Accessory Sorting

  My feet get cold inside when I'm not wearing socks, and I have to bundle up walking back from the gym at night, so there's no denying fall is here. (But the daytime weather is still gorgeous!) Sheila at Ephemera recently did a post on changing her closet over for the cold seasons, and it got me inspired to finally get to work sorting mine.

  Last week I got around to the long overdue job of sorting and folding my unkempt pile of scarves, purses, and hats.

  It had not occurred to me to separate out my heavy winter scarves from the rest before. This would have saved me a lot of room sooner!  I also have a set of narrow silk scarves/lady ties dyed with various plants and minerals. Would somebody like them? I've had them for years and have never worn 'em. Shoot me an e-mail at notactuallyaya [at] gmail [dot] com and I can send pictures.

  Goorin Bros. linked to a high quality Vimeo video on how to tell the difference between various flat caps. I grabbed my pile of flat caps and sat down excitedly to finally be able to categorize my various hats!

  ... did not end up helping. It's a lovely video, and handy for knowing the style of Goorin hats specifically, but the rest of mine defy explanation. I haven't had much luck on the Internet, either. Maybe the modern hat companies took liberties.

  I also sorted out my purses, which all live, along with my hats, on this over the door rack:

5 main ones, a free Easter basket, a lunch sack, and a bag from Cathy that looks like a buckler

  I have never been a person that notices purses. As I get more into personal style, I'm getting better at it, but by and large I still carry my things in a small REI backpack my friend Cathy gave me ten years ago. Then I favor small crossbody bags that leave my hands free. I do like metallic blue bags, though. So dramatic!

  I don't know if I've mentioned this, but my apartment has zilch in the way of storage. There is a closet in each bedroom, cabinets in the kitchen, and that is it. There isn't even a medicine cabinet in the bathroom. I have kind of a lot of clothes now, so I had to get creative.

  Did you all know they sell stuffed toy hammocks you can put in the upper corner of your room? That eight bucks were among the more useful of the ones I have ever spent.

  So now three types of accessories are sorted out, and next I tackle changing things over from warm to colder weather, while trying to layer in a way that lets me sun myself in the lovely mornings and afternoons.

  Have you changed your closet over? How do you sort things if you live in an even, temperate climate or one more extreme than the Bay Area? Do you have items you wear all year 'round?

On cooking vs. outfits

  I've been wondering something lately: what do style enthusiasts do when we cook?

  I've seen recipe and cooking blogs, but they always feature immaculately clean, macro shots of photogenic ingredients with diffuse white lighting on tastefully coordinated pale backgrounds.

  My kitchen does not look like that.

  This is our kitchen. My equipment is a hodgepodge of thrifted gadgets. And when I cook, my clothes are definitely in a hazard zone, because there are always steam, oil and as often as not, pungent Asian sauces flying through the air. Also, we have way too many refrigerator magnets.

  One day I would love to live somewhere with a working dishwasher, unbroken shelves, and counters that aren't warped and peeling, but until then, this is where I do my work, and I love being in this room.

  Sometimes I am tempted to invest in a safety mask, particularly when throwing water or tea onto a hot pan to steam dumplings, or when chopping a particularly feisty onion. (My roommate refuses to use my lab goggles. Maybe he thinks they are tears of penance for chopping aromatics.)

  I been competent enough since a young age to feed myself, but it wasn't until I went back to school and started cooking every night to save money that I loved cooking. Prepping ingredients became calming, and when a dish turns out right I do a little happy dance, thinking I am awesome.

  Things I have learned:
  1) Lamb fat does not come out. There will be a subtle greasy spot on the abdomen of my Pure + Good hoodie and my Old Navy dress forever. Surprisingly, I have not tried layering the two items to see if the grease stains match up. Future outfit idea noted.

  2) Green tea can be substituted for water in pretty much anything. Cook rice, steam dumplings, and make ginger beer with it. It's very nice.

  3) Cut the cooking times for all meat in recipes you find online in half, and check on it. I swear, people on the Internet overcook *everything*.

  Recently, after owning it for a mere two years and forgetting I had it neatly folded up in a box, I started wearing my apron. It was a gift from my mother. It cracks me up because it looks very much like a country-style apron that I'd imagine well, not Asian people wearing, but she got it for me because I was born in the year of the rooster. I can tell people it makes me cocky.

   Now I don't need to change out of my day clothes quite so much.

  If you cook, what do you do to protect your outfits? Do you change? Wear a full body apron? Both? Please tell me if you wear a safety mask.

This one is for Mom

  A quick midweek post because I miss blogging and because I didn't have lab today. (YAY NO LAB)

  I was perusing eBay when I came across a skirt that simultaneously captures my delight and everything my mother could hate in a garment, ever:

  I've never had an antagonistic relationship with my mom, so you may wonder why I go into a paroxysm of belly laughs every time I see clothes she would hate, and I think the reason is that a person from Japan being aghast is about the funniest thing I've ever seen.

  It starts with a very blank look, followed by an eyeblink, then a gentle distressed cry of "Nooooo. Aya! Nooo. aaaaaaaaaa" with subcurrent of 'why do you like these things? what did I do wrong? is it my fault?' I'm pretty sure this is the exact sound she made when I cut my own hair at age eight.

  Then I roll around on the ground laughing for several minutes, hug her, and reassure her I will never wear the skirt in front of her again. But really, if she keeps doing this hilarious thing, she is reinforcing the wrong behaviors because I want more skirts that look like this.

  I've started a new tag for my posts in honor of this moment: 'Mom hates this' and it will mark all of my long ragged-hem boho skirts. :D I love you, Mom!

  Also I think I genuinely love this skirt, despite my boyfriend reporting that it is hideous and the hippie homeless vibe makes his face hurt. Every now and again I think we all have items of clothing where we're like, "Yeah!" and our friends are like, "No." and we're like, "Yeah! :D" and our friends are like, "... whatever makes you happy. (weirdo)"

  What is your special item?

  And there's a whole line of 'em! (eBay link, the sizes appear to top out at XL, but I'm not sure which sizes are available for which items.)

Edited to add: Hot damn, there is a shirt! Not that I'd wear the two of them together. I apologize for the mannequin's lack of decency. She just refuses to understand these things.

Opera Scura

  I've wanted to do a post for a bit now about my friend Mo's shop, Opera Scura.

  Mo is a dance instructor and an amazing craftswoman, among many other things. She makes all of her own patterns for her crafts, and the pieces I've bought from her have all been of excellent workmanship- durable, functional, gorgeous, and unique.

  She's starting a new set of patterns and crafts and is currently making awesome hats, and I encourage you to take a look! I will likely post again when I see something particularly ooh-worthy. You can contact her for sizing if you are extra large or extra small hat size. Her prices are in the super-low $20-30 range, and she currently ships within the United States (sorry, international readers!)

  The etsy shop is Opera Scura

* This is not a sponsored post. Mo just makes awesome things.

OzzOn Japan pictures

  The OzzOn Japan website is finally back up after significant delay!  I have to admit it *does* look better and is much easier to navigate. Go ahead if you're interested in Japanese punk/goth clothes- I think it isn't difficult without reading Japanese.

  They're having a 30% off everything sale that goes on every year. Ah, for a budget that could keep up with my sartorial dreams. (:  Here are some of my favorites:

Ozz Oneste China camisole

Rozen Kavalier lace printed cami

Ozz Croce dragon camisole

Ozz Croce 'Hard Croce' skirt

Ozz Angelo lace embroidered leggings

Ozz Croce double pouch purse

Belting it out

Let's talk belts.

  I love wide belts, probably because they suit my build. Skinny belts at the waist make me look like I have been bisected into two powerful chunky pieces, and I can't wear belts at my hips because I wear long fitted shirts so I don't show a big section of my lower back/upper butt when I sit and squat.

  I'm always interested in hearing about how other people wear belts and how they suit different body types and figures. And if you have any advice on how one wears hip belts that doesn't involve a strange series of lumps under one's long shirt, please let me know.

  I cruise eBay to calm down before bedtime, as it's lightly engaging and doesn't take much concentration or brain power. I've been fixated on Crystaline's Steampunk Lolita ensembles this past month and I'm in the market for a belt like the one she sports in a lot of her outfits:

  I thought I'd share some brown wide belts that caught my interest. Let me know if you'd be interested in any other styles or items, and maybe I can poke around the internet for you when I can't sleep! Links here don't profit me, but they may benefit YOU. ;D

  This studded brown belt with double buckle looked simple enough to wear on the street but had a cool fantasy vibe to me. It has an elastic section in the back and claims to fit ~30-33 inches. $12 with shipping.

  This is a German trachten belt. It is also adorable. Dangly hearts on little sock-shaped pieces of wool! Says  it will fit waists ~36-41 inches. $30 with shipping.

  An obi-style fake leather belt with a panel in front and long elastic band behind it. I guess this would be for wearing under jackets or if I was going to spend an evening leaning against a wall. On the plus, the stretchiness says it will accommodate up to 43 inches. Also comes in brown, black, and red. $16 with shipping.

  I like the asymmetric holster-feel of this one. I think it looks modern and conjures a bit of gunslinger feel at the same time. ~27-34 inches. $8 with shipping.

  Closest in appearance to Crystaline's belt, this cincher comes in several colors and finishes. Claims to fit ~30-40 inch waists. $17.45 with shipping, but seller has individual colors on auction that you can bid on for cheaper.

  One thing I've noticed is that many of the new-fangled belts are mass-produced pieces from China, meaning the size range can be quite small in comparison to American sizes. For myself, growing up the nice clothes here were always too big/tall/long and when I discovered Asian clothing, it was like a world of things that fit me opened up. However, this means that my friends are often excluded because of the limited sizing. Do you have better luck with particular brands? Do you have experience finding clothing from a particular country that fits you better? What do you look at when you shop online?

Screencap article: Ethnic Dress Explanasian

  Michelle asked what I thought about white Americans wearing traditionally Asian looks such as frog clasps and brocade patterns in the comments the other day. I asked if I could write out a post in response, and she agreed. :D

  I think there is a difference between traditional ethnic costume and fashions or patterns inspired by different cultures' dress.

  Traditional examples

In the US:

  San Francisco Chinatown has a lot of this mass-produced traditional-ish stuff. I think it's cheap, but inoffensive. If I were to see a person decked out in this ensemble, I would probably think 'tourist' and maybe hang about helpfully for several extra seconds in case she or he needed directions.

Me:

  Chinese martial arts demo, Chinese martial arts uniform, not a Chinese person. Have not encountered any problems with this. Neither have my non-Asian friends.

  I also wore an ao dai to a friend's wedding, and her family thought it was awesome. (I did check first if anyone thought it would not be ok for a Japanese-descended person to wear one.)

Overseas:

  The folks pictured here (I don't know them, they just seemed nice and turned up in a Google image search) do not appear to be of Japanese descent, but this isn't at all offensive to me. I think it's cool when people wear traditional clothing and learn about it.

  My general outlook on persons of one culture wearing traditional costume of another culture: the contexts I have seen it in have been respectful (and look like fun) and I've never been offended.

  Be aware, however, that some traditional cuts/styles are made to suit certain body types. I remain convinced the current super short leggy trends in the US are not designed for daikon ashi, while Victorian/Edwardian cuts flatter a high bust and long waist that are more common among Japanese, which may play a role in the Gothic/Lolita/Steampunk subculture fashions there.

'Inspired by' designs

  Items like these look "inspired by"to me- the patterns or elements have ethnic origin, but they do not look like traditional ethnic dress. I personally wouldn't think anything was out of the ordinary if I saw these items worn on the street. A lot of my own clothes are in this category- I call them 'AZN' or 'JPN.'

  We're a shrinking world. We have the Internet and all sorts of global trade going on, but even centuries ago, there is a recorded history of fascination with other cultural dress.

  However, context matters. Urban Outfitters got in trouble not long ago for 'Navajo' labeled items in their stores. While copyright of actual patterns is a dicey matter, there is such a thing as sensitivity to a historically marginalized group with a rich cultural history, and this issue seriously looked like insensitivity or outright stupidity. The sense I got is the objection was to the lack of respect and the items bearing the Navajo name (a pattern-wrapped flask, for example) being tacky, which brings us to the third category.

Tacky

  There's any number of tacky things out there that fetishize other cultures. There is, I think, a difference between inspiration/artistic license and a stereotype/fetish, and these items look like the latter to me.

   See, Asian people are wearing these and they still look terrible.

I got a kick out of these labels

  I put stuff like this into the "offensive because it's ugly/tasteless" category. I don't think my objection stems from Asian patterns or cuts being worn by non-Asian people, I think it comes from the item's purpose being to sexualize or objectify a culture, often in an ignorant way.

  My overall take is that I have no truck with fashion or style that draws inspiration from Japanese culture being worn by persons of all ethnic origins. Doing research about the origin of a particular pattern or clothing technology is interesting and fun. I think there is also such a thing as tasteless fetishism. In an ideal world, wearing something for its beauty and for the happiness it brings you should not be a problem, but social issues can be complicated.

  As one of the less disenfranchised minority groups in the US, I have a privileged position. I cannot claim to speak at all for what another person might feel, and I imagine opinions vary within and between ethnicities on traditionally-inspired dress.

  I have wondered about what people think of the recent tribal print trend, among other things.

  What about your own experiences with your style inspirations? Have you noticed trends or people wearing culturally-inspired dress?

Disclaimer

  First, I am speaking for myself (American of Japanese and Taiwanese descent) in this post. There are many issues both in and out of my ethnicity of which I am ignorant. I welcome clarification and sharing, and apologize if any mistakes I make cause offense.

  Second, in the United States, the majority is currently white Americans (and 'white' is such a hodgepodge of different cultural backgrounds). There's a power/privilege dynamic there. However, human beings the world over have quite the history of power dynamics. Take the history of Korea and Japan. Or Ireland and England. This is not a X-group-is-awful post.

  Confession: first time I saw a chain clothing store that sells tropics themed hot weather wear (I will call it Andy Caicos) I thought "colonialism."

  Cheers!

Screencap Post 3

  Stress! Sometimes you think you have a respite, but it comes back sooner than you expected. Have some photos and links. (:

The dress I wore in this post is being sold on eBay in size 12.

The same style vest I wore here is sold here and there on eBay:
XXL black
L silver
M black denim floral
M army green

  It looks like the Chinese OEM sells the same vest to a bunch of distributors that slap different brand names on it, then sell them to those cheap junior clothing retailers in strip/ malls the country over.
  I'm watching aliexpress with interest because it's an internet site where people can buy from Chinese sellers overseas instead of through the ones here in malls. I don't know how it does business, because the sheer volume of repeat items and noise to signal ratio is mind-boggling. If you like seeing the commons dilemma in action, saunter on over and try to find this vest. Or try to find anything.

I found an Etsy shop for Japanese punk fashions by a Spanish artist.

  The outfit isn't my style, but I love this headdress. I wonder if its shape is too close to culturally significant turbans for me to pull off or if it would be ok.

Discovered artist Madéleine Flores's tumblr

   Mother of the Bride taffeta gown: The lines of this dress and jacket caught my eye, though I don't know what's matronly about it.

  I'm so tired of strapless everything when it comes to nicer dresses. I love Michelle Rodriguez forever for this.

Screencap Post 2

  Yay, I've been blogging for a month now!

  Just a quick post to say thanks to both of you guys for reading, and that it's been a blast.

  Here are some screencaps from the week:

We're currently the only couturgatory out there :D

Sal of Already Pretty asked the hardest question of all time.

  I think there's a blog post in here. I might spend an hour photographing The Apartment That Thrifting Built.

I think this is from mrspollyrogers.com

 I approve of any style that weaves a fabric shield between me and the San Francisco winds.

  Ulyana Sergeenko: I love this silhouette. I want to recreate it.

  If anyone has tips for how to look for Victorian/Edwardian inspired fashion without encountering  a jabillion "steampunk" items with sheet metal gears glued on, please let me know.

 Bow & Arrow puff sleeved button-up: I think this is what I wanted for my Everyday Steampunk outfit a few weeks ago.  Too bad even used it is 30 beans.

  I was poking around eBay for cropped/half blazer vest things (what on earth do you call something like this?) and discovered designer Louis Verdad. From what I've seen, his clothes have awesome small details and classical silhouettes. I'll be keeping an eye on items of his that turn up on eBay for inspiration.

  I think these are adorable. They are also maternity leggings. Probably going to buy a pair, anyway. The model is 5'4"! I may not have to chop 6 inches of fabric off the bottoms. It's very exciting.