Quoted: When Clothing Was As Precious as Metal and Stones

Detail of a silk dress from the 1830s, from the American Textile History Museum in Lowell

"In the West, apparel has been expensive to produce and has therefore been a high-priced and valuable commodity for centuries. Once fashioned, garments had long and varied lives. A dress or jacket might be born as special occasion wear, then become a garment for indoor sociability, and eventually be worn (and worn out) while doing domestic chores... In some households, garments were turned into quilting squares... A piece of clothing might end its useful life as a rag, and literally turn to dust.

... From the seventeenth century through the mid-nineteenth century, apparel was a primary medium of exchange, second only to metals and precious stones."
--Economist Juliet Schor, in Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth.

I came across this quote today in a book I was reading, and thought it tied in perfectly with our lively discussion and poll yesterday about the price—and value—of sewing today.

In contrast to the history of apparel, we have today's sad reality:

Bales of used clothing waiting to be turned into rags

"This history puts the nearly free gently worn garments of the early twenty-first century into sharp relief. The United States has been piling up mountains of clothing that have virtually no value... The production system drives businesses to use natural resources at hyperspeed, and the consumer system makes the resulting products redundant almost as fast. It's a recipe for disaster."

Plenitude (aka True Wealth) is not specifically about the fashion industry (for that, I'd recommend Overdressed), but Schor uses fast fashion and its devastating effects on workers and the environment as a case study for what has gone so wrong in our "business as usual" economy.

As a solution she presents her philosophy of plenitude, downshifting and sustainable living, which is in a large part about creating instead of consuming:

"The second principal of plenitude... is to diversify from the business-as-usual market and "self-provision", or make, grow or do things for oneself... Plenitude aspires to transform self-provisioning from a marginal craft movement into something economically significant."

I haven't finished the book yet, but I've always loved Schor's ideas—she was briefly my college women's studies advisor (before I switched majors to social anthropology and visual arts) and taught one of the most fun, engaging and thought-provoking classes I've ever taken, "Shop Til You Drop: Gender and Class in Consumer Culture."

I think I'll be grabbing those old wornout clothes and sheets I was going to take to be recycled and tearing them to use instead of paper towels!

So what do you think — now that clothing has been so devalued in our society, is there anything we can do to recover that value and respect for our garments? Is apparel doomed to lie on the dollar-a-pound pile of history? Will it ever again be precious as stones?

39 Weeks Pregnant Casual Outfit

The one upside to STILL being terribly, uncomfortably pregnant is that I am STILL getting tons of mileage out of all the maternity pieces I sewed throughout my pregnancy! For example, here's what I'm wearing today... for a busy day of lying on the couch knitting a baby sweater and MAYBE waddling around my building for a one or two-block walk if I can manage it.

• Turquoise necklace: handmade birthday gift by my friend Márta Fodor. Cost: free
• Purple maternity top: my maternity modification of the Burda magazine 02-2010-122 knit top, made back in February (details here). Cost (fabric and magazine): $15. Cost per wear: $0.75.
• Spiral-print knit skirt: Made it myself, it's an unmodified Kwik Sew 3513 View B (details here). Cost (fabric and pattern): $10.50. Cost per wear: $0.50
• Black Mary Jane flats: Privo by Clarks. Cost: $80. Cost per wear: $0.80.

Total Cost: $105.50.

Total Cost Per Wear (so far): $2.05.

The skirt still fits great. The top fits but in retrospect I should have planned better for my expanding bosom--the empire seam under the bust is not really under the bust anymore. I did do quite a bit of FBA originally, but it just needed more length, I think. Whatever!

More views:

And as a comparison, here's how pregnant I was when I originally sewed these pieces...

Original skirt photo, from 28 weeks pregnant:

Original purple top photo, from 24 weeks:

Come on Cartoonist Baby... I don't want to be taking 40-week pictures next weekend!

Polka Dot Archives: My Year 2000 Makeover!

From my 2000 sewing notebook

Around the time I got serious about learning how to sew--winter 1999/2000--I decided it was high time for a Mikhaela makeover. I was 19 now and in college, and I had outgrown my grungy high school look. And combing through all those lovely pattern catalogs, I decided that maybe wearing dresses and skirts might be fun for a change.

As you can see above, my high school fashion uniform was quite... casual: self--cut uncombed hair + metal-framed glasses + threadbare thrifted (or punk rock) T + ill-fitting stained jeans + steel-toed Doc Martens or Converse sneakers. Here I am in full regalia in 1997 at the Rhode Island School of Design's high school summer program:

And with my parents as a Harvard freshman in 1998 (I used to remove my glasses a lot in photos):

After some study and trips to the eye doctor and the hair salon, I put together my new look, as described in the above sketch (still with the Doc Martens, by the way). At the thrift store, I began heading for the dresses, skirts, tank top and cardigan aisles instead of the men's T-shirt rack:

I even started rocking sweetheart necklines! I still have and wear the below $4 dress find, a beautiful black velvet strapless number with an elastic-shirred back, big front waist bow and all-over squiggle burnout pattern:

And I acquired some stain-free darker jeans. But as you can see from my notes, while I was willing to do skirts and makeup, I was SO not about to start shaving my legs (that came years later). Some more "after" examples, from 2001:

Of course, no "before" and "after" story is ever that cut and dried. In high school I did glam up for prom--I even painted my nails green to match my consignment-store dress (though I think my mom talked me out of "matching" green lipstick):

And to this day I still rarely wear makeup and often sleep in many of those old tees ("Go Ahead, Make My Day", "I May Grow Older But I Refuse to Grow Up"). Still, from 1999-2001 was when started to think seriously about fashion and style, and realized it could actually be fun! It was also the beginning of my habit of re-evaluating and updating my wardrobe and overall look every few years, though never quite as drastically as that first time.

So, what was your biggest self-inflicted style evolution? How do you feel about it today?

Update! In retrospect, I wanted to add one note to this post--I by no means meant to imply that more girly or figure-hugging or stereotypically feminine looks are generally "better" than more butch or androgynous styles, because I don't believe that at all--I love seeing women rock those styles! But for me, dressing in those ill-fitting tees and jeans came from being a bookish punk rock nerd girl and the frequent target of harassment by classmates, having low self-esteem and just generally not feeling very pretty--I felt exposed in more girly looks, like everyone was staring at or laughing at me.

So this makeover was not about conforming to outside pressure to look more girly--it was more about transitioning from an anti-style to finding my own sense of Mikhaela style, if that makes sense!

Style Icon: Penelope Cruz in Volver

Over at the Colette Patterns blog, Sarai asks: who are your style icons? Hers is Sofia Coppola, for example, and Gertie's current style crush is the Glee character Emma Pillsbury.

One that immediately came to mind for me was Raimunda, Penelope Cruz's character in the fantastic Pedro Almodovar film Volver ("to return"). Cruz plays a hard-working woman down on her luck whose mother returns as a ghost, and I can best describe her look as "colorful bombshell on a budget."

I had some trouble finding clear stills to show you, but throughout the film Raimunda wears a mix of bold-patterned pencil skirts, low-cut tops, figure-hugging floral cotton dresses and bright-colored cardigans. Her color and print combos (red sweater with green top, red-and-white gingham-check cardi top with purple floral skirt) seem like they would clash--but instead they work beautifully. And everything has a slightly worn, vintagey feel to it.

So that's one of my style inspirations. How about you?

Peter Asks: What Man or Woman Would YOU Be?

Over at Male Pattern Boldness, Peter asks: what man or woman would YOU be? (Stylewise, that is).

This one did not require a lot of pondering: Jonathan Adler, obviously. He's an amazing artist and designer and he wears ORANGE PANTS (see above). Were I a man, these would clearly be the center of my wardrobe.

We have a certain color palette resemblance, no? (as demonstrated in another image from the pre-preg style files):

I asked Masheka (otherwise known as Cartoonist Husband) whose style he'd have, and after a glance in the mirror at his T-shirt, jeans and glasses, he went with Janeanne Garafalo.

Your Yucky Body

Most of my cartoons have nothing to do with sewing (other than the frequently polka-dotted and striped outfits featured therein), but I do draw a semi-regular series on body image and fashion called "Your Yucky Body" (or sometimes just "Trend Tracker.") I've been thinking about expanding the idea into some type of book--but for now, here are some of my favorites from over the years, from newest to oldest. Click to enlarge.

Regarding annual magazine "shape" issues:

On Mommy Makeovers--drawn long before I was pregnant myself, but I recently picked up an issue of Fit Pregnancy and was horrified to find an article recommending post-partum tummy tucks and boob lifts:

On Designer Diets:

Trend Tracker Summer Style Report, 2008:

The Summer Swimsuit Spectacular:

And the cartoon that started it all (fun sewing fact--the girl in this cartoon is actually, except for her face, a tracing of the digital croquis I made in 2005 to test sewing pattern ideas... so that's MY body, actually!):

Finally, this recent one, about airline size discrimination, is not technically a "Your Yucky Body" cartoon, but has certainly attracted plenty of nasty fat-people-bashing trolls in its comments thread on my other blog.