I always get a kick out of Adore & Abhor’s store name. It’s a clever euphonious riff on Love & Hate using assonance to make our ears smile. I am excited to see that Adore & Abhor are moving into mesh creation with this dress named Svelte, their first mesh dress that they developed for Cinema! the extravagant fashion showcase. The deep red with the contrasting darts is graphically bold and the cutaway bodice is sexy while holding everything in place.
Throughout history, cathedrals were designed to inspire awe and wonder through the power of light streaming in through windows – whether stained glass story windows or as at Memento Mori, through the flood of unfiltered sunlight. Any visitor to ChouChou’s Memento Mori will experience that sense of awe and wonder that lent such power to the medieval church. When I put on this stunning waterfall of a gown from Azul, I knew that I wanted to shoot it on the cascading stairs at Memento Mori in a bath of sunlight.
When I first moved to Portland, a gay co-worker asked me to participate in “Queer For A Day” an event organized by Queer Nation. I happily agreed, not realizing that meant all day. I blithely pasted on my florescent green and safety orange stickers that boldly proclaimed “Dyke” and “Queer” in huge black lettering and enjoyed my latte at Pioneer Square with all sorts of other temporary queers. Then I went to work.
Like many people in political activism, I began as a canvasser, one of those people who go door-to-door talking to folks about the issues and raising money to fund organizing campaigns. I had no fear of reprisals from my employer over my bold signage, but when I learned we were going to canvass in East County in a particular neighborhood we canvassers called “mean dog turf” my stomach began to churn. This was no liberal bastion of tolerance. I was terrified. My friend who had invited me to join the Queer For a Day action assured me that no one would blame me for taking off the stickers given the circumstances. However, I decided that gay folks don’t get to take off their gender orientation and truly, part of the purpose of Queer For a Day was to expose gay rights supporters to the un-fabulous reality of gay life – bullying, violence and homophobia.
So, I wore my sticker and approached every door with trepidation and anxiety. I did not suffer any physical violence other than some spit at my feet and only got a smattering of verbal abuse during the night. On the contrary, most people were very nice and friendly, supportive of the national health care campaign I was working on and curious and intrigued by my stickers and my explanation of the Queer For a Day concept. I did get warned away from particular houses – neighbors telling me that so and so was an OCA member (the virulent anti-gay organization responsible for several anti-gay ballot measures). I happily took their advice since I was not looking for any excitement. However, even though the night was successful and mostly uneventful, I have never forgotten that feeling of fear as I knocked on each door, anxious over every single encounter, afraid of verbal abuse, hatred, and violence.
Queer for a Day began as a lark to please a friend, but in many ways, it changed my life. I took the stickers off at the end of the day and returned to my relatively safe straight life, but I learned that night that tolerance is not equality. Human rights and human dignity are meaningless if even one person is denied them. If they are not innate and immutable, they are nothing more than privileges subject to the whims of those in power. I had been one of those Saul Alinsky style activists who believed that if we only sorted out the economic justice issues, oppression would lose its power, but I learned then, that oppression is not just an economic wedge, it is the foundation of political division and disempowerment. The oppression of gender minorities, women and people of color are the foundation of economic oppression, not the other way around. So long as we can be divided and disempowered by social wedges, the future is bleak.
It’s been about 17 years since I was Queer For a Day and a lot has changed. Not enough. There’s so much more to be done, but I am hopeful and optimistic and I am wearing purple for Spirit Day –. It’s much more fashionable than neon stickers and not nearly as frightening. As to why purple – I think I will just play the Lavender Song from 1920 for you.
It was easy deciding what to wear for this second installment in the Raid Your Closet Challenge. There are pieces I will never throw out, no matter how old they are. Among them are most of my Paper Couture designs. This dress is from September 2011 and is still available. I chose it because it highlights how much more experimental and effective the Lu sisters are at working with the system layers. This skirt has a bit more shape and body than the usual system skirt – not because of the skirt glitch that gives us all donkey booty, but because they often made full skirts with system pieces. They took the system skirt beyond the skin-tight pencil skirt and played with form. They weren’t the only ones, but they were certainly the most successful. They have not released in over a year. I hope that means they are taking their experimental, boundary-pushing, technology-testing ways to mesh and are preparing to surprise us all. I hope that’s why we have not heard from them in so long.
The recent release of the Shelby Doll Dress from VoguE put me in mind of Marie Antoinette. She was a huge promoter of Chinese art and the style of Western decor infused with Chinese sensibility called Chinoiserie. Chinoiserie is a French world meaning China-esque, a cultural appropriation that has produced amazing design in home decor and fashion.
I love the idea behind the Raid My Closet Challenge. With an inventory overflowing with far more clothes than I can keep track of and more shoes than a Jimmy Choo store, it makes sense to dig around in the inventory rather than buy something new. We all know that there have been great advances in the technology of clothing design and that there’s a reason some of the clothing moldering in our folders are not seeing the light of day anymore, but among those older clothes and shoes are gems that are just as good as ever.
If you can make it there, you can make it – anywhere. Nyu York, Nyu York!
Actually, I am not at the New York sim and I know that’s a terrible pun, but I could not resist. I have a weakness for bad puns.
What is true, though, is I am wearing Nyu’s fabulous trench coat and set for the winter rains. You can find it at the FaMESHed October showcase. The coat comes in leather and wool and in just about every color you could want. I chose pink because I was thinking it’s been a while since I wore something pink. Besides, it looks so good with the hotness that is…
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When I unpacked the glorious “My Feathered Waspie” from La Penderie de Nicole, I realized it was one of those pieces that could be mixed and matched with bits and pieces of other outfits to make fun, new things, giving me a chance to “design my own.”
When I saw this fabulous off-the-shoulder sweater from erratic for FaMESHed this month, I immediately thought of these gorgeous pants from Cashmere that I found at Vintage Fair. Sure enough, they are a great match and perfect for a no muss, no fuss Saturday.
I don’t know which opening move Aikea Rieko is commemorating with her Gambit dress, but it must be a colorful one.
I love the many iterations of this Gambit dress from The Plastik for FaMESHed and there is one in the tradition black and white colors of chess, so the name makes perfect sense. But for me, I am drawn to the wild, hallucinogenic prints like this one and the one that Acha wore the other day. But then, I have never had the patience for chess.