A wee dram of self-indulgence. A barrel of LOLs.

[Poppy Fields]

There's been a lot of talk - by me, duh - about my personal style and how it's a weird mix of various decades and sub-cultures. Been a lot of soul-searching and personal growth posts too, by me - again - and others. While digging through my archives looking for this picture to post on Syd's comment wall today, I ran into a project I completed a few years back.

I had a very active sewing blog in 2006 and took part in a lot of online crafting challenges. One of these was a Craftster Challenge to create a "Mini Me". I love paper dolls - so that was an automatic choice - I was turning 30 SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I'm 27!! and decided to do a retrospective look at my life and the clothes that have defined it.

And please understand that my clothes do very much define me. The 7 months I worked at a clinic where I had to wear scrubs nearly drove me to insanity. I would sob on the way home from work because I completely lost my sense of self. This is why I can't commit to one definitive style of dressing, because how I dress changes not just with my moods, but with my identity(/ies). It is crucial that I have clothes that clearly express and reflect who, what and how I am on any day. The mornings where I wake up and don't have the clothes to match who I am? Oy. It's bad.

But the "Mini Me" project.

I worked up an idealised doll of myself, because hips 'n' tits are fun! Then I started sketching the clothes that I most remembered from each year of my life. Some years featured my favourite outfits, some were clothing highlights and others were pure fashion tragedies (these occurred mostly in the 80's when my mother had the final say over what I acquired). I remembered these without photographic prompts; finding the photos came afterwards. Every memory I have, I can tell you what I was wearing.
I. Love. Clothes.

This project took many hours of sketching, lightbox tracing, inking, colouring, scanning, editing and compositing. In addition to the clothes, I made backgrounds for each page with text detailing all the most important events in my life those years. It was a personal project as well as a challenge entry, so this text was faded out and covered so that only snippets showed; only the individual can ever really know what the "background" story to their life is. I finished it with a cover inspired by Mucha, which, meh. Not spectacular. "Ameretat" is a Persian goddess symbolising the concept of "not dying", which is also the meaning of my IRL name. It is also my dance moniker, should the day ever come that I perform again :)

There.
Now you all know how old I am, you've all seen the ill-advised things I've done to my hair and you've all seen me at my super-skinniest and super-not skinniest.
But most importantly, you've seen my clothes. And I'll say it again: I love my clothes! **

[pictures being uploaded to gallery] Album can be viewed here.

** Made a trip back to SA in 2006 and came back with 2 suitcases full of new clothes. So cheap and so diverse! Wardrobe is quite lovely now, although half of it is in need of alterations. Sigh. Get off your assssss Poppy!

[Wink Holliday]

Me, too!!!! (It must be true, as evidenced by the use of superfluous exclamation points)

[Poppy Fields]

Would you believe that I was - until very recently - chronically, cripplingly shy? Now I'm still shy, I just don't care as much. Social anxiety is still a 7 (at least), but if I can actually leave the house it usually turns out okay :)) I guess I'm making up for lost time by showing the world my ratty, soiled mental underwear.
Or something.

[Wink Holliday]

You. Are. My. Hero. And I would never, ever be brave enough to show the world my life in this visceral way. You have, as they say, balls.

[Poppy Fields]

You make a good point about "conscious attention" and matching internal to external. Pinup is very much about the details and making sure everything is "just so"!

I guess it's hard for me to remember and even to understand sometimes that most people just wear clothes, without really worrying about whether the clothes say anything about or mean anything to them. As long as it's in fashion/the right brand/comfortable it's enough for most. It's up to the rest of us to reward the eyes of the masses :)

And thank you!

[Daniel]

I think it's very PL and quite to the heart of it. This talk about obsessively (or just more than average) matching externals to internals is what pinup is about. The difference between a picture of a girl and a pinup is that in pinup conscious attention is paid to clothing,posing and props. This is where 'pinup' is born. If it's going to be pinned up (as originally intentioned by the name) the (art)work must reward the viewer for longer than a regular picture by using the visual language to stimulate the imagination.
I enjoyed your project by the way!

[Poppy Fields]

Thank you so MUCH! I was wondering a little whether it was PL appropriate or not, but figured you'd let me know :)

Barrel rotfl!!!!11 It looks so sad. And ashamed. Poor fail boat :(

[Edson Carlos]

Your project is AMAZING. I approved the album the other evening thinking to myself, omfg thats so awesome! Thumbs Up to you doll. Keep it fresh

[Edson Carlos]