fashun

Here’s a couple of articles from the NY Times* today about Black Lives Matter protestors and the dress code of anti-fascists:

The Dress Codes of the Uprising

There is a long tradition of Sunday best in the African-American community dating back decades before the civil rights movement, Mr. Ford said. In that sense, he said, the organizers of the march were not playing respectability politics as much as declaring ownership over their own history.

It was, he said, “a repudiation of stereotype and white supremacy. It’s not copying white power structures. It’s a powerful statement on its own.”

And, linked from that article, Why Anitfa Dresses Like Antifa, which is full of some delightful phrases:

(Antifa groups…trace their lineage back further, to those who fought against the rise of Hitler; generally, where there is “fa,” there’s been “antifa.”)

and

“Uniformity of characteristics” and a visual sense of equality have a way of, as research published in 2015 put it, giving “rise to feelings of solidarity.” It’s why soldiers and police have uniforms. It’s why sports teams have apparel for themselves and their fans, why brands have logos and consistent colorways, why fascists get slightly too-short versions of David Beckham haircuts and pin frogs to their lapels.

*You can get a NY Times subscription for just $4 a month, but if you’ve read all your free articles, you can also use Pocket to save them and then read them in full there.

Sure, our nation continues its descent into a dystopian nightmare, but haute Laura Ingalls Wilder was all over the spring 2020 runway at Viktor & Rolf:

If I ever feel like my own versions of Liberty florals and ruffles are too much, I’ll just look at these. Maybe next season I’ll add a hat!

I don’t know where I got the notion that I need a classic leather moto jacket but here we are, a 20-year vegetarian (who, admittedly, does buy leather shoes) pining for something not only impractical and unethical, but hella expensive.

Expensive and GORGEOUS:

(I’m not linking any of these because I don’t want to give my dad a heart attack. But first image is Madewell; second is LTH JKT, which has an eyeroll-y name but seems about as ethical as a leather company can get.)

The Dry Down perfume newsletter talked about leather fragrances last year; I dug up the archives and they’re on to me:

The leather jacket is a bizarre luxury object: Toughness, rebellion, and the ghosts of motorcycle gangs, sold by fashion houses at the same prices as a high-end handbag or an evening gown. For most of us, a leather jacket is a little bit of a fake, and a little bit of a lie. It’s promising more than we can deliver, trying to project stronger swagger than our persona can really support. Leather jackets rarely look as good as we think they will, or as good as they feel to wear. They are cumbersome, too warm or not warm enough, hard to quite match to the weather. They overwhelm most outfits that aren’t jeans and a white tank top, and paired with jeans and a white tank top they just remind you that you aren’t either young Marlon Brando or a 1990’s supermodel.

Well then.

…Did I mention there’s a sewing pattern for a classic moto jacket? And that Mood sells leather by the hide?