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Sunday 22 June 2014

What I wore to the Hamptons

What I wore to the Hamptons sounds better than what I wore to the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, the former being a playground of the rich in New York state, the latter, one of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods where my favourite fabric shop, Dressew, and many other cool hangouts are located. 

This feels like an outfit of indifferent decadence. When I was young(er) I had a few wealthy male friends who would wear the most buttery-soft expensive chinos with navy deck shoes/no socks. I loved how the pants slouched in their fit and had such a worn look even in their newness. Sigh. Well, I found my own variation of this look below, silk/linen blend trousers, fully lined, two sizes too big, $5, and a soft wool turtleneck like new, $5, also too big. Ironically, if I had gone out to buy these items new (wouldn't happen) I would have searched the racks for my correct size because I could afford not to make a sizing "mistake." But having the freedom that accompanies having no money for such things and only one size available, I could afford to take a chance, which was in fact fulfilling the image of insouciance I had all along.

This is what I wore yesterday.
I enjoyed this outfit a lot, let me tell you, flowy, floral, frigging faboo. It's more like Honolulu on acid than the Hamptons, although the platform runners are the same. My hair apparently ran away to be an extra on the TV reality show Swamp Monsters, or was it Duck Dynasty? I'm still waiting for a postcard. 

For my Hamptons outfit, is it weird that I wanted to recreate a man's look? Do you ever do that, recreate the look of a friend you've had or the ambiance of certain times of your life? Usually I don't. But I enjoyed this little trip.

AND...a word about VOGOFF
I had a heck of a time coming up with a theme for this issue and finally settled on fact, fiction, fraud. Basically, it's "be what you want to be." I have realized that showing ourselves in the context of otherness may be limiting, that we need room also to express our strength on its own terms. I'm not pissed off at fashion magazines or the people who read them and I know many women of towering strength who wear neutrals. I'd just like VOGOFF to be a forum for the voices that are excluded in mainstream media, whether it's in style, opinion, or lifestyle, funny or serious. This issue will be a huuuge grab bag, but the VOGOFF after this, if there is one, can be something completely different again because there are no rules.

Thanks to those of you who have already sent in your work. I am floored. It feels like The Freakish Yellow Skirt, except with your own pieces. Incredible!

Deadline: I'm hoping to have everything in by the end of July. That should give you lots of time to procrastinate, like I always do, with the issue coming out in August.

33 comments:

  1. Now that first look seems a real departure for you, Melanie. I can't do masculine/androgynous at all, my body type is too curvy/hourglass, I think, and the thought of wearing anything 2 sizes too big makes me blanch, but you pull it off with wonderful insouciance!
    As for your heavenly mash-up of floral, animal and geometric prints. with added fur - well, I'm in love!
    Vogoff... I'm thinking, I'm thinking. Clementine is down on her luck, she might surprise you this time. But who knows?! xxx

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  2. Funny how you can re-create a "look" with no money. As for the second outfit, I want it! I love that leopard fur shrug sweater thingy.

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  3. I think you know that I am a big fan of men's clothing but I'm pretty certain that if I were a man I'd probably be a fan of women's clothing. Alas, like Curtise, I am too roundish and boobish to carry off the tomboy look. I spent a big part of the 80's on the Hampton Jitney. I get your look. And I love it. Do you smell like Canoe? Though the mash up below is awesome sauce! Nobody does it as well as Our Melanie. XXXXOOOO

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  4. Absolutely smashing look there in your Hamptons outfit. Ready to go sailing or tennising or poloing in classic blue and white and your floral sports shoes. Or maybe the shoes are more attuned to gin-and-tonic-ing. Anyway, I love it! I love a good mannish style, all slouch and louche and insouciance. I'm wondering how the leopard bolero jacket would look with the blue sweater...

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  5. I love over-sized, guy-stuff, slouchy clothes like these! You're ready for sailing and cricket and gin-and-tonics. xox

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  6. I love the over-sized Hampton's outfit on you, I adore over-sized, even though it always makes me look bigger I like that I play with my frame (over sized curtain look or sleeker whatevs!!) your second outfit is fabulous! I love the textures - VOGOFF? my brain is creaking, must not over-think! x x x

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  7. Mental note: loop L in for Vogoff! He and I make such a smashing pair.

    Adoring your menswear look - you do androgyny so well, Melanie!

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  8. I so try for the insouciance look but seem to fail every time.

    Was going to do my Vogoff submission photo shoot this weekend but blew it on my "Accidental Outfit" post.

    Love, love wearing men's clothing - so baggy and comfy. I am the worst at stealing Mr. VZ'S clothes.

    So I'm brainstorming again for my Vogoff submission.

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  9. I really like your oversized insouciance look. I used to be a huge fan of the oversized men's jackets/sweaters/shirts when I was in my 20's. I was thinner and had no boobs so the look worked for me - now it just makes me look shapeless.
    The second outfit is a lovely kaleidoscope of colour and texture.

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  10. I love your Hamptons look! Like Curtise I can't pull of a slouchy men's wear look though I am always wishing I could. I love the floral sneaks too.

    I am new to this whole Vogoff thing so I don't really have a clue if I have anything to contribute or not. I do not feel as though I am a veyr colourful or interesting person and am not very good at stepping up and saying, hey do you want me? I guess I will watch and learn this time round.
    xoxo

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  11. Oohh I gotta hurry up and work on my Vogoff submission!!

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  12. You are so right, by not buying new you bought what was available and created a better look than when it fitted properly. LOVE this look.
    The second outfit (without you head, which went haywire)is too much for me. You know I am more main stream. So I will not be submissing anything for VOGOFF. I wouldn't dare. Minds much more creative than mine have to work on that.
    Greetje

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  13. Honalulu on acid sounds much more my bag! You can totally carry off that androgenous and elegant look 'cos you've got the looks and star quality and the ker-ay-zee footwear is a brilliant touch.
    No rules - that's my kind of rules. I don't have any time off until 15th August (sob, poor me!) but I await VOGOFF with eager anticpation. xxxx

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  14. Seeing you dressed like this is such a weird departure from what I'm accustomed to seeing you wear. Almost like Melanie landed in Bizarroland. If you had been wearing ballet flats with this I would have truly asked, who the impostor was, but those shoes...they have the Melanie stamp of approval all over them.

    Your hair is looking wonderfully punk.

    bisous
    Suzanne

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  15. ah those trousers are SO great!

    I'm now considering what I can submit to VOGOFF... X

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  16. Those shoes are the perfect tip off to the first outfit. And you look so cozy! The second one is so very creative, so very you!

    I need to find better fabric stores. The ones I go to down carry such boring predictable fabrics and patterns. Ho hum....

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  17. Fabulous as always! There are no words. Just intense admiration.

    So happy to hear that the VOGOFF deadline is the end of July. I'll see what procrastination brings me.

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  18. I love that you can wear two outfits so very different. The masculine outfit you pull off well, I would look like an angry lost lesbian:). Maybe if I did it a little differently I don't know I've never tried. Your second outfit has my head spinning with all the patterns, that one I dig.

    I need to get an idea together for Vogoff I'd like to participate this time.
    Xxxxooo

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  19. I love wearing both masculine and feminine looks so your post totally makes sense to me! You look natural in both...if a headless wonder can be said to be natural! I have no idea what this VOGOFF thing is. Sounds like a blast! Can't wait to find out :-)

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  20. oh yeah, you rock your loose clothes, such a hamptonianly elegance!, and love your florals and leopard layered creation, your shoes are awesome!!
    I'm procrastinating like a pro my project for vogoff!, mwahahah
    besos & pros

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  21. It's not a look I ever expected to see on you, the rich prep look, but I likey. And that's the great thing about thrifting: is that you experiment with styles, colours, sizes etc that you normally wouldn't. Paying so little for great quality items can be so liberating style-wise! Xox

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  22. You are just AMAZING, and I cannot take my eyes of you.
    Tons of love and inspiration, dear friend
    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

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  23. Brilliant. See, I'm not the only one who thinks so. You can do/wear anything with your special brand of intelligent panache!!! :-) I'll be back from another trip by the middle of July and I can't wait to fire up the camera for Vogoff.

    I agree that thrifting is IT, and your comment about size/making mistakes etc. is dead on. Upcycling is great for the same reason, because cutting into an expensive piece of yardage is terrifying, especially when you're too impatient to make a prototype out of muslin. I'd be bored and ready to move on by the time it was finished.

    Love you madly. XXOO

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  24. J'adore it all. I swear it was a shocker after being absorbed by the rich, casual lazzez-faire look, to be slapped with a headless feast of wonderment. Certainly worth a second and third look to figure it all out. Not that I could, figure it out. And what does it matter, it's the gestalt of the effect, mais non? Well played Ms. Melanie of the World.

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  25. YOU are asking if something is WEIRD??? C'mon, girl, take your Prozac. I think your menswear look is utterly fabulous. Great thifting!

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  26. I'm a big fan of women in male clothing. Perhaps it's because I used to wear my elder brother's hand-me-downs as a child. In my late teens I wore his soft and baggy corduroy scout shorts and since then I've bought second-hand pin-striped suits, gangster style that I love. The best thing of all is a woman in a man's evening suit - waistcoat, bow tie, loose, the lot.
    I think you look great, Gatsby, in the first photo and your wonderfully wild self in the second. What's not to like about both!

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  27. Your creative and unique mind leave me baffled time after time! Kudoos, a zillion kudos.

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  28. Eeeeeeeeep! Submissions, emissions, omissions, missions ... I'm doing them all baby. Slouchy man-pants ... well now I just happen to have popped on my fash-mag-hag cap and I'm "all over these darlink, they're like hot buttery croissants at San Trop or the Hamptons if you're old-money". I'm stunned into jaw-dropping silence at the second outfit - I feel the need to pluck some stars out of the sky. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoox

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  29. How unusual, although out of the your usual style, the more masculine suits you quite well.
    Thank you for your comment on my blog the other day, it was very encouraging. I look forward to experimenting more and it will be great to share it. I'll definitely submit some stuff to Vogoff! I have an idea now that I'll be doing over the next few weeks. I'll have it ready by the end of July no doubt.
    Jennie of Frocktasia suggested creating a linkup for the freaky stuff, I think it's a good ide,a what do you think?
    Huggles xx

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  30. Such different looks, both pulled off with such style. Melanie you are magnificent.

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  31. You look fabulous as always! I love menswear looks. Aren't you high class!

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  32. omg that leopard bolero is so amazing!

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