Fashion Forward: What Season is it Anyway?

THE Dress

 

Necklace similar to the one I wore

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September is technically summer, but the weather is more like fall.  The fall line of clothing has already come out, and the summer clothes have not been boxed up yet.  Another thing about September is that it is still wedding season.   What exactly is the difference between a summer dress to wear to a wedding, and a fall one?

As you may have guessed, I had a wedding to go to this past weekend.  I wanted to wear a dress I bought during the summer, but I was afraid it of making a fashion faux pas.  So I spent the week emailing all my friends seeking their approval, hoping they wouldn’t agree with me that I needed a fall dress.  In considering what makes my dress summery, I determined this particular dress was more of a summer dress than a fall dress because it is a light color and made of light fabric.  It is also super short for a formal dress, which is part of the style. 

Well Suited: Skirts, Pants, and Feminism

www.americanpowerblog.blogspot.com

A-line silhouettes are everywhere this season. From Posh Spice’s new clothing line, to Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, the tailored look is in, and it isn’t in the form of a Hilary Clinton pants suit. We are in the midst of the skirt suit’s return.Suits made for women are relatively new. They became available after World War I. These suits started off as a skirt and jacket combo. Then, in the second half of the century, coinciding with the rise of feminism, women began to wear pants suits consisting of jackets and trousers. This was interpreted as a move toward a more egalitarian society.

Now, feminism is taking a new pendulum swing that some call the third wave of feminism. This third wave is hard to define. While the first wave focused on women’s right to vote, and the second wave fought for equal opportunity in the workforce and the end of sexual discrimination, the third wave lacks a cohesive goal. So when I see a change from a Hillary Clinton type of female politician – mother of one, powerful husband, pants suit, short hair, lack of visible makeup – to a politician like Sarah Palin – mother of 5, husband’s job often takes a back seat to her career, long hair, visible makeup – it gets me thinking.

The Bare Necessities: The Question of Self-Preservation versus Style

Sex in the City with alternating views on when to wear tights

I’ve spent the last week or so vacillating between no coat and my Fall coat; long sleeves and tank tops.  My attitude about weather is if you dress for it, it will come.  So I am avoiding sweaters at the cost of cold arms altogether.  I also take it as a personal affront when it is freezing outside after a streak of warm weather, and I am wearing a dress.  Of course, all Midwesterners are aware that neither Fall nor Spring exists in the Midwest.  There is only summer and winter. And even those overlap in often surprising ways.  Like when it snowed in Chicago 2 days before this last Easter Sunday (end of April).