Do you dress eccentrically?

[fashionista-ta]

^ I believe he was in Milan, though

I really like your idea of avant garde challenging your perception of what beauty and style are or could be.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Great post Gasoline Rainbow... but IMO Izzie along with Anna Piaggi & Lynn Yeager... was/is still more eccentric than avant-garde. Karl Lagerfeld is in a class all his own... albeit not a very good one IMO. I find him distasteful at best.

 

[fashionista-ta]

Daphne Guinness seems like another possibility. I agree that Isabella was eccentric, but I think a certain amount of eccentricity is a requirement for avant garde style ... I think they always go hand in hand, to one degree or another. Since she was the inspiration for at least one McQueen collection, and significantly helped him and others by virtue of being someone considered to have good judgment in the fashion community, to me she has a clear relationship to fashion, which not all eccentrics do. Perhaps avant garde style is stylish eccentricity, as opposed to ye olde cat lady ...

 

[fashionista-ta]

zimbio

I feel that Daphne qualifies based on her hair alone

 

[GasolineRainbow]

Perhaps avant garde style is stylish eccentricity, as opposed to ye olde cat lady ...

What a neat little summary.

I suppose eccentricity is marked by being eccentric for its own sake, perhaps out of a peculiar character or disposition, withholding any sense of purpose. Though Isabella Blow (Izzie) and Anna Piaggi do look like something out of Grey Gardens, there seems to be a method to their madness*.

Off to look up Lynn Yeager, never heard of her.

*Please excuse my writing about Blow in present tense. May she rest in peace.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ I believe Lynn is the (fashion?) journalist who wears white-toned makeup and blusher in little circles on her cheeks? I think she also has a bright red bowl cut. At first blush she does seem pretty purely eccentric ...

Iris Apfel might be a good candidate for stylish eccentricity ...

 

[gius]

i think so too, the word avant-garde doesn't really fit into our time period anymore.
there's quite a mix of things. underground culture and mainstream, it's right at our fingertips. click of a mouse

if anything, to me it's in the personality nowadays.

we'd have to interview anna piaggi and yaeger etc. to see if there is a reason they dress the way they do.
i totally agree with the idea that isabella is avant-garde in the sense she was a supporter of craftmanship (you can read or watch it in interviews with her). she saw pieces she wore and the designers she was around as talented.



doesn't it already say something that we think they are eccentric

like what was said earlier, it's about a vision and a thoughtfulness to dressing.
i can't really say myself if anna piaggi or yaeger are eccentric. some of their outfits, you will see the colours go really well together.

we can just agree that this thread is about "pushing the envelope" instead of avant garde because we will never stop the discussion it's about experimentation. what do you guys think??? change the thread title?

and yes i think eccentricity goes hand in hand with avant garde.
have any of you met anyone who dress like this... i know for myself, they really do not fit in with the crowd.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ I think some discussion of terminology and categories is interesting, but I'd like this to be more about style than semantics

The original intent was to cast a broad net ... and I agree, experimentation is definitely part of this, and as 666 pointed out, cultural context comes into it as well.

It's also more than a bold choice ... which is more what I do myself. I suppose I have an avant garde piece or two, but I don't feel that's what my style is.

I remember reading an article by Lynn Yeager about her own style and its cultural antecedents. She most certainly has reasons for what she does, but clearly (in common with what we're talking about here ... and maybe she does fit here) it feels right to her, even though it's distinctly different from what the vast majority of others are doing. (In her case, I think it's distinctly different from just about everyone else on the planet )

 

[gius]

that's sweet ^^, in my case i have only normal simple clothes and they are mostly dark.. and i often look dressed up in them. but i 'm sure i blend into the background of the city. and nevertheless, i feel out of place wearing them

i wear it because it's all i have
but it's the reason i am taking a bunch of 'fashion' courses.. sewing, drafting, draping.. in order to make something that fits me better in terms of style.


your post introducing the thread sums it all up

Do you wear avant garde designers? Do you roll your own (DIY)? Do you take non-avant garde pieces and put them together in a way that is? Or are you pushing the envelope in another way?

Show us your stuff ...

And I imagine, if you're trying to work up the courage to be edgier in what often seems to be an "I'll have the vanilla" world, this would be a great place to get a little encouragement

i too would like to see more examples of experimentation
or attempts in wearing things which are new to us or make us feel comfortable

it would also be interesting to see the cultural context as you said.
-where you wore it
-what event


and i'd be fine seeing someone or 666 just wearing leather pants in this thread
even if some of us in the fashion world might be already accustomed to it.
especially if we know where they are wearing it
it's all an attempt for them anyhow ^^

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ I agree, I thought that what 666 was describing definitely fits, in the same way that a Japanese guy wearing a kimono (with the sleeves rolled up in a pretty cool way) in the middle of Milan does. If you're wearing something distinctly different from what people around you are wearing, even if it's normal someplace else ... oh dear, am I describing myself???

 

[GasolineRainbow]

it would also be interesting to see the cultural context as you said.
-where you wore it
-what event

^Of course, the man wearing a pink kimono...in Milan. I hope to find some streetstyle examples, but for now, Tilda Swinton at the Oscars comes to mind. This would've nary raised an eyebrow at an art-related or high fashion event, but it was ballsy of her to wear that gown and no makeup to the Academy Awards. The dress was dramatic, yes, but mostly because of Tilda's tall stature. Objectively, it was quite a simple, 'modern' dress, but paired with her height and pale, bare face, her outfit was a bold, experimental choice.

nicksflickpicks.com

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ And what a perfect choice when she won ... she looks like the Statue of Liberty.

 

[fashionista-ta]

bumping for gius

 

[Crying Diamonds]

This thread = the best.
In winter I always know how to dress and what to wear and how my look is going to be because you can be as creative as you like when it comes to keeping out the cold, but now it's getting to summer it's getting hotter and hotter and so lots of my style/eccentric essentials have to be tucked away.
I was thinking of doing black for spring but in linen and going major on the scarves and jewellery..

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ Scarves at the waist would probably be more comfortable than scarves at the neck ... do you ever wear them on your head?

 

[Crying Diamonds]

I like the waist scarf idea.. I don't really know how to wear them on my head without going Grace Kelly??

 

[gius]

^i was just asking my instructor to teach me how to do it for my head
i called it a hat, and she said it's a turban. i decided to call it "a soft hat"

cryingdiamonds it's getting warmer here too.
at the weekend after my errands i made to note down some usable silks at this indian fabric shop here. they didn't have any labels in english so i dont know what they really are called, but they're light and beautiful. also i think "pocketing" is a great fabric. i have a sample of it, it is made of cotton, and i think it is also called cotton batiste.
i wear a floating shirt out of it!

 

[gius]

^p.s. i dont know if it is eccentric but i am only accustomed to seeing women in sheer fabrics (the silk and batiste are sheer)

there is this dove grey chiffon at my table in class
but the hand, the way it drapes, it's quite feminine
terribly feminine
but i really. like. it !

i want to ask my old-fashioned instructor if she thinks a male person can wear chiffon. ^^ it seems she is fine after all, when i told her i like women's clothes.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ I say you never know till you try

C~D, men wear bandannas on their heads, so like that ... or I was thinking you could do an oblong scarf where a handband would be and knot it with the ends at one side of your neck. Or maybe even a tie ... Or you could twist it around your hair, except I believe you just cut it all off??

 

[fashionista-ta]

PS I remember Olivier Theyskens wearing a grey Chanel women's blouse ... might have been chiffon. I really like silk/cotton voile and I think a man could definitely wear that. What about a chiffon vest?