Wicked Whimsy

Archive for April, 2010

I have been in such a rut lately. I don’t know if it’s stress, or what, but I’ve just been so blah! Having a hard time sleeping, very little motivation, finding it near impossible to focus. Yuck. And we keep running into delays launching Bandit Printing – I know it takes time, but damn, I just want it up already! Anyways, so in an effort to stay positive, I thought I’d share some good things & recent goings on with you:

• New hair/glasses! It is so nice to have good glasses again. The old pair was several years old, so the prescription was slightly out of date, and the right lens was slightly foggy because the UV coating was coming off. Going from those to these is like seeing the world in HD or something. (I switched from contacts because I either developed an allergy to the brand I was wearing or an allergy in general, I’m going to try another brand but in the meantime, needed some glasses!) I’m not sure if the hair counts as new – it turned out awfully green this time, but was supposed to be the same color as last time. I like how it turned out though!
• I finally got a tablet for drawing on the computer! I’ve spent a few hours messing around with it, I think I mostly have the hang of it now. You can see a rough sketch of one of the Valkyries characters (that I did while learning how to use the tablet) here, if you like. This means I can start working on getting the comic going f’reals.
• I found the Fluevog Haight shoes I’ve been watching for since last summer/fall on eBay at a great price. Look for them in an outfit post soon!
• Aaaand I’m going to the UT Fashion Show tonight! With Amanda, and will hopefully see Indiana (who is finally feeling better, poor thing) there as well. Photos will be forthcoming.

So – I promise that I’ll be back to regular posting schedule next week. And I hope you’re all doing well!

Hello hello!

• Before I forget, I have a tumblr now, so if you want to see some shorter/random posts from me, check it out!
• Some thoughts on weight, fat activism, and health – faaabulous post. Timely too, since I had just read Hungry!
• Sassy swimwear review. I already found an amazingly retro (and also cheap, $15 from $80something) swimsuit at TJ Maxx, but if you’re looking!
• The feather in your “native” cap – a thoughtful look at appropriation in fashion and why it is an important issue.
• The worst business advice I’ve received, from the lovely Danielle LaPorte. I think this is actually more helpful than the lists of best business advice, go figure!

Short and sweet this week! I hope you’re getting your’s started off right! Why yes, I will overuse exclamation points, please and thank you!

Bras are a rough area for a large chunk of ladies – whether they have a large cup and band size, a large band size but a smaller cup size, or a small band size but a large cup size. I wear a 34DDDD (that is not a typo!) and I have personally experienced the torture that bra shopping can become! I’m here to tell you – it doesn’t have to be that bad. Here’s my process for making it as painless as it can be:

1. Find a bra shop and get sized. A real bra shop – most of the chain stores (Victoria’s Secret, I’m looking at you!) are notorious for handing out bad measurements. Something like 85% of women wear the wrong bra size – the improvement is immediately noticeable when you switch to the right size! If you don’t have a lingerie shop near you (the one I went to apparently mostly sells wedding undergarments, so maybe check those too), try reading some online information about the correct fit. I was wearing the right size before I got measured, since I knew what to look for.
2. Try on several bras. Note the makers of the ones that fit you best, as well as the model number or name. Seriously, bring a notebook, write it all down! Buy one bra if you want, I did since the assistant was incredibly helpful and spent probably 45 minutes bringing me different bras. First bra I’ve bought at full retail price in probably four years!
3. Go home. Find bras on eBay. Buy them for $20-30 a pop instead of $40-70. Rejoice in your newfound collection of bras that fit properly.

The brands that I would recommend (at least for others built like me) are Panache, Chantelle, and Freya. To be fair, I’ve only worn one Freya bra, which was fairly well constructed. But I’ve heard great things about them and I love to see cute bras in bigger sizes. Chantelle is probably my favorite, except that their bras are all hand sewn, so there are tiny variations from bra to bra even in the same make – variations that can make the difference between “wow my back feels great” and “dammit, this underwire keeps poking me in the armpit”. But I can find them on eBay for around $20, so it’s worth the gamble to me. Panache is a close second and is more uniform from bra to bra – but that brand is harder to find for cheap on eBay.

The care and keeping of:

Okay, so I know that some people machine wash their bras, but I do not, after the Incident. In which one of my favorite bras was put into the washing machine, and the underwire was somehow extracted from it without any sign of a hole or tearing. Like magic. Evil black washing machine magic.

So now I hand wash all of my bras. It’s surprisingly easy; just put the bras in a thing full of water with the appropriate amount of detergent, let sit, and rinse. I use Eucalan, which is kind of pricyish but smells dee-vine (lavender FTW!). And if you do machine wash, you should probably look into buying a bag for them to be washed in.

There’s my secrets! Utilizing these methods, I now have almost a full wardrobe of bras. Believe me, it’s certainly a step up from a year or two ago.

Have any bra woes or tips to share? What’s your favorite brand?

This review is a little bit late, since Hungry came out in September of last year. However, I haven’t seen too many posts about it around the fashion blogosphere, so I thought I’d chime in with my two cents on the book!

As you probably know or can tell by the photo, Hungry is the autobiographical story of Crystal Renn, a very popular “plus size” model (even though she’s a size 12, about the same size as the average American woman, she’s still considered plus). The book tells the story of how she got into the modelling world and how she accepted her size – it’s kind of a nice twist on the “fat girl loses weight” Cinderella-style story.

Short version: if you’re interested in health at every size and the modelling world, buy it (or check it out from your library, like me!). It’s a good read, although not anything life changing.

Long version:

The book tells a story you probably already know, at least in part. Model is found in small town. Model loses a lot weight in a dysfunctional manner to get to the Big Apple. Model has a “moment” and realizes that the side effects (including fainting on the street) are not worth it, and gets back to a healthy size. The next part is fairly unusual for the modelling world, though: model then starts having several times more success than she ever had as a “straight size” model.

The book starts off in the introduction, with an overview of her life thus far, and food-for-thought statistics are sprinkled throughout:

I was hardly alone in my descent into weight obsession and madness. Five to ten million Americans have eating disorders. A 2005 study found that over half of all teenage girls and nearly a third of teenage boys use unhealthy methods to try to be thin … Even women without clinical disorders spend a heartbreaking amount of time obsessing about their weight, hating their bodies, and thinking that if they were only thinner, their lives would be richer, fuller, happier.

Marjorie Ingall is listed on the cover, and I have no idea if she was a co-author, an editor, a fact-sourcer, or most likely (from the way it reads), a bit of all three. The book reads like it’s mostly Crystal, at least judging by interviews I’ve seen with her. To be honest, the prose is a bit clunky at times, and I think that if it was entirely ghost written it would’ve read better! Overall, the writing style isn’t incredibly smooth, but it’s not terrible, either.

The first half and then some details how she got to the breaking point, where she decided that she couldn’t keep treating her body the way she was. Some of the back story was interesting, and some of it was less so. One thing I did find a bit annoying was constant references to her future eating disorder when talking about her childhood – I’m not sure what the point was, the fact that Crystal used to be anorexic is fairly well known, no suspense or secrets there!

The second half of the book talks about her journey to treating her body with kindness. I expected it to be a lot fluffier than it was – she does get a bit “love your body and everything good will follow!” at times, which I can agree with to some extent, but I don’t think loving your body will lead to multimillion dollar contracts for everyone out there.

At any rate, she talks a lot about issues that I expected her to gloss over entirely or just treat differently than she actually did. From non white models:

The world of modeling is only the real world writ smaller and skinnier. Though our culture has come a long way in terms of accepting diversity, we’re not there yet. It’s no coincidence that the bodies on runways are pretty darn white as well as very darn thin – the normative ideal is still white and skinny.

To natural thinness:

A researcher named Ethan Sims at the University of Vermont set out to deliberately make thin mice fat. He couldn’t do it. … So he force fed them. (Sucks to be a laboratory mouse.) They gained weight, but their metabolism also sped up, and they gained much less than they should have according to the food they were eating. As soon as he stopped force-feeding them, they dropped the weight. Sims tried a similar experiment with humans, hiring college students with no food or eating issues and no family history of obesity to gain weight. They just couldn’t, no matter how much they ate. Their metabolisms, too, compensated for the extra food.

She goes on to detail a similar experiment Sims conducted with prisoners (because their physical activity was limited). Four to six months of ten thousand calories a day was enough to make some of the prisoners increase their weight by 20 to 25 percent.

Also mentioned is the role of the weight loss industry in the obesity scare:

Everyone loves to trumpet statistics about how much fatter Americans have gotten in recent years. About 65 percent of Americans are classified as overweight or obese. But almost no one points out that 29 million people became overweight overnight in 1998, when the government changed its body mass index’s “overweight” category from 27 to 25. (Incidentally, seven of the nine members of the government’s obesity task force were directors of weight-loss clinics – making thousands more people instantly “overweight” was great for them!)

And the illogic of dieting (dieting the way most people do it; not just eating healthier for the sake of eating healthy), since 50 million Americans go on diets every year, but only 5-10 percent lose weight and keep it off for at least five years.

Anyways – enough statistics. They’re scattered throughout the book, worked in well enough with the story that it very rarely seems like a sidetrack to mention them. A lot of the information isn’t exactly news to me, but I’m sure it would be to many readers.

The book is a fascinating insight into the fashion world and the mind of one model. Crystal has a pretty good sense of humor about it all as well – she’s inside the fashion industry, but fully realizes how ridiculous it can be. She does have an annoying habit of describing what she was wearing in a particular photoshoot in a very detailed fashion, i.e. (made up quote) “I posed for Harper’s Bazaar in August 2009, wearing this gorgeous chiffon dress by so-and-so with heavy beaded detailing that reflected the light” – but there aren’t photos in the book of all the outfits she describes. Which I suppose would be pretty hard to do – but I wish there could have either been more photos, or less detailed descriptions, since they were the most distracting of the asides.

All in all, Hungry is a great combination of the personal & the informative. I’d recommend it to people interested in getting an insider’s glimpse into the fashion world, learning more about health at every size, or just curious about Crystal.

One more quote, just because I like the spirit of it:

It’s essential to see that size is only one of the battlefronts. Those of us who want to see more plus-size women represented in fashion should also be supporting the use of more women of color and age. There’s strength and solidarity in numbers. Diversity helps us all. And thin people are not the enemy. When we gripe at other women for being too thin (“Eat a sandwich!”) as well as too fat, we allow ourselves to be distracted from the real issue. We have to change the culture be rewarding and applauding diversity in all its forms, not by vilifying individual women. We women are a lot more powerful if we see ourselves as fighters on the same side.

Have you read Hungry? What’d you think of it?

Sylvari Summer by Jamie Jang

I love this! Matt & I are going to try to go to the American Gods/House on the Rock Halloween event, and depending on the costume contest rules (it’s still up in the air as to whether the costume has to be something specifically from American Gods, or just a mythical creature in general), I would love to do something like this. Except with more clothes, and blue or green hair.

Links! We’ve got a meaty bunch this week, lots of food for thought for you (I know, on a Monday?! Save it for later, if you want!)

• Want to know how Tim Ferris prepares for public speaking? Of course you do! This seems like a super easy method, which would probably be more useful if I ever actually did any public speaking. Not that, you know, I want to.
• The good word of the day, courtesy of Alicia.
• This post from Kelly about Nice Guys and Nice Girls is so good it almost hurts a little.
• What no one’s telling you about paid vs. free.
• Definatalie is doing a body image product – getting statements from anonymous individuals & then doing corresponding sketches to match, the results will be put into a zine. She’s been posting some of them, and I particularly loved this one.
• An interesting photo shoot about the origins of life, from a 1998 Vogue Paris.
• The critical fashion lover’s (basic) guide to cultural appropriation. GREAT post. The comments are worth reading too.
• Rules for people of the random resume.
• Mixed Messages About Abstinence from Candie’s & Bristol Palin.
• Smart consumerism and the art of purging. I agree that getting rid of things can be almost as addictive as buying new ones…I tend to go through phases where I’m almost manic about emptying my closet, and then I’m annoyed about it two months later when I want to wear something I got rid of!

I hope your week is off to a great start, and that you had an amazing weekend! Mwah!

You may or may not have read Gala’s post on the ila Dusk personal alarm a while back – I left a comment on the post and they (they being ila Dusk!) subsequently contacted me and asked if I’d like to do a review of their alarm. Of course, I said yes! Read on to hear (err, see) my thoughts…

Their website:

The ila Dusk website is well designed and easy to navigate. Aside from the personal alarm, which was the product I received, they’ve got several other clever items: a dog leash with a built in flash light and personal alarm, a portable electronic safe, an alarm for travellers with a compass, bottle opener, and flashlight all built in, and a personal alarm key ring, among others. All of the items are discreet and probably wouldn’t be recognized as an alarm.

Appearance:

It is very cute, as you can see. It wouldn’t be out of place as a charm on a purse, at all. The alarm measure about an inch and a half wide, about three inches long, and juuust under a half an inch thick.

How it works:

Pulling the chain triggers a high pitched, loud (130 decibels) screaming noise. According to the manual pamphlet: “The alarm has been designed for ONE continuous activation of eight minutes…Once the alarm has been activated it will last for between 8-10 minutes.” Putting the pin back in stops the noise.

Because I a. am a super curious individual who can give cats a run for their money in that department and b. wouldn’t feel right giving a review without testing something out, I took the alarm out to the most secluded spot of parking lot I could find and gave it a try.

The Marks and Spencer website says that it’s “nearly equivalent to a jet plane and louder than a jackhammer or chainsaw” – and honestly, that seems like a bit of an exaggeration to me. I might not have got the full effect since I only let the noise go for maybe 10-15 seconds before putting the pin back in, but it was certainly not as loud as a chainsaw. I did try it again a little later indoors and it seemed much louder, ear-ringingly loud, but I’m not sure if that was because I was indoors or because it gets louder the longer the pin is pulled out.

Final thoughts:

Do I think it would be useful? Yeah, I do. I probably wouldn’t rely on it as my only method of personal safety, but I’m kind of paranoid. I would think the best way to use it would be to throw the alarm at your attacker (so it would keep making the noise in close proximity to them) and then run away or use their distraction to pepper spray them and then run.

From the looks of the company’s website, they are definitely trying to help women be and feel safer. I read through their tips for personal safety and I liked the way it was written, no victim blaming crap or “it’s your responsibility to blah blah blah” (um, no, it’s others’ responsibility to not f’king attack or rape people, actually!). And since women are taught from a pretty young age to tend towards nonviolence, I think a nonviolent personal safety product is probably more likely to be used.

I do feel the need to launch into my personal safety speech. That statistic about how whatever percentage of pepper spray/knives/etc. end up getting used against the person who has them? That’s because people have a tendency to hold the weapon at arm’s length and threaten to use it. DON’T DO THAT. If you feel threatened, freaking use it. Especially with something like pepper spray, that will not kill anyone! You should never be afraid to defend yourself. And if you take a women’s self defense class, make sure it’s one that can be taken seriously, some of them are total jokes.

The ila Dusk will be available to purchase in the USA at this website, starting on April 27. It’s already available to purchase from several UK retailers, you can see them at the ila security website.

Still having technical difficulties! Bear with me…hopefully, it’ll be fixed soon!

• Alicia was so kind enough as to put all
• Tickling the muse.
• Hellz Bellz named their latest collection after an X-Ray Spex song. Admittedly, I don’t love everything in the collection, but really? Anyone willing to reference X-Ray Spex gets my undying love.
• Shoebuy has a sample sale site. You’re welcome. (I believe I found out this out through Denim Debutante.)
• I did a guest post at Shakesville on the Patrick McCollum/California prisons issue. In case you are inclined to read!
• And don’t forget, Ashe Mischief’s Style Therapy giveaway ends on Friday! Go sign up!

Also! Irrelevant personal note of the day: I seem to have developed either a. very serious fitting issues or b. a nasty allergy (or maybe infection? just irritation? who knows! it’s a party up in there!) to my contacts. Which means I probably need to switch contact brands at the very least – luckily, my last eye exam was less than two months ago & the dude has a two month guarantee, so I’m scheduling an appointment for later this week to find out WTF is going on. Anyways. Point being. I need new glasses (my current ones are at least five years old and possibly more like eight…) and I am waffling between this pair and this pair. Thoughts are appreciated. If you’ve had experiences with either retailer and want to share, I’m all ears. Or recommend your favorite retailer. I haven’t worn glasses regularly since, um, pretty much ever, so I’m a baby seal swimming in unknown waters. Or something.

Anyways, have a fabulous Monday!

For some reason, the ‘blog’ page and the most recent post (the shoe one, not sure if this one will come up that way) are appearing very wonkily. Sorry for the inconvenience, working it out as fast as I can!

Yeah. So I’ve been a. really busy and b. very…blah? Not really inspired lately! But hey look, shoes! Don’t they look like something that Susan Sto Helit would wear? All naughty Victorian. Want.

Via Haute Macabre. I think it looks like the little bony…urchins? are eating her life force. Explains the yellow areas under her eyes. Slurp slurp slurp.

• Colleen at the Communicatrix has some thoughts on the power of tiny pieces.
• Glendy posted a lovely editorial over at Style Amor, why don’t you go take a peek? There’s pastel hair involved…and toy robots.
• A good fable never fails to terrorize. I’m sure Kelly isn’t a terrible mother, but this had me in stitches. I think I was similarly hellish at that age, maybe that’s why I got such a kick out of it!
• 7 most motivational quotes ever spoken – I think some of them were probably written before spoken, but whatever, right? Still good stuff!
• We’re not home wreckers, says the NY Post – post about an article (I’m sure I could say something witty here, but I’m drawing a blank slate) in the NY Post, that’s about women with tattoos and backlash to the idea that all women with tattoos are trashy home wreckers. Obviously, I’m all over it. Love it. Also found via Haute Macabre.
• A Maxie Girl in a Barbie World – great guest post at Shapely Prose, go check out her blog!
• Create luck, embrace chance & tune in to your serendipity.
• Save me from myself, skinny jesus chef. A freaking HILARIOUS recap of the first episode of Jamie Oliver’s whatever-it’s-called show.

Oh, and, guess what? The lovely Ashe Mischief of Dramatis Personae is hosting a Style Therapy giveaway! What are you waiting for? Go check it out!

I hope you all had good weekends and a happy Easter, for those who celebrate it. I had fun – Amanda and I took some pictures yesterday for the Style Therapy website. They’re not up yet, though. Lots of work to be done this week, in between Bandit Printing’s launch (which we think we’re going to have to push back ’til next week, ugh, but still) and a few other projects. But I’ll still be around. Anyways, have a great week, everyone!