Poor Western Men

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Poor “western” men.  Their fashion used to be visually stimulating, but the arrival of the business suit in the last hundred plus years has greatly reduced the range of color, pattern and fabrics in their closets. Conventional menswear in western European and offshoot cultures is now very circumscribed. 

"Classic" men's suit by Burberry

No wonder the printed T-shirt has blazed such a wide swath.  It allows men to say something with color and graphic design.  I recently came across Indian designer Shravan Kummar Ramaswamy. What a fabulous array of sexy colorful menswear options!

Shravan Kummar is a big booster of India’s traditional weaving, natural fabrics and fine handwork, and he designs wonderful things to celebrate that tradition of craftsmanship. Many other runway designers of all backgrounds regularly show fashions that are well outside the box of conventional Western European menswear, but it seems to be only slowly expanding the edge of that box for many wearers.  The difference in the range of color and styles in a typical Target men’s department and its women’s department is remarkable.

In the United States, many African American male trendsetters have used color and pattern boldly.

Pharrell Williams 2015 CFDA Fashion Icon

And President Barack Obama skillfully introduced purple into the narrow red, white, blue and gray palette of the Washington, DC political establishment.

Likewise, thanks are due to so many members of the gay community for breaking down sartorial boundaries with joy and panache.

Pastor Rick Eisenlord who calls himself the “Gay Pastor of the San Gabriel Valle"

Hopefully as America continues to grow into its character as a diverse, global culture, more men will feel free to wear color and pattern more freely.  Certainly, climate change favors the adoption of the guayabera as work wear over the traditional Western suit jacket.  






That said, I love what Shravan Kummar  has done with the western jacket for wedding wear:

Speaking of wedding wear, what’s with the Western obsession with white for brides?  Doesn’t the Chinese red make much more sense?! Ciao, bellas/bellos.

From a monograph on the Chinese Wedding Dress on the Top China Travel website

Holly Bass on Vintage

I had the good fortune to have lunch with Holly Bass at Mark's Kitchen recently to ask her about  vintage dressing in DC.  For those of you who do not know Holly, she was voted “Best Performance Artist” in 2012 by the Washington City Paper.  She is also the founder of The Seersucker Social, which happens every year in June at the Hillwood Mansion.  In addition, she's a dancer, a poet and a journalist, and a very warm, thoughtful and humorous person with a great sense of style.  So  who better to talk about vintage with?

Katy: I noticed in the transfixing video you did with Gregory Porter for his song "Be Good"  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HvpIgHBSdo)  that you wore a lovely vintage outfit.  Why did you choose that look? 

Holly: I wanted it to be classic and timeless and not specific to 2012.  Also the skirt needed to flow.  It needed twirlability.  I also find it easier to find what I'm looking for at thrift stores and on E-bay, so it's largely for lack of time.

K: How did the Tweed Ride and Seersucker Social start? 

H: Eric Brewer organized the first Tweed Ride in 2009 after hearing about a similar event in London, and I think it created a fashion shift here.  It reminded me how pleasurable it is to walk around looking put-together or wearing a hat.  It harks back to another era with different rules of etiquette.  I had an older gentleman hail me a cab once when I was wearing a vintage outfit.

The Tweed Ride was such a success that it seemed a shame to have to wait a whole year for another one, so I said, "How about seersucker in summer?"  Eric was thinking the same thing so the Seersucker Social was born.  Hillwood Mansion seemed like the perfect site, and they were very welcoming of the event.  That first year, we put the whole thing together in three weeks.  Now we start 6 months in advance.

K: I have been struck that the people who come seem relaxed,  joyful and improvisational in their dressing.  It isn't stuffy at all to my thinking.

H:  There is a similar event on Governor's Island in New York where they are more precise and historically accurate, but I think we have higher attendance numbers.

K:  Where do you like to shop for vintage clothing?

H:  There are lots of great vintage stores in town.  I love the sale they have at Polly Sue's where you get to fill up a paper bag.  Sometimes I go to pop-up shops like those put together by Butler + Claypool.  I liked the store Annie Creamcheese, but it's closed.

K: And on-line?

H:  I enjoy the blog, The President Wears Prada, and I like Modcloth.  I also like to browse on E-bay for certain timeless designers like Calvin Klein, Diane Von Furstenberg and Givenchy.

K: Do you make your costumes for your performance pieces?  Tell me a bit about your process.

 H: Well, I tend to have an idea of what I want.  First I go to my costume box and work with what I have.  I have four under-the-bed storage boxes full of stuff.  Then I look on-line and in thrift stores for other things I need.  For the Money Maker piece at the Corcoran I wanted a 70's polyester pantsuit.  I worked with artist Sarada Conaway to bedazzle the belt and get that James Brown look.  And I added the gold booty balls. 

 

For the recent piece, "Girls in White Dresses"  I used curtain panels, a slip and a dress that I had.  I worked with Lisa Markuson on that costume.

K: Tell me about the super-high platforms you wore in that:

H: A friend gave me the shoes and I looked on-line for how to make platforms.  You use foam core insulation because it's hard and light.  I cut it to the shape I wanted with a steak knife and sanded it.  There was duck tape involved too.

K:  What's up next for you?  I see on your website that you're hosting  the Wednesday Open Mic Night February 6 at the 5th & K Busboys and Poets.  And I know you're working on a video of a performance piece called  "Race: Talc and Ash"....

H: I'll be doing a new work at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art on Saturday March 9th, in honor of International Women's Day. That show is free to the public. And I'll be presenting Keepin It Moving at the Reston CenterStage on April 13th.

K:  Well, I love what you do and can't wait to see what you have in store for us in 2013.

Have to Kvetch about Beloved Google

I am very unhappy to see Google changing its culture and INCONVENIENCING ME.  They are making it more and more difficult for me to share my blogposts directly to facebook.  Instead "sharing" gives me all sorts of "opportunities" to share on Google + with my Google circles.  I don't want to create a parallel facebook world.  For them to make a profit off of.  I like facebook and the current level of complexity in my life.  Cut it out google!  There.  I told them.

Hello? Are there campaigns about this?  Can I join?  Can I jam up their phones or something delightfully retro like that?  Occupy google!  Turn back the tide!

Reuse AND Recyle

Just a quick post:  I like REUSEIT.com.  Not only do they have lots of handy products like purse-size shopping bags, reusable lunch sacks and the like, but many of the products are made from recycled plastic.  And the prices are good.  And they have a simple website and speedy service.  S'all good.  I buy a couple of their lunch bags every school year.  These are only $6.97 each now on sale:

It is really much earlier than I want to be thinking about back to school, but I thought you should know about their summer sale.  See coupon code below.



That's all.  Stay cool!

Bill Cunningham of Beijing

I'm in Beijing.  I have seen a lot of wonderful clothes.  From the Chinese designers in the Beijing editions of Vogue and Harpers to the stunning silk updates of classic Chinese silhouettes in the 798 art district.  Today I had lunch with two very sophisticated international women who were wearing gorgeous outfits.  Here's Xu Ting in Etro  (http://www.etro.com/ )

and Miao Lu in a lovely crimped silk dress. 

I am particularly taken by the street fashion, however.  Bless the Chinese;  they started the ball rolling by randomly asking my husband to pose for photos with them in front of the Forbidden City.  This let me know that anyone who caught my fancy was fair game as well.  I could thoroughly enjoy a life as the Bill Cunningham of Beijing.  (If you have not seen the documentary about this NYTimes street fashion photographer, I highly recommend it.  http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/billcunninghamnewyork/)  The clothing in this free-wheeling Asian capital is far more whimsical and daring than in DC.  Start with the parasol, for example.  I think it takes some feminine chutzpah to carry a parasol.  And women here carry them ruffled, spangled and otherwise thoroughly embellished.  This modern day Jackie O carried an understated one especially well.

This outfit may have been my favorite, but it's hard to choose.  Please feel free to weigh in.

The orange ruched blouse, fluffy leopard skirt, blue tights and mustard shoes seemed an inspired combo.

As did this one on the right with the pink cropped top over striped dress over jeans shorts with tights and turquoise platforms.  She must get her love of clothing from her Mom.  I'll bet that Mao jacket never quite suited her.

This woman, from one of the southern minorities, was wearing a lovely and modest green dress with a raw silk striped apron. Really one can hardly notice the clothes for her smile.

The young woman in the pink capri suit with the touristy hat was utterly adorable.



and speaking of cute.

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The prize for the best-dressed man goes to this gentleman from a foreign delegation.  I was unable to ask where he was from, as speaking Chinese entirely pushed the French out of my head.  If you can tell from the fabric, please help.


When I was teaching in China in the 80's one of my students, after seeing my slides of DC, asked, "Why are all the buildings white?"  Surely we do not have quite the Chinese love of bold color and pattern mixing.  I must say I have been influenced by the Chinese, though.  Below is the upcycled peacock cheong sam/qi pao I made for an Oscar party:

But I was also influenced by the Icelandic/Macedonian singer/designer team of Bjork and
Marjan Pejoski:

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world no?  Katy Kincade signing off from Beijing.