no boys allowed in the room!!!!

Book sounds awesome and hilarious and you should not apologise.

I think I first heard of Edith Sitwell during high school, when I wanted to know what the Bloomsbury Set did.

That book is totally awesome. Morbidly curious about Does This Make Me Look Fat, too.

Morbidly curious about Does This Make Me Look Fat, too.

Me too!

Although I think a more constructive question to ask oneself is, "Does this fit well?"

I desperately want you to get this book and devote a thread to it, L.!

I'm going to do it, and then there's going to be a PERSONAL STYLE POLL from the allowable "types", complete w illustrations.

Awesome!

I can't wait!

my fashion icons: fraulein maria, laverne, shirley, little lord fauntleroy.

can't wait for this poll.

owning shoes that made noise on the wood floors.

THIS!!!!!!

tehresa i just friended you on facebook because you're the only girls-only person aside from laurel whose name i know
i'm not a giant weirdo i promise (well i am, but i won't embarrass you)

haha ok

i am excited about this book! will have to look for some old style guides at thrifts. in middle school, my mom subscribed me to seventeen magazine because every girl got it (i wasn't cool enough to know about sassy) and i remember being totally confused as to how they put outfits together and where they bought nice clothes, since you couldn't buy anything cool at the crappy mall in my hometown, it didn't even have the gap. took until high school to discover all the best stuff was at goodwill.

boots: old and beat-up steel toed docs from high school that i refuse to part with but never wear, vintage stephane kelian combat boots from the 80s, apc black that i don't wear enough (never been keen on wearing the boots-over-jeans look), simple black charles david ankle boots with about a 4" heel, ld tuttle dark grey ankle boots, chie mihara dark indigo lace-up (mid calf), brown mid-calf apc, and my ll bean duck boots.

i would prob buy more (don't need to, but i would) if i didn't wear size 11 which most of the time cool labels either don't make or sell out v fast before it goes on sale! suzy do you mean the giant clunky black balenciaga ankle boots, the ones from that collection with all the egg-shaped coats (i think it was fall 06?)

i'm wondering if i'd be better off if i didn't care about clothes and shoes tbh. but it is so much fun! i think my biggest influence for good and bad is the cool girls at catholic school, they wore plaid with argyle, baggy tops and cardigans, moccasins, bomber jackets, clashing colors, and stuff borrowed from older brothers or from the men's department.

i wish someone would just scan this whole thing and post to the interwebs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Preppy_Handbook

OK I ordered a copy of DRESSING RICH yesterday for less than $10 incl shipping. I'm torn -- I can't decide whether we'll be rolling in the aisles, or whether it will mostly be surprisingly sensible advice (with a few mauve exceptions). WAIT AND SEE

i hope it's better than this thing was
http://www.conair-store.com/imagesEdp/p19795b.jpg

surprise i am not glamourous in different artificial seasonal lighting

Well, I was planning on rescuing my copy of TOPH from MN but did not travel this Xmas, boo. Honestly, I don't know why someone in publishing doesn't reissue so L, you should get on that.

Sure, I'll have them re-issue it in a special children's edition.

Do any of you know what a "convertible foot" is in relation to tights?

Also, I used to have one of those make up mirrors, and I kind of wish I still did, mostly for the magnification for eyebrow plucking.

Yeah, Jenny, although I'm only aware of them as a dancer's thing? They're tights with a lengthwise slit cut into the foot and bound off (so it doesn't rip or run any more) so that you can pull them down over your feet or roll them up around your ankles.

http://secure.hostdeziners.com/www_theshoeroom_ca/store/images/product_images/6668.jpg

Thanks, Laurel!

I'm tights shopping, as I had to retire two totally sprung pair this morning and despite doubling up again today, I nearly died out there walking from the dentist to work. I read pretty good things about Dankso tights as far as them being thick and opaque and indestructible, but I wasn't sure what a "convertible foot" was. I think I will go for the regular ones - I definitely do not need a hole in the foot of my tights.

I mean I hate leggings so much, why would I pay MORE for tights that can turn into them? Yeah.

fact: i am going crazy trying not to look at duo boot sale

tell me they eat puppies for their midmorning snack
tell me that they will make my feet turn into tiny warthogs instead of feet
make me not spend tons of money on these boots!

i just bought two perfectly decent new pairs of boots to replace old ones that had become decrepit. i am not in the market for fashionable boots.

yet

ok i'm over it.

Amanda, I took my Duo boots to the shoe place to have them polished and waterproofed and the guy there said that they were very nice boots and that I got an incredible deal. I'm saying that if you get a pair, you should not feel guilty because they are totally Q.

i know but i have SO MANY BOOTS and am somehow incapable of getting rid of any of them. i just realized that i have this problem called my "clothing archive" which is really just a bunch of shit i don't wear anymore. but i'm keeping it to remind myself of something. what? i'm not sure. what i used to think was appropriate? what i used to like to wear? because it took me a long time to find it and therefore i can't give it away? because it reminds me of that conversation i had or that place i went? i dunno. i should not buy these boots right now. i have stopped looking at the website.

i think i'm over it.

AHAHAHAHAH oh dear. I do love you both.

Amanda, if you want to reduce your clothing archive, maybe you should take pictures of the items in the archive, note what it is about that item that you want to remember and keep a record either in electronic or actual format. Then you can give the item itself away. I mean, only if you care. If not, I apologize for offering a solution when you are not actually looking for one.

"just in case" it sits in your closet. "just in case" is always spared during spring cleaning. hasn't happened yet, but any day it could be called into service. this is the item that will have your back, on your back. sometimes, having "just in case" ready to go on the old hanger works like an umbrella on a cloudy day, miraculously, and mysteriously staving off any need whatsoever for it.

A pretty little blog post that I found while googling something else the other day.

no i AM looking for one. that is a good idea. i need to say goodbye to some stuff and i just can't find a way to do it without, i dunno, a ritual burning or something.

just in case is most of my closet. ok, closets.

photos and a ritual burning sound good, actually.

Okay, good. I'm super sensitive to the "offering solutions when none were requested" thing because my coworker keeps doing it to me, such as the other day when she suggested I take some classes on how to be more self sufficient because I joked that when Jeff went out of town, I get kind of feral and eat over the sink and sleep on my clothes.

I sort of want to tell her that last night for dinner I had a cold piece of leftover frozen pizza and a bowl of cornflakes but then she'll start sending me easy recipes that I can freeze and eat later or something.

Amanda, make some room in your closet because I still have that thing to send you! When I remember. Maybe I will look for more than one thing, just to make the package worthwhile. You won't need the jacket until spring anyway, more's the pity....

ok. i can get rid of some things, i'm sure. like the high heeled tap shoes (sob), or the tall brown lace-up mother goose boots that are too small and will always be too small (sobsobsob)

seriously though, there must be a second layer i can peel. like the polyester green-white-pink maxi tank dress that belonged to someone who lived in my old neighborhood's hawaiian mother while she was pregnant with her.

see? it's hard.

Anything that doesn't fit must go. Anything that is ripped, stained, and unrepairable must go. Unrepairable means that you have been saying to yourself for more than one year that you are going to repair or have repaired a certain garment, but have never actually done so.

If you have attachment to some things such that you love them and want someone else to love, put them up on Ebay or Etsy to find them good homes with loving owners.

i also wore that hilarious dress to my old boss's over the top wedding at the modern art museum and got super drunk with my other coworker and then took the bus home and we talked about weed. memories!

i think i can't get rid of these things because they jog my otherwise very clogged memory. it's not as easy as ebay because i don't want anyone else to have these things. they're too full of me.

maybe i have a problem :-/

a picture would help.

I mean unless they're making your life an episode of "Hoarders", it isn't bad to keep things that mean something to you. If you KNOW that that's what they are, you don't have to follow that cookie-cutter self-improvement advice about how to clean out your closet. (It IS good advice IF that's what you want to achieve, but...).

I keep a lot of things for various reasons.

A picture, and then you record that story, too. You can even make a book out of them through the magic of iPhoto or other on-line services.

Amanda, when you are ready to do this, I will be there for you. I'm very pragmatic when it comes to reducing clutter, plus I like listening to your stories.

xp - of course, Laurel is also correct.

I expect Amanda has her reasons for wanting to be able to shut the closet door and feel good about it, I am not unsympathetic. But I also happen to be against the clinical disposal of memory objects, even though NYC apartments have basically no storage and I had to jam my winter coat into the closet this morning. (NYC apartments also do not have coat closets separate from the bedroom ones, and winter coats take up a crapload of room.)

oh, they do! and i couldn't possibly get rid of the 1930s blue wool ankle length coat i got at this estate sale of an old woman who lived in my neighborhood until she died and her family sold off everything in her house.

my main concession in the last few years is not to accumulate any more of this stuff. i'm not a hoarder, but i have a real shitload of memory objects.

i realize that's basically every estate sale ever, but it just felt very fresh and weird to be walking around her house, picking up things where she last left them.

i always hated getting rid of meaningful things, but moving a lot helped me with that. however, i still have at least 1 suitcase worth of things i haven't worn in years and couldn't bear to get rid of.

here is a case for keeping: before i moved, i was a little ruthless in getting rid of things, and gave away my black wool peacoat that felt a little too snug for comfort. now it would fit perfectly and my other coats are big and i'm stuck having to spend $ on a new one and also going through the agonizing process of finding the perfect replacement.

another story: i could never bring myself to get rid of that bcbg kimonoish black top, even though i had only worn it like twice 5 years ago, because it made me feel so fat and insecure, but this year i wore that shit for christmas dinner. so. keep the ones you love.

guys i didn't read the whole thread; what's "Q"?

quality.