Menocore style because they're not menopausal

A woman turns 50 and she suddenly turns into a confident potato with waistless pants, at least that seems to be the view of menocore, the hot flash style trend among 20- and 30-something women who love dressing up (in this case, dressing down) as menopausal women. How flattering - a style that looks so good it's simply named after our reproductive life cycle. And by the way, you have the face for radio!

When I found the word menocore in a New York Times article, The New Mom Uniform of Park Slope, the hair on the back of my neck stood up, like a detective who smells blood - or not. The writer called it a "a hateful takeoff on normcore." I followed the link to the source: the blog Man Repeller, a June 2018 post called Menocore is the New Normcore, and It's a Lot More Comfortable. Now I know who dunnit.

This coat is a men's XXL - solid menopausal style.
photos by @vancouverbarbara, edits by moi

I learned that menocore celebrates baggy clothing, hair scrunchies, exposed bra straps, neutrals, and a host of other fun stuff we wear. And we are lauded for not caring how we look to other people. It's because we're so frigging confident. Ross writes that with the menocore trend, we middle-agers are finally getting our time in the spotlight, meaning, presumably, baggy neutrals have never looked so good because now they are on young bods?

Don't get me wrong. Menocore has certainly empowered me. That's why I'm excited to announce here, for the first time, a new trend for us of the baggy-pants set: Fertilcore (or Menstrucore, your call), named after the reproductive life cycle of women in their 20s and 30s. How freeing to feel insecure enough that we can finally care how we look! Hooray! If my friends raise an eyebrow and say, Gee, Mel, you're looking very Fertilcore today, I can blame it on those frisky fertiles.

New fab Fertilcore look: gold lycra catsuit, platform runners, neon yellow wig, white brows you can't see here. This outfit is not my fault!

So rip up those What Not to Wear Over 30 lists, my menopausal friends. Hello mini skirts, stilettos, and hoop earrings! And don't miss my soon-to-be-released list of What Not to Wear in Your Reproductive Years. I mean, if you want to dress as mutton, you better do it right!

Fertilcore - here we come! 
See my attempts at super-tight leather pants here and here if you haven't already.

I have to say, I won't hold menocore against its adherents. I am satisfied knowing that hopefully some day they will all experience the special secret surprises that accompany menopause and middle age.

And I get it: comfortable clothing feels good and can look great. But why not have the vagina (because balls are for juggling) to just own it all on its own? I think that's what menocore is about anyway - confidence, period, or not. My fertile-free-ness should not be an excuse for someone's neutrals any more than someone's fertility should be an excuse for my platform shoes. 

I thought women's style had progressed beyond an us/them issue. We are all in this together, for the whole ride. So how about we forget about ageist labels altogether and enjoy what we all bring to the table? (Like Pao's comment - womanocore?)

As Jessica at Warning: Curves Ahead concluded in her famous viral blog post in response to a list about what women shouldn't wear over 30: "24 Things Women Over 30 Should Wear: Whatever the f*ck they want." Words we can all live by any time.

Cool sparkly owl pendant from Patti, Not Dead Yet Style.

Edit: I'm linking up to Catherine's #Share All Linkup at Not Dressed as Lamb. And later to her #iwillwearwhatilike. I'll also link to the next Visible Monday at Patti's Not Dead Yet Style.

Getting fizzy wrapped in PET bottles

Oh, the sweet ecstasy of well-resurrected garbage.

This dress is comprised of PET bottles, textile waste and/or other organic materials. It debuted in H&M's first sustainable line, the Garden Collection, in 2010. I found it at the thrift shop for $5, repeating the trash-to-treasure cycle yet again, recycling at its best. I call it the garbage that keeps on giving.

The dress is so feminine it cried out for a little edge - after all, it's been around the block a time or two, despite its excellent condition, like myself, heh - so I added a black scarf choker, black tights, Steve Madden combat boots, a satin obi belt, and an essential bouquet holster from a big old belt, which also made me feel a bit like a little VW bug with a vase on my  dashboard.

Wouldn't you agree that a bouquet creates a friendlier image in a holster than a gun? "Halt or I'll kill you with kindness!" - or face-slap you with flowers, which would in fact hurt. The plastic is hard and wretched. I bit the stems, like one of those women who bites stems and makes it look sexy, and kind of gagged. Another flower defense would be to hold them like garlic or a cross, as above, to keep away vampires.

And the rear view of the garment. You can see the little sparklies on my scarf choker and the obi ties, as well as the massive kimono-inspired sleeves. I couldn't believe this dress was on the $5 rack! My hair at the back is not as grey as the front. I call the shade souris (su'-ri, French for mouse, which sounds better than rodent).

Note how I've hooked my thumb conveniently in the bouquet holster. Clearly it's a multipurpose accessory, like a pocket that doesn't hold a damned thing.

The bottom half of the necklace is from H&M and the top half chain from Tokyu Hands craft supply store in Tokyo. The flower pin  (used for modesty) was a gift made by Suzanne Carillo for the +40 Blogger Meetup last summer in Vancouver, and the earrings were thrifted.

Putting things in perspective - mulched flower in a concrete jungle.

I'll be linking this to Patti at Not Dead Yet Style for Visible Monday, Catherine at Not Dressed as Lamb for #iwillwearwhatilike, and Anne at SpyGirl for 52 Pick-me-up: Silver/Confusion/Clarity (my necklace).

And this last photo is my favourite of the day. The air exhaust system that vents into the alley kicked into major effect after the delivery trucks had all left, leaving me free to play in the stale air. I'm glad I wore a slip because the wind often blew the dress up to my dashboard! Too bad this dress isn't scratch 'n' sniff to freshen things up, but then it would probably smell like Coca Cola and I'd just start to fizz.

Yup, I felt like a million bucks in this outfit. Right after buying it I found out about the H&M/Bloglovin' "Breakthrough Fashion Blogger of the Year" Contest which required styling an H&M piece. The winner gets to be mentored by Man Repeller Leandra Medine for a year. I linked my Instagram photo of this outfit to the contest and this post as well.

I just looked at some of the other entries - oh, why did I do that?! Serious twenty-somethings wearing pressed neutral outfits professionally photographed, compared to my lightweight photographer, Tripod, a remote I call Dick, and my middle-aged-tween antics in piss alley.

Well, if I don't enter I definitely lose, and I must remember: comparison is the thief of joy. I had a blast doing this shoot with this stellar dress and would have done it regardless of any contest. Why? Because -

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You can't keep good garbage down!
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Recycling and feeling fabulous, how cool is that? I hope more big fashion retailers and manufacturers get on board that sustainability train and make good on their promises. Have you worn any good garbage lately? Do tell. Do they even make scratch 'n' sniff clothing?

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Thanks for joining me all you new followers! And thank you to Jessica at Warning: Curves Ahead 24 Things Women Over 30 Should Wear for linking to my post with Shelley's awesome photo here, which has turned into a too-good-to-be-true ending to her stellar visit to Vancouver, 2.5 million views and counting. Bwhahaha! Hurrah for freedom of choice !!

Shelley's post on our get-together is HERE.

My VOGOFF magazine guidelines page is almost ready. Can you believe it's taken me this long? Don't answer that! Heh.

Middle-aged tweens storm Vancouver

Forget the dainty finger sandwiches! Shelley of Forest City Fashionista came to town for a few days and suddenly life became larger than life - it was triple-whipple-decker life, like a hamburger so honkin' huge you can't jam another slice of pickle into your mouth.

Exhibit 1: Photo farking. We stopped roadside and sidewalk traffic at this busy downtown location. Models/Styling: Shelley and Mel. Photographer: Tripod and "Dick" the magic wand. Behind us is the installation artwork called Alien Terrarium by Elisa Yon and Amanda Arcuri, which is part of a series of public artworks in Vancouver, read about it here.

Bascially, we ate and drank and walked and shopped and vogued and repeated. I even managed to get invitations to a by-invitation-only charity/fashion/art Event:

...an elevated list of key influencers in Vancouver and those who are notoriously savvy in the art scene: a truly high-fashion mix of local socialites and celebrities, models, photographers and up and coming “cool” kids that have both industry legitimacy and international resonance.

That's definitely who we are. Hahaha! I thought hanging out with the local glitterati for an evening with Shelley might be interesting, or at least a good excuse to dress up and sip wine, not that we need excuses. When it was over we agreed that we hadn't been so love-bombed in years. [Edit: my writeup about it is here]

Above is Shelley at the Nordstrom restaurant where on her first day here we mapped out a plan of action.

One night Shelley and I went cocktail-hopping at luxury hotels because, hey, what else do you do when it's raining? We were at a swanky lounge called Bacchus, swilling drinks and eating fries, when a couple we both liked from the Event came in. It's a small world.

This little Moschino wrap at Nordstrom was marked down to $1,500 from $3,000. I have to figure out how to DIY my own, but better. There was a plastic-y tubular skeleton under this mass of fluff, which was annoying but gave the piece body. We found lots of inspiration on the racks but naturally we spent more time at thrift and vintage stores.

EDIT ALERT: This photo was included in a stellar lineup of women at the blog Warning: Curves Ahead in a post called "24 Things Women Over 30 Should Wear." It went VIRAL. Shelley is a STAR! - but then you already know that.

More photo farking. Shelley is a natural model. I swear - she has got the moves! She decided her makeup scheme and I applied it. If you go to her IG, here, you can see her purple brows and gold eye shadow (and other photos of her trip). Stunning! We also both wore our colourful brows to the Event.

Try as I might, in the photo below I couldn't bring out the true colour of this robe - NEON pink, the pinkest pink you've ever seen. I hadn't worn it before because I wanted to fark it to look less robe-y. So far I've only added some silky ties at the front but I knew it would be perfect for our shoot and bundling in the cool weather.

Confession: I'm not wearing a pant slip with these vintage lace pants. Hussy! Slattern! The pink under the pants are tights. The robe provides adequate modesty, but seriously, if you want to freak out about seeing through my lace pants, go for it. Isn't there a fashion rule for women over 50: if the pubes don't stick out, you're okay.

In the next photo you can see a piece of blue masking tape stuck to the hem from one of my earlier failed farking attempts. (Really, the colours are so washed out!) I got that amazing silk blouse a couple of years ago in a giveaway by Thorne Garnet.

And finally, below, my favourite photo. We used my tripod as a hanger for our bags and clothes. Now, you know my cardinal rule for shooting on the streets, right? Don't let anything touch the ground! This is my face when my robe fell down. I squeezed the remote trigger as a reflex response like happens in those murder movies. Thank goodness the sidewalk here wasn't gross. 

These photos are not for VOGOFF, they are too tame, although my facial expression below is slightly Voggy. I still have to put up the guidelines. Yikes!

Shelley and I had brunch with Louisa of Damselfly's Delights and Sue of A Colourful Canvas at Acme Cafe (where I go with Sheila and L when they're in town) on Shelley's last day here. I have a few photos from then and some from the Event, but I figure this is enough for one post. I'll put the others up later. And maybe a little video [Edit: It's in the next post here. I can't stop laughing when I watch it]. Hee hee.

I was not online all week trying to squeeze in all my 3D life activities - hanging out with Shelley and working like a fiend to meet my work deadlines. I don't know when I can catch up with your posts but I'll try.


Hugs to all of you. Aren't blogger meetups the best?! Shelley was everything and more than I thought she would be. Sympatico. Thanks for making the trip, Shelley!!

I'll link the pink up to:
Patti at Visible Monday, Not Dead Yet Style,
Catherine at #iwillwearwhatilike, Not Dressed as Lamb, and
Anne at 52 Pick-me-up: White/Instinct, SpyGirl.

Shelley's post on our get-together is HERE.