As clearly evidenced by my love of appliqué, I’ve always been drawn to 3D elements in clothing. Features that hint at worlds hidden in the layer of a garment. Embroidery, appliqué, solids on sheers. It’s probably why I seek out tromp l’oeil prints and love layering – it creates parts of an outfit that stand in sharp relief to the backdrop of the day.
We are creatures of habit. I am definitely one who likes to have a rhythm and a routine, with a clear order to the way my world is structured. And even if the order is less than ideal (aka, months and months of isolation due to a pandemic), I will always find away to work within a certain set of parameters. But, I admit I’m less adept at the shift change…
When I was little, one of my favorite books was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. If you’ve never read it, it’s a story about a boy and a tree who are the best of friends. As the boy gets older, he spends less and less time with the tree, only to return at subsequent intervals to lament his life and seek happiness. The tree gives and gives of herself to the boy…from her apples, to her branches, leaving nothing but a stump at the end for the boy to sit on. But, with each gift, it ends with the…
A colleague and friend shared a meme the other day that popped up in my social media feed. It was an adorable little girl, hair scraped back into a ponytail, flexing her yet-to-be-developed muscles and wearing a t-shirt that said, “I’m not a Princess, I’m a Scientist!” At first glance, I loved the message. We teach little girls that their only job is to be sweet and cute. With the push towards encouraging more young girls in STEM, this this seemed like a small step that might get us there. But the more I chewed it over, it started to…
The ocean and I have always had a pretty tight bond. When I was a kid, you couldn’t drag me out of the waves on summertime trips to the beach. I’d swim until my fingers were prunes and my shoulders were crispy from the sun, not even minding the water was freezing cold (I grew up in New England after all). The sea was also my biggest source of inspiration – being lucky enough to know what I wanted to do at a really early age, I always kept one eye on the ocean…knowing it held my future. And nowadays,…
I’ve definitely had the sewing bug this past year. While I’ve been sewing for many years now, COVID has absolutely reignited something in me that has me cranking out more and more challenging projects. While I might have been a bit intimidated to tackle something before, there is definitely a “what have I got to lose?” mentality when I start to research a new piece.
In this day and age, I think it’s pretty important to make the most out of our wardrobes. If the pandemic has taught me anything, it’s how quickly our “normal” can switch on a dime…and how much less I truly need. Over the last year, I’ve been making a concerted effort to resist the temptation to acquire. Of course, buying vintage doesn’t come with quite the same footprint as buying new, but I still have noticed a small voice that got a lot louder this year telling me to slow down and appreciate the things that I have.
It’s amazing how a global pandemic can really simplify life down to its essentials. One of the things Mr. Dressed and I have been taking a lot of joy in lately is a daily walk around the neighborhood. It gets us out of the house, gets us the Vitamin D our bodies are craving, and reminds us that the world is still ticking along, even though it feels some days as though it’s stopped.
We all pull inspiration from a variety of sources and for a variety of reasons – either an outfit that you spied while walking down the street who’s vibe you want to emulate, to a perfect pristine flower bursting from the rosebush, to someone’s approach towards life – we all have our muses. The things you can point to that inspired a new part of yourself to come into being.
Back in a time long long ago, in a world far far away where we could go outside and stand next to people, I remember dashing through the supermarket one afternoon. I think I was grabbing a few things on my way back to the lab, without thinking too much about who was around me other than beelining for the essentials and getting back to work.