No Fashion Police Here!

by
Sarcasta Bloodspitter

The first thing I'm going to say is, many readers are likely to disagree with me vehemently on a regular basis. This is by design, as fashion advice would be useless if it aligned with what everyone's already happy with.  I'm old enough to be half this audience's mother, and it's pretty rare that anyone thinks I am a goth, beyond one or two nights a month perhaps.  Even with the occasional Bettie comparison, I sometimes feel closer to her actual generation than the one most likely reading Global Gothic ... but I plan to use my perspective to serve this column.

Why do I get to write this?  I have a degree in theater, and close to forty years' experince getting several times a day. That "several times a day" is the key we will explore - clothes for living, clothes for working, and (of course!) threads suitable for Saturday nights! When you have to migrate between day-to-day suburban housekeeping, a corporate executive suite, rough-and-tumble time spent with various nieces and kids, and a Southern Baptist mom who can actually get you to walk into a strictly conservative church (even if you don't love it), you learn quite well how to create flexible wardrobing.  And, if you also want to be a Wicked Darkling Vixen or Daemon when it comes to your OWN time - that's what I'm here to discuss, with the experience of someone who's been everything from a hippie to an 80s hair-band bimbo to a photographer's model for more than one alternative shutterbug.  So let's start with probably the only rule I am likely to hand down:

>> RULE SIX: (we all remember rule six, never the others - right?):  NOOOOOO ... easy answers.

Challenge yourself to find wardrobe pieces in unexpected places.  Yes, that means finding a vintage or a secondhand store you happen to dig.  Yes, that means trolling online shops like SpookyBoutique and eBay and Lip Service and Velvet Garden.  But it also means ... keeping your eyes open in perfectly ordinary outlets, and finding ways to subvert mass-produced items in ways only you can.  GO to the dreaded mall, TRY peeking in Hot Topic, SEE what the department stores have languishing in their clearance racks and shoe departments.  I've found some of the most unexpectedly hip shoes in department stores, bless 'em.  Tottering about in something hot and totally wild from a store none of the other kids want to shop at can be a lot of fun.  The comic value of the look on someone's face when you tell them you got your crazy skirt at Burlington Coat Factory alone is worth the price.  So believe ... even Hot Topic has something to offer, and turn the dilettantes on their ears when someone asks where you got that cool accessory.  DIY a scarf or a belt into a choker or a hair piece.  Embrace the mediocre, but fist bend it a little bit in your own special manner.

Don't be too above the mainstream, either.  Go to Amazon's apparel links and check out the tie-dyed silk kimono top for $28.  You would not have looked for it, but, having found it, isn't it an interesting surprise?  Do searches blindly on eBay - or just from a search engine - for words which embody things you like.  "Kimono" might not be a bad start, paired with some word describing a color or element unique to your tastes.  "Red satin, Edwardian" or "anime kinky hair" might yield fascinating results.  Waste an hour on a search which might not take you anywhere, and see where it takes you.

>> And consider repurposing clothes, too ...

As I write this, I am wearing a fantastically elegant silver-grey silk blouse.  It was undoubtedly a $100 garment just a year or so ago, but the wearer hocked it on eBay, and I have this beautiful, highly-corporate piece (which cost me under $10 with shipping) just by happy accident.  It is extremely high quality; fine material, workmanship, and cut.  I can imagine what it would look like with a black fitted jacket and a wicked pinstripe skirt, paired with perhaps a velvet hat ... or even my tall B*tch Boots.  Switch my daytime hematite beads for a rhinestone choker, and this thing would be fun on a Saturday night.  Throw a cincher around it and let a pouf of gunmetal-colored lace erupt from the neckline, and this conservative, corporate blouse becomes a pretty wicked attention-getter.

Keep an eye out for items like that - items which can serve two masters, which have more than one personality.  And put your eye back into your own closet, too; consider the options you might not have thought of.  Those boots you always wear with that one great pair of pants; how would they look with the skirt you forgot, mouldering in the back of the closet?  When you think about how many black pants or skirts you have in there, or shirts, stop and think about how many combinations you are getting out of all these matching pieces.  And UN-matching pieces.  What unexpected thing can you do with what you own?  Or how can you use that accessory for something it wasn't obviously intended for?


>> *Gasp!*  What about color ... ?

The older I get, the more I gravitate to surprising colors (that's colours, for you brits and English-English lovers out there).  Being a natural contrarian, I spent so much time a few years ago rebelling against black, I finally realized last year I owned no black Saturday-night gear!  A corset in black is rather daring.  The same corset in turquoise is a jewel in a sea of darkness, when you go out at night.  Even red and white can be striking little shockers, if you wear enough to make it a "point".  When's the last time you stood before a group of people and saw anything but black, or maybe blue jeans, and (*gag*) frat-boy khakis?  Be a smart-ass:  Be the one wearing deep blue.  Be the one wearing something immaculate and bright, drawing attention by not conforming to nonconformist fashion.  Do the same with makeup, with shoes, with whatever strikes a chord.