160. feel-good fashion, or, fashion is superficial pt. II
August 26th, 2009 § 11 Comments
I debated over whether or not to put this picture up because we both look so silly! I’m a big grey blur, and Chris is making a weird face. But anyway.
On Monday, Chris and I did some community service at the Sacred Heart Community Service Center in San Jose. (Wait — this is fashion-related.) The SHCSC is a clean, bright facility designed to help people in need with a variety of services, including job-seeking (teaching people how to use email, or how to create a cover letter, for example), providing food from the Food Pantry (which has food donated from places like Trader Joe’s, etc.), and, last of all, the Clothes Closet.
The Clothes Closet, upon entry, looks like any neighborhood thrift store, even though it’s not. For one, people get clothes for free — five pieces of clothing per family member, plus two bras, two belts, etc. But the emphasis is really on making customers (we were told from the very beginning that the shoppers were never to be seen as “clients”) feel as though they were having a regular retail experience. All of the hangers had to hang in the same way. Everything was organized. The standard of quality for clothing was much higher than I’ve seen in some Goodwills, SAs, or even vintage stores, with no rips, stains, smells, or otherwise undesirable characteristics allowed. Some volunteers even acted as “personal shoppers” — looking for a pair of size 34 men’s pants, for example, or helping a woman find nice church clothes.
Chris has a story that he really wanted to tell on here; I feel a little silly telling it for him, but he’s reluctant about guest-blogging for some reason (hint hint, Chris!). He was working in the back with me, sorting through clothes, when a woman approached him about finding size 8 shoes.
“Did you look in the women’s shoe section?” he asked.
“Well, yeah,” she said, “but I didn’t like any of them.”
For a second, Chris had a thought that I think a lot of other people would have had, which was, What do you mean, you didn’t like any of them? You’re getting free shoes! But then he realized that she deserved to wear shoes that a.) fit her and b.) that she liked. So he came to the back with me and we sorted through a bunch of women’s shoes, most of them unmarked. I ended up trying on a lot of them to see if they fit, because I wear a size eight, and finally, we came up with a nice pair of black wedges, which he brought out to her — and she really liked them.
On a similar note, I saw the most gorgeous beaded vintage dress in the back. I assessed it as probably being worth about $100-200 in an upscale vintage store, or one of the pricier vendors on Etsy. In short, I really wanted it — but it also made me really happy to think of someone who wouldn’t ordinarily be able to afford a very expensive vintage dress getting it for free. Because I admit that fashion is superficial sometimes, but it also has the amazing ability to make people feel good about themselves and the way they look.
I’m back in Ann Arbor now, and my apartment is filthy. I hadn’t realized it was so gross before I left (was I just living in squalor without realizing it?), and now I’m going to spend the entire day trying to make it nice. In an attempt to get my neurotic self to actually sleep in a bed and not on the too-small loveseat, I moved (at 3:40 AM) the bed from my bedroom to the living room, which leaves the bedroom completely empty. I think I’m going to make it into a photography studio?
159. all these things that i’ve done
August 22nd, 2009 § 3 Comments
I received an email from the Associate Director of my school’s writing program this morning; he’d looked over my College Writing syllabus and made some useful comments. But it just goes to show that, with my flight booked for Tuesday and plans to be picked up in Detroit later that night, my summer’s coming to a close. Here are some things that I did since finishing my first year:
- I wrote, as of this moment, over 12,000 words of my novel. It would have been much more than that, had I not decided to trash the entire beginning, but I think that the manuscript is the better for it. In my meantime, people in my circle of friends got agents, jobs as editors, and published in major journals, which caused me to worry a little bit — until I had an insomniac talk with a good poet friend of mine who said some very encouraging things about taking one’s time. Which I am. And I think I’m doing a good job.
- I went to Taiwan for three-and-a-half weeks. (The above photographs were taken in an enormous field of sunflowers adjacent to a mango festival.) I thought a lot about diet and body image. I bought a lot of cheap clothing from street stalls.
- I attended two weddings. I also got married, myself, which was as perfect as I could have hoped for, and I can say that I’m a “happily married woman” with a completely straight face!
- I started learning Latin.
- I went camping with friends for nearly a week, crossed half the country by car with Anna, and had a pseudo-honeymoon while researching my novel in the wilds of Northeastern California.
- I watched There Will Be Blood three times in the span of four days, and I finally watched O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which Chris has been trying to get me to watch pretty much since the first day we started dating.
- I realized that there was a gap in the literature about living well with bipolar disorder and started work on a photoessay book, which I’m trying to fund the equipment for via Kickstarter.
What are some important things that you did this summer?
157. robert frank
August 21st, 2009 § 1 Comment
Note: All images in this post are from the book Hold Still, Keep Going, by Robert Frank, and scanned by me.
Out of all of the photographers that I could have been interested in when I was in high school and college, I was most frequently drawn to Cindy Sherman and Francesca Woodman, who, with their self-portraits and cinematic style, appealed to the girl in me who wanted to take lots of artsy pictures of herself in costume. (One could say that I still take pictures of myself in costume, but no one could say that they’re artsy!) Anyway, the exception to the rule was Robert Frank (b. 1924). Something in his black-and-white photographs, which were in their own way as cinematic as Sherman’s or Woodman’s, really appealed to me — and Hold Still, Keep Going is a representation of his tendency to add words to that atmosphere of wonder.
P.S. As you may or may not have noticed, FFW now has a Twitter! See the widget at right for the most recent updates, or follow me on your account (I’m “fashforwriters“).
156. heartbreaking work of staggering embroidery
August 20th, 2009 § 8 Comments
This absolutely kills me. (Made by Bird & Bear, to be found here.)
From her creator’s note: Joetta Maue’s work has been exhibited throughout the country and featured on a number of blogs and online journals. Currently you can see Joetta’s work at the exhibitions Historic Interpretations at Peabody Historical Society Museum in Salem, Ma., the Masur Museum in Monroe, LA., & at ReSurrect at Mesa Contemporary Art Center, in Mesa, Arizona. Upcoming shows include a solo installation at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio in NY, NY and work in an exhibition at Gallery LELE in Tokyo, Japan.
I only wonder where one could put something like this. It reminds me when I gave a mix tape to a not particularly nice ex-boyfriend, and labeled it, “Please, be kind.”
155. kickstarter project
August 20th, 2009 § 3 Comments
And now for something a little more serious.
I’ve been working all day on setting up for this Kickstarter project (with help and thanks to Lindsey Markel of the AMAZING zine/podcast You Are Among Friends), and I hope that you, dear readers, will find it in your hearts to help me out with this major, extraordinary, emotionally trying, inspirational and (hopefully) beautiful project. Please look at the link (see here or widget at right). Please share it with your friends, if you find it worthy.
And yes, I do recognize that this project, which has been a long time coming, coincides with the loss/theft of my camera, which I’m convinced was stolen in a Burger King. The project-camera will be used for the project as well as all things that the camera was usually used for, including for this very blog.
Thanks for any help you may be able to give. I really appreciate it.
Love,
mw
