posted
Wow - you two scare me (Grianagh and saltrock). Because I don't share your fantastically developed sense of smell, I could be wafting around commiting all sorts of olfactory faux pas and being judged on them.
Since I happen to know that my sister has bought me Bvlgari Omnia eau de parfum for Christmas, could you just give me the heads up on whether it's likely to cause offence in TM0-smellyvision?
Mind you, since giving up smoking (ahem, mostly), I now know that you can sniff out a smoker at about a thousand paces. How come I just didn't know that for the best part of a decade???
As for fingernails, it seems that I have shockingly low standards on this front too. Clean and short will do me. Which incidentally is a good indicator that a woman might be a lesbian....
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quote:Originally posted by saltrock: And a non-matching bra.
This, er, non-matching bra thing. If all your pants are black, it doesn't matter what kind of bra you've got on, because everything goes with black, right?
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quote:Originally posted by saltrock: And a non-matching bra.
This, er, non-matching bra thing. If all your pants are black, it doesn't matter what kind of bra you've got on, because everything goes with black, right?
I'd have to agree with you there.
But the underwear thing is a moot point (unless you'd like to see people posting about what unerwear they're wearing).
There are very few circumstances in which you're projecting a certain image of yourself to the general public based on your underwear.
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quote:Originally posted by saltrock: And a non-matching bra.
This, er, non-matching bra thing. If all your pants are black, it doesn't matter what kind of bra you've got on, because everything goes with black, right?
To a degree, but I don't like to wear white pants with a black bra or vice versa. I prefer them to be the same colour. Why this is, I have no idea. Perhaps it was some wierd thing I read when I was 13 which has stuck with me ever since.
NB: The only time this can be justified is if wearing white trousers and a black top thin enough to see what colour bra you have on through it. Nobody likes to see a white bra shining through a black top.
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posted
There was a time, shortly after I moved to London, when I used to try and appear fashionable in some way. I remember the day it happened, the transition from student waster to lad about town, and it was a tight fitting bright yellow t-shirt with a picture of a target from a firing range on it. Doesn't sound very 'now' now, so to speak, but at the time it was a big step away from the blues and greys of university smoking clothes. That was the summer of 2000, and some glorious sun had 'teamed' with a publishing job in Kensington to impress on me the importance of style.
I can pretty much remember when I stopped as well. After a ridiculously expensive shirt that was universally derided, I realised that I'd dropped the fashion ball. My final stab was equally misplaced - some Diesel jeans complete with rip, reduced down from £150 to £100, and a eye-fucking camoflage coat, which some of you may have been assaulted by.
This year, I have bought
Two work shirts
One pair of trainers
And that's it. I think that my clothes speak for themselves pretty clearly. I spend my entire life outside of work wearing:
Grey hooded top white t-shirt blue jeans brown trainers
I don't even put my earrings in any more.
Maybe it's just me, but when I see a bloke chasing 'fashion', it seems faintly ridiculous. I've spied that having blonde highlights has been de rigeur of late, along with a kind of shabby half-mohiccan hair cut. The boys in Busted Blue seem to have been this year's pioneers, and any male who has followed suit just looks like a man who wants to look like they're in a boy band. Female fashion seems to change all the time, and a lady who is on top of it, bar ugg boots, looks good, lively, and cool. A man who looks on top of fashion looks like an ass. As I said, it could just be me, but these extravagant male styles are never to be fully trusted when there are steady black jumpers and dependable blue jeans.
Of course, this doesn't apply to those who pioneer their own style, like TMO's very own Jean Paul Gaultier, Michael Television.
[ 03.12.2004, 09:51: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
posted
matching bra and pants is all very well if you have ordinary size tits. if you have enormonungas like me its just a fools errand to think about being coordinated unless you want to wear black and white pants all the time. which i dont especially.
eta: which is to say, if a decent bra costs £30 then youre unlikely to be able to afford pants to go with. and when i say 'decent' bra, i dont want you thinking i mean something that is a pretty colour or anything extravagant like that. i have owned one bra that wasnt black, cream or white since 1995. when i can only afford one bra at a time i pick white, obviously. which is why the brastrap poking out of my lovely primark tops is usually white. or possibly grey.
posted
The only reason not to have your underwear matching is if you have to match it to your outfit. And I think it is relevant. You can often see what colour bra a girl has on, especially if she has a strappy top, and if it totally doesn't go, that says something about her attitude to clothing and appearance in general. Similarly, if you shouldn't see a bra, and it's showing, that mean she hasn't really thought about what was most suitable; and if you can see a girl's knickers when you shouldn't, that also tells you something about her planning and her attention to how she looks. Some slappers, after all, deliberately have "diamonte fongs" showing above their waistbands. Avoiding VPL shows a certain attitude to appearance: so not seeing any knickerline, the absence of any sign, obviously shows that the woman has given it some thought.
What I basically mean is that a lot of the time, underwear is not entirely private and hidden, and when it shows, or how much of it shows, is a factor in overall appearance.
I used to find those "invisible" (lol!) bra straps intriguing but I think they have really plummeted in status very quickly, sinking from "cunning" to "naff". Nevertheless I thought it was interesting the way they felt plasticky.
quote:Originally posted by kovacs: and if you can see a girl's knickers when you shouldn't, that also tells you something about where you should and should not be looking.
quote:Originally posted by kovacs: Nevertheless I thought it was interesting the way they felt plasticky when I stroked the strap of Modge's pretty friend's bra in a faux-naive "what does the material feel like though?" move
posted
Grr! Boys expect us to wear matching underwear!?! Pshaw. Forget that. When I’m not pregnant, I’m totally of the cute little cotton undies school, but can never find a cute little cotton bra to go with – comfort is a must, sorry.
But to be hypocritical, I think guys that still wear tighty whities are gross.
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posted
Maybe I was being a bit strict about girls' underwear. It isn't for me to make rules. But I would still draw those conclusions from the points I raised above. It's quite probable that no girl really cares what conclusions I draw about her and her underthings.
posted
I'm still not even vaguely tempted to post about my underwear on here.... apart from to sympathise/empathise with discodamage.
And to add that never mind £30, a nice bra can cost upwards of £50 and the co-ordinating uncomfy knickers are usually around £20. You do the maths. (There's some inverse rule which relates the attractiveness of the bustenhalter to the corresponding painfulness of the pants.)
Benway - I'm still not sure *why* the male follower of fashion should be inherently a figure of fun. Apart from of course the metrosexual's fear of looking like a real gay man.
The looks you describe seemed perfectly reasonable at the time. Back in the dotcom boom days those very spiky acupuncture trainers were my standard office wear. Probably coupled with a fin hairdo and enough fudge hair putty to give saltrock sugar cravings.... And I'm female.
Aren't you just describing a reaction against a certain ostentation and pretentiousness which has now gone out of fashion?
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quote:Originally posted by saltrock: And a non-matching bra.
This, er, non-matching bra thing. If all your pants are black, it doesn't matter what kind of bra you've got on, because everything goes with black, right?
To a degree, but I don't like to wear white pants with a black bra or vice versa. I prefer them to be the same colour. Why this is, I have no idea. Perhaps it was some wierd thing I read when I was 13 which has stuck with me ever since.
NB: The only time this can be justified is if wearing white trousers and a black top thin enough to see what colour bra you have on through it. Nobody likes to see a white bra shining through a black top.
lol - if these 'women' ever develop opposable thumbs we men will be in serious peril.
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posted
oj - bvlgari omnia reminds me of a bit of shalimar or opium w/ a citrus twist. nice but can be overwhelming.
we all have to wear clothing. unless we live in a climate and culture suitable for nudeness, of course. most of us buy our clothes from stores that stock whatever the fashion illuminati deem trendy that quarter. much a sameness. our creativity or personal style is then a deriviative of how we throw these things together and present ourself to the world.
or something like that. right?
i feel that we all basically walk around looking purty much the same. alike with in and out variations. so, i am one of those people that believe what we wear under our clothing is much more important than what we show the world. a well built foundation, if you will.
(i'm not going to describe my fundies)
that said, most of the money i spend towards fashion is allocated to- perfume make-up lingerie spa treatments
and it makes me wonder - am i old fashioned? anyone else do this? not just women - men too. who else would prefer a nice facial and well knitted socks to a trendy 150 quid jumper?
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turbo
Gold..... What is it good for? You can't eat it, you can't smoke it, yet everybody wants it.
posted
I wouldn't, I'm a jumper-buyer. I spend lots of money on clothes because I like stuff that is good quality and I have expensive taste. Maybe that's the same thing. Anyway, clothes and shoes are my biggest money-eaters. After that, cosmetics - again, because I have expensive taste. I don't wear makeup though, so it's all lotions and potions. After that, I suppose I spend the most on books.
I have to say I did recognise most of those 'fashion terms' from magazines I have read.
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quote:Originally posted by Grianagh: oj - bvlgari omnia reminds me of a bit of shalimar or opium w/ a citrus twist. nice but can be overwhelming.
That's pretty much what I thought - I liked it, but as a winter/evening scent. Actually, I thought "mmm, amber and oranges". Will probably have to stick to Bvlgari Pour Femme for daywear (jasmine tea).
quote:
that said, most of the money i spend towards fashion is allocated to- perfume make-up lingerie spa treatments
and it makes me wonder - am i old fashioned? anyone else do this? not just women - men too. who else would prefer a nice facial and well knitted socks to a trendy 150 quid jumper?
Not necessarily a spa treatment....but money burning a hole in my pocket (a rare occurence) usually makes me think "where can I go for a weekend away?" There is a difference between "trendy" ie. nasty polyester but it says Paul Smith on it and "a thing of beauty and quality" ie. a Jil Sander cashmere coat, a Vivienne Westwood tailored wool suit Neither of which you'd get for £150. Consequently neither of which I possess....
posted
Good News! According to the Daily Mail, shopping is the new feminism. I think that we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief, knowing that issues of gender politics can be understood and addressed by spending money on shoes.
quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: Are you being specific or just generalising here OJ, I'm not convinced Paul Smith would produce anything in nasty polyester.
She's thinking of Paul Smythe, who sells his stuff in Redhill market.
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: Maybe it's just me, but when I see a bloke chasing 'fashion', it seems faintly ridiculous. I've spied that having blonde highlights has been de rigeur of late, along with a kind of shabby half-mohiccan hair cut. The boys in Busted Blue seem to have been this year's pioneers, and any male who has followed suit just looks like a man who wants to look like they're in a boy band.
Yeah I agree with this, although maybe it's just an excuse for me to not spend any money on clothes, ever. I did have a splurge a couple of months ago - Allders were having a One Day Spectacular, and I bought two pairs of trousers, a a shirt and a t shirt. All that came to about £45. Add a Slayer T-Shirt I bought in June, and 2004's clothing budget comes to £57. That seems quite reasonable to me, even if it does mean that a look like a tramp most of the time. It's my 'look'.
Also: I'm astonished at the amount of time some people seem to put into their underwear, literally astonished.
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posted
Let us not get too critical now, boys. Label-chasing boy fashionistas may look ridiculously try-hard slaves to USC, but if the only alternative is blue&grey t-shirt / plain jeans / brown Burtons shoes - perhaps we shouldn't be too quick to mock. Catalogue is better than drab, is it not? Doesn't matter. Thankfully, there is another alternative, but before we explore it, can we stop pretending our fashion qualms have anything to do with money, and admit that we are in fact terrified of looking way out of our league fashionwise? What I mean is. Expensive boy fashion demands hott boys wear it. It's a risk we take. Wearing Diesel means I Am Worth This Fashion Label; I Am Hott Enough To Carry This Off; You Want To Fuck Me, Ladies, For I Am One Hot Fuck Of A Catch. Have we the confidence, boys?
What we could do, as an alternative, is sneak into the charity shop. We're still pretending it's the money issue, you see. 'We can't afford it! We have better things to spend our money on!' Quite right! So. Oxfam. Is where the real fashion hides. Hold my arm: we're going in.
We're rattling through clothes hangers and rummaging in massive wire bins. I'm pressing dresses against your shoulders but - what's this! - you're shying away! It's CHEAP, boys. I said it's CHEAP. That's what you're worried about, is it not? Oh look! A fancy dress sailor suit. We'll take the jacket, but the rest is too ... navy, haha, get it? NAVY. Shut up and tie the sash around your neck, it'll be hott. Why not? Fine. What about this belt, then: half-green, half-black, whole-hideous, faux leather, huge gold buckle, scratched to fuck. You'd never catch a popstar wearing it. And it's CHEAP. Here, try it -
posted
I don't buy Deisel because I think it's too expensive for what it is, not because I don't think I'm hott enough for it. Same goes for most things in trendy expenso shops like urban outfitters, I'm not prepared to pay £50 for a t-shirt even if it has got a really cool design on it.
Charity shops you say? I live in London where the professionals have all raided the charity shops and taken anything even half acceptable to their market stalls and boutiques to sell it to the kind of people who can afford to spunk 50 quid on a t-shirt. Anyway most stuff in charity shops is literally rubbish.
I lament the death of the local army surplus store. I want new combats, proper cotton ones that have decent pockets, but all the army surplus shops in my area have shut down. I'm loathe to go to Camden.
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quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: I'm loathe to go to Camden.
I'd recommend Paris's marché aux puces de saint ouen, within which I was lucky enough to spend three of yesterday's hours. Don't bother with the first part of the market - it's nothing more than Camden Lock plus a bunch of crippled homelesses lying in the road, displaying their wounds in exchange for a few euro cents. The food is alright, if you're prepared to eat maïs, maïs, maïs which has been warmed in an oil drum, or greasily overpriced crêpes. The clothing on sale in this part of the market looks exactly the same as Camden, apart from the slightly inflated prices - with which some friendly haggling is expected.
Delve deeper and you will find a treasure pot (troves are so clichéd) of intriguing stalls selling everything from 1930s wireless units, to nazi helmets (snort), to qualtiy, modern-day combat trousers of exactly the kind you describe, Boy R. Ticketed prices of €18 were often bargained down to €10.
So why not set your unstylish derriere on the grey and yellow seats of a Eurostar, and hunt though the fleas for something you might never find amongst the vegans of Camden.
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posted
Tell it I will swap all my posts for my then beautiful pre-pubescent skin. Or. Ask it to describe 1994 to me because I cannot remember much apart from maybe Oasis whining behind my brother's bedroom door? raves? Suede being fashion pioneers? Irvine Welsh being a shit writer? Millie punching Egg's secret girlfriend at an end-of-series party? and so I am struggling to decipher your insult. Will you ask 1994 for me?
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quote:Originally posted by Fionnula the Cooler: Tell it I will swap all my posts for my then beautiful pre-pubescent skin. Or. Ask it to describe 1994 to me because I cannot remember much apart from maybe Oasis whining behind my brother's bedroom door? raves? Suede being fashion pioneers? Irvine Welsh being a shit writer? Millie punching Egg's secret girlfriend at an end-of-series party? and so I am struggling to decipher your insult. Will you ask 1994 for me?
I suspect 1994 is busy dressing like Brett Anderson, dancing to Underworld and feeling slightly nauseous from the poppers stuck up its nose. (Whatever anyone says, I'll always maintain that cheap drugs are seedier).
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