fiber arts and corporate fashion

Aside from all of that, I’ve been doing alterations on pants. Mostly for my own use, some for my acupuncturist (I’ve been trading sewing work for acupuncture while I was broke). I now know just about every possible way to hem pants. Beware, beware, I’m dangerous now! LOL

Actually, I have been pretty impressed with how my fiber arts background has been helping me. I’ve been doing a lot of shopping in Ross et al. But of course in those shops they have everything from cheap to expensive on the same rack, so you can’t just assume it’s good quality; you have to look, you have to know.

So, having spent ten or fifteen years in various forms of fiber arts, I’m finding that I can easily distinguish different fibers at a glance, and see how well the fabric’s woven. Being a seamstress, I also know a lot about finishing techniques, so a quick look will tell me a lot about garment construction.

There’s nothing particularly magical about this–most fiber artists can do the same thing–but still, it’s nice being able to notice all those details. It’s resulted in my having an extremely expensive-looking wardrobe for darn near nothing–and yeah, I can tell the difference. 🙂

…speaking of which, I went through Sears today (looking for a steamer to steam out wrinkles in my new wardrobe), and was looking at the clothes there. There really *are* distinct classes of clothing. Sears has a slightly different cut from Macy’s, but above and beyond that, the types of fibers are very different. Where Macy’s has a cashmere sweater, Sears has a similar-styled acrylic one. Where Macy’s has a silk suit, Sears has polyester microfiber. On the surface, they look more or less the same; but on anything but a casual glance, the difference is glaring. I liked the blue acrylic cashmere-alike sweater a lot, but I couldn’t wear it over the burgundy wool suit-pants; it just looked cheap.

(Lest anyone accuse me of snobbery, by the way, I’m a Birkenstocks, jeans-and-body-paint girl myself. I really couldn’t care less whether someone can afford a $500 suit, and left to my own devices I’d cheerfully skip the whole clothes thing and run around naked; but I am just absolutely fascinated by corporate fashion, and what it says about your social class. Mostly because I’m trying to figure it out right now. People of my job rating/level are supposed to wear high-class (but not obnoxiously expensive) “casual” outfits, and I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what this means. Fortunately, I have a butch dyke and a gay Frenchman as fashion consultants–how could I possibly figure this out on my own?? LOL)

I vote that we all go to work in body paint.

(Tien thinks about her coworkers, past and present.)

Okay, I vote that we all wear clothes. {grin}

(Well, except for that cute guy down in IT, and that other guy from down the hall at my last job, who…oh, never mind. But they can show up naked if they want, I won’t complain. 😉 )

That’s all the news from my first week on the job…heaven only knows what comes next. 🙂

No progress on the fiber arts front, for obvious reasons…but I am meeting my cycling coach on Monday. Hopefully he can do something about my knee problems. 🙂

Tien