Suzanne Tamaki and her daughter modelling Tamaki's designs.
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Style at the Maori Art Show

This weekend, a friend and I went to the Maori Art Market, and we saw some serious style in the crowd. Men were peacocking with tailored coats incorporating Maori fabric, custom-tailored vests, and heirloom jade and bone jewelry. There was a fashion show, and a display by this woman artist shown below.

Suzanne Tamaki and her daughter modelling Tamaki's designs.Artist and designer Suzanne Tamaki and her daughter were head to toe in Tamaki’s designs, including her silk tie belt-wraps and quasi-Victorian jackets and top hats. In the background, “Blankets for sale – WE trade for land, beads, or guns” is embroidered on wool, stabbing at colonial land-grabbing via the needle. The pair are posed in front of Tamaki’s stunning photograph For Maori, For Sure, with its Maori seamstress about to reclaim all the flags – click here for a full view.

Here’s more of Tamaki’s deliciously deconstructed work – blanket labels are incorporated into the outfit on the left.

Tamaki's wearable art.

Also, seen in the crowd, this Pakeha lady had a vivid orange jacket that I loved – she moved among the artworks like a piece of art herself.

Hot jacket, lady!

There were two women wearing the moko who I wanted to photograph -  I think the women’s moko tattoos are attractive and stylish, and their outfits set off their moko like the tattoos were heirloom jewelry – both jewelry and moko tattoos are taonga, treasures. But…I felt shy. There’s been controversy about fashion houses appropriating Maori tattoo imagery. And I note that Maori-generated pages online about ta moko that discuss women’s moko do not include images! So, if you see a lady with a moko in real life, appreciate that you’ve had a glimpse of a taonga.

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Go Put On A Sweater

Some randomness, because I can do that: a sweater, “chilly climate” and feminism, and the guy I wish was my gay BFF.

That Cue leopard print - it's like this one - except with a dark brown background.Aussie boutique chain Cue has a just-right dark brown leopard print cardigan right now. On the sale racks, even! It’s one for the petites with its cropped length and 3/4 sleeves. Petite = person under 5’3″ or 160 cms tall. As a shorty – I mean, a “petite” – I find Cue’s clothes fit me reasonably well overall. If you’re taller, Ezibuy has some grey leopard items and this similar sweater (XS only left.)

On a related note, I never believe any compliment that comes from a sales person.  Just on general principle…

Most of my workplaces are techy and there’s a high ratio of men to women. Sometimes, as at my current place of employment, it’s fine. At other places, even without overt sexism or harassment, something felt off. Turns out there’s a name for it, the “chilly climate,” and everyone involved can change it.

Authorial enthusiasm this week is for the queer writer Edmund White. His painful honesty – is it humility or humiliation? Something has haunted his eyes in every portrait of him, throughout his life. For an introduction to him, I recommend his autobiographical City Boy, about living and adventuring in NYC in the 70s. Then there’s his excellent, raw My Lives.  One of the more easily digestible chapters, My Women, describes the gay-man-as-woman’s-best-friend situation from the gay man’s side.

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Vintage Hair and Makeup With Debonaire Doos

This past Saturday, more than twenty-five of us wedged ourselves into a room in downtown Wellington. Miss Tittle Tattle had come to visit Wellington for a burlesque performance and for the day after, she had organized a Debonaire Doos vintage hair and makeup workshop. Because Debonaire Doos often does the hair and makeup for a popular pin-up photographer, she’s an expert at doing retro transformations – often on up to 8 women at a time. We showed up with plain faces, slightly grimy hair (to help vintage styles take hold), and our tiny makeup satchels.

Miss Tittle Tattle of Debonaire Doos curls the hair of Miss La Belle. In the background, Marilyn Monroe approves.“When  come to Wellington, it’s like a holiday!” Miss Tittle Tattle purred. I find this hard to believe, because she put herself through her paces in this very intense demonstration. In her delicate, musical voice,  she told us what we needed to know about creating a “vintage look” with hair and makeup, and demonstrated on models Miss La Belle (pictured) and Kelly. The “vintage look”  is the classic face we see in images of the 40s and 50s: the smooth, perfect face with vivid lips and cleanly defined brows and eyes.  Miss Tittle Tattle shared with us the tools for a vintage hair set, the vintage face aesthetic, and guidelines on colors and makeup application, demonstrating on her lovely models all the while. We asked all sorts of questions. I’m not going to give away all her wisdom, but a few of the tidbits included:

* If you’re in Wellington and you want the vintage-curl-friendly “Middy” haircut, go to Danny at the Powder Room salon.

* Put down the hair straightener and walk away from it. You can curl with it, but you shouldn’t, if you want a vintage look. Use steam rollers instead – these lift the roots of your hair and set the curl correctly down to the very tips of your hair.

* When you’re ready to undo a vintage set, take the top curlers out first, handling the hair gently. Then undo the lower curlers.

* Maybelline Eye Studio gel liner is great for cats’ eyes, and affordable too.

* Getting the correct cat-eye liner look is challenging, and takes practice. But “the first time you get your cats’ eye liner right feels fantastic. It’s like the first time you tassel twirl!”

We all know about the multiplicity of vintage-look videos on YouTube by now, and they are very helpful. Still, there’s nothing like being there, especially for kinesthetic learning, live in three dimensions. For me, the two best things to see in person were how you brush your hair after you’ve taken it out of the set to turn it into your smooth, finished vintage style, and how to do those  notoriously challenging cats’-eye lined eyes. We had some play time of our own after the hair and makeup demonstrations. I focused on my face, and here are the before and after looks:

My face, in fluorescent lighting, before and after I applied vintage makeup. Did I mention the fluorescent lighting?

Notice how the strong cat’s-eye liner and mascara makes my eye asymmetry less noticeable (if you didn’t notice it before in Photo #1, you’ll see it now that I’ve mentioned it). And the red lips provide contrast to my green eyes.  Craziest of all, I did those cat’s eyes myself, in a tiny hand mirror, after Miss Tittle Tattle’s instructions. It’s the first time I’ve ever gotten it right!  Well, “right” if the value of “right” = “Amy Winehouse, pre-bender.”

Afterwards, I walked down the street with a friend, both of us still percolating with enthusiasm after the workshop. “I want her to come back and do a six-week course!” my friend enthused. “Maybe if you have a web cam, you could get a consultation with her on Skype?” Then, we were distracted by hats. But that’s another story.

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Korean Fleece Tights!

We’re on the cusp of winter here in Wellington, NZ. For three months, we’ll be lashed by wind, rain, and sleet delivered C.O.D from Antarctica. And I know what that means.

Fleece lined tights!

After hearing about them through the style blog tom-tom drums, I headed straight to eBay. And was astonished to learn that they were available inexpensively, in a huge color range, from Korea. Stylish, chilly Korea. I took the plunge and ordered two pairs, grape and black.

Here they are:

Korean fleece tights in their polyglot wrapper

The writing on the wrapped pair is mostly in Korean. The unwrapped pair, scrunched and rubbed in my hands, feels thick, spongy, and light.

Opaque tights on the outside, tender fleece on the inside!

Frankly, I was worried about the fit. I have a definite and fulsome booty, and some tummy, too. But the tailoring on these, with their kindly extra panel and their stretch, meant that they fit perfectly. Price? $7 US a pair with free shipping anywhere in the world. Shipping to New Zealand is often punitively priced, so I really appreciated that.

The day after I received them, a friend who’s a long tall drink of water (6 feet to my 5’2″) said that she had found them, too, at a local chain department store, Farmers. They are twice as warm as regular opaque tights, but not as warm as my winter leggings. Still, it’s going to be a  leggy winter here.