Fashion Blogging (part deux)

Thursday, October 21

Dress: SatWhat (Free, handmedown from a friend moving to another state and downsizing all their possessions a few years ago)

Tights: ALL! MY TIGHTS! HAVE HOLES!!!!!!! #ErikasHoles

Shoes: ID rubbed off over the course of a dozen years (Xmas gift from the husband)

Like I said in my last post, I just keep acquiring large-collared knitwear and I’m never sure if I’ve arranged the neck-wattleage sufficiently but damn baby it’s cold outside and my home studio has like zero insulation so it is also cold inside too and these big ol’ chonky sweater dresses keep a bitch warm.

Friday, October 22

Jacket: First (free from a queer clothing swap party)

Shirt: I can’t find it right now to check the label and I have no memory of acquiring it. I think Matt bought it during an online Gap sale? He goes ham on the Gap sales, getting us a refill on the basics of socks and unders and generic plain shirts.

Skirt: logo rubbed off ($5? From a going-out-of-business sale from the giant Macy’s that was downtown)

Shoes: ??? (Xmas gift from Matt)

Saturday, October 23

Shirt: no logo (free from a queer clothing swap party)

Pants: INC (ditto)

Socks: (new at Goodwill)

The elbows on the shirt have these faux leather(?) patches, which makes me think of some kind of old school college professor, and since I got this entire ensemble at a queer clothing swap party I like to think this is my Professor Lesbian outfit.

Bit of a boring outfit to leave this Week Long Fashion Dispatch on, so here is also what I wore on

Sunday, October 24

Matt, our friend, and I went on a last minute outing to THE OREGON SYMPHONY to see Nightmare Before Christmas played with a LIVE ORCHESTRA. WHAT? We’re all homebodies and definitely not the kind of folks who go to big, live music events- especially not with just a day’s notice, but Instagram spat up an ad for this weekend-only performance and it just sounded too special to miss. So! I got dolled up and went to the symphony hall with a handsome boy on each arm and had a lovely Sunday.

Dress: Forever 21 ($5? Secondhand from a SuicideGirl who was using her profile to downsize her closet in like 2009, I think. She hand delivered it and the other items I bought right to my comic studio downtown)

Shoes: ??? (Gift from Matt)

PLUS:

COAT.

This coat.

Brand: Maria Vionisiou (bought new, $150?)

The Muppet Coat.

I have worn this coat since I was about… 15? 16? I’m 38 now.

My mom bought it for me new when we were getting back-to-school clothes. I was nervous I wouldn’t have the self-confidence to actually wear it in public, but I just… I loved it so much. Did I love it? I was captivated by it. I was drawn to it. I deeply desired to own it, to be the kind of person who wears an eye-grabbing, dramatic red Muppet-fur coat out and about as if it weren’t no thang, as if she has the self-confidence to embrace being equal parts outlandish and stylish.

The Muppet Coat has traveled with me from my hometown of Seattle to my college town in Southern California to my semester abroad in France to my adopted home in Portland and a handful of trips to England to see my long-distance boyfriend and then later to visit my in-laws. It’s also been to Canada a couple times, too.

The lining has shredded and been hand-repaired more times than I can count. The “fur” mats up and has to be dry cleaned every one to two years or so. A button popped off and I sewed it back on but with the wrong-side forward on accident and I didn’t want to do it again so now they visually don’t match even though they’re still all the original buttons. I loaned it to a girl in college my freshman year so she could dress as Janis Jopelin for Halloween and my stomach was in knots until I got it back. That was when I realized, oh, this isn’t just a piece of clothing I can loan out, this coat is a part of my heart, of me. There are objects that hold a bit of your soul in them, so when you are dead and gone your loved ones can hold that item and feel you there with them. The brilliant red Muppet-fur coat is one of mine, for sure, no question. Bring it into your house and you’ll have a piece of my heart in there with you. Please try to dry clean it once every one to two years or so, otherwise it gets kind of gross.

Voila! There we go! A week (and a day) of my outfits! There are a handful of new items (some new-new, some new-to-me) and a treasure trove of pieces that have been with me for years, for a decade, for more. Every shirt and shoe and dress has a little story for me, more than I shared here. I remember where I got them, who gave them to me, how long they have stayed with me.

(That last photo is probably from 2008, the year we got married when Matt was 23 and I was 25. It has nothing to do with this post, but Matt and I totally forgot our 13th wedding anniversary was well over a week ago and I am looking forward to forgetting our 14th with him next year too)