Fashion Revolution Week: Mean Business, Make Waffles

This is Fashion Revolution Week, hosted by FashionRevolution.org.

First, a bit of an "imaginary heroine" story from The Vivienne Files:

"She returned [from her vacation] to a madhouse. Drinking at lunch, crying in the bathrooms, shouting in the halls – it had all of the elements of a bad soap opera, without the romance…

"So she decided that it was finally time to take over.  She’d considered it before, but wasn’t really all that interested in management. But when she saw how absolutely miserable her co-workers were, she started to plan."

Do you notice something that's not going on in that office?  The drinking, crying, shouting employees aren't doing anything to improve the situation, no matter what their qualifications or skills are supposed to be. As the story continues, the heroine assumes the role of ad-hoc manager by managing.

Here's an older story: the 1921 novel Re-Creations, by Grace Livingston Hill. During her senior year of college, Cornelia is called home due to family needs. At first she is annoyed, but then she realizes how desperate things have gotten and how badly the household needs someone to take on an adult role. (The mother has been hospitalized, apparently from overworking and undereating.)

"It was no use whatever to sit here and cry about it when such a mountain of work awaited her. The lady on the train had been right when she told her there would be plenty of chance for her talent...At least things could be clean and tidy. And there should be waffles!"

What needs to happen to make this family's world better can only be done by doing, and Cornelia has to be the one to get the ball rolling.

So what are we talking about here? Bossing people around? Washing sheets and making waffles? Not exactly...more like...if the mess is all around you, don't wait for somebody else to clean it up. If you have people around you, of any age or relationship, you're modelling behaviour for them, like it or not.  So start somewhere. Stay calm. Use your talents. Make a plan. 

Act (and, if necessary, dress) to show you mean it. In the case of the Vivienne Files heroine, getting people to take her seriously meant dressing up; but for Cornelia, who had a house to scrub down, dinner to cook, and curtains to stencil, it was the opposite.

Ask for help and co-operation, but make sure your helpers get waffles (or pizza, or whatever).

And what might this have to do with Fashion Revolution Week? Simply this: if you're troubled by little or big problems (like fast fashion), decide to be part of the solution; and then do something to show that you mean business. 

People will notice.

What happens when someone takes this advice to heart? Part Two will be posted on Tuesday..

Winter clothes: Back to the lake

 Part One: A winter wardrobe in progress...

She's crazy about this Cashmink® scarf. When she brought it home from the thrift store, her husband thought maybe he should have it (it's unisex, right?), but when she tried it on, he agreed that those colours were quite good on her. (She said that he could still borrow it if he wanted.)

And then she noticed how close the colours are to one of her favourite Group of Seven paintings.

Standing back, it looks mostly green and light grey.

Close up, there is a mixture of teal and other blue-greens, denim blue (maybe it's grey), light grey (maybe it's off-white), and soft pink/peach. 

The teal stripe reminds her of a Vivienne Files post about Mountain Forms by Lawren Harris, from almost a year ago. 

But with a pile of new restrictions looming on top of the usual cold winter, the Vivienne Files post that seems to come closest is this November 2019 story about rushing off to care for a family member.

Read the rest of the page here.

Be an Elf (A clothes story)

December's coming. She doesn't have any exciting Christmas plans this year. Actually she's not expecting to go anywhere at all, or even to have company over. But she does own this red leather vest.

Red isn't one of her usual wardrobe colours, and in fact it clashes rather badly with some of the pinks and purples she usually wears. And, of course, a red vest is apt to get her asked, "Are you a Christmas elf?" Enough with the short jokes already.

But in December, she doesn't care. She rounds up ten other items of clothing:

Black jeans

Blue jeans

Leggings in a sort of brown-grey

Off-white cotton turtleneck

Grey short-sleeved t-shirt

Longer-style plum shirt

Jean-style Tencel shirt

Striped cardigan

Dark grey Revolve dress/tunic/top from Encircled

Teal green convertible shawl/poncho

(All items were thrifted except for the dress and the turtleneck.)

She also pulls out three scarves, a purse, and a brooch on a chain. (And some tights and shoes.)

Her only real rule is that she doesn't want to wear red with green, if at all possible. (Except for the scarves that combine both.) How many outfits can she make?

Shirt, vest, jeans

Dress, vest

T-shirt, jeans, poncho styled as wrap

Dress worn as top, jeans, vest

Shirt, turtleneck, vest, jeans

Turtleneck, vest, jeans

Plus a scarf

Dress, cardigan

Jean shirt, cardigan, jeans

Turtleneck, cardigan, jeans

Plus the jean shirt

Plum shirt, cardigan, jeans

Or with leggings

Dress as top, jeans, scarf

Shirt, jeans, scarf

Shirt over dress, scarf

Shirt over shirt, leggings

Shirt, scarf (pants or dress-as-skirt not shown)

Turtleneck, jeans, scarf as shawl

Dress, floral scarf

Turtleneck, jeans, poncho tied in front

Score so far: eleven pieces, twenty-one outfits (and you could probably make more).

What would stretch it out to fill ten more days of December?

She looks at her list and realizes that she doesn't have a long-sleeved t-shirt or top there, except for the dress which can be tucked up to be a top. She finds a green one with long sleeves. It can be worn with the pants, or under the jean shirt, although not so much with the poncho (it's more green than teal). So that would be good for another, say, three outfits.

(The green isn't quite as dull as it appears; it's one of those colours that this camera dislikes.)

She decides she wants another warm sweater, and she just happens to have a blue-and-grey cowl neck pullover that came her way recently at the thrift store. The sweater doesn't layer well (and the colour would look funny under the teal poncho), but she does have a lightweight grey poncho that could go over top if she wants to dress it up; plus the poncho itself works with other tops and the dress. So, at least five more outfits.

And after noticing that all the pants are jeans and leggings, she decides to throw in a pair of grey cords. It's not exactly dressy, but it's better than denim. That comes to 15 pieces of clothing, plus the scarves, shoes, etc.

Hmmm...two more days of December?

Oh, rules schmoolz. Red and green rock at Christmas time. 

An Artful Story (with clothes)

Part One: Don't Overthink This 

It's late fall, and she's trying to build a winter-wearing plan.

She realizes that the colours and the outfits she came up with for early fall aren't going to change much. And since she's not going to the Arctic, most of what she's already wearing will still work through the winter.

But it's always interesting to curate things a bit, maybe find new connections.

Part Two: Winter is somewhere between September and spring

She decides to try something that's worked for her before: choosing Canadian paintings as inspiration. A familiar one by a Group of Seven artist, and a new favourite seen at an antiques market.

Arthur Lismer, A September Gale, Georgian Bay (1921)

Donald Mackay Houstoun, Approaching Spring

She and her spouse both noticed the Houstoun picture, and they agree that it's a) amazing but b) way out of their budget. Oh well, she thinks, she will probably be able to visit it again there, since it's not likely to be flying off the wall at that price.

Part Three: Walking Backwards

The normal way to plan a wardrobe is to pick clothes, make outfits, and add accessories to match, right? But she has always been one to do things the wrong way round.

This thrifted scarf, she now thinks of as the September Gale scarf.

This one (from an antiques market) is the "Houstoun original."

And this one is Houstoun #2, with the dark leaves from September Gale thrown in.

("Poetic Nature Foliage" pink scarf from Northern Reflections)

Pink earrings like the rocks and the hills (thrifted)

Blue earrings like the sky (thrifted)

Green earrings like the waves (thrifted, gallery gift shop, and antiques market)

Teal and white bracelets (Fierce Lynx Designs)

Purse (thrifted)

Grey and pink scarf/shawl (thrifted)

 

Necklace (thrifted)

Part Four: What goes underneath

The Vivienne Files recently wrote about 21-piece capsule wardrobes, so she decides to go with that idea.

4 cardigans and pullovers

Teal-green zippered fleece shawl/poncho (thrifted). This is a multiway piece of clothing, one of those magic garments with snaps that can zip, unzip, and turn it into almost anything, like a wrap top. She appreciates the fact that it was designed and made in Canada.

Grey and blue long cardigan (thrifted for a whole dollar)

Another grey cardigan (thrifted)

Cotton cable-knit pullover (consignment store four years ago)

11 button-ups, turtlenecks, and t-shirts

4 pairs of pants (jeans, cords, and leggings)

 1 sweater dress

1 denim skirt

Hmm...21 pieces? She looks carefully at what she has and what she's likely to be wearing, and decides to add three more:

Blue and white striped shirt (thrifted), because it's useful

Khaki pants (thrifted), because sometimes she wants a lighter colour

Purple jersey dress (thrifted), because sometimes she wants something not so grey

Outerwear and shoes (not counted) 

Jean jacket (thrifted)

Warm jacket, muffler, hat, gloves, snow boots

Ankle boots (Walmart clearance last year)

Arcopedico flat shoes (thrifted)

Allbirds Mizzles

Making Outfits

The end of the story

They live three-quarters of an hour from an outdoor flea market. On the weekend before it closes for the season, her spouse says, "Let's go one last time. Maybe there will be some good deals." 

It turns out to be a shivery morning, but one thing she spots hanging on a rack of pictures makes it all worthwhile:

 Yes, for less than the cost of a Dinner for Two with Spring Rolls, she now has a print of Lismer's September Gale. Her spouse cleaned the frame a bit (because he's nice like that), and it's now hanging over her workspace computer.

And the Houstoun can stay where it is.