(no subject)

Well! That was a long silence... Just popping in to say Happy Canada Day!

One of these days I'm going to post pictures of my sewing adventures but for now, I'd just like to mention that I bought a pair of jeans. In Tokyo. The largest pair they had, but they fit just right! Mind you, I'm back to the size I was right after I got from Vietnam, at least on the bottom. My top half is still larger, mainly my arms, because it seems that carrying a bag of books around makes you develop this thing called muscle. In your arms. Amazing!

I'm not dead, I swear!

Bloh! I'd written most of this post before but something (Livejournal? the internet? my computer?) ate it, so here's a shorter, not-quite-so-full-of-deep-thoughts version.

( What I've been reading )

As for what I've been watching, that'll have to come in another post, as I've been mainlining tv series for the past month or so, so there's lots to discuss. Like the original Battlestar Galactica which, as you would expect, is full of bad '70s haircuts, bad '70s costumes and bad '70s child actors!

In other news, ( my sewing. At last, let me show you it! )

I've already talked about how Tokyo was affecting my sense of style, of how I'm falling headlong into the world of shoes and bags and accessories. Mostly, I've been trying to develop my own Japanese-inspired aesthetic. Because of my figure, I can't do some of the styles I like, so I'm trying to find ways to work around that, tweaking and modifying. Another thing I'm trying to develop is my sense of colour, getting away from the "It doesn't match!" mentality. It's not a "It doesn't have to match, it just has to go" thing, as Clinton and Stacy have said many times, it's that the Japanese have a different theory of colour, which I love. Just looking at kimono, you see so many odd (to Western eyes, at least) combinations that just work: pink and white flowers contrasted with silver and blue plaid, for example, or a kimono in purple hues worn with a an obi in shades of yellow and gold. That same feel for colour is translated into Western-style clothes, layered to often smashing effect, using palettes I find refreshing and inspiring.

Remember in season 4 of America's Next Top Model when they sent the girls to Tokyo? It was hilarious for a whole bunch of other reasons (umeboshi, anyone?) but what really stood out for me was the "Make yourself a Harajuku-girl outfit" challenge. The girls were basically all "Whatever, we just have to throw random, non-matching stuff together". Result? Only one truly good outfit, mostly by accident. The others looked awful, because they obviously had no concept of the aesthetics they were supposed to be going for. Not their fault, as they didn't seem to get much in the way of an explanation and also, they weren't all that bright, but I'd expected them to at least try to look at girls on the street or copy a store mannequin.