Carton of Hate, Wedge of Spite and I’m a Bag of Anger.

Posted on July 28, 2011 by tim in Fashion Bad, Fundamentals | 1 Comment

Here’s the thing. Generally people consider me to be not angry. Little do they know.

But it’s the why that’s complicated –because somehow this has to be about the documentary and not just me venting my rather large and full bodied spleen.

First off, a proviso– I’m not mad at anyone in particular (although Tea-Partiers and their ilk do get on my last nerve) because I’m as guilty as all y’all. Not necessarily about the same things but if we all had the same flaws what would we feel superior to others about? Read more

My Mum’s a Knitja and I’m Sew Sad.

Posted on July 22, 2011 by di in Fashion Good, Project, Read | Leave a comment

Rules of the no-shopping challenge:

#1. No new, used or gifted clothes, shoes and accessories for a full year.

#2. I can only borrow clothes from friends twice in the year.

#3. I can obtain clothes from the 2 clothing swap parties I will host, but I will also be giving up clothes for the swap.

#4. I have a $50 ‘emergency’ clothing fund. I’m not quite sure what a ‘clothing emergency’ entails, but I’m sure I’ll recognize one if and when it happens.

Nowhere in the rules does it state that I am not allowed to make my own clothes, not that I can so it’s a moot point. In high school, sewing class was an elective course that I did not take. I took typing instead figuring I would require proficiency for it in the future so I could be useful to our robot overlords. That was one of the last smart decisions I made in high school. Read more

Giving Up Appearances

Posted on July 19, 2011 by di in Fashion Good, Project, Psycho-Fashion, Read | 2 Comments

I’m officially into the second month of my challenge and I can honestly say that at this point, not caring so much about keeping up with trends or trying to find the perfect belt to go with that perfect dress is rather freeing. I’ve been so busy cottage-ing, visiting with family, taking day trips to Montreal and Mont Tremblant and generally enjoying my summer that what I wear is more about function than fashion. Well, it’s still a little about fashion, or style at least, but not to the point of distraction. I’m trying to be more engaged in my surroundings rather than wondering what the ultimate ensemble should be for each particular moment of each day. Part of me wishes I’d undertaken this challenge years ago.

This is not a picture of a woman concerned with the cleanliness of her baseboards.

No one is going to care about what I look like more than I do, so how much time do I need to spend worrying about whether or not I’m wearing the right shoes? If I was asked to describe my friends’ traits in order of importance ‘snappy dresser’ wouldn’t be in the top twenty (although, don’t get me wrong, my friends are a good-lookin’ posse). I’m smart enough to know that appearance doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things yet I’ve spent years making it more important than it is. Right now I’m grappling with the fact that I should know better. Read more

Fashionista. Fashionasty. Fashionazi.

Posted on July 11, 2011 by di in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

GODWIN’S LAW: According to Wikipedia, in 1990, Mike Godwin stated that “as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison between Nazis and Hitler approaches 100%.” In other words, Godwin put forth the hyperbolic observation that, given enough time, in any online discussion—regardless of topic or scope—someone inevitably criticizes some point made in the discussion by comparing it to beliefs held by Hitler and the Nazis.

GOLDING’S LAW: According to me, in 2010, Di Golding theorized that the sooner you get a hyperbolic Nazi/Hitler reference out of the way, the sooner you can get back to intelligent discourse and respectful debate. Just acknowledge the elephant in the room and get on with it. Word to the wise: steer clear of goose-stepping elephants.

This will all make sense in a moment.

I was a fashionista for 12 minutes in 1981. In the box is a bedazzled roach clip.

I would like to take this opportunity to dispel a myth surrounding my no-shopping challenge which is the impetus of the documentary: I am not a fashionista. At least, I don’t think I am. I don’t even really know what that means. Hang on a sec, I’ll open up another tab and find out…almost there…okay, from what I could glean, and depending on the resource, a fashionista is someone who follows trends in the fashion industry obsessively and strives to adopt the latest fashions. Lofty ambitions for sure. Read more

The Seated ‘I’–unseated.

Posted on July 4, 2011 by tim in Fundamentals, Psycho-Fashion | Leave a comment

We began this project to find out why Di felt she ‘needed’ particular things she clearly did not need (ie. Yet another purse she will look at four years from now– with that puzzled, ‘WTF was I thinking’ expression on her face). Which begs the question, what do we actually need? And of course that spirals into all sorts of questions regarding the degree to which any choice is conscious and even whether or not we control the choices we make–at least to the extent we seem to think we do. Read more

Canadian Dressing

Posted on July 1, 2011 by di in Fashion Good, Project, Psycho-Fashion, Read, We Ask You | Leave a comment

Another Canada Day is drawing to a close and I sit here at the kitchen table in the cottage and watch fireworks going off over the lake. I’m wearing runners with socks (my Tevas sit on the deck drying out after a vain attempt to teach my dog how to swim), Lululemon capris,and a MEC tanktop under a gorgeous multicoloured cardigan my Mum knit for me last fall. On the back of the sweater she appliqued a hand-stitched owl in flight over a forest. I’m probably wearing the most Canadian outfit I have.

Today in my city, the Nation’s Capital, thousands were proudly decked out in red and white, brandishing maple leaves of all sizes. Here at the cottage, the look was the same but in a much smaller scale. One thing I didn’t miss about being in the city today was seeing the drunken buffoon wearing our flag as a cape and letting it drag on the ground. If that indignity isn’t enough, approximately twenty minutes after the last firework is extinguished, said buffoon will more than likely be using the flag to wipe his vomit from his flipflops. Oh, Canada. Read more

Thank you, thank you very much.

Posted on June 28, 2011 by di in Fundamentals, Project, Psycho-Fashion, Read | 2 Comments

I’m not very good at accepting a compliment. I usually mumble something self-deprecating or instantly blurt, “this old thing? I got it for a dollar at a garage sale” as though undermining it’s value somehow makes the compliment more palatable. I always feel the need to qualify the compliment as though letting it stand alone makes it true. It’s not that I don’t believe that I deserve the compliments I get, or don’t mean the compliments I give, but maybe I question the level of sincerity.

In the nature of full disclosure I’m about to let you in on something most people don’t know about me: I’m really sarcastic. Read more

Di Patch

Posted on June 22, 2011 by di in Fashion Good, Project, Psycho-Fashion, Read, Uncategorized, We Ask You | Leave a comment

So, how am I doing going into my second week of the challenge? So far so good considering I almost blew it on the first day. I was looking for a specific pair of black leggings, couldn’t find them and said to myself, “I’ll just pick some up when I go to the Rideau Centre.” It was a few moments before I realized this was not an option. Eventually I found the leggings and the challenge survived it’s first mini-crisis. I’m glad because it would have been embarrassing to have invited all those people to the launch party only to turn them away, with nary a loot-bag .

Unfortunately mini-crisis number two is around the corner. Read more

A K-T Event.

Posted on June 16, 2011 by tim in Fundamentals, Psycho-Fashion | 1 Comment

It’ s not really that surprising that people end up with their heads crushed in high-speed, motor vehicle accidents. Who could tolerate that level of notoriety?

ABOVE IMAGE: ARTIST’S RENDERING OF ASTEROID RESPONSIBLE FOR K-T EVENT (or combined wattage from camera flashes at any Kate Middleton appearance)

S0 Kate Middleton wears a dress from a particular designer to a party with the Obama’s– and that lucky company sees their website traffic rise to six million hits from a usual thirty-five thousand in an hour and a half (crashed the server). Six million. Roll that around in your brainpan a bit. Now pretend with me for a moment. Let us imagine you are out for an evening and you happen to run into oh say, the wife of the current U.S. president. Let us also pretend that there were innumerable cameras as well as countless fashion scalpels at the ready. Now imagine you were attempting to dress for said event in the full knowledge of what was waiting for you.

Yeah. Kinda’ makes you sweat, don’t it? Read more

Last time I looked, shorts were not pants.

Posted on June 16, 2011 by sarahrobertson in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

So why on Earth should they cost the same?

Really. It stands to reason that the less material there is, the less it ought to cost. Even in the whacked out U.K. an extra-small costs less than a large because there is less of it! Seriously. My friend Melissa told me so when she got home from her holiday there.

Okay – I know that’s actually crazy, true as it may be.

But I’m talking about shorts. Linen, cotton, denim – whatever material you choose I don’t think it’s fair to pay the same amount for 16in of fabric as you would for a 32in inseam. Read more