I thought I'd say a bit about the things I pretend from day to day. A couple of sartorial constraints inform my choice of fantasy roles: I like to keep a lot covered (if only technically); I tend to wear browns, greens, and golds; I like flat-soled, lace-up boots and long coats; and I'm quite messy and disorganized. And I want to be desirable--not necessarily desired, but maybe like an acquired taste.
In truth, I am a bit of a hippie--I'm pacifistic, left-leaning, and my standards of personal hygeine are relaxed. Only the passage of years and the development of the internet prevent me from really joining any kind of social movement. "Hippie" as a style, though, covers a lot of ground. Let's say it's round wire-frame glasses, flowing cotton prints, Indian influences, hair, and sandals.
My first association with a witch these days is Anthy from Revolutionary Girl Utena. Anthy is Ishtar, re-interpreted as a devil in a newer patriarchal myth structure, but to my mind a witch isn't so much a force of nature (a la S6 Willow) as a woman who leverages a bit more personal power and fearsomeness than would generally be considered acceptable to get what she wants (a la Granny Weatherwax). I find this image of the unregenerate scary spinster to be somewhat romantic. So: Fluevog witch boots, black dirndl skirts abbreviated to the low calf, that whole 19th-century librarian vibe.
The newest Dr. Who makes the next-newest Dr. Who look shameful and silly. One of many reasons for that is the character of Amy Pond, who is some kind of goddamn sexual tyrannosaur. Did you see the Comic Relief special? The contents of Amy's panties nearly caused her men to become permanently lost in time and space. That's not even mentioning the power of Pond's crack or her Pandorica Box. On account of being so fucking foxy, Pond basically clomps about in a man's shirt or sweater, a short skirt, colored nail polish, and Converse. Like the 80s with flat hair.
The meaning of this iconography, like any of the sexualised roles I've listed, is fraught. There's the romance of the sexual revolutionaries: Louise Brooks, Zora Neale Hurston, Josephine Baker, Tallulah Bankhead--but all these women were subjected to terrible abuse and exploitation because of their sex. The twenties was this period of incredible sexual objectification and subjectification of women, not unlike today. Unlike today, the silhouette is boyish instead of hyperfeminine: dropped waist, longish skirts; tight hats with little to no hair visible; sculpted-heel mary-janes or t-straps.
Another artistic/fashion movement which was about glorifying and exploiting sexy women in equal measure. Long cotton-lawn gowns or tunics, tight sleeves. Velvet if you absolutely must.
It's a sort of 1970s interpretation of the Laura Ingalls Wilder look, with lace and calico aplenty. Prairie Underground (aside from having the perfect name) is currently producing some fine pieces in this idiom (albeit not in calico). Occasionally Free People as well. I can't quite afford either.
A bunch of my fashion life has been spent orbiting goth--trying to dress as near as I can without falling in. It's worth interrogating what it is about goth I find cool, and what it is I find embarrassing. Goth is a look which is all about details, proportions, lines, with colour taken out of the equation entirely. For that reason, it's a good place to start a journey into fashion. And because of that, there's something adolescent and unsophisticated about it, as well as retro in the mortifying way that anything from your early high school years can be. What I think of goth as being is all about D-rings, but what I want it to be is distressed Victoriana.
Sometimes, you just need to look like you're Not Trying. You can't do the big shop in all your finery. That's when Daria is my fashion icon. I hardly need to say, but the look is prescription glasses, longish skirts, sturdy low boots, and sensible outerwear.
This would be David Mack's Kabuki, the complex pre-Alias tale of a cyberpunk agent's psychological journey. I used to be a Japanophile, but now Japan and I are just good friends. Similarly, I used to regard cyberpunk as a dystopian future, rather than the dystopian present and/or a dystopian retro 80s style. Still, there's a goodly amount of this retro-future-present in my day-to-day style: think Black Milk. Shiny tights, sinuous cyber seams, Japanese influences.
My elf aesthetic is all about practical gear for the forest, made from the forest. Legolas or Link. Pixie hoodies, ragged-edge jersey skirts, pocket belts.
Snake?
SNAAAAAAKE!
Like Naked Snake and The Boss, I'm about having a camo index of 98% while still sporting military and Red Commie influences.
This one has very little to do with the rest, but it's been relevant to my life since I moved to Scotland and am trying to live here as an American. When I'm out and around, I want to be a cheerful, helpful, 1940s American in a smart uniform handing out Marshall Plan candy bars, not Ugly American Neoliberalist. Coincidentally (perhaps) Wonder Woman is the MAC theme this spring. There's an absolute wealth of 1940s retro style about, you're probably familiar enough with it.
I feel like I'm honing in on what I like and why, as a result of this exercise. There's a militaristic/anti-militaristic thread, a sort of natural or environmental theme, and the idea of death and decay. Also anything with a nipped waist.
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