Flirting With Fashion

As my sister can attest, we were never fashionable girls.  I suppose this could be due to being raised partly in Hong Kong, where (at least in our neighbourhood) fashion meant "whatever still mostly fits," and no one would blink an eye at pastel polka-dotted shorts paired with primary coloured plaid tops.  Over the years I've attempted some various fashion phases of my own, usually tending toward boho, but most often settling back into the comfy, sporty groove.

As a teen and twenty something, I'd look at the cut of 40s and 50s dresses, and think, "if only those were available now."  I don't know why.  Something about the cuts just really appealed to me.  Maybe because I usually try to hide my thighs. ^_^  I've never been too comfy in my skin.  It could be the offset hipbones.  Or the knock-knees. :-P

In *my* perfect world, everyone would treat every day as a cosplay day, and we all would look wildly different.  There wouldn't be a "norm" to which one had to conform, you know?  I suppose that's my fear of not "getting it right."  It probably goes back to that whole Chinese mentality -- the "losing face" thing.  *shrug*

I did buy a 50s sort of dress not too long ago only to put it on and nearly claw my own eyes out at the horror.  Caveat online Emptor is all I can say about that.  Regardless of the sizing chart, I'm not sure that Chinese dressmakers have a firm handle on the frame of the Western woman.  I'm a bit North of 5'9", muscular at the core, and soft around the edges -- not exactly an Elven woodsprite.  It fit, but it looked pretty atrocious.  Thank goodness for the return policy!

Today I bunnytrailed back into cute online dress land, but I have a spark of hope now, because I found a company called Voodoo Vixen (click the pic.)  They make awesome retro dresses that might actually look decent on me!

Check this out:

They have a lot of lovely-looking dresses and tops. And if you want to see more of them on a real person, take a look at this great blog. She really rocks the retro! Who knows? I may have to give up my Salvation Army Chic after all!