I Like Socks

There is a bit of discussion over H&M offering skirts with their menswear for Spring 2010.  It is true that somebody is always trying to introduce skirts to menswear and it is going to make the blogs titter every time.  What is new is that it’s not some fancy-pants (skirt) designer who’s most outré pieces have no chance of trickling down to department ready-to-wear copies.  This is H&M, which—for cities that are not Portland—is as solid a source for clothing as Target is in the ‘burbs.

That there is no (apparent) feature of these skirts that differentiates them from styles sold regularly to women doesn’t really matter.  These are Skirts For Men, racked next to skinny jeans and blazers in the men’s section.  There will be no need to wander over to Juniors or Ladies and parse a different department’s sizing system, practising legit-sounding reasons for being there.  More folks who shop in the men’s department will try them on.

If the experiment fails, whatever, the seed has been planted. Once a style permeates the department stores it never really goes away.  Less classy/hep joints will begin picking it up. The process will rev the feedback cycle until, like cargo pants and babydoll tees, skirts in the men’s section are always represented to some degree—though every couple of years you may have trouble finding a style you like since the world’s gone obsessed with something else for the season.

During a season when everybody is wearing body-obscuring layers and thick coats, I’m thinking about summer. Not, as you might guess, in a wistful manner, contrasting the sweltering day star to the icy dusk. Instead, I’m noticing how cold can be the great gender equaliser.

I’ve seen and heard comments on dating during winter, who can guess at the shape beneath that puffy parka (and more importantly, does it have tits?).

In the same vein, it’s generally agreed that summer is when the secondary sex characteristics come out. Bare chests, short shorts, the curve of the neck unobstructed by scarves and high collars.

Last summer and acquaintance bemoaned his inability (work and lifestyle related) to wear light summer dresses in the clinging wet heat. As someone who can and does wear skirts, I extended my sympathies—in the heat skirts win, less fabric, breeze access and more length variations to favour a wider range of legs and style.

It is a horrible bummer that general society inhibits people from wearing what they like if it goes against the local community’s opinion of what one should wear when presenting as a particular gender. Ladies have it easier, pants, in most cases, are totally okay.

Women in items that are clearly “menswear” have, for some time, in the western world, been accepted and embraced. ‘Cause “how hot is it when she’s wearing your shirt?” Acceptance hinges, of course, on using menswear to enhance one’s delicate, blushing femininity by contrast.

However. For ladies the world of fashion more widely spreads its legs. Nonetheless, the common female approach to menswear is couched in jealousy, only the rare lightbulb flickering on to realise that men’s closets are wonderful sources of plunder, or that an item could be considered “unisex” (and therefore okay). Why confine your taste and comfort to the dark months of winter?

I’m late on posting this, but hell, might as well finish the draft, get it out of the queue, new year and all.

Late December we went to one of the local Targets that was graced with the presence of some of Rodarte’s little capsule collection.

The situation and lighting was one where flash or no flash were equally annoying options, as far as getting clarity and detail.  These are quickie snapshots taken to get a point across.

There were dresses and bikinis and printed tees too, but I picked a couple of pieces that seemed best representative. I could not find the tights they made, which are pretty much just large pattern lace and I know Leg Avenue makes a variation in a thigh high.  All images link to Flickr pages that have more info.

Anyway, the piece I liked the most wasn’t even available online:

Quality-wise, if you like Target’s house brands (Mossimo Supply Co. and Merona, specifically), then you’ll have no problem with these pieces.  I personally am totally a fan of them, and found nothing wrong with all the little tulle/lingerie/lace fabric and treatment, nor the cardigans.

A couple pieces though, were victims of design and circumstance:

The tulle that works so well on the skirts comes off as itchy, snaggy and badly draped here.  Online reviews at Target say the fabric is as itchy as it looks and that the bows are not tacked, so they come undone and don’t go back very well.

Well, it’s printed, so the inside remains white.  This is always a problem with prints, they might have been better off using a mustardy-yellow lace and printing black on it.  Inside felt scratchy,hung like crap—but that might have been a combination of the fabric and any residual size.

I wish they were carrying the socks they show in the looks. Closest equivalents at Sock Dreams are the Textured Stripe Knee High and fishnets over beige stockings, both raw-topped (cut the crotch top of the tights off so they’re just legs).

Overall I am remaining sceptically hopeful for Gaultier’s line, though it sounds like it is coming from a similar approach to what McQueen did—referencing “women and pop culture” instead of those things that made us love the designers in the first place.

There are a couple of things, during this season of costumes, that are asked about by customers at work.  One of my favourites is “how do I get the stockings (leggings?) the Alice character wears in Resident Evil: Extinction?”

The internet is mildly clogged with answers to finding the right holsters, or you can look at images of the original costume and really, it isn’t that difficult to get info.  But there wasn’t anything I could find (at this time) specifically about the stockings, which are basically self-gartered.

Tights are, in general, a bitch to fit.  If you’re leggy, or rounded, or some combo of both, odds are the crotch of the damn things end up somewhere lower than they’re supposed to, giving you that sexy penguin waddle.  So chopping the legs off a pair of tights and tying them back on will just lose you precious length in the leg.

So, here is a simple step-by-step to get the self-garter look.

1. Find yourself a pair of tights or leggings. Foot Traffic’s Combed Cotton in Brown, Chocolate, or Heather Mocha are all good bets for the Alice costume, and are comparable to Rit dyes I’ve worked with before, so you can match the shirt to the tights.
2. Put the tights on, making sure the legs are straight (this is important to positioning the “garter”).  Now, using a fabric marker or pen that will wash out, mark the center-point of your thigh.  Do this at the height you want the self-garter to be.
3. Take the tights off.  Laying them flat and even, make two marks to either side of the center-point you just made.  You want the total width to be about 1.5 inches.
4. Using the marks you’ve just made as a guide, cut a shallow wedge from the sides in.  Set the pieces you’ve cut out aside.
5. Almost done.
   
6. Now, take those bits you cut out and tie them around the self-garter you just made, back and front.  Wrap them around several times, it bulks up the “knot”.  I find it’s easier to do this when they’re on, as you can judge things a little better.  Trim any extra ends.
7. BAM. You actually get a little extra length this way, even.

I was stuck at home sick, missing over half a day of work, which I’m crazy guilty about.  So, here is a work-related fluff piece about arm and leg warmers.  Which—PS—are not just an “80’s thing” but a snappy and smart way to layer during the unpredictable weather of fall and spring.

It’s been interesting watching how the fashion world is dealing with the shifts in economy and social opinion.  Last year we saw an increase of focus on legwear (to my delight), this year I am noticing more and more attention paid to nails.  It’s these little, changeable things that can bulk out a wardrobe without shattering a budget.  Or, if you couldn’t give two shits about your seasonal attire, they’re things that extend your clothing’s ability to cover you in weather.  Fun to play with and cheap enough not to prevent you from playing.

Back to the subject at hand/foot: arm and leg warmers are one of those things.  Not quite legwear, equally hated and loved and surprisingly interchangeable.  Like, really surprisingly.

At work we’re often reminding people that leg warmers, being simple tubes, can go on the arms as well.  This is great for the monkey-armed (like me) and for those days when it is 45º in the morning and 94º at the height of the day.

They’re long enough that the look is more layered, so you don’t invoke the wrath of folks who roll eyes at the pairing of t-shirt and arm warmers.

But the point of this exercise, really, is to show the fab idea my boss has been rocking, which is arm warmers as toeless tabi leg warmers.  It probably breaks like, so many laws.  I see so many people shivering sockless in flats and sandals no matter the weather that I feel it is for the greater good (and the greater good’s amusement) that I give an example.

It all comes back to the same thing I am always saying.  Play, experiment.  It’s just clothes.

With Labor Day fully come and gone and the various Fashion Weeks looming like the ghost of decades past, there is one old saw everyone can parrot: Don’t wear white (alternately, white shoes) after Labor day.  It’s a lie, like any hard and fast fashion rule—but it has totally got to be even more of a lie right now.  Three reasons:

1. With the advent of, like, washing technology, you don’t need dark colours in the winter to cover mud stains and city soot.
2. Neons are (still) hot stuff and white pops ‘em like crazy town.
3. Miami Vice

So, you are all like, “Wait a damn minute on the third point there” and people who know me are shaking their heads.  However, I can back that shit up and the whole point of this anyway is to talk a little about Miami Vice under the cover of Labor day and whites.

Despite the candles I’ve lit and wishes I’ve made, the influences of the 80’s and 90’s are still with us.  Yes, those familiar pastels (and may I note that Miami Vice wasn’t all pastel, there were just no earth tones), though but one facet of those wild and crazy times, are still a legit chunk of our social genetic memory.  Therefore: applicable.

There is, of course, a level of personal joy in thinking of those jewel tones and beach dress whites glowing a little bit of Florida sun through the inevitable grey and rain of fall.

Sniggering is inevitable when discussing Miami Vice, though the sea change in fashion it brought still resounds today—

Yes.  Even after the first Monday in September.

A month or so ago my co-workers and I travelled up to Seattle for an event.  The car we took was the newest vechicle I’ve ever been in and the inside looked like a spaceship.  Well, really, what the current present regards as a spaceship, which reality falls a touch short of.

I off-handedly noted that car design was tending towards a super-future look to give us the feeling of personal space vehicles that our past predicted and future denies us.  We can’t have the future so we’re creating a façade around our everyday objects in an attempt to placate our desires.

The past several seasons (and what has been popping up in between) is tending in the same direction.  Though some designers have always “looked ahead”, today’s idea of tomorrow is permeating through collections in ever more obvious ways.  And I’m not even looking at shoes and accessories, because I’m not trying to draft a thesis paper here, just pointing a couple things out.

I can’t pretend to know why, and I will ignore the obvious fall backs, like escapism to a time and space of ready cash to drop on the latest couple-thou frock.  Everybody says stuff like that and, on average, everybody is wrong.

I’m just sayin’ is all.

The retro-future aspects of some of the looks is like a one-two punch—pulling nostalgia from a past that wasn’t to a future that probably won’t.  But, I mean, the future is now, right?  We’re looking at Resort: 2010 (thankfully not designed by one, though pity not the other).  The cycle of retro-retro and futuretasma is congealing into a present of structure and shiny that just won’t be denied.

I know, I know. I’ve been gone for simply ages. I’m well past the point where I could just stick up a post as if I hadn’t been gone. So I have to acknowledge it. After that last bit I was going to do a thing about I was going to link to this then, even and how they’re totally invading the runway. But then a thing came up, and another thing, and then a big thing and everything fell by the wayside. But my RSS started filling up last week with the runway again and I’m feeling the guilt and suddenly remembering that yes, I have been neglectful. All I can offer you in recompense are some of the more ridiculous socks I’ve ever worn.

Why would someone want 100 inches of sock?  There are quite a few people.   I have my theories, one terrible and one comprehensible (in theory).  There are people who want 200 inches of sock and at least one person who wants 400 inches.  Humans, amirite?

I am, honestly, going to write about the last couple of fashion weeks beyond where you can get the legwear.  Today though, I’m gonna be all timely and shit.  Let’s set it up.

Last year I nearly pissed myself with joy when I discovered Target’s Go International line.  This was because they had a capsule line by Jovovich-Hawk, who I love inexplicably.  I then promptly fell in love with a couple of pieces, waited until the line was 75% off and bought a dress.  Because I am like that.

Anyhow, in November of last year, it was announced that Target was starting this new thing, Designer Collaborations—and that it was kicking off with Alexander McQueen.  By February, a fuller version of the looks popped up.  It was understandably toned down—inspired by Leila Moss, who is called a “90s Brit Rocker” (though her band doesn’t seem to extend that far back), the skinny pants paired with bulkier tops made sense.  Also, you know, Target, logical price point, design for all.

I was, and am, pretty stoked for this.  Beyond my love and respect for some designers, I don’t froth at the mouth about labels.  But I am interested in this “Design for All” thing, as it hints at a truly post-modern future for fashion.

So it is out today and is not heart-stopping—there are a lot of basics, one or two good pieces and something that makes your brain hurt.  And Blythe is involved somehow.  Nonetheless, there is a touch of the future in there.

And I am probably going to buy these when they are, inevitably, on clearance.

I cannot feel bad for abandoning you these past weeks, as all the usual suspects are doing nicely with the shows and really, I told you this wasn’t a place to keep up to date.  I’ve had my hands full doing a very, very nerdy thing.

I am, as I’ve noted, biased.  I think legwear, be it socks or tights or legwarmers, helps complete an outfit.  With makeup and hair, it frames and finishes a look.  Most designers these past couple of weeks seem to be favouring a bare leg, the silly gits.  Or they go for the plain canvas of a semi-sheer nylon, like what you can get at Fred Meyer or Target.  The rest seem to be clothing their models in tights,  but there are some who are having comparatively more fun.  I’m going to give you a bit of a cheat-sheet rundown, but first let me supply you with the basics.

Want tights?  There’s Foot Traffic Combed Cotton and E.G. Smith Leg Therapy. The first fits better and more folks, only one seam at the rear.  The second has more, and more vivid, colours, but if you’re not fan of the butt panel, then you might steer clear (they also have a history of not always making the legs the right length, or equal lengths, don’t even get me started).  Want the sleek microfiber look?  Then you want Erika Microfiber Tights, or there are stirrup and legging options.

Okay, that taken care of, let’s dig in after the jump.  Now, I’ll be adding as more trickle in, and God knows I’ve probably missed some. I’ve looked at maybe 150 slideshows of what walked the past couple of weeks, so you’ll have to forgive me and let me know what I did miss.

And sorry, darlings, no flyovers in these links. I would have just about died.

F2009 RTW

Albino—Tights, lightly ribbed, semi-sheer: MP Lightly Ribbed Tights (grey).

Alessandro Dell’Acqua—Possible toeless anklet, ribbed, sheer: still pondering if these are socks or shoe parts.

Alexander McQueen—Stocking vertical stripe; leather (could be attached to shoe): Vertical Stripe Thigh Highs (orange), Opaque Vertical Stripe.

Anna Sui—Tights, crochet pattern, psychedelic houndstooth, bright vertical stripes, irregular sparkle: Codori Crochet tights (black), or Liliana Crochet Luxury tight (black) nearly exact match; nothing like it for the houndstooth; closest match for the vertical would be Tights Striped Lengthwise; closest match for sparkle would be Lurex Shimmery thigh highs (gold/black).

Bottega Veneta—Ankle height, slightly slouched: B. Ella Meg Unconstricted Top Crew (black), Flat Knit Bell Top Anklet (black).

Charles Anastase—Mix of things,woven pattern tights, heathers, solids; loose striped or solid OTK/thigh high, also semi-sheer trouser sock: Kalana Wool Crochet tights (black) or Zurich Texture tights; Foot Traffic Combed Cotton (heather graphite), E.G. Smith Heathered Tights (heather graphite); Super Stripes (black & olive); June OTKs (caviar), Super Basics (black), O Woolies (black); B.Ella Trentata Trouser sock (espresso).

Christian Lacroix—Tights, lace printed, gold and black: Bebaroque Tattoo Me or Betty.

Comme Des Garcons—Midcalves under loose, seamed, beige/nude hose: nothing like it.

Dolce & Gabbana—Tights, possibly thigh high, black ruffle and gold ruffle backseam: Leg Avenue Lycra Mesh Thigh High with Ruffle Back Seam, closest match, out of stock at a lot of online shops.

Dsquared²—Midcalf, slouchy; plain knee high (could be same sock for both): EG Eco Comfort Top Knee High (black), Luisa Comfort Top Knee High (caviar). Note: these two do not like staying up, so they will create that fallen-down slouch quite naturally.

Emporio Armani—Trouser socks in knee high and midcalf: B.Ella Trentata Trouser sock (any), Heather Socklings (bark, slate grey); Flat Knit Bell Top Anklet (oxford grey).

House of Holland—Tights, extra-bold stripes with thinner white bands: nothing like it (Except I saw a girl on Killingsworth who had vaguely similar leggings, but damn if I don’t know where they came from.  I am hunting.)

Issey Miyake—Lace printed, colour-block stripe tights/leggings: nothing like it.

Jager London—Thigh highs (possibly loose tights) neutral tones, contrast bands and foot: nothing like it.

Jean Paul Gaultier—Tights, opaque and sheer duos; open net: Either Or Tights ; Warning Net Pantyhose.

Lucella—Tights, lurex: closest look would be Lurex Shimmery thigh highs (gold/black).

Marc Jacobs—Legging, fishnet: Lycra Seamless Fishnet Leggings (black).

Marc by Marc Jacobs—Tights, wide striped; segmented bold stripe legwarmer; slouched, flat ribbed socks, possibly legwarmers:  closest match Cronert Wide Stripe OTKs (cobalt, orange); Ribbed Wool Legwarmers (black, ivory), Coco Turncuff Knee Highs (caviar), Harajuku Super Loose Socks (black, ivory, white),Cotton Slouch Socks (black, natural, white, dark red).

Marni—Tights, woolly or cotton patterned, plaid, offset diamond:  Black and White Check Tartan tights.

Maurizio Pecoraro—Tights or stockings, subtle flocked dot: Tabbio Polka Dot Tights, Betsey’s Flashy Dots Capri leggings , closest match.

Miu Miu—Tights, spangled: Nothing like it.

Paul Smith Women—Tights and OTKs, heathered & fall tones: Foot Traffic Combed Cotton (heather mocha, heather graphite), E.G. Smith Heathered Tights (any), Plain Cotton Stockings (brown tweed), Lemonade Stockings (bittersweet brown).

Prada—Loose, Slouched to knee thick ribbed (could be part of shoe): Harajuku Super Loose Socks (black, night grey).

Rebecca Taylor—Mid-calf, heathered: Heather Socklings (chambray, slate grey), EG Eco Comfort Top Crew (denim), Relaxed Top Anklet (denim), Flat Knit Bell Top Anklet (oxford grey).

Ruffian—Tights, possible bodysuit, flocked or woven in dots: Tabbio Polka Dot Tights, Betsey’s Flashy Dots Capri leggings , closest match.

Tao—Ankle socks (ruffled?) with pom-poms: Closest match (most pom pom socks currently made have pom at back) Lace Ruffle Anklets (white) or Ruffle Shorties (white) with Pom Pom sock garters (white).

Tracy Reese—Thigh highs or OTKs, thick knit: O Woolies (black), Long Cuffable Scrunchables (black), Super Basics (black), OTK Tube Socks (black).

Vivenne Westwood—Knee high soccer style socks, various patterns; subtle opaque and sheer vertical stripedprinted sheer tights: no exact match on soccer socks, but Nike Centenario Game Sock, Dreamy Knee High Tube Socks; Kayla Stripe Trouser Sock (charcoal), Dobby Pinstripe Footless Tight; Tattoo Me, Betty, Roots and Smoke Print (grey).

Vivienne Westwood Red Label—Knee highs, semi-sheer trouser sock and thicker roll or comfort tops:  B.Ella Trentata Trouser sock (caviar, graphite); O Pastels (banana).

Wunderkind—Tights, printed vertical & pattern block: nothing like it.

Y-3—Mid-calf, black roll top: B. Ella Meg Unconstricted Top crew (black).

Zac Posen—Tights, large sparkle gradient in grey and red also a plain solid opaque cream, delicate fishnet and a knee high or OTK large-gague fishnet with seam in front worn over some: nothing like the sparkle gradient, maybe Zebra Lurex tights; B.Ella Refined Fishnet (any); the Fishnet Thigh Highs with Backseam which are tube-style and can worn ‘backwards’, also the Lace Up Fishnet Sock.

PF2009 (these two are important, when people want to copy legwear, 70% of the time it is these two)

Miu Miu—Legwarmers, knee high, ribbed: Cronert Ribbed Arm/Leg warmers (anthracite grey), Foot Traffic Ribbed Knit legwarmers (charcoal).

Prada—OTKs, ribbed, folded down: MP Ribbed Wool OTKs (black, grey).