Lifestyle

here from now on.

i'm going to stop posting on retail recovery and begin a new blog, into construction, here.

into construction will definitely include some features originally developed on retail recovery, such as "+/-", "either or" and "q&a", but there are other things i would like to develop further, and the new site gives me the opportunity to redefine the parameters of my blog, and i thought it would be fun to start over or, maybe, to move up.

the first week might be a little slow, but hopefully it will come together to be as coherent as i hope retail recovery has been. i've enjoyed retail recovery so much, and the reader participation most especially! i hope the new blog can have some value to readers as well.

oh, also, up and down town will be unaffected - i will continue to post on that blog - and retail recovery will remain open, but inactive, unless any reason arises to cause me to close it.

what do you think?

if you were forced to wear an outfit that you had not liked on someone else, would you gain appreciation for it in some way, or dislike it more?

yesterday i underestimated how bad i'd feel today. next new post will be on monday.

new post tomorrow, here and here.

name one thing you would add or subtract here (you can't do both).

when someone steps out in a garish outfit that is utterly bizarre and pushes the envelope, observers might wonder what possesses someone to dress in such a way. "what was s/he thinking? they have all the choices in the world, they wear that?!"

but what of the pride of clothing? the beautiful things that are out there, hanging on hangers, or lying on shelves, waiting for a day out. hoping for a fun time, nice weather, compatible friends.

if clothing had feelings, what would it not want to do?

i love deadlines. i work best under pressure. and i'm always most productive in the eleventh hour. but work is work, and shopping is not.

If you shopped the way you worked, then how would that go?

while interacting with a sales person (right then - no time to remedy the problem!!):

1. would you rather be wearing ill-fitting pants, or noisy shoes?

2. would you rather have bad skin or bad breath?

speaking of belts, when i was selecting mine, i felt i was dangerously close to cliché territory: my choices were skinny belt, medium belt, wide belt. yes, in every imaginable color, but since i already knew i wanted black, the choice really came down to these 3 widths. i got bored with staring at my options, realizing that i was admiring more than deciding and just instinctively grabbed one.

it's the perfect belt for me (i can say with certainty now that i've held it up to all my clothes). a teeny tiny part of me was disappointed that i went with a medium width, wondering if i had wimped out. but the medium will actually serve my style, needs and imagination the longest. the beauty of the belt lies in the material, the quality, the simplicity, and not the neutrality of the belt (and by "neutrality" here i do not mean a high probability of compatibility. i mean "middle of the road").

and while i am not someone who would ever consciously aim for middle-of-the-road (frankly, i prefer to be off on the shoulder, sartorially speaking), it raised questions for me. what would make an item be defined as a style neutral? merely not being an extreme? merely not being trendy? is "trendy" applied to anything that is painfully, nauseatingly popular? if i had found this belt a year ago or 5, or 10, it would have been perfect for me. the appeal of it is not based on ephemeral and fictional standards of rightness. i do not like "in" and "out" lists since the very existence of the list is what makes the definition (things are not "in" or "out" until they are on the list - and then their status only matters to list makers and list readers. that's my theory anyway.).

is being unpopular the only way for an item to not be trendy?

do all items have a "middle of the road" option for people to retreat to when they (pants, blazers, hemlines, etc.) are rendered in "trendy" styles?

i had come to accept that i was not one to wear a belt. i gave up on belts. i no longer owned a belt.

yesterday i bought a belt.

would you rather (if you had a choice) make peace with items you are conflicted about by mastering them, or find a way to move on?

a friend recently washed a new dress.
100% cotton.
she let it air dry.
now she has a new top.

when a new item disappoints, do you blame yourself, or do you blame the manufacturer/retailer/designer?

(*Gang aft agley - from "To a mouse" - r. burns)

love when i have something that i like sooo much, i want more of it, but hate that i suspect some of that is a desire for insurance, like having a spare tire. thing is, with a spare tire, you know that until we're all using hover crafts, the tire will not become obsolete. so, essentially, there is zero risk in investing in a spare tire, but a lot of gain (general peace of mind and good odds that you'll need it some time). now, with clothing, one item you buy now may not appeal to you in a year - so buying 2 in no way guarantees anything, except that you have 2. i'm a romantic. when i buy, i assume that i'm in for the long haul. experience has shown me that this just isn't the case, or experience would show me this if i chose to reflect, but i don't. and so the temptation to doubly invest when i find something i like, and buy 2, is always there (when it's an option). and it's so weird when i do lose love for something. there is a shift, ever so subtle (since i could never pinpoint when it happens) and suddenly something is not quite right with the once-beloved-jacket-top-tee-skirt-dress. this doesn't always happen. to be sure, this isn't the norm, but i don't think i could truly predict which items will and which items will not succumb...to the shift.

is there anything in your closet right now that you would be willing to bet you will love exactly as much as you do right now, next year?

pick at least one item (on each) you would swap between these two outfits.

i was very tired when i quickly wrote up the last post, so i wanted to add a little clarification. the question is would you want to choose the price you would pay now, for something you will want to buy next year. it is likely, for example, that you would want to buy a pair of shoes in 2009 or 2010. would you be comfortable now agreeing to the amount you will pay for the shoes later? i suppose it's a combined issue of predicting both your value for the item, and the value of the item, in a year or two from now. let's not even say that it's a specific pair. this does not have to do with delayed gratification of seeing shoes (or a bag, or a jacket, etc.) that you want, and having to wait. this is about deciding/committing now to a price or value for stuff you will want in a year or two.

a "future," in financial terms, is a contract to buy or sell something in the future at a price you set today.

would you want to pay today, or agree upon a price today, for an item you will then have to buy next year?

advertisers, my on-again, off-again nemesis. always hunting me. the other day, on a random website (reeeaaalllly random for bergdorf's to be on) that i've never been on before ... there was a banner ad for them. not only that, but it was specifically linked to handbags. it felt like BG was not targeting the audience for this site, they were targeting me.
normally i sit on the subway and rue getting stuck in a budweiser-sponsored car. nothing to look at for 10 stops except close-ups of perspiring beer bottles.
sometimes when i flip through a magazine and see some of the ads, i wonder, "do they even know who i am?" but perhaps what i ought to reevaluate is why i chose that magazine, since the signs are telling me we're not meant to be. when the ad doesn't fit, does that mean i'm out of my element?

do most of the ads you encounter address your interests/needs?

some positively honest answers yesterday.
quite often i rationalize that someone who doesn't want things is quite lucky. not wanting things is very different from buying what you want. in the latter, there is still want.
people with far more money than i have do still experience want. sometimes i take comfort in this, since it's easy to think "oooooo, if i had $X, i could buy Y" and feel as though the $ solution would solve something. but in truth, there would still be want, in which case, i'm as wealthy as a rich counterpart.
but i realized the other day that i like to keep lust alive and well in my heart. i find things that are out of reach to adore and obsess over. i don't have to. i could easily aim lower and achieve contentment. but with these things, it's about enjoying the fixation. i like to marvel at beauty, admire and study a design, daydream about possession. on the occasions when i've been lucky enough to buy the things i was lusting after, i've had to replace the want of those things with a want for something else, so that i could continue to good pain of lust.
in movies, there are different stages to a kiss - i've always thought that the best most absolutely perfect moment was... well, no, there are actually 2 really great parts in my opinion - one, the pursuit of it, and two, the second right before it happens.
the items i enjoy and value the most are ones i anticipated, hoped for, coveted, and eventually got.

at what level are you most comfortable wanting?

purely fashion-wise, which would you rather:

to be able to buy whatever you want OR not experience want?

despite a popular stance among some that fashion is a trivial pursuit, i understand, if not why, definitely how i love clothes. perfect clothes. they are like a language to me - for an inner dialog. when i find perfection, it fills a spot in my head. like a missing puzzle piece. it completes something in me because it embodies an idea(l) or thought. to find "words" for things that are in my head.... total satisfaction (there is only total satisfaction if i buy it, i should clarify). i feel the same way when i find wonderful, brilliant thoughts or ideas, communicated through language, but those i can own and experience merely by discovering them. i do not feel the same way about other things, like views/landscapes, or music, though i do know that these are powerful things to others.

i love everything i own and have the perfect thing to wear whenever i want to, for any and every day. but even with this level of practical contentment, i do stumble upon perfection occasionally, new perfection, and then i love it. and want it. it is not about a complete and useful wardrobe, it is about the pleasure of the perfection. unless i stop finding perfection, i will not stop my want. my want, however, no longer exists before the find. absolutely now i do not have have desire without a target first. i am not restless, maybe because i already have more than i need - but i know there is always more to want.

when do you feel greedy?

not talking about fit, fabric, or color, but rather some other deterrent, something unrelated to the item itself, something independent of the product, that squashed the urge to buy (something internal) -

when was the last time something stopped you in your tracks?

weekends are quiet. new post on monday