beccaelizabeth's dreamwidth journal

today I bought a jumper because a character has been looking for one just like it.
... I mean it is also a nice jumper, but, I have several and it's not what I usually wear, so
it is characters jumper.

also there was a sparkly hat and gloves
but that is all me.

I am once again experiencing epic failure to start. I didn't go back to sleep today but my achievements for the afternoon/evening basically added up to checking tumblr and watching a few vids on youtube. The same few as yesterday. And the day before that.

... youtube continues to demonstrate epic inability to learn what I'm looking for though. I mean it shows me some the same things, but also things that are nothing to do with anything. boring.

ANYway

aside from thinking how the version of Reverse Flash in my head is far more interesting than the one on TV and I want to watch TV about the one in my head
(and fanfic is not the answer because he's so different from the one on TV now that he's just OOC and I don't want to go near the one on TV because ugh crossover episode)
(and I'm a year behind so I don't even know about what they did this year and have to wait until DVD season in the last quarter of the year to find out)

ASIDE from that

I was wondering how a time traveller would dress.

Aside from 'wrong'.

( Read more... ) each persona needs a set of signifiers, so Aegis would be armoured and vaguely military, and the clockwatcher would be just, you know, everyday work clothes, not expecting to do much today, just like business casual. Or tech support that might get called to head office. Which isn't casual but isn't business exactly.

So I know those two guys.

And I think the third guy wears cable knit sweaters
but what even do I want that to mean?



So that's my clothes dilemma of the day.


I should just start writing and see what happens.


... any year now...

Imagine a coat where the basic function is that if it starts raining you don't have to care.
If you can imagine this you are ahead of the apparent majority of women's wear designers.
Now add pockets and you're pretty much in the men's section.

:eyeroll:

This problem exacerbated by discovering Women's Coats is not in fact a section of all coats sized for women, because Women's Sports Outerwear exists.

And when I went looking on sites with keywords like hiking I found a lot of coats but very little about their function on many sites. The one that did have a functions list had by far the most coats filed under 'commuting'.

If as well as waterproof, British levels of warm, and pockets, you also want to be visible ie a color other than green navy black, well, it gets difficult.

I was shopping in a vaguely distracted way because LARP website coats don't always even button up, let alone look like they're for running around in the woods in the weather, so I started imagining a Pathfinder explorer adventurer in a more modern idiom. More Banestorm, more buttons, more zips.

https://www.johnlewis.com/four-seasons-waterproof-wax-coat/p2975117?colour=Cherry
https://www.johnlewis.com/four-seasons-waterproof-wax-jacket/p2975095?colour=Cherry
https://www.johnlewis.com/barbour-international-trail-waxed-jacket/p3354771?colour=Deep%20Red

Today some of these are on clearance and I don't think any are in my size, but avoiding goretex and thinsulate gets you a more fantasy look, and I'm pretty sure waxed cotton has existed for ages. You'd have to layer it for adjustable warms, but, it's a look.



As you can see, my day has been busy and productive.



There's a difference though between historical fashion and fashion a fantasy world could come up with. The former needs sources and has fixed parameters, the latter just has tech levels. And possibly magic. You can make magic items that let you ignore the temperature in a very wide range, if you put enough hours in. ... factory made fabrics seem better, more accessible.

But there's ways of making clothes that were limited by the tech of the time, and imagination. There were ways and ways that were used before the sewing machine, for instance. ... imagine cross world trading and being the one to introduce sewing machines. Shiiiiiny... Weaving had tech levels too, and there were whole sots of fabric they either wouldn't use, or where using them implies spectacular things about the textile industry. Brocade and damask and jacquard... I don't even know the words. Fancy patterns and fancier textures. Lace, as an industry. Times when you wouldn't cut the fabric, because weaving it in the first place took that much work. Just, fabrics and stitches and buttons and bits all have to be aailable.

But once they are the multiverse can come up with anythung they're technically capable of.

And some fashions have to be lower probability than others.

I mean there'll be shapes that are a natural result of the textile tech, and shapes where someone did a weird thing and fashion followed, and importing the latter to a theoretically unrelated to our history world seems... odd.


Or like architecture: I feel any world could invent brutalism, once they have concrete. It's big rectangles. It's pretty easy to invent big rectangles. And Romans had concrete, so, basically, go wild, and film your fantasy 'verse at the UEA.

(yes, i know, windows. but aside from that...)




Some of how we think about ye olde days is tech limited, and some is not, and I suspect it is more fun and internally consistent to go back to basics and have understanding to build on. I just... don't usually has it.


But I feel there's no reason not to stick Pathfinders in wax jackets and peacoats and so forth
and give them decent luggage with the straps all worked out
because their world might have figured it and just not got around to cars.

My best trousers now fit like a sausage case.
Arse.
I'm never much fussed about my weight, or at least I try not to be, but seeing as I prefer to be sure nothing pops when I sit down I find myself a bit frustrated about the extra inch there.



But this is why I'm trying things on before packing them.
I still have a huge great heap of enough clothes to wear at least two outfits a day all weekend.
And my second best trousers are fine.


My waistcoat for the pirate party is black velvet and has done the thing where something fuzzy but not black has rubbed against one panel.
I have it over the back of the chair, waiting in hope of sellotape, but it's a tiny bit frustrating when I have had it in a draw for ages and should probably have noticed before I put it away.


I had to move a great deal of the bedroom to get at my weapons stash to get a sword out. I have chosen only one. It will suffice.
It will have to, since I've put the things back in front of the cupboard already.
Plus it's a nice one anyway and will match my excellent hat.


I am currently hoping all the aches and pains will wear off before I get started tomorrow.


But hey, packing, progress.

I sorted clothes, packed enough for a different outfit twice a day, threw in a few extra things, put probably half the clothes I'd got out away again, and closed the suitcase first try.
:-)
( Read more... )

I haven't booked any photos-with. I haven't much thought about this weekend. I was busy thinking arrgh arrgh arrgh about college, when I had spare brain. But I did a double check on my assignment today and all is well, so that actually was handed in early. Rock. So now I'm packing in all the thinking. Or, you know, mild panic.

Good thing I have an internet to babble at.

Midnight is on Friday.

I need to pack, so I need suggestions for
PARTY THEMES

Friday Night:
Idiots Lantern / 1950's

I have no ideas. None. Do I have to rewatch the episode? I don't think I have any 1950s clothes at all at all.

Saturday Night:
Aliens Of London

This ought to be the chance to wear the coolest things. I just don't happen to have any cool things.
Two old bluetooth things to go in your ears = cyberconverted. I don't happen to have any, but that would be pretty simple.
What else... make face extra shiny and call self an auton replica? Even easier, Rory wasn't plastic looking at all. Can't make my hand fall open, would need extra parts.
... I'm not drawing a zip on my forehead, I'm not that wide. Though it would be super simples. I even have silver from last time's eyepatch. And later episodes have skinny zip people too...

any more?


Sunday Night:
The Christmas Invasion

This one's simplest. I was thinking sword and robes and skull mask, but I'll never get around to all that, also it's the Sunday so nobody else will. There's always the Doctor wandering around in pyjamas, but they're specific pyjamas. But there's other people in pyjamas and fuzzy robes and such, when people are going up on the roof. So wearing whatever you like and stumbling around in a daze is all that's required.
That, I can do.

When did sleeves go out of fashion? I knew it was always a pain to find them in ordinary dresses, and I have five of the same dress because maxi dresses with long sleeves just aren't that common. But I've been looking at wedding dresses - because I'm in a fantasy wedding mood - and I can't find a single one with sleeves on. ( Read more... )

Obviously the Princess Leia makes an awesome wedding dress.
Especially since it cost somewhere between 1/10 and 1/100 of some of the other dresses.
But really, awesome or most awesome?
I should just face it, my standards in white dresses are all about how much they look like hers.

The Dark Angel make a lot of really nice gowns. I got the Angel dress in silver. I didn't so much get many opportunities to wear it, but sometimes that's not the point.


Okay, time to do something more productive.


PS: think I found girl!6's favourite dress

I've been trying to invent a uniform for my futuristic space fleet.
The trouble is so has everyone else ever. Once you add up Andromeda, B5, B7, Farscape, Star Trek and the Stargates you have an awful lot of uniforms. ( Read more... )

I looked up some body armour and a lot of it has a common shape, on account of fitting human shaped bodies, but there's also some with seriously Elvis collars. Not just the little sort that make your neck stay straight, the huge great sort that go up to meet the back of your helmet, like wearing a car headrest. Clearly this is an excuse to do something very vampire count with the collars on the heaviest armour layers. So something like ( Read more... )

I ask the internets for this has been vaguely bothering me for a while: I read a short story once, probably in Analog somewhere between the 1960s and 1990s for I have a complete collection and read a great many of them once. It was about early human space colonisation, on moonbases and space stations I think. The technology wasn't much above now, so there were tiny tin cans full of people and surrounded by vacuum. Living in space was precarious. Everyone did drills and had to be able to climb in to space suits at a moment's notice. And this was depressing, because it really limited your fashion choices. Everyone was stuck wearing the same shape clothes, either skintights to fit under a spacesuit or something baggy to whip off in a hurry, and nobody looked good, and everyone thought it sucked. But fashion wasn't the highest priority, so they had to live with it.

Until a fashion hero came along, and invented a fabric that went airtight when the pressure dropped, so you could make whatever you liked with it, and be wearing a space suit all the time. Color and structure returned to space fashion and the day was saved.

Obviously it is possible this story only exists in my head, or existed in many different parts and pieces my brain squished together. Something about the logic of it appealed to me, that fashion would have to follow function and would reflect the dangers of the environment. Does it ring a bell with anyone?



I'm watching Next Gen and the evolution of the one piece stretch uniform intrigues me, so I keep thinking of this.


Also thinking of Terry Pratchett's 'The Last Hero' where they've got weird spacesuits that aren't even steampunk they're pre steam. Fashion follows function, but there's different ways to think about function.


... also also thinking about men in those really short miniskirt tunics. Because that is a very distracting visual. I don't think there's any Next Gen guys I would want to see wearing those regular, but there are people I can think of would be very decorative in them...

Having spent the last *mumble mumble* hours looking through my Torchwood pictures
(sorting, labelling, deleting the doubles)
I have discovered that there is not a single screencap I've looked at so far that I haven't been able to label by episode immediately
and
Ianto definitely gets prettier as the series goes on.
I mean in 1-01 he's just kind of... guy shaped. Possibly even meh. But by 1-12 he's consistently woah, and I don't just mean when he's got the gun. Very, very pretty.
Also, waistcoat. Makes all things just a bit better.


... er, I wear waistcoats 100% of the time except conventions. I might be biased.
... I only don't wear them at conventions cause I don't have many and none of them are see through. Though there is one that's all sequins. black sequins. :-)
... If I go back and get that black one with the daggers I'll have one that looks good with con clothes and has pockets... *notes to self*


I made a pretty version of my poem, and put it on a shirt on cafepress.com
Now I'm thinking of illustrating it
but to do that I'd go from having all my own work to having nicked stuff from the BBC
which is a bit dodgy, really.
But it's for my own use
and it's not like they're making a ton of merch I'm failing to buy.
... if they're making any merch I haven't bought yet it's cause I haven't heard of it ...

So I have some pretty pictures I might cut out and make into a border.

Those promo pics that look up their noses at the start of the season are not so much the prettiest. No.
And Jack's outfit looks much better after the first couple of eps, when they lose that beige layer. Blech.
The shirts with the stripes or the slightly greenish one aren't half as nice as the standard light blue. Or the dark blue. Blue is good.

With red braces.
And waistcoat.
I know there's a slight problem there, but.



I put sooooo much time into trivial things.
Mind you, some people get paid for designing this stuff, so it's only polite to notice.
*nods wisely*

I have new hair :-)
It looks very much like the old hair did until the colors faded out.
Except he cut it a bit different because he felt like it.
Which is cool. I don't mind, as long as I look interesting.
So, I'm all red and black again :-)

I also did shopping. Got a nice pair of black trousers in nice fabric, feel like some much missed ones I wore to pieces years back. Those should be good. Found a nice semi see through top with black roses on, and it might be too big for me, which is rather the opposite of the usual problem. Also got a lovely little bead thingy looks like a black shiny web, is sort of a mini cloak. That should go nicely with many things.

Also it will pack small. I've decided to not go much for dressing up this weekend, just take mostly plain bits with a couple of sequin bits to go with, and my flashy Buzz Lightyear gun.

The gun is essential.

Also today I bought a watch. I did the reserve things at Argos thing, and then asked to try them all. The ones that looked good on the website looked kind of tatty in 3D - surprise - and many watches have fiddly straps. I figured if I couldn't get it in three tries it weren't the watch for me. So I ended up with a stretchy one. I think I like it. And if I don't, it isn't tragic, because I can afford it.
I like being able to afford things.

On the way out the shop I found a bracelet with a silver chain and pink-purple-blue threaded through it. 10p :-)

I also bought a rainbow hat. Which sounds just like my rainbow hat and my other rainbow hat, but is in fact different. One is for summer, one is sort of felt stuff, and this one is knit for winter. Rainbow! :-)

I also did other bits of walking that didn't end up with things bought, but no worries.

Take that agoraphobia! I did all the pretties shops on my own!

oooh, except the one right out the back of here, which I forgot on account of it was at the start of the circuit when I was only on my way to get my hair done.

I also read half the play we need to read before next Tuesday. Is nothing like I expected. Is interesting.


This weekend:
Wolf SG-11

I haven't watched any Stargate since the last convention, and I only vaguely know who any of the guests are because I just looked it up, but I have decided this matters not, for I am going to party.

After this, am booked for no more conventions.
This needs fixing.


Today I seem to be doing the rest of the clothes sorting. I guess I'll have time to wash stuff if I find it all today. I've dragged things out the way in the other room and shall be able to dig through the cupboard. I only do that whenever I do convention stuff. I should make sure I'm not ignoring any everyday clothes while I'm in there.

Also I get to choose shiny things :-)
I have this red disc pendant that I bought for graduating from the Access course. Think that will be a good start. And the big hair biter with the shiny red too...

Fun!

Apparently I have only 4 'Richie's swimming in the river denial' t-shirts left. They're in the washing machine now. Never worn, but leave things in a bag for 7 years and they start to smell... odd.

I thought there were closer to a dozen. So either I've got a stack of them in the cupboard I've forgotten about, or I've given a bunch away already.

Either way, reckon I should be able to give away 4 t-shirts.

Cool.



Now to just acquire stuff to actually wear...

I had a dream I was attending some class about different forms of spiritual belief. Turning up in robes appropriate to your beliefs was encouraged.
About half a dozen Jedi Chefs turned up.
And my robes were basically a shiny silky white version of Jedi.


I have strange dreams.



And now I'm trying to think what kind of course could actually attract such a crowd. Religion, Magic and Television? Or just some appropriate star as guest speaker of the week?



Also, I'm thinking about robes, and how the only one I have at the minute is cut down from an alien costume, and has a star that glows under UV light. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it just doesn't feel like a complete ceremonial outfit. And also I lack blacklight. Hmmm...