The most stunning
thing to me was the consensus in your opinions on what made sweaters work
appropriate, or not. My readers came from a wide variety of work
backgrounds, ranging from scientific labs, the military, academia, and retail,
yet your opinions were strikingly similar! I know most of my readers from their
projects on Ravelry, so I can say with confidence that they have a wide variety
of tastes in clothing styles and colors. Yet you all made similar judgments
about the sweaters I posted on my blog. This destroys the argument that you
shouldn’t worry about what other people think about your clothes, since
everyone’s taste is different.
In my frank opinion, that argument is
a bunch of hooey. My favorite example of that misconception comes from a Mom
Makeover show in TLC’s What Not to Wear.
A petite mother burdened with family and job responsibilities had given up on
fashion entirely. She was swallowed up by the sweat clothes and T-shirts she had started wearing to her meetings
with clients. When interviewed by a supposed “market researcher” on the TLC team, she asserted
confidently, “it turns out, people really don’t care about what I’m wearing.” What
she didn’t know was that her co-workers had called for an intervention, and she
would soon be humiliated by Stacy London and Clinton Kelly on live television. She
discovered too late that people did
care about what she was wearing after all.
The Rules:
There is an unspoken set of rules that we use to judge the clothing other people are wearing. Some studies show that people take about fifteen seconds to make up their minds about you. They’re not looking into your soul, either. Fifteen seconds isn’t enough time to notice anything but appearances. These snap judgments aren’t mean-spirited or narrow-minded. It is just a question of survival. Making generalizations about strangers is a survival strategy that allows us to cope with the unknown. So what are these rules we use to judge other people’s clothing?
1. Fit is more important than anything else. Every single person who
responded to my photos favored this sweater above all the others:
Why? Because it fit me the best. Several
readers also pointed out that garments with positive ease are not common in the
fashion world, so loose sweaters look less formal. And almost every reader who
remarked on fit said that sweaters with negative ease were a better choice for
my body type.
Clearly, fit has to be the primary
consideration when I knit a sweater. Tim
Gunn’s makeover shows center around the idea of fitting clothing to each woman’s unique
body proportions. Her understanding of her proportions is the building block that her new wardrobe is built on. Before one of his victims is allowed to spend a dime on new clothing, Tim Gunn forces her to
confront a 3D image of her own body that’s based on 23 different measurements.
Together, they go over the model and experiment with different clothing shapes and
lengths to find what is most flattering for her frame. If all of us owned that Optitext program, it would make our
knitting a heck of a lot easier! Since most of us don’t have $14,000 to shell
out for that software, however, what techniques can we use to ensure the fit of
our handmade clothes? This question will be the primary focus of my knitting makeover.
Please share any advice/experiences you have on fit in the comments section of
this post!
2. Match your sweater with the other garments you’re wearing to form a harmonious ensemble.
This sounds like basic common sense, but how often do we
pay attention to this before we select a knitting project? Karen, knitting diva
& Stitches instructress extraordinaire, made some very insightful remarks
about this, which I am quoting below:
Here's a great
exercise I just went through:
Take your UNKNITTED business wardrobe and
lay it out on a bed (or better yet, take photos of it on the hanger or on a
dress form). Exactly how different are your (purchased, unknitted) work
wardrobe and your handknits? Can you sprinkle your handknits in & among
your work wardrobe without having them look incongruous?
And what pieces are
you missing from your work wardrobe (a gray shell; a beige V-neck?) that you
could knit instead of buy?
Are any yarns in
your stash particularly good matches with pieces in your work wardrobe, and can
you cruise Ravelry to find good patterns of solid, basic pieces to knit out of
them?
I
could see you working up some sleeveless shells or T-shirt-shaped light
short-sleeved sweaters in stockinette with very basic edgings, and then
glamming an outfit up with a lace scarf or jabot...
For more information about Karen's fashion knitting tips and her unpatterns, see: http://akabini.squarespace.com.
Example of the whole wardrobe approach--Pair your sweater with a jacket:
Many of my readers suggested modifying my sweaters for work
by pairing them with a tailored blazer. This is similar to something I have
often seen on recent makeover shows. When dressing up for work, women wear a
snazzy V-neck jewel tone or textured top underneath a formal, dark colored
blazer. The key here is to treat our knitting as an integral part of our
wardrobe by looking at all our pieces together, whether it be hand-made or
store bought.
3. Beware too much color or texture.
All my readers agreed that variegated
yarns are too informal for a work sweater. Dark and neutral colors are more
effective at toning down the “handmade look” of knitting, whereas vibrant or
unusual colors make the handcrafting more conspicuous. The two photos above are made in variegated yarn, and form a striking contast to the professional photos below. The two bottom sweaters you see are Kim Hargreaves patterns, (Darcy and Maggie), knit in luxury yarns in subdued colors. This is a perfect example of the difference between a "craft project" (my two sweaters above) and actual "clothes"!
4. Lace is problematic because it’s revealing, & then you have to fuss with a camisole and bra straps underneath.
My readers agreed that the only
appropriate use of lace is to wear it under a jacket. This fits nicely with the
whole wardrobe approach. It now makes sense that before I choose a lace project,
I should decide which jackets it’s meant to go with, so I can adjust the colors
and neckline of my handmade sweater.
The Knitting Rules:
So, there you have it. For a sweater to be appropriate for the workplace, it must:
1. be knitted in subtle colors,
2. have an excellent fit, and
3. harmonize with the other garments and accessories I’m wearing.
Is that really
too much for me to ask of myself? I don’t think so. It’s just a matter of
sitting down and critically considering all those factors before I apply myself
to a project.