sundries

[rm]

Last night I discovered that I cannot tie a bowtie. No. I really, really can't tie a bowtie. I looked at pictures. I looked at videos. I tried figuring it out on my own and came up with something that was vaguely right but total shit. Look, I can't even tie my shoes properly (I'm left-handed and no one ever wanted to show me how, so I have to do it the rabbit-ear way) and I cannot tie a motherfucking bowtie. So, you know, if you know how, and you're gonna be a Gally... I may need your help with the tux thing.

Last night I also discovered that modern tuxedo stud sets are not designed to properly deal with the waistcoat of this thing. So now I've got that on my mind for Gally too.

And I'm still learning how to wear the thing. You can't just put something on, you have to know how to wear it. Really. It takes work. And now I'm wondering if at Gally, I'll just slide into it with perfect ease, or if I'll be even more "goddamn fucking tie" about it. Right so!

And I've got to get my hair trimmed in the next four days.

Um, you guys know I'm a basket of broody, broody issues about Gally this year, right? Like, despite the fact I'm totally psyched.

Tragically, Patty had a migraine last night, cutting short our evening at the Plaza's champagne bar with friends. Overall, I like the Algonquin better. They call me sir when I'm dressed like a man.

But tonight we're off to see The Wolfman.

More on military-influence on fashion, although I hate most of the outfits they show.

If you missed it earlier, the first ep of the virtual season I worked on is uo today. That and tons of other good stuff at tw_itallchanges.

Comments

[miep.livejournal.com]

I am excited to have time to devote to the virtual ep.

I had very strong peter pan flashes when you started in about the tie:

"It was then that I rushed in like a tornado, wasn't it?" Mr. Darling would say, scorning himself; and indeed he had been like a tornado.

Perhaps there was some excuse for him. He, too, had been dressing for the party, and all had gone well with him until he came to his tie. It is an astounding thing to have to tell, but this man, though he knew about stocks and shares, had no real mastery of his tie. Sometimes the thing yielded to him without a contest, but there were occasions when it would have been better for the house if he had swallowed his pride and used a made-up tie.

This was such an occasion. He came rushing into the nursery with the crumpled little brute of a tie in his hand.

"Why, what is the matter, father dear?"

"Matter!" he yelled; he really yelled. "This tie, it will not tie." He became dangerously sarcastic. "Not round my neck! Round the bed-post! Oh yes, twenty times have I made it up round the bed-post, but round my neck, no! Oh dear no! begs to be excused!"

He thought Mrs. Darling was not sufficiently impressed, and he went on sternly, "I warn you of this, mother, that unless this tie is round my neck we don't go out to dinner to-night, and if I don't go out to dinner to-night, I never go to the office again, and if I don't go to the office again, you and I starve, and our children will be flung into the streets."

Even then Mrs. Darling was placid. "Let me try, dear," she said, and indeed that was what he had come to ask her to do, and with her nice cool hands she tied his tie for him, while the children stood around to see their fate decided. Some men would have resented her being able to do it so easily, but Mr. Darling had far too fine a nature for that; he thanked her carelessly, at once forgot his rage, and in another moment was dancing round the room with Michael on his back.

[bugeyedmonster.livejournal.com]

LOL! Would you believe I've never read Peter Pan? I so have to read that book. (Along with Wind in the Willows.) What's funny is that I know so many wives who tie their hubbys' ties for them! Maybe it's easier for someone else to tie a tie on someone?

[drfardook.livejournal.com]

I'm totally with you on the left handed thing. I only know how to do one knot for a necktie, the rabbit ears for shoelaces, and there's no way in hell I expect to be able to do a bow tie either. When I was learning how to crochet it took me hours of googling to find adequate left handed tutorials. There's no reason it should be that hard to find information.

And don't get me started on how I had to disable 75% of my wacom tablet's features because the side of my hand kept hitting things which they put on the fucking left hand side of the tablet instead of the top. FUCKERS.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

You need my dad's bowtie that he made out of ebony (see here, if it will show up for you). Seriously. It's a bowtie made out of wood.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

They call me sir when I'm dressed like a man.

Is that preferred/expected or just an observation?

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Link didn't make it. Probably just as well. Not sure I want my 88-year-old dad's facebook page out there as a link. Outs me too much, for one thing.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine bow ties. I have a hard enough time with regular ties - I just can't get my head wrapped around them. I get by, but now and then I get some snark about how I'm ' not doing it right '.

I have often asked , and never had a reasonable answer - as to just what is the purpose of a tie? Outside of some kind of fashion statement does it have any practical use , and why is it that a person is not taken quite as seriously without one?

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Didn't it start out as a dashing Eastern European military fashion that was picked up by civilian dandies? IIRC the colored ribbon round the neck set off a starched white shirt very nicely, especially with the collar up.

Then they turned the collar down, which rather defeated the original purpose, but by that time, ties had gone from fashion statement to standard men's apparel. Men's formal wear being extraordinarily conservative and resistant to change, it still is.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Wow ... that's more than i knew about it. I recently bought some new shirts and had a flap that covers the buttons put on it so I could go about w/out a tie. Black on black :)

I do like a starched shirt, but only when it fits. I've found that custom shirts are the only way to go.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

I feel you on the tie thing. Sometimes I can tie a necktie from memory, other times no amount of memory-jogging and diagrams will help. Bow ties? Forget it. I have inherited several pre-tied ones, and am staying there.

I rabbit-ear my shoelaces too. On the rare occasions when I have laces any more. I cannot tie any sort of elegant bow, for presents or decorations or anything. And people did try to teach me, but it never stuck, and then Dad taught me rabbit-ears out of frustration and I learned that way.

[marcmagus]

A couple of thoughts on the bowtie thing:

If, as it sounds, you got it so it was the right shape but sloppy, practice [and the patience to fiddle] will take you the rest of the way. We don't think of it that way, but it's totally a skill.

Is your bowtie the right length for your neck? It's always going to fall in exactly the same place, so if it's not sized right you'd be set up for frustration.

Would a left-handed photo series be useful? I'd be happy to see if I can tie a bowtie reasonably with my hands reversed and photograph it if that would create something valuable.

What's wrong with the stud design? Since it sounds like something more specific than that studs kind of suck sometimes.

[lorem_ipsum]

Would a left-handed photo series be useful? I'd be happy to see if I can tie a bowtie reasonably with my hands reversed and photograph it if that would create something valuable.

Or photograph yourself doing it your usual way, and then reverse the pictures in photoshop.

[cerulean-sky.livejournal.com]

I recently discovered that I can tie a bowtie like no one's business. Granted, I had my dad showing me how it was done, so I might have had a slight advantage in the learning. Still, I think it's not too hard, and you should pick it up quickly. :D

[better-late24.livejournal.com]

Why so broody?

[rm.livejournal.com]

'Cause I cosplay Jack and it seems strange to be doing the whole loud, funny, asshole schtick with it this year. Combine that with however the fan reactions to character death panel is going to go, and I'm sort of braced for impact.

[curriejean.livejournal.com]

Random thought from a fellow-lefty -- have you tried watching the video in a mirror? No idea if it would work; haven't tried a bowtie myself.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

More on military-influence on fashion, although I hate most of the outfits they show.

Dear gods, most of that is hideous. Also, I swear that the 2nd photo (the Chloé cape over a patch-pocket skirt) looks identical to an outfit I remember from Genesis II (a 1973 Gene Roddenberry, rebuilding after nuclear war, SF TV pilot). The outfit looks even wackier now.

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

I can tie a bowtie, but alas will not be there. I know about waistcoat buttons though. Traditionally there are six in descending size and each has a metal loop on the back and is held on with a small slide like a bobby pin that goes through the slide behind both layers of fabric.

[kproche.livejournal.com]

I may be able to help you with the bowtie, or bovil.

Today I finished all of the seaman's uniform except for the dicky that goes underneath! I even whipped up a "silk" that's the right length.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank god. Everyone else is all "yeah, sorry, no" at me, and while I can totally do the whole "Jack can't be bothered to tie the damn bowtie" thing, I'd rather just get the sorry thing tied.

[marchek.livejournal.com]

I can probably help you out with the bowtie, I've tied them for James on a couple of occassion recently. However, the cracktastic moment of me dressed as Ianto helping you out with a bowtie might break you.

[rm.livejournal.com]

You have just managed to effectively encapsulate exactly what's making me queasy about Gallifrey -- the pervasive laugh 'til you cry factor, which I suppose wasn't absent last year either.

[gement.livejournal.com]

Third on the ability to help with a bow-tie. The fact that you mention that you have trouble tying shoes makes perfect sense of it. (It is precisely the same knot.)

I'm a leftie, but I'm surprisingly good with knots.

[bugeyedmonster.livejournal.com]

"...except for the dicky that goes underneath!"

I'm going to have to look up seamen's uniforms. My mind just went into the gutter with that statement, and I know that cannot be what you meant. lol!

[kproche.livejournal.com]

Here's a page that has been essential to the pattern drafting I've been doing this week. (British Merchant seamen wore essentially the same thing as Royal Navy seamen)

http://mpmuseum.org/rcn_uniform_ratings1.html

Scroll down a ways to see the dickies.

[bugeyedmonster.livejournal.com]

Oh, I will say that I like the skirt (#2) with the big pockets. I'm very much a girly girl; I love lace and skirts and ribbons and pink.

What I really hate is that skirts rarely have pockets. (It's another reason I so need to learn to sew properly with a machine. I can do hand sewing but then making a skirt takes forever.) Do you know how difficult it is to find skirts with pockets?! What, am I supposed to rely on someone else to carry my wallet and ID and keys for me? I don't like the insecurity of purses, so I don't carry anything really important in them. (Just my hair ties, hair pins and lipstick.)

Argh... It's as if I feel that I'm being forced into buying matching purses by not having pockets. (I refuse to be pressured by fashion into buying a matching purse dagnabbit!)

Clipped from the article; "Younger shoppers aspire to that look, she said, because it is in keeping with disdain for gender-based dress codes." I'm thinking, well I haven't seen any guys wearing pink lace skirts yet... That would really bend the gender based dress codes.

My mom would love that capey thing in the second picture. Ever since she's had to use a wheelchair (spinal tumor removal) she's not liked coats because she says they get in the way of trying to move her wheels. She's switched to ruanas.

Love the strappy platform shoes on the 4th model. (I don't care for horizontal stripes, I'm too roundy for them. lol!) I also keep looking at that vest and thinking, "perfect for fishing!"

#5 looks like a feminine version of Jack Harkness' coat. (Maybe Gwen wore that when she was in charge?) Love that lacy tunic/dress in #10. Dump the coat, boots and scarf and put strappy dressy heels on with that.

I detest the camo and olive green colors. Ugh. Maybe they would look okay on some folks, but camo pattern just makes me look wider, and olive green is so not my color.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Let me know what you think of The Wolfman. I harbor this terrible urge to see it, but my friends are being very dissuadey. Which is sort of par for the course with many things since I know a great many opinionated people and Hollywood is supposed to only produce crap, but yeah.

I've never tied a bow tie, but if you want to have a shoelace party at Gally, I'm your man.

[arjache.livejournal.com]

My clothing for Gally also involves a bowtie, and what I've discovered is that if I try to follow the online instructions I get something bizarre and cravat-like, but if I instead pretend I'm tying shoelaces, I can tie a proper bowtie knot with a much higher success rate. But it's still really difficult, so I don't think it's just you.

(And, well, honestly I suspect gement will end up needing to help me with my bowtie. Perhaps she could offer you some pointers.)

[gement.livejournal.com]

I could have a booth just for tying bow ties for clumsy drag kings. It would be awesome.

Not that I am labeling you as either clumsy or a drag king, rm. Just a bit of intra-relationship banter going on over here.

[alumiere.livejournal.com]

I won't be at Gally the entire time, but I am about 10 minutes away, and I can happily schedule to show up and tie your tie if no-one onsite can. Just let me know when.

It'll be a good excuse to get out of the house and sit at the hotel bar with a good book if nothing else, and I do plan on spending at least one day at the convention proper (still have to decide which day though).