Sleep Travel.

Reading of science and alchemy, he began to doze - I suppose - and to his ear, the air rang with splashes of laughter.  Through a window in the woods, he realized - to his surprise - he was not where or when he was.

Nicholas Hilliard - Henry Percy, 1590-1595.

Charles Codman - Bathing Pool, 1830.

A Bookstack for the Future from Our Past.

Astonishing as it might have been for my university 80s-self to witness my present-self cinematically appearing in the college dormitory, were it possible - I would present the following bookstack to that self:

• Dress and Popular Culture
• Fashion at the Edge:  Spectacle, Modernity, and Deathliness
• StreetStyle:  From Sidewalk to Catwalk

Interwoven with late night studies of English literature, French language, and Art - I was studying fashion, unofficially, and have been ever since.  It is a bookstack which offers answers and evidence in response to some whys of fashion:

• Why do styles shift in and out of popularity.
• Why are styles adopted by groups of people.
• Why do trends occur and sometimes reoccur.
• Why does being fashionable hold such importance for some people.
• Why is fashion often symbolic and not only functional.

If you've a burgeoning penchant or interest for... fashion+psychology+unspoken language+meaning - it's your bookstack too.  Here's a story for you.

Prologue: 

Knowing now what I knew and loved then, I contemplate how to impress my 80s self.  Past midnight, in the hallway of the dormitory - when everyone else is asleep  - is when I will find myself sitting there in a silly oversized t-shirt reading too many assignments for one night - face coated in minty-sulphuric, green, beauty-clay.

The matte, black, stretchy pleather leggings of a few twenty-first century years ago will be just the thing to catch my eye.  Those, I think - along with some over-the-knee, black leather riding boots.  The rest won't matter.  Long hair and double-pierced ears will be edgy enough to impress that person sitting there in her clay beauty treatment, growing out a mullet.

That self might recognize this self - perhaps critically... never mind that.

Scenario:

Me: Appearing in the doorway slowly and casually sauntering by, "It seems the studying will never end... I remember."

In response, a glance of surprise and scrutiny... also approval for the "look".  It worked.  I think I'm someone's visiting mother.

Me:  "These books are perfect for you and hold answers to many of your questions.  Read them between your assignments."

In wordless response, I retreat to the dorm-room, leaving the books on my desk and ascend the loft bed ladder... thinking I've missed too much sleep - as I drift off, unaware - until tomorrow - of the messages to myself tucked among the bookstack pages.

If that very short fiction left you in the mood for still more imaginary/fashion/time travel quick-fiction, your wish is granted here.  Or, if you'd like more than just the bookstack - there are more books and movies here.  More about 80s beauty and hairstyles here.  An 80s fashion post with more about leggings here.

The Perfect Bookstack for the Fashionably Curious:
Dress and Popular Culture, Patricia Cunningham and Susan Voso Lab.  Bowling Green State University Popular Press - 1991.

Fashion at the Edge:  Spectacle, Modernity, and Deathliness, Caroline Evans.  Yale University Press - 2003.

StreetStyle:  From Sidewalk to Catwalk, Ted Polhemus.  Thames and Hudson - 1994.

iO-robe: A Short Fashion Forward Fiction.

Intelligent Optic Robing, iO-robe, or just iO - solved so many sartorial conundrums regarding travel, parties, fitting in... . A bit of programming, then - the magic transformation. A digital fairy godmother. It came to mean the birth of ideas, the generation of life itself... iO... a small cursive letter i encircled / enrobed by a fat, round O.

You know, in the 60s - there was Mars and the paper dresses. Mars - the company, not the planet... and the paper dress was just another way to express freedom and being "with it" - fashionably and sexually. 

The digital dress was of the same ilk - another way to be "with it"... hip, chic, cutting edge - you name it - always the same thing, but a different name.

The Techie-Chics and the Techie-Geeks dreamed the entire scene. T-Chics wanted the style, T-Geeks wanted the notoriety... the challenge.

To the middlemen it was a surprise... no need for malls, no sweat shops, no child labor, no fighting for parking spaces - everything changed. Was it better? It was different.

Of course, there was the buffout... of 2020. Like a blackout or brownout - all to do with power / electricity, but so many people were left standing around with so few little wires and buttons dangling - it wasn't that big an embarrassment.

That outage though - created in the modest among us - a momentary return to the paper dress - which made for a better canvas, a smoother silhouette... like the vast screens at the retro drive-in cinemas.  

Then there was, once again, the move to fabric... aside from the digital gadgetry - that's all anyone needed - just a few solid-color dresses or coveralls of fabric - depending upon the "in" feel... soft, crisp, silky, plush, crackly... upon which the iO (robe or suit) was projected.

Eventually, digitally enhanced optics - DEO - also eliminated even plastic surgery - with all appearances hiding the possibility of illusion or facade.

Anymore, what was real?

If you like this story, let me know - with some comments.  Will this be the path of fashion in the future... who can say, but imagining the scenario produced the fiction you just read.  There's another quick fashion-y time travel fiction here.

Revolutionary Prom Idea: The New Prom Date.

Prom - Please now Imagine the word Prom spoken by Tim Curry - perhaps after he's eaten too many wonderful, sticky, gooey, yicky candies and is offered yet one more.

Prom spoken by Tim Curry using his A Series of Unfortunate Events reading-voice.

Prom with its scurrying and hurrying flurry of excitement about who will be seen with whom and the plight and the doom thereafter.

Prom with its too tight too shiny too too too-ness whizzing by in a stretch limousine woofers-thumping hot-tubness.

Prom with its unfortunate accidents of excess indulgence.

Now Please Imagine the New and Improved Prom Date: A Stack of Books.  No worries of the cummerbund or tie or boutonniere matching your dress and corsage.

The books won't vomit on you after too many post-prom liquor-infused melon-balls.

The books won't grope you as the lights dim, or sneak a feel as they pin your corsage... they have no hands with which to do these things.  Books are full of page after page of goodness and knowledge.  Books don't look at you - with disappointment because you don't want to do what they want you to do and they do not frown when you don't look like they want you to look.  A book is a book and you are in charge of choosing it wisely and can very easily drop it in the library's book-drop if you don't like it.  Can you do that with any other prom date?  I think not... although, it might be nice.

For a start, if you'd like a prom date who does all the talking - look for any of Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events audiobooks - some are narrated by Tim Curry.

Here is an imaginary prom photo - imagined by Toile La La... maybe it is Toile La La - in another time, or dimension... all the details are not quite there... the scene (typical of imagined time) is hazy.

Books:  The New Prom Date - illustrated by Toile La La at Art Fashion Creation, February 2013.

A large park - somewhere in France, not in the hustle and bustle... but somewhere discreet.  The early morning is crisp with fog - with droplets of moisture in the atmosphere.  It's chilly enough for the complexion to produce a natural blush and glow. The sky: grey-white with puffs of dove-blue clouds - rain is in the forecast, but still hours away.

Someone has thoughtfully canopied a grove of trees. Lush, green nature provides the prom scenery. Scattered among verdant leaves and fragrant flora are elegant sofas.

Birdsong and the sound of fountains decorate the air.

The Look Here:
Hair - Marie Antoinette piled-high with powder. Embellished with pink velvet flowers and silver leaves.
Maquillage - Silver eye-gloss, silver lip-creme... nothing else.
Scent - peppermint, spearmint, clove.
Sofa - Porcelain-pink high gloss scrollwork, linen vintage toile print.
Dress - Bisque white taffeta with pale tulle overlays, black velvet ruched waist - accented with dove-blue velvet rose and black tulle flourish.
Gloves - Porcelain pink soft, brushed cloth.

The Footwear and The Books are concepts with potential, still being imagined. 

This imagined foot attire is - in concept - like boxer's fist-bindings, but the fit is comfortable and secure... "mummy boots" is a name that comes to mind.  Mummy Boots are soft and suede-like with visible wrappings, zip-on or slip-on:  a dancer's best friend.  Dance in them for hours, then get back to your books.

Why don't you create your own date?  Write some books or fill them with sketches or make fake books from trompe l'oeil-ed packages or papier mache.

Stay tuned for DIY prom-formal fashion ideas in an upcoming Art Fashion Creation post. 

(And here they are - all 25!  Ideas for creating your own look from head to toe... you don't even have to sew.)

And now... a poem:

PROM... it

rhymes with

VOM... IT.

But not with a stack of books for a prom date.

Clothes Looking for a Script: Comme des Garcons Fall 2012 RTW.

See this Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi blog link for full-length videos of Rei Kawakubo's Comme des Garcons Fall/Winter 2012/2013 Men's and Women's Collections, then contemplate with me.

First of all, I think Kawakubo's clothing literally creates thought. That cannot be said for all designers. No matter what your opinion of these collections, I believe you will notice you cannot prevent yourself from thinking strong thoughts about what you see on Kawakubo's runway.

All Flat-Stanley and paper-doll references aside, some of the womenswear coat shapes have a fresh appearance and lend the models a youthful look. Seeing the models present the womenswear, I felt some of Kawakubo's looks were at times inspired by Tavi Gevinson, then later by the paper-cutout artwork of Matisse. I could easily visualize the "dress-within-a-dress" silhouette looks being minimized to figure-flattering styles.

Despite the practicality of offering a place to rest one's hands, the pannier extensions of Kawakubo's Fall 2012 collection would present a predictable kerfuffle when worn through airport security - not to mention difficulties in the daily office cubicle. These are designs requiring a certain place, a certain time, and a certain mode of transportation. Imagine wearing one of the pannier dresses, riding a bicycle - in a gust of wind... off you'd go, like a kite.

Rei Kawakubo Comme des Garcons F/W 2012/2013 RTW. Image from Collections at Vogue.com.

Or, in the instance of the above garment - a gentle breeze might send the wearer pirouetting prettily, whirling like a maple-seed helicopter.

The shiny metallicized dresses seem like an excellent idea - maximum effect bling. Think of all the bandage-sized night-on-the-town dresses that exist - not much bling for the buck. Kawakubo's shiny dresses are big, startlingly-shaped, and shiny. If you didn't have time for the videos, there's a link to the Vogue runway collections here.

But to see the inspiration for this post title: Clothes Looking for a Script, you really should see the Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi link above. Rei Kawakubo's Fall 2012 menswear inspired me to imagine a short movie script. Here it is:

Ministers of Music - Happening perchance to discover a trunkful of items stored on a Hollywood backlot, contemplative time travelers find solace in assembling eclectic ecclesiastical ensembles. Donning their diverse "thinking caps" the ministers of music find they have a prediliction for crewel embroidery, Chanel wool,  and cabbage rose chintz. Offering services free of words, the ministers of music stroll, contemplate, and meditate their next destination.