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Friday, May 25, 2007

Kramerica anyone?

I have been busy and lazy with my life. Sometimes you just drift and things just seem to be happening around you. Its like you took a remote control, hit pause and hit play again. Your life seems unchanged. Although real life around you seems to say something different. Before I digress, back to my usual venting.
I was travelling on the local train in Portland, Oregon to visit a local brewery when I came across my long forgotten woe. Portland is a beautiful city, scenic and modern and also very crowded. The train system seems to be rather excellent and is the main choice of transport for working people who worked outside the city.
As my colleagues and I settled in the comfort of our comfortable albeit unfamiliar surroundings(we love our cars), I was watching this young man who had just boarded the train. He was wearing formal work-clothes which suited him well. Sadly though, the moment he sat down, it hit me about what was wrong! The trousers were a little too short..just about half an inch or so shorter than his cuffs. And as he sat down and his pants went up, I could see glaring portions of his socks! It instantly reminded me of the character Kramer in Seinfeld. Kramer is seen in almost all episodes of Seinfeld wearing these ridiculous trousers. It adds an extra zing to his already quirky character and makes him what he is. But the rest of us are not lucky enough to make ourselves rich by wearing funny looking pants and still gather iconic status!
A dear friend of mine was recently telling me about how tricky it is to get tailor made clothes in the United States. We are surrounded by chains and chains of stores and nobody caters to a certain body style anymore. But some brands fit better than others, and perhaps its wise to take a moment and get simple things like the length of the pants straightened out, especially when they are formal work-pants. I wish them success in their quest!

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Wash,rinse,repeat(the re-cycle)

Last week has been interesting. I gotta chance to go to the "City of Love" to attend a fashion show. Really loved the show and thought some of the creations were pretty interesting. Will upload pics from the show a little later. The show was put together by students of fashion. The things they had learnt in their four year program from fabric making to dress design. Haute Couture. The works.
Needless to add, the crowd lived upto the fashion show. People all ages showed up in all sorts of fashion. From accessories to shoes to clothes to hats. Each in its own telling a little about their personality and perhaps their attitude. I was in absolute heaven. It was the best couple of hours I had spent in a long while.
Retro chic was largely "in". Polka dots, greta-garbo hats, headbands, scarves, hepburn-style pants, big super-size-sunglasses, big colorful prints, dobby-pants for men and women and the like. Suddenly I was transported back into the 60s again. Talk about recycling. Admittedly though, the clothes did look uber chic.
In the midst of all this creativity though was one person that stuck out like a sore thumb. The director of the fashion school! A woman about 45-50 years of age dressed in an ill-fitted suit with shoulder pads!!!! And the clincher - bold gold jewellery! As she stood there making the opening speech, I was cringing in pain. From what I had heard she was supposedly very wealthy and you could tell she had a sense of power and command. Whatever it was it didnt show from what she was wearing. Maybe she was trying to make up for the balance in this world. Or maybe she was a little ahead of her times..If people are going back to the 60s in their sense of style, maybe she just went back to the 80s when shoulder pads and gold jewelry was in!! Whatever it was, it wasnt working!