Reuse, Re-purpose, or Recreate Experience Article

My favourite part of the green movement is 'up-cycle fashion'. That means taking an article of clothing that is out of fashion or doesn't fit and turn it into something new and wearable. My favorite person to read is the Refashionista blog. She takes lots of different things from second hand shops and turns them into modern, trendy pieces.

The one project that I actually did myself was from this site. I turned a baggy T-shirt into a cute peplum top. I had an XXL Studio C t-shirt that I caught at an event and would never wear. I up-cycled it like in the blog (excepting no zipper and shorter sleeves) and made a shirt that I now wear on a regular basis.

I think up-cycling is a cool trend that I hope more people learn to sew in order to participate. I have another up-cycle project I am excited to attend to once the semester has ended. Turning garbage into new and exciting things is an important part of the green movement.

Shopping Experience

For this assignment I went to Dillard’s and Target. At each store I looked at a woman’s dress, a woman’s swimsuit, and a man’s board short. While looking for the comparison of price and quality, visiting these places did demonstrate that price doesn’t mean quality, but quality usually does come at a price.

The dress I examined at Dillard’s was an Elza J’s designer dress. It was fully lined, had an exterior lining and a lace with embroidery overlay. It looked ornate but then I saw the serging at the side seam in the hem. The lace and the upper lining had been serged together. I then examined more parts and saw that the lining wasn’t fully favored to the inside in the armscye, which is poor quality for a sleeveless dress. While this dress should still be more expensive than the poorer quality clothes because of the materials and design, it is not worth the full $198. To me, this dress is clearly overpriced, especially since I found a high quality blue and gold dress that was sewn more professionally for a cheaper price a few racks over.

The dress at Target was one of their newer designer dresses (Who What Wear) and it was honestly already falling apart. This dress had a lining and an outer shell, both made of sheer fabrics. The dart on the lining was already falling apart. The elastic that made gathers at the waist was exposed and the buttons were very clearly plastic. This dress was $35, which I would still consider over priced as the dress was already falling apart.

Beach House swimsuit at Dillard's

The woman’s swimsuit I examined at Dillard’s was a Beach House brand, navy blue stripes (matched in CF seam) with a short skirt. It had a semi-welt pocket with zipper and seams were tacked down even though they were between the skirt and the swimsuit. The hem was even stabilized. As swimwear was being marked down, the current price is $62. With the thought behind the design and the immaculate execution, this dress is fair value/ almost bargain as I would probably have considered it fair value at its full price of $104.

The Merona swimsuit at Target was a striped swimsuit with a skirt, no pockets. The hem was not stabilized and the waist seam on the inside of the swimsuit was not tacked down. At $35 the swimsuit is at a fair value for the quality.

The Billabong board short at Dillard’s was made with 43% recycled polyester and 51% cotton. The seams were all true flat-felled seams, it had full front pockets and a welt pocket in the back with a zipper and a bungee cord to attach your keys to. The fabric did look worn, but my guess is that was the desired look. This board short was of quality construction so I would consider $55 as a fair value for this short.

Target’s Mossimo man’s board short tried to lure in a customer with a label saying that the label was made from 100% recycled material (if you did not read closely you might not have realized that it said label instead of fabric). This board short had a false flat-felled seam made by putting a small piece of fabric over a serged seam that was tacked down. This short did not have Velcro in the fly like the Billabong short did. It also only had one pocket. At $25 I have a hard time deciding whether or not it is fair value because of all the interesting cheats, but I will have to go with fair value because I wouldn’t know where else to put it and $25 is a low enough price for it.

Sorry I did not take pictures of each of the clothing items. In hindsight while writing this summary I realize that pictures would have made this post a lot better. Remember, price does not equal quality. 

And sorry for the horrible handwriting.

Group Summaries on Industry Practices Blog Post

See https://sfl280ytaylor.wordpress.com/2016/07/20/group-summaries-on-industry-practices/ for the rest of the class's pages.

Moodboard: Orange You Glad It's Summer!

My ideas for a Summer 2017 inspiration board

Style Match Measurement Sheet

Rectangle
Long-waisted, short legs
Petite
Average Weight
Full Bust
Summer

What to wear?

Example 1: Knee length dress with gathering on the side. Color gray. Why it works: diagonal lines to create shape; v-neck, feminine fabric, and necklace to lead eye away from blocky waist, good length for legs,.

Example 2: Open coat with natural colors and matching boots. Blouse has vertical lines, coat is open to create vertical lines which both make the wearer appear thinner and taller;and long coat, matching belt and boots to not accentuate shortness of legs.

Self-Concept Paper

Experiment on how dress affects your daily experience.

Day 1: Dress Down

Monday July 11, 2016. Woke up at 7:22am, remembered that I needed to start my self-concept paper experience. Acknowledge the need for proper undergarments for advanced sewing class, choose to leave my hair as I woke up with to compensate. My attire- T-shirt from a gym, a pair of gym shorts with a random high school logo on it, and dirty tennis shoes (ones I use in my garden).

A picture of me in my glorious dress down costume.

 The first thing that happened was my husband asking me if that was what I was going to wear today. I knew it wasn’t malicious, just curious because it looks a lot like what I wear as pajamas. I explained to him the experiment and he began to tease me, for example “people are going to think you are on campus to steal laptops from actual students.”

Getting to class wasn’t bad and for my first class it seemed that nothing was different because of what I was wearing. I mean, I don’t usually wear make-up and tend to dress casually, so this wasn’t too far from my usual, but it was still different. Class interactions were all neutral.

The only other time I got a comment on what I was wearing was at lunch. As I was joining a friend for lunch she said, “Did you just come from the gym?” I replied, “No, advanced sewing.” Then we had other chit-chat and it was as if nothing was different.

My husband picked me up after my last class and we went to Macey’s to pick up boxes. Everyone we talked to was kind and helpful. Then we went to the mall and visited Macy’s and the Sports Authority store. The customer service people at Macy’s were friendly and helpful, letting us know of a sale later in the week. The cash register person at Sports Authority was friendly and told us stories about the store.

I personally had felt very apprehensive about going to the mall and talking to people. Dressing down made me want to go home and lounge rather than go out and about to do productive things. Also, throughout the day I was afraid someone was going to call me out as doing the assignment and throw off the experiment. Luckily my professor and anyone else who did notice did not say anything.

All-in-all, I don’t think much changed in how people treated me. The biggest difference the clothes had was on my motivation, but that could just be because it was a Monday, maybe if I wore the same thing on a Saturday morning I would feel like climbing a mountain, running a 5k, and weeding the garden all before 10am.  Only time will tell.

Day 2: Dress Up

Wednesday, July 13, 2016. Woke up at 7:00am sharp. Continued beauty regime from the night before. Straightened my hair, applied make-up (which I rarely do and this time did much more than usual), and then continued the rest of my regular getting ready routine. My attire, a blue dress with white lace overlay with gold sparkly flats. I swapped my backpack for a large purse to finish my look.

My put-together and fancy look.

Compliments, compliments, compliments. Everyone is stunned and amazed at how beautiful I am. I can’t get away with my sneaky scheme as everyone’s first question as I get to class is “Why are you dressed so nice?” And my professor knows and then everyone knows. I only dress up for assignments, apparently. The only other interaction lead by my choice of attire was about what perfume I was wearing. I have observed previously that girls who dress nice usually talk about how and what goes into their beauty routine.

When I ran to Bernina during my lunch break, I get prompt service. Later when I went to Dillard’s, I got the same type of treatment. Quick and accurate. It was only at Gamestop when the man asked if I was playing PokemonGO that a salesperson talked to me like a person and not just a customer. Maybe other people like that, but I think I enjoy friendlier interactions with salespersons rather than professional business only.

Ironically, I felt the most insecure dressed up (needless to say, as soon as I was home I changed my clothes). Part of it is because it is far from my usual and I don’t feel that I’m doing it right, but it also related a lot more to the day’s lecture on body image and the media. I really do not feel myself in make-up and fancy clothes (except a few formal occasions).  Anyhow, I think the most important thing I learned is that beyond the first interactions, clothing didn’t change much. I think if I were to completely change and go to a new school my experiences would be a lot more different, but for the established relationships that I have with people, nothing changed.

In review of the situation, I would say that my confidence decreased when I dressed down but my insecurities remained stable. Whereas when I dressed up, I felt a normal type of confidence (I’m still timid in my normal attire) but my insecurities increased. Relating this to class I would say that my self-image decreased when I dressed up (so I felt more insecure) because what I looked like did not match my perceived psychological self. In dressing down, my self-esteem was lower because I felt that others would perceive me differently for dressing poorer than I usually do (even thought that wasn’t the case).

I do think that it is ironic that dressing up decreased my self-image since it was doing more to match what is culturally acceptable for women. I do think it confirms that fact thought because it is more about perceived psychological self and physical self and I felt more in harmony when I dress closer to my perceived self. Dressing down matched as well as I was more concerned about how others perceived me which had me question my ability to interact with them.

Modern times has definitely made it more possible for me to walk around in a t-shirt, gym shorts, and tennis shoes. Not only has times had to change and that form of fashion to be created for women, but with all the different feminist movements it has become acceptable for women to appear in public not fully made up. I realize that the time period I was born made this experiment possible and not as dramatic as most people in modern times are accepting of customers and friends regardless of what they are wearing.

While dressing up and down was a great experiment (though not as well-rounded as this person’s experiment), I think that people will get the most out of what they wear by matching what they feel on the inside. When someone can feel like themself they will have more confidence. It can be hard for some people to dress as themselves when their social group is not accepting of that, but how one feels about themselves is infinitely more important than what others think about them when it comes down to dealing with life better. I hope to continue to pursue who I truly am in what I wear so that I can be more confident and able.

Response to Speaker

A professor came and talked to our class about body-image issues and eating disorders. Media is a problem in creating a impossible ideal image through already very thin models. However, I disagree that talking is the best solution for this epidemic that is sweeping the nation. It is a good idea for small impact and essential if you are a parent, but when it comes to trying to help the world we need a better solution.

This solution, for those who have not yet fallen into an actual eating disorder, is related to why women are having such a hard time accepting their body shapes. Women look around and most of the people they talk to and most of the reading material on the subject matter is about how to become more attractive and reinforcement of the impossible ideal. Like the professor talked about, the lies are everywhere. Models get themselves sick trying to be thin enough and then they are photo shopped to look even better. Teenagers are used to model adult market clothing because they are the ones small enough to fit the specific mold. Clothing is designed to only fit the model body type and so regular people won't look as attractive in their clothing lines.

What do women need (much like people in general)?  An example and models that show a regular, healthy proportioned woman who is happy the way she is. Designers need to design to the varying body shapes. Models need to represent the different body types and be healthy. Tabloids need to stop reporting about how female celebrities are matching up to the impossible ideal. Magazines should report on important accomplishments of women and not just how they look. Women need to be told that they should take care of themselves and that is good enough.

It requires a cultural change, but if we had a small group of celebrities, a magazine, designers, and a clothing company that held up to those requirements and got the word out, that group could possibly change the world. It will take a while as the current culture is so ingrained in the negative cycle, but luckily humans like change and it could be a healthy swing in the right direction. This would also take a large step in the world of gender equality if women were able to escape the burden of body primping and were instead able to focus on being themselves.