They are unflattering, uncomfortable (seriously, you want a thong WHERE?!) and tacky. In an open-plan / cubicle style work environment they are also unforgivably noisy.
The current new trend for gladiator sandals is kind of making me wince as well. I mean my dad wore those things as a dirty stoner hippie in 1972, how are they now considered "fashionable" women's shoes?
amro, I'm just sharing my opinion. If you don't like it, that's your problem. I'm just righteously sick of people, in real life and online, who seem to think that making judgements on people based on their haircut or choice in trousers is oh-so-cute.
The ultimate in superficiality is what I come to metachat fashion threads looking for.
OK, I'm confused. Isn't being judged on silly things like clothes and hairstyle what you 'nerds and geeks' hang out at mefi and mecha to get away from? maybe I've got you figured wrong.
Who's judging? I make choices about what I wear and don't wear based on my opinions, same as you. Having a personal style does not equal judging those who do not share your style.
Having a personal style does not equal judging those who do not share your style.
Making snarky comments about people's clothes does equal judgement. Sorry. I don't like Mr. Blackwell type snootiness no matter who it comes from. Wear whatever makes you feel comfortable, and if you're a a cool person I'll find out no matter what. But snotty little 'I can't believe she's wearing that' is a little too People magazine for me, sorry.
TOO LATE I'M ALREADY JUDGING AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Please, pinky. You like to play Brenda Starr, but you gladly hang out with me, a guy who's been wearing the exact same clothes since he was 15. You know better.
s_r: look at it this way, if it weren't for MeCha, maybe you'd have written me off based on my ballcaps and flannels. and if that's true, that lowers my opinion of you.
It's true I'm not a ball cap fan, especially when worn backwards, but I am from the northwest, so flannels are acceptable. You may stay.
Dude, if you lived in the San Francisco Bay Area you'd realize that there is no way to be snippity about dress styles. Though I admit having ALL one's hair in one dirty, lumpy dread that's 4 feet long kind of squicks me out, because I have SEEN earwigs living in them... oh. sorry. what?
i just mentally dress people here in whatever style i so choose. Hugh and dabitch have optional viking horns and Divine Wino an occasional wig in powder white.
Well, Joan is occasionally funny. her mutant daughter on the other hand...
s_r: I don't spend much time in places where stuff like that matters, simply because I find it all tiresome and snippy. and New York is way more full of trendinistas tan SF could ever dream of, but I made a decision when I was very young that I found all that stuff incredibly distasteful and nasty, so I avoid it assidiously.
The Wino's so blonde you really wouldn't notice eth, unless he's wearing his skullie.
as some wise men once said 'we don't follow fashion/who needs it when you got style..'
Also, this list so does not apply for people who didn't dress like normal 20 year olds when they were 20. Is there no rule on what I should do with my misfits shirts, six inch platform boots, and corsets? What of the bustles? Am I too old for bullet bras? (is anyone?)
also, I dislike flip flops and crocks for a very practical reason. As much as I may like someone I don't want the intimate experience of smelling their feet all day. (I think they're buttugly, but I also hate kakhi pants, baseball caps, and most sneakers, so I'm not going to hold anyone else to my aesthetic choices)
It's not a bad list at all. Getting rid of ill fitting and dated things good. If you're going for a look, pull it off, but if you're not, it's easy to just forget what you look like until you make a point to pay attention.
No one wants to be the one to tell the 50 to 75 year old woman that she might want to forgo the low slung spagetti straps.
Well, there you go. Nothing in my wardrobe is out of fashion, because none of it was ever in fashion to begin with. That's the key. the rest is a bunch of rich fashion inductry dipshits trying to make a buck.
I had always figured denim jackets were "classic"
Men seem to be able to wear 'em a couple years longer, but not within 20 miles of a town larger than 50,000.
I loooove flip flops! I even have a fleece pair so I can wear them well into the freezy weather. My piggies long to be free. Anyone who would deny them this is clearly a communist.
Clearly.
jon, think of fashion as simply wearable art. You can be stylish without being a slave to vogue and its ilk. Proportion and aesthetics are fun, and look good.
You don't have to play, but you don't have to poop on it, either.
My mom has a ton of those church dresses. Some of them are the same one she's had since the '80s, it seems, but she's gone up a few sizes since then, so she just keeps replacing the old ones with new ones that look just as bad. She even bought one of that style to wear to my wedding.
I love my mom, but she shouldn't be wearing those dresses. No judgment, just facts.
What's funny about those church dresses is that they're still being manufactured. I'm serious. Take a peek in your local Dress Barn and you'll see what I mean. They have a corner devoted to dresses that appear to not have been redesigned since the late 70s. They have other more modern stuff, too, so it's all very baffling.
Wait, why is it OK to judge people based on their musical choices but not their sartorial choices? Is it because jon is interested in music but not clothes? Man, someone should send me that memo before I ever accidentally show an interest in something jonmc is actively disinterested in!
Anyway, I think I can say, "Gladiator sandals are mostly ugly" and mean something completely different from "Gladiator sandals are ugly and you are a bad, horrible maniac for ever deciding to wear them."
TPS - I work with a woman - a beautiful, lovely, interesting twenty-something, who nevertheless wears church dresses almost every day.
I get the appeal, I do. They're very comfortable. "Comfortable". That's always the word people using on "What Not to Wear" when Stacey and Clinton are cleaning out their closet and wondering at the atrocious things they find. "But it's cooooomfortable!"
I love flip flops [Reef]. The sole is soft and squishy, as close to sand as I dare, heaven. It's summer, hot as hell. Damn it feels good./ What jrossi4R stated, don't confine me in the summertime nor autumn... nor on a wooden floor./ Barefootin'./
However, it all depends on the occasion. Some have forgotten what consists of an occasion.
but not for
Work¿ I don't think so, sensible apparel and footware, please, we aren't on the beach nor strolling.
What next, sweats to all meetings./ Know what I'm saying¿
We don't want to know what you're wearing putzing around your back 40...
If you're going out, make it an occasion and look sharp, dress sharply. I don't want to see you in your tatty housecoat and pipe at an event. Lordy./
I do have an embroidered brown courduroy jacket from my yutes, but it isn't a jacket anymore, it's a piece of art which I'm framing. I embroidered the centre back myself — a Northern Ontario landscape, water, pine trees [I was influenced by Tom Thompson ] along with two other women. One added a large elaborate butterfly on the LHS and a rabbit running away on the RHS...The second woman added across the shoulder, a field of green crops, a lake, a yellow path between two buildings on either side, a tree laden with apples and a sun rising.
I wouldn't wear it, it's too precious.
Thanks for the reminder./
I'd question my Mom about her dress, but she's always impeccably dressed to suit the occasion.
And I love my cheap polyester skirts and they look fabulous and edgy on me. Yes. Yes, they do. Besides, they stay dry in the rain and never get really dirty or wrinkle and they carry with them the faint ghosts of dinosaurs long gone.
I wear cheap cotton T-shirts instead of cheap polyester. I do have a cheap polyester wrap dress that I always turn to. It's flattering, or at least I tell myself this. I probably would go to the polyester again if I had to look presentable everyday for a job. I have to say goodbye to the church dresses forever. (Although I thought the blue one on the blog was kind of pretty.) Right now I wear chinos with white sneakers and a polo shirt to work. I have never been edgy.
I still to a large extent wear the same style of clothes I wore as a teenager - jeans and t-shirts. I'm trying to dress 'more grown-up' but usually default to my uniform of choice.
I once used to appear in front of a judge who wore the most hideous church dresses - 1970s Laura Ashley-style horrors, the kind with ruffles and ric-rac braid, almost like the kind of thing you see Mennonite women wearing. This was in family court, so the judges didn't wear robes. This woman always looked terribly old-fashioned and frumpy, and I remember one day she walked past me as I was talking to Beryl, one of the court ushers, who was always dressed very stylishly. Beryl watched her walk by and then said to me out of the corner of her mouth "She'll die wondering."
I love Schipperkes. Anyone else rembember the movie Easter Parade? Ann Miller's character has dogs to go with her outfits. A Schipperke goes with Most Anything Winter.
Gyah. It's like that article was written just for me. I had to get an entirely new wardrobe for my new job in real estate because I realized that my former DumbCo "uniform" of jeans and whatever ironic T-shirt or anime convention shirt was not going to cut it. So I took most of my T-shirts and stuffed them in a Space Bag where they will sit in my closet until I find enough time to make a quilt out of them.
And yes, I just turned 30 and yes, I'm at a new place in my career, and yes, I'm getting too old to wear club clothes convincingly.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
