"The sense of being perfectly well dressed gives a feeling of tranquility that religion is powerless to bestow." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Fashion and style speak to something other than itself!
I'm not a fashionista or an exhibitionist, yet I love cultivating a wardrobe that ignites my imagination. The multifariousness and shameless retail therapy I experience at thrift stores creates an almost curative creative calisthenics in my soul. I am guilty of allowing my costume/vintage clothing collection to merge over time with my personal closet.
Alain de Botton has said that a carefully chosen wardrobe reflects personal values that can enchant and beguile us. Clothes act as a tour guide to reveal our sympathies and earnest desires.
A passionate, in depth study of historical clothing while in my twenties revealed to me another layer of meaning. As nearly all clothing of the 19th century was custom made, the choices in fabric, color, texture and above all FIT exhibited the taste, skills and aspirations of the wearer. If you made everything you are wearing from the wool of a lamb you bought last spring what would it say about you?
Further, women often sewed all the clothing for their families. Imagine the language of love a wife would develop as she mindfully reenforced the hems of a solid linen work smock for her husband. Or the tender anticipation an expecting mother would feel as she deliberately embroidered an intricate cap for her newborn.
Today in our modern manufactured world, we have largely lost this mystique. There are positive and negative trade offs in our lifestyles that have developed from this reality.
Meanwhile, I embrace the opportunity to literally "try on" different personas. Unlike our genetic features, which we owe to our personal hereditary lottery, we can choose and change and cultivate our clothing. Sometimes I want to support my commanding, authoritative nature with a black wool pant suit. Other times I want to be feminine, flowing and gentile in ruffles and diaphanous fabrics.
So enjoy the video! It is as viable an introduction to the varieties of me as I can offer.
