When I was a little girl, I visited my grandmother for one happy week every summer. Back at home, life was hard and food and other resources were limited, so I enjoyed trips to the beauty parlor with Grandmom and late night card playing over coffee ice cream and as if I were living in another world. Grandmom always sent me home with a few pretty dresses, and ever since that time, beautiful clothes have symbolized more important things—safety, feeling treasured, and being able to afford to pursue beauty as a goal in itself.
I sometimes wonder if the reason I spend so much effort making clothing by hand is I am trying to keep my grandmother’s love and protective presence in my life. She died when I was eleven, and I felt I lost her all too soon. Then again, sometimes clothes are just clothes. I mean, we all have to get dressed every day wearing something and as long as we are decently covered we are okay, right? But then clothing says so much about who we are.
For a while, I researched what clothing choices say about us as people and I read and watched a lot of advice from style gurus such as Tim Gunn. Often I would hear the admonition to install a three-way mirror and dress in front of it every day. Frankly, the idea horrified me. Spending so much time and effort examining my reflection seemed vain, like the Jane Austen character, Lord Elliot, who surrounded himself with enormous mirrors on every wall of Kellynch Hall so he could preen himself.
Then I embarked on the 100 Day Challenge of Wearing my Handknits. As a side-effect of experimenting with integrating knits into my summer wardrobe, I had to look at photographs of myself almost every day. In effect, my blog became a bit of a three-way mirror in which everything, good and bad, was starkly displayed. Suddenly I understood why a mirror is a useful tool. Far from being a tool of vanity, I realized it is more vain to believe you can dress yourself well on a daily basis without having a reliable means of checking you haven’t made some horrible mistake.
The first thing I learned from the photographs was that I was wearing the wrong bra size. Basically, the support I was wearing underneath this white top was so ill-fitted that it looked as if one side of my chest was a different size than the other. During my October trip to Paris, I went into the Galeries Lafayette Lise Charmel department for a professional bra fitting. With the expertise of a wonderful Frenchwoman, I am now finally wearing the correct under-architecture to support my handknits. Given how handknits tend to mirror our shape, it is crucial that the shape underneath be fitted out properly, or disasters like the photo above will result. It is amazing the difference a really good bra can make to your overall look and confidence.
Another AHA moment I gained from photographing my knits was realizing that jeans have to look good from 360 degrees. Just because jeans look good from the front:
doesn’t mean they look good from the back:
Moving on quickly, because I’m scared by that last photo, I also discovered photographs help to make judgement on whether an outfit works. I mean, we are always experimenting by putting separates together, and sometimes those combinations work better than others.
Successful combination:
Unsuccessful combination:
Anyway, I hope these thoughts are helpful to someone besides myself! I certainly learned a lot! I mean, I love my handknits and I wear them all the time. But I’m starting to take a closer look at them before I run out the door to work!