Tuesday 20 March 2012
Monday 19 March 2012
Suiting Up
It's been ages again. But hopefully I will keep this up, I've got uni work again so it's good to have a procrasti-blog.
So atm I'm all about the whole female/feminist fashion. To nutshell what I'm looking at, I would describe it as looking into whether it is possible to dress as a woman, look beautiful and also look fearsome. But that's another kettle of fish, today I'm just going to talk about what it's like dressing in men's clothing. I.e a shirt and tie, not only to dress in it but to wear it into town. I've done it twice now, and the reaction was similar but it's amazing that there was a difference between wearing a blazer and not.
My outfit consisted of tight black pants with pleather sides, heels, white shirt and deep red polka dot tie. First night out also featured a tailored women's suit jacket.
First night I wore this out I wore it to a 21st and then into town. Women didn't say a word to me about it all night, men couldn't HELP but say things. They ranged from "wow, nice tie!" to "you look beautiful" via "look here comes the lesbian!". Suits it seems, tend to polarise public opinion. The second time was less eventful due to the lack of suit and the lack of intoxication. But ultimately men do not hit on/dance with chicks in suits. Not that men hit on me anyways so maybe I was just more conscious of the lack of attention. The other night when I was walking home a man yelled "why are you wearing a suit?" and I yelled "because I want to!" to which he replied "well, it looks really good!"
This highly scientific social experiment leads me to draw the following conclusions:
- Men either like how I dress and are intimidated OR men think I'm a dyke.
Neither of these bother me particularly. I've doing a lot of reading about this lately. About what is male and what is female and why. I've a very long and tedious topic. When I say to people I'm doing feminist fashion, they all think that I'm putting women in suits and telling them to act like men but in the words of Vivienne Westwood "I've never thought it powerful to be like a second-rate man." Why are things demeaning because they are thought of as feminine? We are too easily suckered in by this, particularly as these fashion items only exist because we, as women, are the consumers who demand it.
Apparently, the stiletto heel was invented as a celebration of femininity as the heel itself is supposed to reflect the female form. In its more extreme form (by the 1960s or so) it was used as a symbolic way of showing a dissatisfaction with the conventional female image. It was also used as a right of passage, and it still is, when a girl gets her first pair of heels it is one of the steps towards womanhood. In my opinion, it is our differences as sexes that denotes power. I'm proud of my body, jiggly as it is, and I feel that power comes from a comfort with who you are. Even when in a suit, I'm not dressing AS a man, I wear full make up, my pants are skin tight and my shirts fitted, I am very clearly a woman. I feel powerful when I wear tailored dresses, when I know I look like a woman.
A male friend came up to me the other day to tell me he had seen me the previous day in a below the knee, cord, black/green floral dress. He wanted to let me know that he thought I looked "awesome, like not in a I wanna bang the living day lights out of you kinda hot, but like the woah! that chick looks classy and beautiful kinda hot" I was pretty stoked, I'm not going to lie.
So once again, I've blathered about and rambled on about my thoughts. But I though this example is a good example of the fact that respect comes from celebrating your femininity but lets face it, it also comes from not looking like a cheap slut. Now that kinda dressing is an issue for another day.
So atm I'm all about the whole female/feminist fashion. To nutshell what I'm looking at, I would describe it as looking into whether it is possible to dress as a woman, look beautiful and also look fearsome. But that's another kettle of fish, today I'm just going to talk about what it's like dressing in men's clothing. I.e a shirt and tie, not only to dress in it but to wear it into town. I've done it twice now, and the reaction was similar but it's amazing that there was a difference between wearing a blazer and not.
My outfit consisted of tight black pants with pleather sides, heels, white shirt and deep red polka dot tie. First night out also featured a tailored women's suit jacket.
First night I wore this out I wore it to a 21st and then into town. Women didn't say a word to me about it all night, men couldn't HELP but say things. They ranged from "wow, nice tie!" to "you look beautiful" via "look here comes the lesbian!". Suits it seems, tend to polarise public opinion. The second time was less eventful due to the lack of suit and the lack of intoxication. But ultimately men do not hit on/dance with chicks in suits. Not that men hit on me anyways so maybe I was just more conscious of the lack of attention. The other night when I was walking home a man yelled "why are you wearing a suit?" and I yelled "because I want to!" to which he replied "well, it looks really good!"
This highly scientific social experiment leads me to draw the following conclusions:
- Men either like how I dress and are intimidated OR men think I'm a dyke.
Neither of these bother me particularly. I've doing a lot of reading about this lately. About what is male and what is female and why. I've a very long and tedious topic. When I say to people I'm doing feminist fashion, they all think that I'm putting women in suits and telling them to act like men but in the words of Vivienne Westwood "I've never thought it powerful to be like a second-rate man." Why are things demeaning because they are thought of as feminine? We are too easily suckered in by this, particularly as these fashion items only exist because we, as women, are the consumers who demand it.
Apparently, the stiletto heel was invented as a celebration of femininity as the heel itself is supposed to reflect the female form. In its more extreme form (by the 1960s or so) it was used as a symbolic way of showing a dissatisfaction with the conventional female image. It was also used as a right of passage, and it still is, when a girl gets her first pair of heels it is one of the steps towards womanhood. In my opinion, it is our differences as sexes that denotes power. I'm proud of my body, jiggly as it is, and I feel that power comes from a comfort with who you are. Even when in a suit, I'm not dressing AS a man, I wear full make up, my pants are skin tight and my shirts fitted, I am very clearly a woman. I feel powerful when I wear tailored dresses, when I know I look like a woman.
A male friend came up to me the other day to tell me he had seen me the previous day in a below the knee, cord, black/green floral dress. He wanted to let me know that he thought I looked "awesome, like not in a I wanna bang the living day lights out of you kinda hot, but like the woah! that chick looks classy and beautiful kinda hot" I was pretty stoked, I'm not going to lie.
So once again, I've blathered about and rambled on about my thoughts. But I though this example is a good example of the fact that respect comes from celebrating your femininity but lets face it, it also comes from not looking like a cheap slut. Now that kinda dressing is an issue for another day.
Thursday 12 January 2012
It's been a while.
It's been a summer in fact. I'm not sure what happens to me when I finish university for the year, but whatever it is it makes reading and writing the least appealing activity imaginable. There has as least been once realization; summer wedges don't exist for someone as fussy as me, instead I got these:
 |
| Mi Piaci - Betty |
Love them. I have numerous other purchases bought so that I can survive Christchurch and it's earthquake ridden mediocrity. I also now have a car which means I can wear high heels all the time. result.
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