At least I'm not mixing them to make The Other Kind of Goth Suffragist.

[mrissa]

Apparently last weekend a small person of my acquaintance announced that he wanted to look like a college professor. I only heard this after the fact, but he succeeded admirably. And I sometimes think that the combination of him being in the single digits of age and autistic means that he will admit to stuff like that when other people mostly don't, and I think that's awesome of him. I remember when I was his age, I tried to compose Bohemian Artist outfits and Very Serious Scientist outfits, but I did not disclose this intention to my parents or godparents. (My godfathers, God love them, would have been no help whatsoever with this endeavor, as they were rather committed to the Person With A Modicum Of Fashion Sense oeuvre of small child outfits. But explaining my thinking at least might have explained some of the attempted combinations to my baffled and long-suffering mother.) And I did wind up with a Budding Suffragist On A Bicycle outfit that my grandmother and I both adored, but again, I did not tell her why I liked it. It was a very 1905 sort of bow on the thing.

So in the spirit of full disclosure, I will report that I am wearing my Sensible Grown-Up From An E. Nesbit Novel Visits The Mod Sixties outfit. I have had this reaction to this outfit (particularly the skirt) since I bought it. Every single time. I also have Wednesday Addams Appears on Laugh In and Piano Teacher Uninterested In Your Bullshit and Why Yes I Do Own A Krumkake Iron Why Do You Ask, among other fashion choices. A lot of the time, of course, I am dressed as Person Who Hates Complicated Laundry or Person Whose Feet Are Toasty Warm Despite The Weather Thanks. But sometimes we change things up.

The closest I ever came to buying non-hiking boots in the three digits of price was when I looked at a pair of boots and thought, "Every time I wore those, I would think, 'No, The Other Kind Of Goth.'" And that seemed like a very appealing thing to me. I still didn't buy them, but I was tempted.

Do you do this?

Comments

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

I must confess that every time I put on a dress shirt and a tie, I am stricken with the feeling that I am pretending to be a Very Serious Grown-Up (or possibly Businessman).

When I wore my usual college outfit of pin-decorated beret, stompy boots, and black microfiber raincoat, I liked to see the pin as a cap badge. If any of the Gaunt's Ghosts novels had been out and I'd read them, I would have imagined myself as a Very Gothy Imperial Guardsman.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

I have the Girl Detective Raincoat, and the Airship Pilot outfit, and I definitely don't tell my federal colleagues that I always wear suits to work because it's What You Wear to Fight Lovecraftian Horrors. And a variety of other outfits that I keep around because sometimes you just want to be armored, or decked out, in a particular story--even if no one outside the house knows what it means.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Yes, but not, alas, as often as I'd like to. Right now I am hemming the new Aubergine Garment of Imperial Administration; if only I had a proper mantle with tablia</> to go with it!

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

I try to dress to meet a standard of companion-readiness: if the TARDIS shows up and takes me away, I want to be in an outfit that is attractive, mildly quirky, and would let me outrun a Cyberman.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

I do, although the tendency atrophied a bit during my years working in chemistry labs when I was generally dressed as Person Who Despite Her Best Efforts Keeps Acid-Burning or Bleaching Her Clothes.

When I was in junior high, I had an outfit that was As Goth As I Can Get And Still Comply with the Dresscode. Whenever I wore it, my father called me The Little Amish Girl.

In college, my default outfit was Because A Person Might Need to Climb a Fence at a Moment's Notice. I didn't know this until my sister confided in me that her therapist (who had met me while I was decked out in an army jacket, jeans with holes at the knees, and a pair of bright green Doc Martens) had opined that I maybe "needed to get more in touch with my feminine side." I replied with, "I'm not unfeminine, I just might need to climb a fence or something!" I can think of precisely zero occasions on which I've needed to climb a fence, and only a handful on which I've chosen to climb a fence rather than go through the gate like a sensible person.

[zwol.livejournal.com]

Do you have recommendations for how to keep one's feet toasty warm despite the weather? Despite that it never gets to Minnesota levels of cold out here, cold feet are a serious problem chez moi (mostly for haloedrain).

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Every day. ;-) When I'm in a turtleneck, I am always Performing The Yankee Stereotype, unless it's a black one (Beatnik, Baby) or a black one worn with a blazer, in which case I am Sixties Spy, Ask Me About My Shoulder Holster. *g*

It's all costumery.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. This year I finally made the distinction between one's image and oneself. Better late than never.

That being said, I've been rocking the "Sexy Beatnik Prepared to Do Business" look, lately. And there are also lots of variations on Puritans, specifically what I wear to early music concerts, which vaguely suggest: "Hester Prynne Drops the Scarlet Letter, but Still Gets Frowned at by Margaret Thatcher in Church." I think I'm trying to look respectable without looking particularly pious. Projecting respect for the traditions of the communities I'm visiting, while still making it clear I do not appear of Popes or Royalty as the heads of churches or states. Funny, I didn't realize I was doing that until you wrote this post.

I know other people do this, too, how else would we be able to spot Bloomsbury people from miles away?

(I would very much like to see Sensible Grown-Up From An E. Nesbit Novel Visits The Mod Sixties.)

[timprov.livejournal.com]

Jeans with holes in the knees are inadvisable for that anyway.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It's totally What You Wear to Fight Lovecraftian Horrors.

And I want a Girl Detective Raincoat. And also a Composed Adventuress Raincoat. And like that. I am a huge sucker for coats.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I think I have a skewed idea of what feminine looks like to most people, because--well, I don't have any holey jeans now. But I guarantee you that me in an army green top and holey jeans is about the femmiest thing that ever femmed. One of the (several) reasons I don't dress more butch* more often is that the general effect is, "Awww! Look at that femme girl trying to dress butch! Isn't it cute!"

*As this is not San Francisco, I do not assume that my audience will interpret "butcher" as an adjective.**

**Bonus points to people who can name the comedian there.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

I have my Semi-Respectable-Yarn-Shop-Girl outfits, and a couple of Actually-Respectable-Yarn-Shop-Girl outfits, and my Grown-Up-Lady outfits. There is significant overlap between ARYSG and GUL, with the main difference being accessories.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

SmartWool.

And occasional applications of the flax pack.

And SmartWool.

And sometimes tights under the jeans.

And SmartWool.

Not the wussy dress sock level of Smart Wool, either. The key word here is "mountaineering."

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

This weekend when I was wearing a fitted black turtleneck sweater and jeans, alecaustin told me I looked very authorial. And I think there's a certain place where authorial equates with Beatnik in this culture.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Respectful Non-Authoritarian is a great dress code.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Accessories are key.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, particularly in my early teens. I was very fond of Pioneer Ballerina and Cowgirl Archeologist. There was also Ski Bum French Actress.

[zwol.livejournal.com]

Is SmartWool actually made of wool, from sheep? Because allergies. :-(

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

In fact and indeed it is, but it's less allergenic than many/most sheep wools.

I will also note that I was permitted to wade in Lake Superior as a small child, and it's a bit like the River Styx in that I have been permanently affected by the experience.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

All my current favorite clothes evoke Wacky Middle Aged Lady Who Doesn't Give A Shit What Anyone Thinks About Her Clothes Anymore to a certain degree.

[zwol.livejournal.com]

What a vivid image! But I'm not sure what it's an image of.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Judging by my recent experiences climbing walls, I can bruise and scrape the hell out of my knees even in fully intact trousers. It's just as well that I wasn't climbing fences back in my holey jeans days.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I can see that. I probably did look a bit butch in that outfit, but the overall effect I was going for was not "masculine", but more "girl who isn't afraid of getting her clothes dirty". I was not impressed with the therapist for not being able to perceive the difference.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

But wholly intact trousers aren't likely to get caught on the top of the fence.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

A lot of my most comfortable outfits are some variant of either Superhero or Ballerina. (The former is most often "Superhero pulls a skirt over her uniform and thereby fools everyone into believing in her alter ego". A skirt is to me what glasses were to Clark Kent.) However, today is "Emma Peel Goes Western".

Last Friday was "I've been listening to Gary P. Nunn and I'm Homesick But I Like the Northwest Better Than the Southwest and I'm *Really* Not Texan". I was pretty impressed that a coworker managed to get some of that - at least, he commented that it was an American country sort of outfit. (Corduroy shirt, red suede vest over, camisole under, jeans, belts, cowboy boots.)

Oh, and: the other related look I like is "In My Head, I'm On A Mountain Right Now", otherwise known as "You Think I'm Dressed Properly For the Office But Actually Most of My Outfit Came From REI and Places Like That".