How to Build your Winter Wardrobe

Winter has finally lifted her snowy hand from the ground. Birds sing in the trees, crocuses spring forth delicate and colorful, the weather turns practically balmy. As I prepare my cold weather clothing for storage,  I wanted to share an example of putting theory into practice. 

Spending the past four years in a warm and temperate climate did not prepare me for the chills and freezing weather of this Northern Clime. I had one sweater, one pair of winter socks and no long underwear or other layers to my name. When the first snow fell, my impulse was immediately to run to the nearest thrift store and buy as many sweaters as could fit into my arms as possible- regardless of size, material or color.

Such desperate measures do not become an Aristocratic Lady. How many times had purchases of desperation tided you over and then remained cluttering up your closet, never to be worn again? This was the perfect opportunity to practice designing a rational, aesthetically complete wardrobe. To purchase pieces I would love to wear, would match what already hung in my closet, and hold true to my aesthetic. But first, I needed to develop that aesthetic.

My first stop was to various blogs, tumblrs, cold weather adds and more. I skimmed through hundreds of pictures, sending any photo that even remotely caught my eye or my interest to a Winter Wardrobe file. After a week, a sizable collection had developed. This time, I flicked through those collected  photos and took stock of any themes in the photos. While a fur skirt is out of the question, alas, there was a noticeable trend towards fair isle designed, oversize sweaters, and many layers.  

But, in the course of my wandering through various books, I just finished "Overdressed: the surprisingly high cost of cheap fashion" by Elizabeth L Cline- an easy, informative overview of what is wrong with the modern garment industry. It was this book, however, that cemented my desire to only buy and wear natural fibers- but that is a blog post of it's own.

My final consideration was the realization that I disliked cardigans. No matter how good they look on the web or hanger, no matter how classy they seem, I feel frumpy when I wear them. Short, long, thin, thick, belted, not- I feel as though I've gained twenty pounds and fifty years with a single garment. No matter the price, fabric, or design- I was not going to add another item to my closet that would make me feel awful by the end of the day.

Armed now with a set of themes, the axiom of only 100% natural fibers and the resolve of no more cardigans, I finally ventured into the thrift store. What could have been an overwhelming selection, was now manageable  I passed over the solid colored sweaters and went straight to the patterned- flipping past the cardigans until I found 100% wool sweaters.

Now, three beautiful, adored sweaters are sitting on their shelf, ready to be packed away for the summer. They will keep me warm and elegant feeling for years. Plus I'll have the satisfaction of knowing that they are a result of not random chance, but careful consideration and planning. I am planning on doing the same with my summer wardrobe soon after the success of updating my winter one. I hope that you found this case study interesting and possibly helpful. There are so many fashion blogs and magazines, but so few that actually give a solid example of how to turn your aesthetic into reality. 

Has anyone had similar success with their wardrobes or have a different method for choosing clothes?

Seven Lessons in Elegance: April

Elegance is the hallmark of an Aristocrat. It pervades every movement, every word, ever gesture. But in the hustle of our day to day lives it is easy to forget that we must have elegance in the little things as well as the large. So this is the first of a new series of monthly reminders: little habits to be aware of to make sure we remain elegant every day.

1. Take your seat elegantly. Do not fall, slouch or plop, but  sit with controlled grace.

2. As you walk, sit, or stand, try to raise the sternum of the chest for better posture. Do not throw your you shoulders back, but raise your spine. This improves breathing and circulation as well.

3. Turn off your computer at the end of each day. Do not leave it asleep, by the edge of the bed, but finish the day  completely.

4. Tidy your desk or work space before bed. Some chaos is necessary in the room and soul of any Aristocrat, but a cluttered desk only wearies the mind before the day's begun.

5.  Arranging your hangers evenly, despite the futility of the task, makes for a pleasing display in the closet. Measure one fingers width between hangers.

6.  Go through your unmatched socks and try to find their pairs. If they remain lonely at the end of the process, throw them away. Why clutter your life?

7.  Try to smile at people as you pass them on the street. Take note of who smiles back and who doesn't. It is a little ritual to bring a sense of community to our modern world.

Seven simple tasks. Seven little reminders. Rebellion and alternative lifestyle are found less in ones thoughts and more in the simple acts of day to day life.

What do you do to bring elegance to your life in little ways?

Evolution of Aesthetic: Knowledge

From: Art's The Answer!

Stagnation is the surest path to death, either of our minds or our spirits. To nurture our intellect, we must continue to consider new ideas from books read or discussions had. However, nurturing our aesthetic can take many roads. The most accessible way is  a regular attendance of new galleries or exhibits to keep the flame of creativity and inspiration burning. It may just be my love of books, but I find the more I learn about the world, the more beautiful it becomes.

St. John the Baptist, Jusepe de Ribera c. 1624

Usually, paintings such as the two found above bore me completely. Being neither religious nor a historian of art, these don't speak to me in the slightest. However, after reading Theresa Cheek's excellent post on the excessive use of the angle 23.5 degrees, these religious pictures became more interesting. (I  highly recommend reading the original post and her blog Art's The Answer!: 23.5)

From Science Blogs, Starts with a BANG

The earth is titled at a 23.5 degree angle from a perpendicular access to the ecliptic. The Ecliptic is the perceived path that the sun and the planets follow through the earths sky. In the Ptolemaic days, people thought that it was the sun's path that was tilted in regards to the earth, but later Astronomy proved that it was the earth that was tilted instead. This tilt is responsible for the different seasons of the year.

As Ms. Cheek illustrates, early painters were well aware of this angle and considered it divine. They hid this angle in a number of different places in their paintings- from the subtle as in the picture above to the more obvious pointing of the arms in the early pictures. These paintings are full of mathematical and astronomical symbolism which makes them far more interesting than I ever gave them credit for. Read her article or look up some more examples to see for yourself.

I still don't care for these early paintings, but after learning how to see the angle of the ecliptic they are more palatable than before. My aesthetic has increased slightly from this knowledge.

If this interested you, look at Paradigmshift for tons more examples.

What have you done to evolve your aesthetic?

An Argument for Aesthetics I: Certainty

Aristotelian Logic Square

Reason leaves me cold.

This fact terrifies me. I want to be able to reason from first principles, but when I look at a set- any set- of first principles my mind  goes blank. The words slide over my thoughts like water on oil- finding no foothold in my mind much less in my gut. Rattle off ten different first principles and I couldn't say which I believed and whether those were true or not.

It is only when those first principles are built upon into real world examples that they evoke some reaction. When I can see how human's interactions and characters change because of these held first principles, then I understand why these first principles matter.

But this judgement of action doesn't rely on reason. If I see a heroic man, I know he is heroic without knowing that one of his first principles is 'life is worth living." This knowledge has very little to do with reason and very much to do with the principle of Aesthetics as I understand it.

Listening to a piece of music, your gut tells you right away not only if it is good or bad, but how strongly you value it. Looking at a painting, do you need to measure out the composition and compare the colors to see if you like it?  No. These things are known intuitively and without reason leading towards them. We may indulge our narrative fallacy and fill in logical reasons for why we feel this way, but this feeling comes first. This feeling is what I call our aesthetic: what we find to be beautiful and good.

Like our reasoning, our aesthetic may be swayed by others opinions. Try coming out of a movie with friends and not having your judgement swayed by a friend who thought differently about the film than you. It may become diluted with too much influence- else why are our closets so eclectic. Finally, our aesthetic may evolve- as people moving away from subcultures prove.

What aesthetics offers is a certainty reason fails. Logic is only a tool as good and useful as the first principles it builds upon. If those first principles can not be judged to be correct or incorrect, all the logic in the world doesn't help. But I know whether I find a piece of music beautiful or grating, a dress inspired or ridiculous. I am far more certain of my aesthetic judgement than my philosophical. And that certainty is very reassuring.

The Kawaii Ganger Guide

Today, Katherine at Sun is in our Hands posted a wonderful interview between an Anthropologist and two members of alternative fashion 'gangs.'  In addition to being very well spoken, one of the girls, Charlotte, made a very clear connection between your attitude and your aesthetic. Fashion decisions can be just as revolutionary and rebellious as any protests. They take just as much courage and may even require greater dedication.

Read the article and let me know what you think.

There Are Two Views of the World:

Just as there are only ever two types of people, there are two ways to view on the world: by focusing on the things in themselves and by focusing on the relationships between those things. Continuing the metaphor, just as there are always limitations with any dividing duality, there are inherent problems with focusing exclusively on either the things in themselves or the relationships between things.

It is easy to focus on objects in themselves because it is easy for our eye to distinguish objects from each other. That Bible is clearly different than the other books on your bookshelf or the wood of the bookshelf itself. A friend can be picked out of a crowd of other people with ease. Normally, we focus on the objects by themselves.  This can be as simple as staring at the Bible on a bookshelf or focusing solely on the scowl on a friend's face. Much can be learned by focusing on just this thing. For instance, you can understand how angry your friend is, how long the anger might last, if the anger is directed at you, just by examining the movements of your friend as she stomps towards you.

Equally easily is to find the short comings of focusing on the thing itself. If you ignore the relationships and context of the item, you'll lose out on much of its meaning. For instance, a Bible alone on a shelf alone is very different than a Bible on a shelf with the Quran, Tao Te Ching, and the Book of Mormon. Your friend stomping towards you angrily is different than your friend stomping away from their arch nemesis angrily and very different from them stomping away from their beloved angrily.

The faults of the first system gives rise to the strengths of the second. By focusing on the relationships between things a greater subtly and understanding of the world can be understood. By seeing where things stand in relation to other, you have a better sense of the thing itself in how and why it is being used. Focusing on the things themselves answers what and who questions. Focusing on relationships between things answers how and why questions.

But, outside of the laws of physics, the relationships between things are inherently subjective. We might think that the Bible belongs among all the other books on Religion and Philosophy and miss that its normal resting place is beside the bed. Or, and I suspect this happens often in offices, we become so focused on interpersonal power plays that we miss the chance to do something meaningful and good in the world.

To sum it up: the world is like a spiderweb. Individual objects are the junctions between the strands. Relationships are the strands going from node to node. But nodes are made up of strands and strands must connect node to node. Focusing on either one of these means the entire spiderweb is lost and, therefore, we lose sight of reality. Since Neo-Aristocrats live and succeed only in reality, we must train ourselves to not be caught up focusing too intently on either the things in themselves or the relationships between things.

End of the Year Review

Based on the past two years, my blog appears cyclical in nature- raising its head for the first months of the school year and dying down again after Christmas. By posting this end of the year review, I will break that spell and continue to post throughout the spring and summer of 2013- the year the world didn't end.

In 2011, I focused on defining and setting out what I liked and disliked about each of the three inspirations for my own aesthetic with the intention of putting those into practice for the rest of the year. This discussion helped solidify why I liked somethings, but didn't lead to much practical application.

2012 was a year of transition. In addition to changing the appearance and name of the blog, I have begun to shift focus from reviewing different aesthetics. There were a few practical applications, another test argument, and some more general posts. Not a unified year. It is a pity, because I have pages and pages of half written blog ideas both on the computer and in my notebooks that I never got around to writing.

Based on the directions of my thoughts and the posts I have written already, 2013 will focus on more philosophical thoughts and more day to day 'how-to's' as I attempt to answer the question of 'what do I like' from the metaphysical and the practical standpoints. Hopefully the two shall meet somewhere in the middle.

In conclusion, while I'm glad this blog didn't die in 2012, I wasn't pleased with the quantity or type of posts. My goals for 2013 are to write 50 posts for this new year and stick to my newly defined goal of this blog.

If you are a blogger, what are your goals for 2013 in your blog? If not, what are your goals for the new year in your life?

Have a Happy New Year!