knickerbocker holiday

Heh, the things you end up doing when you're on holidays.

So, we got lost in Oamaru and accidently found ourselves in a little neighbourhood where all of the buildings are from the Victorian period and made of limestone.

Turns out there's a little Victoriana thing happening, with a bicycle museum dedicated to penny farthings and the like (I know, I get lost and find a bicycle museum - what are the odds, right?)

Also in this area is a shop dedicating to clothing from the 1890s through to the 1920s. I'm not kidding. They make a lot of the clothes on site for re-enacters and the vintage car people.

I just happened to find a pair of early 1910s style knickerbockers. They just happened to fit me very comfortably. This, in spite of the fact that they were made on site for a "random" size (which wasn't even on the pants) and I'm a girl with girl-shaped hips.

Yes, I know the pants are technically gender inappropriate (a phrase that can describe far too much of my wardrobe), but I don't care.

I've decided that it's high time mens fashions from before the Revolution* became perfectly acceptable women's clothing today. Everyone who's ever watched Firefly would agree that mens styles from the late 1800s look pretty good on women, and I think we should just bring steampunk into the mainstream with high waisted pants and braces for all.

I will admit that I still want a pair of bloomers (and a matching basque), but I know I'll also have to get the foundation garments to go with it. Quite frankly, the thought of wearing a corset (whale bone or otherwise) chemise, drawers and a dickie in the tropics is unappealing - especially when you're wearing the other clothes on top of all that**. Men's fashions from the period were much more flexible and allowed for more movement (hey, look! Nothing's changed!).

Join with me, all of you. Men and women alike. It's time we started mixing and matching the fashions of the last two hundred years. Empire line dresses with sneakers one day, knickerbockers and T-Shirts the next. What a bright and glorious future it will be***.


*Nothing too political folks (depending on your point of view). I'm talking about the sexual revolution in the Sixties - you know, the one were it started to become perfectly normal for a woman to wear jeans and a T-Shirt without having to explain to her father why she still dresses like a boy even though she's past 18 and should start wearing more pretty dresses if she wants to land a husband any time soon - thus paving the way for those horrendous power suits in the 1980s.

**I once had a strange desire to go around dressed in nothing but a chemise, corset, pair of drawers and multiple layers of petticoats (standard "foundation garments" from the mid-to-late Victorian period) and see if anyone noticed that a) I was walking around in public in nothing but my underwear, and b) I was still wearing more clothes than anyone else.

***Okay, I'm possibly not crazy enough to actually expect anyone to join me in this endeavour. I'm not even crazy enough to actually join myself in this endeavour - but largely because I know I'll have to sew my own clothes if I want to do this economically, and that's not something I'm likely to take up any time soon.

****Bonus footnote: Interestingly, women's fashions do shadow mens fashions from several decades ago more than you may think. I once bought women's vests from the 80s to dress a couple of actors who were playing men in the 20s, because the cut of mens vests in the era were closer to women's clothes from the 80s than mens clothes from today.

Excuse me, sir...

I'm having a "sir" day again today.

Every now and then (usually just as I'm starting to feel good about myself), someone calls me "sir", and every scrap of self-esteem I have just goes flying out the window.

Yes, I know it's my own fault. I can't dress the way I dress and expect people to get it right every time. If I only wore more "girly" clothes, did something better with my hair, wore make up and moved with smaller, more delicate actions I would be more readily recognised as a woman.

I just... you know... I suck at looking like a girl. I always have. I'm too tall, too broad-shouldered, too flat-chested. My jaw is too square, my feet are too large, my arms are too long and my hands are too big. The nice "girly" clothes only look good on the nice "girly" figures - and I just don't have one of those.

At the back of my mind, I've always worried that, if I tried to wear more "girly" clothes, I'd probably just look ridiculous at best. At worst, I'd probably look like a drag queen. I have no natural grace and beauty, and trying to wear pretty, delicate clothes would just highlight my flaws - and I know it.

And, dammit! I just can't bring myself to wear clothes that are uncomfortable, impractical and flimsy just because they're more gender appropriate. The feminist in me combines with the base functionalist in me and refuses to wear second-rate, substandard clothes just because, as a woman, I'm not entitled to wear clothes that are designed for comfort, movement and durability. You know women's clothes are just designed to keep us out of the way, right?

So, yes, I tend to wear men's shoes because my feet are big and wide and women's shoes are uncomfortably narrow. And, yes, I tend to wear men's T-Shirts because fitted T-shirts feel awkward and constricting on someone with broad shoulders. And, yes, I tend to wear men's jackets because the sleeves are actually long enough to cover my long arms and the pockets are better. So much better. The pockets they put in women's clothes suck.

I try to compensate for it by choosing styles that are as close to unisex as possible and colours that could be feminine, but that doesn't seem to make a difference. I also wear women's pants, but as I tend to go for the sensible styles, no one seems to notice. Same with the women's shirts I wear to work - too practical and "functional" to fully counteract the fact that I'm big and ugly and I look like a man.

Actually, I have to confess - I don't always wear women's pants. I tend to wear men's cycling shorts when I'm on the bike because they have better pockets.

Hell, I'm even growing my hair long so that, when people make snap judgements based on stereotypical visual cues, folks "mistake" me for a woman because I've got long hair, instead of mistaking me for a man because I'm wearing a comfortable T-shirt.

It doesn't seem to be helping, though. Just when I'm feeling good about myself and comfortable in my own skin - even while I'm riding high on a compliment that I look good after loosing weight, someone says "excuse me, sir", and everything comes crashing down. It's even worse when they do it while I actually am wearing women's clothes.

Yeah, I know the fact that I don't look like a girl means I can get away with things other girls can't (like riding a bike solo through another country), and there are times that I feel my androgynous appearance gives me a greater sense of personal security, but still...

I'm probably going to cop more of it tonight. I'm going out, but I'm staying at a friend's place and the only clothes I have to wear are unisex in nature. *Sigh*