Modern Details Nº1

I finally got my copy of The Gentlewoman today and devoured it as soon as I was done with my essays. I also highly recommend reading Three Thousands’ interview with The Gentlewoman’s lady-in-command, Penny Martin (found courtesy of Lin). While I enjoy sharing insights into the way I curate and other aspects of wardrobe building, at the end of the day I don’t like being in front of the camera. I absolutely love the Modern Details feature in The Gentlewoman, and while I may never be nearly as witty as Catherine Roux (who is the writer of the feature for the magazine), I can use this format to do my usual show-and-tell without me having to pose. The pieces that will be featured in my own version of Modern Details aren’t necessarily expensive nor are they particularly luxurious by any standard, but they are what defines and gives my wardrobe its personality that renders it unique from other curators’ capsule wardrobes out there. Think of it as series of homages to my favourite details.

The first piece of my wardrobe that I'm featuring is my boarding school hoodie that I bought at the school book store the first day of class freshmen year of high school in 2006. It’s a pretty mundane garment considering it was mass-produced before being stamped with the school insignia and motto but makes incredible sense for me to feature it first, as it is probably the oldest thing I have with me right now in college.

I know I sounded like I absolutely hated the school in my recent birthday post, but while they were many lows, there were also highs. The only reason I thought it was relevant to bring up my high school then was to show that it was during a particular low that led me to fall in love with fashion and all its trappings. So yes, if you were wondering, there were great moments that I still think of fondly now...many of the memories which can be found embedded within this hoodie.

It is easy to romanticize about the entire high school experience now that I’m no longer there. Fabric paint stains from making crew team t-shirts senior year. A ripped seam from the class clown who wanted to try on a smaller size for laughs. Another small acrylic paint stain from studio painting class junior year. Sharpie marks from making posters for the literary art magazine for club fair. The colour is completely faded from countless cycles in the washer and dryer but it also means that it’s perfectly soft to the touch. The crazy thing is that I’m still able to fit into it seven years later, in a shrunken sweater kind of way.

The best thing most of all is that it can serve as a kind of an ice-breaker, in that a random stranger or two would recognize the name of the school. It’s an odd mixture of alums, alums of rival schools or someone who knows the school from the either of the two aforementioned kinds of people.

I want to thank those who deigned to comment on my more recent outfit posts. I ended them with small critiques of personal style blogs because I had missed the opportunity to comment on personal style bloggers when Suzy Menkes’ article exploded, in that I don’t think I get the right to complain about them if I can’t bring myself to even comment on it. At first, I thought if you’re going to put some serious time in your hobby, then the least you can do is to try and do it well. That was the idealist in me talking. After digesting your comments, I have now come to the conclusion that blogging is a medium that can be taken really in any direction across the spectrum. They don’t bother me all that much really—I can count the number of personal style blogs I read on one hand. Just as there are many less-than-satisfactory blogs out there, there also a remarkable number that continues to delight over and over again. The lesson? To each their own.