Occupy Retail

When it comes to stickin' it to the man, of course I am all in favor. I am cheered by the Occupy Wall Street Protesters. Who doesn't dislike greedy plutocrats? I'm surprised that no one has shown up with flaming torches and pitchforks yet.
Last night while Mr. Hunting Creek was watching yet more football, I had an epiphany.
What women needed to do, I realized, was go on strike and occupy something. Why, people are still talking about those feminists who burned bras, although as I recall, no actual bras were burned. But it's a vivid image, and one that people remember having happened. Women on strike is not a new idea, of course. From Ancient Greece on down, poets and playwrights have fantasized about women on strike. But I wasn't thinking of going on strike like Lysistrata (although being anti-war is an excellent reason to go on strike). I was looking at fashion on my Steve Jobs memorial handheld device (thank you, Steve Jobs!) and wishing that the technological changes that have improved our lives might be applied to fashion.
If you were to ask any women, tall, short, thin, curvy, woman of any size, almost all of them would tell you that they have a horrible time finding clothes.
Of the women that sew, they will say that they sew because they can't find anything that fits, or that the workmanship is horrible on RTW, or that they like to customize what they wear to suit themselves. In the business-computer-land, where I work, we customize workstations to each individual user. But fashion has not embraced this possibility. There are hundreds - maybe thousands of designers, but it seems like they are almost all designing for some imaginary woman who is six feet tall and wears a size negative 2. In other words, not me. Not you either, probably. When I see fashion, I'm always mentally raising a neckline or lowering a hemline, always taking away excess fabric here, adding some extra there - customizing the look to fit my preferences. That's why I sew, of course. But in my fantasy, women everywhere occupied the malls and fashion districts and demanded clothes that FIT. Clothes that fit them and their lifestyles. Clothes that came with clearly labeled sizes inside, with dimensions and with different cup sizes. Yes! Standardized sizes! Tops and dresses with cup sizes! Pants that weren't always, eternally a foot too long (my complaint) or too short.
So good luck to my brothers and sisters occupying Wall Street! It's difficult to start a movement without backing from huge moneyed interests. Well done bringing attention to the plight of the millions of unemployed.(Some of whom could be making clothes that fit and beautiful fabric right here in the USA if those afore-mentioned moneyed interests hadn't shipped all of the jobs overseas to sweatshops and near-slave labor, but I digress). And if you can spare a few moments, can you make room for my sisters who want clothes that fit?

Paper Dolls

My sister and I used to play with paper dolls, (and Wonder Woman comic books, and Supergirl comic books and others)to fill those long hours while we waited for our parents at the airport. (They ran a charter airline, and this was back in the days when kids could play in airports, before they were turned into a modern version of the Stanford Prison Experiment. But, I digress.)
I was so excited to find these cool paper dolls! Dior, Armani, Calvin Klein, Perry Ellis, and lots more. It's like a mini modern fashion lesson, in color.
Here's the description:
Along with eight paper dolls in swimsuits and underwear (two for each decade from 1960–2000), fashion historian Tom Tierney here renders 120 era-defining cutout costumes in full color. These are faithful depictions of outfits from such designers as Yves Saint-Laurent, Mary Quant, Halston, Bill Blass, Donna Karan, Bob Mackie, Laura Ashley, and 70 others
I bought one copy for myself, and a few more in case Little Hunting Creek Customers love paper dolls as much as I do. I though I'd frame some pages for my new sewing studio.
If you like modern fashion and paper dolls, find them here. But don't wait...when they're done, they're gone.