Whenever I come home from a convention, my head is full of thoughts of wonderful clothing. At conventions I realize that the clothing styles I truly love are not exactly in style. So I then imagine myself creating a wardrobe full of things that I love to wear that don’t mark me as a weirdo, but do look different from the current “trendy.” Phil and Kaja Foglio did this admirably. Everything they wore fit in both the modern world, but also could have walked right into the world of Girl Genius and fit there as well. I loved the way that they matched each other. I’m not sure Howard and I will pull that off because we have different personal preferences for clothing. But whether or not we match each other, we both want to be wearing something more original than “nice professional,” Or “geek casual” (t-shirt & jeans.) Those looks are fine for at home, but at conventions it would be nice to be more distinctive. So my brain has been plotting. Howard brought home a lab coat from Linucon. A lab coat could be a good look, particularly if the coat is tailored to fit attractively. Whatever look he picks, needs to go well with his cool boots. As for me, I see long full skirts, and shirts with fitted waists, and embroidery.
Sigh. I do this every time. My brain fills with images of beautiful clothes. Then the reality of my daily schedule asserts itself. I don’t have time to spend hours sewing. Compared to the other uses of my time, clothing just is not important enough to make the list. But I can while away the occasional Sunday afternoon dreaming.
I actually took particular note of what I saw you wearing at WorldCon and said “Wow! Sandra manages to look like she belongs at the Con without looking like a weirdo, and at the same time appears professional.” I especially liked your hair long and loose with the couple of thin braids.
A lab coat could be a good look, particularly if the coat is tailored to fit attractively. Whatever look he picks, needs to go well with his cool boots.
Ooh, a post-nuke defender of civilization, with mad science skills (in high school, we played Gamma World, based around our destroyed high school and town). ‘Course, there’s lots of pics of Howard out there, so is easy to imagine stuff. Could definitely see him as part of Buckaroo Bonzai and the Hong Kong Express.
For yourself, you’ve mentioned have a different style but haven’t really elaborated on it.
I am sort of struggling with wardrobe issues right now. My day job requires an “office casual” approach, which is becoming very dull after five months. I’d like to develop a more cohesive style as part of my “writer’s brand”, as it were, but I’m struggling to come up with something that’s appealing to me but not so eccentric as to be off-outting to others.
And then there’s the time factor! I have so many ideas (and so much fabric!) but time spent sewing is time that could be spent writing – and it’s probably a good thing that the writing almost always wins out.
Well thank you! I did like the way that particular outfit worked. I guess I just need to remember that even though I feel like I wear exactly the same clothes at every convention, other people don’t remember what I wore last time. Hmm. That might even be a hazard of dressing memorably….
I haven’t elaborated my style because I’m having trouble articulating it. I just know it when I see a piece that fits.
Actually, you can find all of those things at most thrift stores, especially around Halloween. You should also look in the second hand stores around the local college. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by what you might find.
You’ve just described my state of mind on clothing, except that since I work from home my “work clothes” tend to be comfortable and washable, matching is optional. The time factor is huge. The last thing I need is another huge project. But the sewing part of my brain whispers “It would be so fun! and Pretty!” Sigh. Some day I’ll make the time to be a seamstress again.
I do go looking at thrift stores. We have excellent ones around here. I need to get back to combing through the thrift stores once per week on dollar days. Its one of those frugal habits that fell by the wayside when life got crazy/busy. Good suggestion!
My new con look (because Jay Lake co-opted my Hawaiian shirt look and did it much better) is all about Bowling Shirts. Valerie bought me half a dozen of them for my birthday this year. They debuted at Denvention and were quite comfortable.
I actually noticed your shirts looking sharp and intended to mention it to you, but I got distracted and never did. Howard and I both read the Conroy stories and enjoyed them very much. I’ll probably be blogging about them later today. Howard also has them in his queue of “Things to Blog.” It was a pleasure meeting you at Worldcon.
One of the highlights for me of the past few worldcons has been meeting Codexii face to face, adding voices to the words I’ve been reading and moving features to the static icons I’ve been seeing for so long. Meeting Howard (and discovering Schlock Mercenary) was just added gravy!
I’m especially glad when Valerie gets to meet people at cons, because she’s much more skilled socially than I am; I tend to be rather clueless about all sorts of social niceties that everyone else apparently knows.
Ah, and I agree with, I thought your hair looked terrific with the braids.