Design Notebook: Frilly Things

  

As I've grown older, sometimes I find myself shying away from some of the parts of fashion and design that drew me to it in the first place - pink, sparkly, ornate or frilly things in particular - for fear of engaging in this strangely infantilized/sexualized and strictly gender normative vision of femininity that, in my opinion, is relied on way too heavily in both fashion and culture.

At the same time, the sparkly stuff was my fashion gateway: I have strong tactile memories of my favorite pink nightgown as a little kid; the fluffy tulle skirts we wore for ballet class; the seductive glitter of my grandma's costume jewelry drawer. The substance of those memories make me quite fond of the materials that shaped them.

And as much as I gravitate to the experience of unusual shapes, bold color pairings, or contemporary fashion and art, the classic and the pretty will always be my north star. Occasionally, as I find myself thinking a lot about avant-garde fashion, or feeling really inspired by a contemporary artist, I wonder where and how Classic Pretty can possibly fit in with everything else in any sort of logical and genuine way.

What I'm slowly coming to find is that it doesn't have to; that maybe it's actually the duality of our nature that is endlessly fascinating and inspiring. And so, maybe it's time to party down with my badass frilly self.

So with this in mind, I grabbed some some special vintage pieces from my closet, some pink polka-dotty novelty stuff, and a bit of alpaca boucle yarn for inspiration, and set out to make a fluffy, girly, absolutely ridiculous Peter Pan collar to spiff up some of my plain sweaters.



And your know what? I think I'm onto something.

Happy Friday.

<3

Cory