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Friday, December 29, 2006

What's a femme to do?

Now, I have a fairly vast wardrobe. I have dresses and skirts galore. A plethora of high heels and stockings with backseams. And I have a large wardrobe of slacks and sweaters and other sensible, moderately respectable clothes for teaching. But there are some occasions for which none of these things are proper attire. Sadly, I'm tragically unhip and don't do casual wear well. So I often show up to plays and events somewhat overdressed, but I usually shrug this off as femme performativity and all in good fun.

Today, however, like many other days, I find myself in a casual daytime situation for which I have absolutely no solution. I want to be more hip and less formal than my sweaters for teaching and I want to be comfortable. But I have not mastered the art of cute t-shirts and jeans or any other appropriate look for the days when a retro halter sundress isn't quite right. How to be cute and femme in jeans? What can I wear that's resistant and slightly punk without overdoing it? My gay best friend tells me that I have not yet mastered the art of the little black t-shirt, which can solve so many of these problems. He's right; I own far too few t-shirts. There are the old ones that I sleep in, and a couple I've picked up at concerts and shows, but I own very few t-shirts that are actually anything resembling cool. I've only begun to accept the idea that I can pull off a tight-ish, girly t-shirt rather than a huge baggy men's t-shirt, which is never particularly cool. I only buy a t-shirt if I really, really love it. It has to both look cute and say or support something I agree with. I own very few slogan t-shirts because there's a very high threshold for accpetability. I'm fine with t-shirts with just pictures on them, though, as long as the pictures are cute and I can explain where the t-shirt came from if asked. So I'm asking for help and taking suggestions. What can and should I wear in casual situations? What cute t-shirts should I own? Help!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I applaud you on your vast wardrobe galore of dresses and skirts. I have a few in this department.

As far a casual dress, how about adding accessories to an outfit i.e. jewelry, hat, scarves and layer clothing. But most of all be comfortable.

Don't worry about what is hip or in at the moment.

Be Perfect, Be Yourself

PMG said...

you know that outfit you often teach in that involves like a sweater over a button down shirt? there's pink involved, i think. Anyways, I think that is a great casual-but-femme-i'm-a-lesbian-academic look. Buy more of that.

Anonymous said...

Ah to be young again...*sigh*...sorry that was about me, not you. :)

I've never been a t-shirt girl. I have a few, all but one given to me. I use them for working out in, never for casual wear behind that.

Always do wear what you wanna wear. 'Though I do like your friend's suggestion of the black t-shirt, which somehow doesn't seem like a real t-shirt at all.

Anonymous said...

Casual dress in T-shirt and jeans…

I used to pride myself in that attire.

But in the here and now:

Go for your super cute favorite jeans and a (Product) RED shirt. Then jazz it up with silver jewelry earrings and bracelet/s, as well as red nail polish.

When looking at the shirts I liked the men's over the women's. I have the men's inspired.

Why buy (Product) RED shirt:

You provide 41 single dose (nevirapine) treatments for mother and baby to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child.

Other info on (Product) RED:

Portion of profits from the sales of that product into Global Fund-financed AIDS programmes, with a focus on women and children in Africa.

Every year 3 million people die from AIDS. Of the 40 million people infected by HIV/AIDS, Africa (which has just over 10% of the world’s population) is home to 60% (25 million). The disease is the leading cause of death in Africa.

More Info visit: http://www.joinred.com/

P.S. Red is my favorite color and I look good in it too, I might be a little bias:)

Be Perfect, Be Yourself

Faith P said...

This was ggreat to read