Cultivating the Look

Okay, okay, deep breath. I'm not sure I'm fully ready to admit this publicly admit this yet but here goes...
1,
2,
3,
...yes, I do indeed care a bit about fashion.


Now I'm not talking about a runway aesthetic that you'd find in some sort of Atlas of Fashion Designers. That world is far too confusing and complex for me to ever even dream of entering. I have to admit however, sometimes while shelving in our beauty & fashion section I find myself taking a look at things like What I Wore Today (I know it's for girls but c'mon, girls come up with some awesome ideas that just take a little imagination to alter), or maybe our ever popular remainder, (un)Fashion (an empty metal can strapped on as a codpiece?! It's not just an 'only in San Francisco' kind of thing anymore!).

Now I fully believe a good look can come from the most unexpected of places, but since city dwellers tend not not leave a certain radius around their homes, and smaller towns can tend to be a bit (ahem) uniform, then the best way to keep from being too redundant find a local place that contains a boggling archive of media and educate. There are ideas to gather from materials ranging from classic texts, to famous photographs, to comics and even children's books. Following are a few of what I think are my best suggestions:

- Getting a tattoo? Well first off I'm reminded of a kid who based all his tattoo designs on photos from the Prisons issue of COLORS magazine. Since it's a back issue it's not something you'd find at our store, but the designs in it aren't too far off from some of the things you'd see in a volume of Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia. Maybe not the look you really want if you're not an actual Russian criminal, but heck anyone could have a cause to look totally scary sometimes...

- ...But wait! Oh man, you got a job interview tomorrow and now you have to cover that tattoo up don't you? Well you're not the first person to have that problem, believe me. Now there's a million long sleeved shirts out there, but if you want to hide something without looking like you're the kind of person who actually has something to hide, then I suggest a sort of gentlemanly globetrotting adventurer look. Something along the lines of Herge's famous Tintin. Throughout his career he's probably covered just every all corner of global style. You can't really mess with that.

- Or, if you're more interested in a ladylike kind of get up, get this:
A good friend of mine has been sporting Madeline inspired threads for the better part of a year now, and I don't think anyone has ever opened their mouth to say a negative thing about it. I mean, how could they? Adorable!

Take my ideas lightly of course, after a quick re-read of what I just typed up I realize that con meets Madeline might not be all the rage next fall, but I hope you can see what I'm getting at. This concept can pretty much go all over the place. Take a look at your favorite author's portrait or reacquaint yourself with an old comic strip. A literary inspired outfit is hard to mess up and the venues for inspiration are nearly endless. Just don't watch a bunch of TV or you'll end up like one of these.