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Weekend Reading: Having it all, speeding up intimacy, and tech anxiety
I’m having an amazing time in the studio these days. It’s insanely busy as we work to create each new issue of Seamwork, looking for the millions of ways we can make it better and expand, while also taking care of the main pattern line.
I’ve been writing, editing, playing with fabric, photographing, fabric shopping, hiring models, you name it. But we’ve also been working on patterns, thinking up new ways to help our stockists, and staring to plan a blog overhaul (woo!).
It’s frankly a bit bananas, but it’s invigorating. Every day, I have an insurmountable list. Every day, things are left undone. And I’m fine with that.
Weekend Reading:
- Powerful women and their uniforms
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I’m in love with this photo blog, Still. The artist behind it posts one photo of found natural objects each day.
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What does it mean to “have it all“?
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Christian Dior’s life in pictures.
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Erdem creates my dream textiles.
For more links every week, you can follow me on Twitter, where I’m always posting interesting tidbits I find.
image above via colettepatterns on instagram
Comments
Lisa
January 23, 2015 #
I can’t resist posting this, it made me laugh so hard. The opposite side of the 36 questions to accelerate intimacy: To Fall Out of Love, Do This
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/26/fall-love
Sarai
January 23, 2015 #
Haha… perfect.
Jet Set Sewing
January 23, 2015 #
Here’s my report as someone working in the 80s, when the power suit was born: when I started working, wearing polyester disco wrap dresses for my job at a television station, I and the other women, who were a novelty on the job back then, had to get the guys to stop staring at our cleavages and actually do what we were asking them to do. There was no such thing as suing for sexual harassment, so instead we put on jackets with big shoulder pads, and it actually helped. In the case of Hillary Clinton, she’s dealing with men who have a very specific dress code as well…tailored suits, Hermes ties, good watches and expensive shoes. Analyzing what she’s wearing from a fashion standpoint is fruitless. What she’s wearing signals that she understands the milieu she’s in, and that she’s not unsophisticated.
Sarai
January 23, 2015 #
For men, it seems like so much of dressing well is about following very specific rules. The language of women’s clothing is much more nuanced, but that leaves powerful women vulnerable to criticism… too sexy, too frilly, too mannish, too young, etc
iHanna
January 23, 2015 #
Great links, thanks for sharing your finds.
Happy weekend!
Charlotte
January 24, 2015 #
Oh dear. I wrote an awkward little post on the uniform question last year. The thing is, in order to drift away from a male-reflective uniform in a male-dominated or -centered field you either have to a) have to be perceived as having earned it (like the Notorious RBG, or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie), or b) have to understand that you’re going to have work a bit harder to prove that you can (shock and horror) dedicate brain space to both your job and your appearance. The madness. On most days, I like to look like a (male) eccentric Mediterranean billionaire from the 1970s (bright orange loafers and insouciance), and I spend far too much time thinking about how that’s going to translate into my life after graduation.
Can’t wait to see the fruits of your insurmountable list.
Amy Nicole
January 25, 2015 #
I just love getting your weekend reading list in my inbox! And I have to say, usually I just skim through your blurbs and click on what sounds the most interesting…. this week I clicked on everything :)
Lovely sunday reading!
kc
January 27, 2015 #
Thanks so much for this fantastic list! I have something you should check out if you haven’t seen it already:
http://www.ecouterre.com/reality-show-sends-fashion-bloggers-to-work-in-cambodian-sweatshop/
This is a short series of videos (streaming online with English subtitles) that follows three Norwegian fashion bloggers to Cambodia to meet garment workers, work in a garment factory, and try to make ends meet with a typical garment worker’s salary. It’s a pretty amazing piece of work, and it seems right in line with a lot of the concerns you raise here.
Sarai
January 27, 2015 #
That sounds amazing! I’ll definitely check it out.
kc
January 27, 2015 #
Please do! And I meant to comment before on the ‘uniforms’ issue: did you know that there’s a trend in powerful men’s suiting where the wearer’s name is woven through the material in a pinstripe? Here’s an example on India’s PM Modhi:
http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-GP715_MODISU_G_20150126031909.jpg
And here it is on former President Mubarak:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vugRV72VXAM/VMbgcCVY3WI/AAAAAAAAgQ0/KnTgCB3wJBs/s1600/mubarak_pinstripes.jpg
Isn’t that bananas?! I feel like a woman wearing a suit of that material would get a lot of shade thrown her way, regardless of how perfectly the suit was cut. I’m glad someone above name-checked Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — I really love her idea that you can embrace knowing you look good as a part of your power, you do not have to pretend you come into being only when your beauty is appreciated.