As If

Moira Rose, played by Catherine O'Hara, has suffered. Her former life is in tatters and she lives in a hovel of a motel, the last remaining property of her vastly wealthy husband, Johnny. Johnny, a self-made billionaire/millionaire, has lost it all to a corrupt financial manager. He, his beloved wife Moira, and their infantile adult children …

Climb Upward

Took my breath away. Patagonia's website has this incredible photograph on its "Women's Socks and Underwear" page. Why so memorable? Well, she ain't wearing socks. More, the image shows an incredibly fit, strong, athletic female superstar of a gal who has climbed up a canyon wall and is resting on a freakin' ledge. And there …

Caped avengers

For the last several months, I've been longing for this tshirt.  From Universal Standard, it is called "The Volga". I dream of owning it, imagining myself .... imagining what? It's an oddity of the tshirt world, a caped tee.  In my mind, my longing for this shirt is tangled with my anger, my fury, really, …

Get angry, not “nonchalant”

I, a middle-aged middle-western middle-class-income gal can indeed be snooty enough to say, "Not Impressed" by the Isabel Marant collection at Nordstrom. In fashion spreads I've goggled over the 'coolness' of the Isabel Marant clothes that show up, especially on actresses who slouch about on chaises and sofas looking like they don't really care about …

Cold-Shoulder Warriors

On October 17, 2017, Reese Witherspoon spoke at the Elle Magazine's Women in Hollywood event, and she explained that she, like so many stars in Hollywood and women in the larger world, was sexually assaulted -- for her, as a young teen girl. Ms. Witherspoon is best known for her 2001 role as Elle Woods …

Smooth Ripples

Michelle Obama's impact on women's fashion Michelle Obama had an effect on how many American women dressed. This wasn't about a particular item of clothing she wore selling out; it was that she injected style into American culture; she shifted preferences of American women towards what she herself wore. Cardigans: she managed to make cardigans a "thing" …

Freedom’s in Fashion

These little ole' gals are Thomas Kinkaide's "Freedom in Fashion" figurines -- each named for a stanza in the National Anthem. Most women are familiar with the lazy fashion spread/advertisement featuring patriotic-themed clothing. As with Kinkaide's fashions, most of these designs offered to women shoppers are riffs on the American flag, or, simply featuring the …

Summer suffragists

I am reading a lot of news stories about women -- especially white women (more on that distinction in a sec.) -- who woke up after the election devastated with the outcome, in terms of what it meant for women, people of color, gays, the disabled, immigrants.  And more than upset, these are women who …

It’s not about the dress you wear

...but the life you lead, said Diana Vreeland.  Well, it's been a while since the election and I feel pretty much like wearing this every day -- arming myself for battle, because it sure feels like it's on, mister, it's on. So thanks, Vreeland, it is the life you lead, but it is also about the …

Turmoil

At this point, one week after the Women's March, it feels each of us who have in their heart patriotic sensibilities feel beaten down. American civic life demands that citizens stand up for civil rights, the Constitution, the ideals of the founding fathers....I'm feeling war-like, under siege. This extraordinary nation is seeing itself attacked from the …