2018 Fashion on the Ration challenge

CapricornLass

Its in book 2, p26, the Wartime Forces Polo-neck sweater. Designed, says the blurb, as forces wartime comfort. Its reasonably long, though, and in stocking stich which suits me as I can then knit and watch the box. I didn't want anything too fancy. I will reduce the polo collar, though as they don't suit me.

PipneyJane

Pollywollydoodle - I have had a similar problem with the one-and-only suit I bought from Jaeger. The trouser lining fell apart after very little wear and the fabric feels cheap. I wear that suit the least of all.

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

I have come back to this post three times now - thankyou for posting it!

I'm currently spending all five weeks of October travelling several hundred mils by pre-dawn train each Monday to spend three days working tutoring with small groups, and then home on the Thursday. So I have to travel light - each week I've had one skirt, one jumper or cardigan and one pair of shoes, and I've had changes of long-sleeved cotton t-shirt, changes of undies, and otherwise my outfit has stayed the same.

THIS IS WHAT MEN DO FOR WORK ALL THE TIME!!!!!

It's not even that they are the same people seeing me each day; totally different clients on each day, the Tuesday people don't know the Wed people, etc. So even if they felt I "ought" to wear different outfits for each session, I am, as I'm varying it each week!

The most difficult thing has been dealing with temperatures as we've had the stormy wet weather and the unusually hot midweek - days with a maximum of 20 degrees, days with a maximum of 9 degrees...! But layering helps a lot.

So I've been really thinking about how much I need what clothes, if that makes sense. Having several cardigans helps, and having different skirts helps - and I enjoy wearing different things, I admit.

But I am starting to think that maybe one thing to aim for is that the tops i wear *under* the cardis maybe should be more neutral so they go with all my different skirts and cardis... more greys, more creams, more navy or black even.

This is such a tangled thing, isn't it? We're taught that clothes "make" use better people, and if we feel low in our self-esteem we "need" to buy ourselves something to cheer us up... clothes are so bound up with emotions in some people - with others, they are bound up in identity, belonging to one or other social group...

I am slowly finding my way. I like full or A-line skirts, knee-length at the very shortest for summer or mid-calf for non-summer. I like fitted little cardigans and jumpers over them. I like petticoats (not the stiffened 50s-style net petticoats but old-fashioned ones I make myself with soft full 12-inch ruffles on the hem) to hold the skirts out without sticking out inconveniently. I like lace-up shoes, mid-heeled or brogues, often with ankle-socks and bare legs, but with long fine-wool stockings in cold weather. Long boots for the bitterest months.

And those are all unfashionable shapes and styles, but they suit me, I like them and feel right in them and people often seem to think I look nice in them.

So perhaps I should use my couponless 10 weeks that's left of 2018 to really work out what I do wear, what I don't wear - why I don't wear the latter and why I prefer the former - what i wear that only goes with on thing, what I wear that goes with lots of things, and then really consider what else I do or don't need.

I could even draw up a little checklist to keep with me for 2019 so that if I'm tempted to spend coupons on a whim, I can check first - what will this go with? How often will I wear it, and with how wide a range of things? What situations will I wear it for?
And then I can think about whether I already have something that fills that set of requirements, which maybe I had forgotten about, or perhaps it needs a stain or mark tackled or perhaps it's simply tired and will be fine with a bit of needlework freshening it up.

My lovely aunt gave me two grey cashmere camisoles about 15 years ago (good cashmere, so they last!) but after 15 years, mostly worn against my skin in winter under other things, they were looking a bit tired. So I crocheted some fine lace onto the V-neckline of each, one in ivory laceweight Shetland, very soft and delicate, and the other in cream Shetland and some deep rich lapis-lazuli blue laceweight - I also went over them to check and reinforce any worn patches (none) and gave them a really good handwashing and a steam-pressing to 'set' the woollen lace, and they really looked like they were new.

So maybe I need to do more of that kind of thing... some of my long-sleeved cotton tops that were cheaper ones are looking saggy round the necklines, so perhaps a very narrow simple band of crochet lace in a dark toning colour would smarten them up a bit and make them fit better... hmmm

Laura, I travelled a lot for work in my old job and was normally away for a week at a time, Tuesday to Friday. (Mondays I have choir, so would avoid travelling if at all possible.) My wardrobe strategy was built around a suit (jacket, trousers +/- skirt), a good cardigan (sometimes one I'd knitted; sometimes bought), a pair of jeans (for evenings and dress-down-Friday) and multiple t-shirts. On the rare occasion we had a team dinner, I would throw in a dress. Most of the time, I wear loafers to work - safer than heels in a construction village where the staircases are all mesh - but if I packed a skirt, then I'd bring heels too. My small carry-on suitcase usually also had underwear, my running gear, a pair of trainers - this would be the only time I'd wear my "running trainers" as normal shoes - and my travel toiletries (100ml bottles refilled with whatever I normally use).

As well as being worn in the evenings/Friday, the cardigan would get rotated in to act as a jacket, during the week. I find that people may notice if you're wearing the same suit jacket every day, but they won't notice if you're wearing the same trousers unless the fabric is very loud.

My travel style is very Dana Scully, from the X Files. She was my wardrobe model back in the 1990's, since she was inevitably travelling somewhere and lugged her own suitcase, laptop bag, etc. (I've also been known to sit on my bed, in my hotel room, and write up briefings just as she did.)

monnagran wrote: »

I did read somewhere that if you were short you should wear skirts that were either very short or long. Therefore my skirts are long - to cover my tree trunk legs. I also wear trousers, although I probably shouldn't.
As I am kissing 80 my clothes are comfortable, if they are attractive as well it is more by accident than design.

This is also the reason that I am so familiar with rationing. I have experienced it first hand.
One thing has served me well, when I went to Grammar School in 1950 the Needlewok teacher, who was inspirational, had a big banner pinned across the board in her room. It said, "SIMPLICITY IS THE ESSENCE OF GOOD TASTE."
This has been my guiding star throughout my life.
Hence although I have only 2 looks, bag lady and presentable lady, they are both in the best of taste that the CS can produce.

That is how my coupons have survived almost untouched.

That is an excellent piece of advice, Monnagran. I hate fussy clothes.

CapricornLass wrote: »

Its in book 2, p26, the Wartime Forces Polo-neck sweater. Designed, says the blurb, as forces wartime comfort. Its reasonably long, though, and in stocking stich which suits me as I can then knit and watch the box. I didn't want anything too fancy. I will reduce the polo collar, though as they don't suit me.

Yes, I know the one. It's this one on Ravelry. Sadly, no photo.

- Pip

RicardaRacoon

Laura, I had a good laugh about your encounter with Mr Asda! That's probably nothing to mention in your diary in case you want to send it to the mass observer....
And I can totally relate to all the points that get lost - or at least tied up for an unknown period of time - in fabric and yarn that then just ends up in the stash....

And I love your post about the way French and British style varies!



I have a weakness for elegance but somehow never really manage it myself. A few years back I had an encounter with a very elegant elderly lady. Her elegance somehow looked like it was no big deal for her, I didn't got the impression that she spent hours composing the right outfit, she just knew what would go with what and how she could make an outfit look put together. So sometimes when I want to look elegant and don't know why I ask myself what she would do to make take it look good.



26 kilos of clothes? That's insane! well, I guess we are just told that we need new stuff all the time. I have this one coworker who keeps making remarks about my limited clothes choice and I try to explain to him over and over again that I could have 40 different dresses and would still wear the same four or five 80% of the time because I like them best...
Though then I did made a lot of bad fashion decisions until a few years back....

I'm Swiss and live in Switzerland - hence my spelling mistakes... - and I have no idea how many kilos of clothes we buy, but there is certianly a trend for fast fashion here too...


Pip, you asked about the knitting podcasts I watch; mostly Inside Nr 23 and Ina Knits by a Norwegian who podcasts in English - or I would not understand most of the things she says....



re French Fashion; I wonder if this whole stylish French thing came up after the war, maybe they were the first ones who had easier access to new clothes and could therefor be more stylish while the rest of Europe was still walking around in clothes that had already been mended 10 times.
and now, while some of them are still elegant, not all of them live up to the expectation....



By the way, is ist just me or are we heading headfirst back to the 90ties fashion wise at the moment?



so, got to get on knitting my jumper:-)



Have a lovely evening everyone!

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

I worked for 3 months in 2006 in the South of France, and the only flights to that city were a measly 15kg baggage, which had to include my laptop (heavier in those days) and some textbooks, so I famously arrived with five pairs of knickers, two pairs of tights, one pair of trousers, two tops and a jumper, something like that... then I had to buy new clothes but with limited funds.

I went and sat at cafes and people-watched. I looked for anyone who I thought looked particularly good and tried to work out why, and I looked for anyone my build and tried to work out what looked good about them.

My conclusions were different from yours I thought the women WERE better dressed than British women, and I concluded it was because they were all dressed in the mid-range of style, regardless of price.

i.e. if slobbing about in bed starkers with unkempt unwashed hair is 1, and the full floor-length gown, elbow-length gloves and tiara for a red-carpet premiere is 10, then French women seem to be consistently around the 6-8 mark. British women seem to be either at the 2-4 mark or else at the 12 mark.

Examples of what i mean: if I saw a French woman in the supermarket who wore jeans then she'd have really good jeans that fitted her properly, in a good fabric, and they would be worn with a belt, with a really crisp ironed shirt or a really good top, which would be tucked in or belted, defining the waist even on fat women (and yes, fat Frenchwoman do exist, they just look better). Her hair would be clean, brushed, and she'd have a gorgeous necklace or a colourful scarf tied round her neck, that kind of casual but stylish thing. She'd wear colourful cotton espadrilles, or clean white sneakers, or clean polished shoes.
Whereas when I came back to Britain, if I saw a women wearing jeans in the supermarket, they'd be cheap jeans looking cheap, they'd be a bad fit, often falling off saggily. She'd be wearing them with a huge loose old stained oversize t-shirt or sweatshirt hanging shapelessly down to her hips, and often with slippers or flipflops making her walk in a shuffle. Her greasy hair would be scragged back into a ponytail, unbrushed, and her overall appearance would be pretty bad.

That was the 2-4 range, but the 12? Didn't i say it was 1 to 10, so how can someone be a 12? Well the women in Britain seem to enjoy dressing up far beyond the average French woman - think 'Dorian' from Birds of a Feather, or Bet Lynch from Corrie... sequins, incredibly heavy make-up, back-combed dyed hair, everything very very tight and incredibly low-cut, with poorly-fitted underwear giving that weird four-breasted appearance.

That's all wildly generalising, but it really made me think.

Instead of looking middlingly-good virtually all the time, it seemed to me that in Britain women make a massive effort *when they go out* and not much effort in between at all.

That was a dozen years ago now, but I think it's still reasonably accurate.

My life has changed out of all recognition in that time and now, as I approach 50, I am actively working on not owning any slobby unattractive clothing. When I want to lounge around lazily, I have a couple of pairs of really nice pyjama trousers in good fabric that are a proper fit on me, both comfy and looking right. I wear those with a pretty crushed-velvet silk camisole in summer, or with a deep-pink chenille cowl-neck jumper in winter.
Slowly, after some years where I sadly felt I didn't deserve nice things, and after a drastic change to a place where I now understand just how much i DO deserve nice things!, I'm getting rid of things that are in the 2-4 range, and going back to my 2006 way of thinking, of adding touches to even the most casual and comfy of outfits so that even if I just wear jeans, even at my plump size, I wear them well.

Laura, I take it all back. My comment was entirely driven by observing women on my commute or in various office situations.

I rarely people-watch British women "in the wild". But, I'm sick with cold so working from home today, so I'm watching the scrummies* deliver their little darlings to the primary school opposite. It is easy to tell who is going on to work in an office afterwards; they're reasonably smartly dressed. The rest are split 50:50 between neatly dressed housewives and "oh my gawd, what are you thinking, woman??? Have you no self respect?". Seriously, I've just seen a woman in furry mule-slippers waddle up the road.

Oh, and I'd entirely forgotten about British women out on the pull and dressed up to the 12s; the Doreens of this world. Do not go out clubbing in Newcastle on the weekend - it's scary. (I was there years ago for a work 5-a-side-football tournament and still have nightmares.) And it's not just mutton dressed as lamb. Particularly in this age of the Instagram-face, I've noticed an increasing tendency for veal dressed as beef - young women with the makeup caked on so high that they look like their mothers trying to look younger. Why do they do this? It's not sexy.

- Pip



* scrummies = school run mummies, although there is the occasional scraddy too.

PollyWollyDoodle

"Veal dressed as beef" - thank you PipneyJane, that's made my day! :rotfl: lots of that round here, too - and this strange trend for going to the supermarket with enormous curlers in your hair. My mother would not have been seen dead outside the house with curlers in, but here it seems to be like a fashion statement of "I'm going out tonight".

Sayschezza

I am really enjoying these observations. Definitely food for thought.

I examined the contents of my own wardrobe yesterday and was pleased to realise that most things work with most things. IFYSWIM. However much I buy I do donate a lot to the local Hospice shop so I don't keep masses and masses of clothes but only the things I absolutely love. If I could curb the spending on items that seem to be right but which later on get replaced with something I like better, I would save myself a lot of money and angst.

I think I will have definitely run out of coupons by now so will draw a line under the spending until the new year. I have wool so can make a couple of bits to keep me interested

RicardaRacoon

I did some research / people watching in the groceries store yesterday and today at the garden centre.

what should I say? I saw two women whom I'd give 8 out of 10. One was a lady 80+ who wore grey tartan trousers and a berry coloured jumper. I also saw a couple of women who could have been a 7 or 8 but chose to wear bulky, disscoloured white trainers with an otherwise elegant outfit... I fully understands why one wears trainers but not with nice cut jeans and a blouse...
On the other end of the list I saw some people who nearly made it to minus something like the lady in the mint tracksuit - a wonder she didn't wore ugg boots with it... - and the usual size 20 teens wearing a size 14 croptop and leggins... Looking like a "badly stuffed sausage" to quote my Mum....

So well, not better than in the UK...

Laura_Elsewhere

So many interesting comments! I'm currently working half the week up north, staying with my parents and tackling their cleaning, trains before dawn and getting up at half-four, and weekends at home with too many outings and not enough sleep... so no major reply to each of you, but I do want to...

I think this discussion is REALLY interesting and useful. For me, looking at how other people dress, especially people similar to me in build or age, really helps me spend fewer coupons.

Laura_Elsewhere

A new jumper for me with no coupons! My Gran knitted it sometime around 1990-91, only a couple of years before she died; I wore it about twice and it vanished. I sadly concluded someone had chucked it out or donated it to charity (the kind of thing my late sister would do), but last week it turned up in a box of stuff at my parents - I'm wearing it now...

True cobalt-blue, Aran-weight, maybe 10% mohair I think, something fluffy anyway - V-neck with extra-long sleeves for my knuckle-dragging arms

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

A new jumper for me with no coupons! My Gran knitted it sometime around 1990-91, only a couple of years before she died; I wore it about twice and it vanished. I sadly concluded someone had chucked it out or donated it to charity (the kind of thing my late sister would do), but last week it turned up in a box of stuff at my parents - I'm wearing it now...

True cobalt-blue, Aran-weight, maybe 10% mohair I think, something fluffy anyway - V-neck with extra-long sleeves for my knuckle-dragging arms

Sounds lovely.

I've been doing a bit of introspective thought about what I will spend my remaining coupons on/next year's coupons. Rule 1 must be NO MORE YARN, with the exception of spending the vouchers I was given for my birthday from Blacker. The other thing is that I will definitely need new loafers for work at some point next year - I'm contemplating DMs (haven't owned a pair since the 1990's). I will also need to purchase some underwear and want to buy some proper silk lining material, so that I can get my good winter coat relined.

As for my remaining vouchers for 2018, 5 will be spent this week on a new pair of "walking trainers". I have a pair which were purchased from the Asics' shop in 2016, black with a waterproof top. They've been worn virtually every weekend since. When we were on holiday last month, we went for a walk and I noticed the left sole didn't feel quite right, as if it were breaking down a bit internally. Middle of the night, I got cramp at the front of my shin. Two Sundays ago, I wore them to Wembley for the NFL. Lots of walking. Again, I woke up with cramp in my shin. Friday, I got the car serviced so wore them to walk the 1.5 miles to/from the garage; by the time I got home, my left leg was aching. Yesterday, we went back to Wembley; I wore my running trainers and no cramp. Lesson learned: the black shoes need to be replaced ASAP. Wednesday evening, I'll stop in at the Asics shop in Bicester on my way home from work.

As well as a yarn habit, I appear to have a hat-buying habit. In Harrow yesterday, I spotted a very nice, 1920's style, red, woollen hat in the British Heart Foundation shop window. Turned out to be brand new. As did it's grey brother, which also I couldn't resist. Both have a small wired brim and felted flowers appliqued on the side. £17.98 and four coupons spent.

The above brings my 2018 coupons down to 22.

- Pip