Day 16: Angel Blue and Clouds

Baby blue Large weave knit sweater vest with metal belt in front, white long sleeve tee, dark wash jeans, favorite black pointed toe cowboy boots, large twin blue and white dangle triangle earrings with long chain with assortment of baby blue, white and silver charms necklace, baby blue ray ban shades

Day 15: Kickin' in Red

Grey knit sweater dress, grey leggings, red high tops, red flower earrings, red bead and wood bead bracelet and belt
Note: the bracelet and belt are hand made. I bought them from a woman at small impromptu mark along the road outside of Goroka, Papua New Guinea.
Below are links to instances of witchcraft accusations and cannibalism within the last year in PNG. Witchcraft is still very much believe in and cannibalism is still practices, though illegally, in some remote areas. The cannibalism event took right place right before I left. Also, there is a great link by National Geographic in PNG.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/02/07/woman-burned-alive-for-witchcraft-in-papua-new-guinea/

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/papua-new-guinea-guide/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/13/papua-new-guinea-cannibals_n_1670688.html 

 

 

My bracelet and belt came from this market along the road. The young woman who made it was on the right at the far end out of sight. She sold them to for 30 and 10 Kina (the national currency), the equivalency of $15 and $5 US Dollars.

A breathtaking view of the Highland mountains. I took this shot on a hike to Yomnaki, a small village literally up in the clouds! 

A “pitpit” house such as the one pictured here is made of reed which are flattened, dried out and woven into mats. These mats comprise the frame and floor while wooden beams make the frame of the house. A fire is in the center of every hut for cooking and keeping warm. Men and women in most highland societies lived separately huts, even when married. This has however changed in some areas due to Western influences.

 

My favorite picture I took during the trip in a small village “Kambadang.” 72 stairs were dug out by hand in in preparation for our group. We slept in the grass hut behind me in the photo above for 3 nights during our stay; it was a lot like camping but only in one of the most remote places on earth.  

I had the privilege to watch the preparation for traditional Highlands “Maumau” pronounced “Moomoo.” This included the butchering of the pig above. Hot stones, pig meat, greens and leaves are layered in a pit around 3 feet deep and left to cook over night; then dug up the next day for a feast! Boar meat tastes grisly, somewhat like bear meat.  

Myself and my close friends, Hope and Abigail. I stayed with their family during my visit to PNG who were missionaries to Simbai, a government station and region in the Madang Provence. How cool is it that I got to share these adventures with two of my best friends since childhood? :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 14: Gold Dust

Long sleeve black with gold grain sparkles, black stretchy dress pants, sparkle gold pumps, gold chain belt, large gold and pearl drop earrings, gold chain with pearl heart dangles bracelet,

Day 13: Time marches on

Red skinny jeans, cotton black, white, grey zebra print top, black cowboy boots with silver concho attachments, antique upsidedown watch in chain, spoon ring with my first initial "N", small silver chandelier earrings

Day 12: Fedora on Fire

Beige and black houndstooth fedora with red feather accent, Red lace fringe long sleeve tee, khaki plants, red high tops, brown feather earrings, red flower ring, khaki and red nails

Day 11: Silver and Cashmere

Bleached black and grey skinny jeans, grey long sleeve sweater tee, black leather belt, silver toe black cowboy boots, soft rainbow colored cashmere scarf, silver spoon ring, amber Brown chandelier earrings

Day 10: Fire Escape Geometry

Netted black over shirt, rose pink lace cami, black zipper pocket skinny jeans, purple high tops, purple, blue, pink, black scarf from a friends great grandma, pearl and diamond stud earrings from my sister in law, pewter and pink studded stone ring

Day 9: Sea Glass

Deep yellow top with capped and ruffled sleeves, green, multi colored leggings (but mostly blue, purple, white and yellow), high tops, purple, set of glass Dolphin earrings and necklace, dark blue glass bead and chain bracelet w/ fish. Note: I saw a little girl of about 3-4 years old with her Mama in line at Panera. She informed me I looked like a Mermaid because of my "scaly" leggings. I don't know if my marine life jewelry gave it away, but I had already I was going to name this outfit "sea glass" this morning haha

Art in nature: I find it amazing that man's left overs from items that had a totally different purpose (Coke bottle, Mason jar) can work with nature to make art and a whole new ecosystem. Bucket list item: visit a glass beach or find at least one piece in my life time.

Day 8: Leaf orange

Burnt orange sweater dress, blue-gray leggings, deep orange moccasins, gold chain necklace, orange/red/baby pink/salmon inlay earrings

Clothing encounters with Lewis and Clark

I learned about he information in this topic from various American history classes over my career but more specifically recently from my Anthropology of North American Indians class at Penn State.

 President Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase in 1803; essentially doubling the size of the Continental United States. He commissioned the Corps of Discovery Expedition (1804-1806) which was headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the newly acquired territory. Clothing and differing perceptions of beauty it turns out, even played a part in this famous American expedition and were recorded by those involved. The link below is to a wonderful interactive map of the Lewis and Clark expedition by PBS.

http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/trailmap/





In the summer of 1805 after a year and a half of traveling Lewis and Clark encountered the Shoshone Indians in what is now western Montana. Upon this meeting a Shoshone Indian noted the clothing of the group which served as a key part of his description of them: they were "Clothed in skins unknown to us." Desperately needing horses the to cross the Rocky Mountains before the winter set in, Lewis and Clark with help from Sacagawea translating were able to trade various items for Shoshone horses. Lewis recorded in his journal that he was able to purchase three by trading an "old uniform coat, several handkerchiefs and three knives."
In September the party began to climb the rough Rocky Mountains. In an attempt to fight off the cold and a snow storm one man wrote that: "We mended up our moccasins and some of the men with out socks wrapped rags on their feet. and we loaded up our horses and set out without anything to eat." Here the misery of the men is magnified by the lack of something so simple as proper footwear.  

 

Sacagawea, translator and guide for Lewis and Clark

Below are clips of the PBS documentary by Ken Burns: Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu-L164-tIE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJLICRtU1Tg

In October the party reached the descended from the Rocky's and entered the verdant Columbia Basin. There they met still different groups of Native Americans and recorded them as wearing clothes made of Cedar bark. And that peoples living there flattened their children's heads as a sign of beauty.

Illustration from Lewis and Clarks' journals depicting the means of flattening a babies head and the appearance of the end result 

Day 7: Jackson Pollock

Black leggings, white cami, yellow high tops, men's 70s cut button down with paint splatter print, antique geometric black and yellow earrings

 

Jackson Pollock is an American Painter known for his contributions to Abstract Expressionism works. This genre started post WW2 in New York. A link below from the National Gallery of Art gives more details about his life and work. http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 6: Purple in plural

Grape purple long sleeve tee, wool hounds-tooth skirt, striped coach sneakers, hand made necklace from my friend Katie, antique opal ring, and pearl earrings

Day 5: Game day gone vintage

Blue jeans, fauxleather jacket, vintage scarf from a friends greatgrandmotheer, favorite pointed toe cowbiybopts, vintage patty hat, white Nittany Lions tee

What to wear to "fancy balls" 1880s style, a Barbarian Queen and the Suez Canal

This book published in 1887, London, gives detailed descriptions for any merrymakers costume desires. 338 pages long and with dozens of illustrations and some seemingly odd costume ideas: Artic Maiden, Cigarette, Wall Flower, Venetian Fishgirl, Christmas Cracker, The Universe, Cloud with Silver Lining and best of all The Isthmus of Suez (or Suez Canal). You can check out this book @ https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7168188M/Fancy_dresses_described






In case you ever wanted to dress like a Backgammon board...

Funny thing is, Boadicea(A.D. 61, England) is one of my favorite historical women and I've thought of being her for Halloween before! An interesting note on the clasps, because of the climate very little archeological evidence remains from Barbarian (None Roman) controlled areas. Also, with no written language makes studying these groups is problematic. Grave goods like jewelry (cloak clasps, earrings, necklaces) or metal weapons found in archeological digs are the best records we have of these peoples on the Roman frontier. So the inclusion of brooches here in a fashion book is very true to form.

 

 

I found the Suez Canal costume to be very telling of the politics of the era. Opened in 1869, the canal served as an important trade route and hot bed for international relations and tensions. Imagine someone today wearing a costume for a geographical location or architectural structure; something like Guantanamo Bay or the Berlin Wall.
Construction of the Canal was overseen by the French government and in 1876 Benjamin Disraeli a British Politician facilitated the purchase of controlling stock in the Suez Canal Company from the Egyptian government. The cartoon from the British magazine Punch, satirically depicts this event. In 1882 British troops invaded Egypt. The canal became a strategic base for the British and doorway to the Middle East and India. The publication of the book above 5 years later speaks of how much these political events were on the minds British subjects, enough for them to infuse it into their clothing. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/suez-canal-opens

Day 4: Pastels and Polka Dots

Day 3 Leather and Fall Gold

Who wouldn't want a balloon? :)

 

Peruvian Mummies, Textiles, and the British Museum Director

Today in my Pre-Columbian Art History class we learned about textiles from Peru used to wrap corpses around 300 B.C. These lengths of fabric could be up to 80 feet in long and include up to 500 embroidered figures. The extreme dry environment on the Peruvian coast helped preserve not only the textiles for over 2,000 years but also the corpses. Creating these textiles took years, enormous

amounts of labor (dye colleting, gathering wool from Alpacas and other Camelids, and the actual stitching). These textiles are an indicator of complex organization of society and labor. Attached is a link to a wonderful podcast from the BBC narrated by the director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor. A personal hero. In it, even a modern fashion designer muses over finding inspiration from these ancient works of art and clothing. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/wm8NbFLMQGGc5zX7d7mszg

If I could have someone pick my clothes every day it would be...

http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/2013/1028/How-Edith-Head-took-Hollywood-by-storm-video

Edith Head (1897-1981). Winner of 8 Academy Awards for costuming leading ladies like Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelley and Elizabeth Taylor. Below is some of her work for A Roman Holiday, one of my favorite old movies.

Day 2 attacked by grape wielding smurfs

6 Odd Fashion Fads From History

Humans have done some quite odd things to look trendy. But I can't help but laugh at what my grandkids will cringe at from my generation haha

Day 1 of my fashion blog :)

Finally starting a fashion blog! Because clothes to me are art and give everyday life a dose of creativity and fun. And because multiple friends and even strangers have suggested it. I am fascinated with the history of anything, and even in 5 or 50 short years simple pictures can record a ton of information. Preserving art, history and ideas of everyday is my goal. :)