Tights. Make. Sense.

We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this public service announcement. Winter is now officially upon us. And while you many be tempted by pants, let me tell you all why tights make sense.


Two pairs of tights layered will keep your legs warmer than any pair of pants.

There are many different weights and types of tights. Try a pair of wool tights if the opaque pairs from your childhood don't cut it.

Tights can be worn under pants for additional warmth. The also provide coverage and extra ornamentation if you happen to fancy like those sorts of pants that look like they had a disagreement with a lawnmower.

Dark tights lengthen and thin your legs.

Tights allow you to wear those shorts and other summer wear well into winter.

Tights, a pair of boots, and a short, leggy number are perfect for rainy days. No more dragging around mud on your pants cuffs or wet ankles.



Tights can be worn in many colors and typically work out better than brightly colored pants.

Tights are more comfortable than jeans. Tumblers, ice skaters, and acrobatics all know it. And of course, superheroes. In fact, jeans aren't really comfortable at all, but that's a conversation for another post.

Now that we've got that out of the way, a few tips on tights. If they give you a muffin top, seek out low rise varieties. They do exist.

If you can't stand that waistband, seek out thigh highs. Sock Dreams Long Cuffable, Scrunchable socks are one of my favs. They go ALL the way up your legs.

Also, don't just stick to plain black tights. Make your tights a part of the outfit, not just a necessity to keep you warm.

While I think no tights collection is complete without a black pair, seek out bright colors that fit in well with your wardrobe, and don't just default to black.

Fishnets make anything hot. The patterned variety will earn you compliments.

White tights, patterned tights, and heavier weight tights will likely make you legs look bigger. Play with proportion to get a result you like.

Matching your shoe color to your tights will also give you legs for days, and help with the leg stumpifying power of some tights.

If your nails tend to snag your tights, use a pair of gloves to put them on and take them off.

Tight with tights,

Ivy Frozen

P.S. I blame all typos on vicodin.

Merry Christmas All!

I hopped in my time machine to wish you all a Merry Christmas or whatever holiday you kids are celebrating now. As a present to you all, I present a couple of terrible photos illustrating how I have trouble posing with other people. Click the Read More! link to view them and see me use my time machine even more.

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My sister and I dressed up in our Christmas dresses. My patented smile.


If you care, I'm wearing vintage dresses I altered in the two current photos of me. The green one had a hole in the back, so I had to cut it shorter than I would have liked. I'll have to see if I can find some matching-enough trim to go around that hem.

Anywho, I hope you're enjoying your holidays. I just had my wisdom teeth out, so now I have plenty of time to sleep and update my various pages in between staring at the phone and demanding that it ring. And longing for Jamba juice. It was promised to me. Bananaberry.

Suffering from a major case of the magnet effect,

Ivy Frozen

The Cube Revisited

It being the season and all, I decided to pay Marshalls another visit and raided their Cube section. There's definitely a quick turn over, and some good bargains to be had. They keep a good selection too, making it easy to find something for every girl's tastes. The staff is also friendly. All you last minute shoppers might consider paying them a visit. Or you might just wait and use your holiday gift money to hoard cute stuff for yourself. For a more detailed review, see my first review of the Cube here. Get more information on the Cube and where to find one here. And if there is no Marshalls with a cube near you, fret not. They have a lot of the same stuff sprinkled throughout the juniors section. It's just not presented as nicely. Click the Read More! link to see what I couldn't resist picking up.

This purple top. Ruffle? Check. Rich color? Check. Feels good? Check. The top is actually long enough to be worn as a dress, but it threatens to cross into chocha territory with rigorous movement. You know, rigorous, like walking or sitting down.

This dress. Too bad I didn't pick up the matching shoes. I know all those fashionables deride matching, but I love love love it. As for this dress, it just the perfect gothic rainy day dress for me. And of course, pattern mixing! Even my boyfriend who hates the swamping muu muu dress loved it.

And last, also featured in this posts first image, the most comfortable shoes ever. Seriously. These beat out many a pair of flats and lower heels in the comfort area. They make my low heels feel like flats after I wear them. Plus, they're freakin cute and were freakin cheap. Score! This years Christmas shoes fo' sho'. Sorry about that. All my friends are turning gangsta and bringing me along fo' the ride.

In the name of Christmas, I will punish you. Golden Age style. Okay, maybe not.

Ivy Frozen

I'm Baaack

And better than ever. Maybe. Sort of. It's finals time, so I'll still be sparce around here, but I hope to post once or twice a week. Or more. And to those who sent me e-mails, I'm a little backlogged so forgive me if a take a bit to answer them. Today I'm going to turn the floor over to some vintage Ladies Home Journal articles I got from microfilm. Click the Read More! link to take a look at them.



Click on the images to head over to their flickr page. Above the image there should be an icon of a magnifying glass. Click that to access multiple sizes of it. Large or orginal should be enough to read these.

The first article is "How to Dress Well and Cheaply." It's from the January 1884 edition of Ladies Home Journal and is that paragraph in the middle of the page. I liked this one since the advice contained in it is as good now as it was over 100 years ago. Also note that the black dress was considered a goto even before the little black dress was coined. While I certainly don't exactly follow all of the advice in there--it just doesn't quie suit me-- I don't believe I could think of a bad thing to say about anyone who did follow it. They probably would look quite chic.

The second article is Be Yourself from the February 1936 edition of Ladies Home Journal. You'll have to go up to orginal size on this one. It's a bit hard to make out, but it can be done. Natuarally, I champion this article very much which talks about the wonders of standing out versus standing in and bemoans the group clone looks. The prose is also very well done; it has a good upbeat tempo to it. Inspiring, encouraging, and once again, it's timeless advice.

That's it for now, chickadees. More stuff to come soon.

Working like a dog,

Ivy Frozen

The Girl Zone

While the full attire of the Lolita style is not my cup of tea, I never realized what vehemence some people have to it. A recent article on the style-- which I found thanks to a post on Suburban Queen-- garnered pretty vicious attacks on the style and the girls who wear it. Accusations of it promoting pedophiles and promoting woman as helpless, infantile, and subservient to men were some of the tamer comments. This interests me so much because I do identify with the style a bit, even though it isn't mine. Click the Read More! link do find out what I'm talking about.

From what I've read on the subject, the Lolita style is a style for women by women. It caters to women's likes and innocent fetishes while ignoring the male population. Lolita is also a lifestyle, with rigid requirements for every variation of Lolita, and there are a lot of variations. Lolita makes no secret of the fact that they dress to impress other women, and I should think themselves. Here's one of the Lolita's responses to the article I linked above; it's Lolita exlained by a Lolita. And here it's explained briefly by a few New York Loltas.

While I don't think I'd ever don full Lolita garb-- too rigid a style for me, not a fan of typical ruffles on skirts, and the shoes are often too clunky for me-- my style does share some elements with Lolita, elements that are contested.

Like the Lolita, my style embraces uber feminine shapes and design details, like ruffles and lace. While Lolita draws from the French Rococo, Victorian children's wear, I draw a lot of inspiration from the New Look period, late 1940s to 1960s. Both were times when these feminine looks were signs of female oppression, when women were considered inferior to men. As such, looks that reference these periods are often seen as anti-feminist and supporting this subservient state. Like the Lolita again, however, I feel the embrace of these feminine styles is very feminist. Some people seem to be of the opinion that feminism is about being exactly like a sterotypical man and doing all the things the stereotypical man does, wearing pants, spurning bras and make up and any special female detail. I don't see how it's very feminist to deny my love of ruffles and lace and bows and force myself into styles I hate. That seems more regressive to me. I prefer to embrace my stereotypical feminine traits and know that they don't make me dumber or less capable than a man. Embracing your traditionally feminine whims and whimsies shouldn't be some great travesty to all of womankind. Feminism is about the freedom to be you, however that may be. In pants, in skirts, and stripper heels or sneakers; loving pink and purple or lumberjack plaid. You're a person equal to any man no matter what your taste in clothes is.

The article also pointed to Lolita style as a kind of rebellion. I too consider my style a bit of my way of rebelling. The usual rebellion styles are so commonplace and expected these days. In this day and age it's become more rebellious to dress well than to dress bad. The typical hallmarks of the rebel-- jeans, drinking, partying, sex, skimpy clothes or pjs/sweat pants-- have all become mainstream and expected. Everybody and their mother is doing it. Dressing up-- particularly in surburban areas-- will garner you much more attention, good and bad.

The Lolitas and I also share a love of knee socks and other legwear that is considered sexual. I don't know why. It's interesting to me that a leg covered up in a knee sock or fishnets is sexier than if the leg were left bare. I wore one of my playsuits with my floral patterned fishnet tights and got far more catcalls than when I wear it barelegged. I suppose the art of seduction isn't entirely lost. I know didn't really go anywhere with that, but I just find it interesting, so I dumped it in here. It fits. Really it does.

And last, while I never really go Lolita, I do occasionally dress rather youthfully and meet with disapproval of those "overly" youthful elements, most notable when I tie a big lacy bow on my head. It makes me look about 12, but that is half the point. I have youthful features and I like to play them up sometimes. Some women take it so personally, every woman must look her age or some little pixie somewhere will die. I like myself and all aspects of me, including the child within me. I see no reason why I can't dress youthful when I feel like it. And with those thoughts, their disapproving words work their way out of my vortex.

Lolita is a style very dear to me, although it's not my style, although I've seen some good arguments for it lately...

Ivy Frozen

Oh noes!

Gasp!

Teehee!



You guys thought it was something serious, didn't you?

This Halloween I am Luna--the black cat from Sailor Moon-- in her humanoid form. I made the costume myself on Wednesday. They were out of black tulle so I had to use tulle circles from the bridal section. Also, since I did it so last minute I didn't have time to make her necklace or earrings. Maybe I'll make them for next year's conventions. It's not like I hobnobbing with serious cosplayers who will force you to commit ritual suicide for not having everything perfectly accurate. The dress could be more accurate too-- I messed up on the bodice-- but overall I'm pleased with the costume, especially since I made it so last minute.

The underskirt was ripped out of another dress that I've had for over a year now and never worn. Maybe I'll wear it soon...

The shoes were also diffucult to get. In most pictures, she has no shoes, but I saw one photo where she had on some strappy black sandles like I'm sporting. I found these almost new Chinese Laundry shoes at the local Salvation Army. They were probably one worn once for a prom or something. I found them on a Saturday, but they weren't priced and the manager wasn't there, so I had to go back Monday and hope they were still there. Monday I have class all day until eight though, so I went back Tuesday. Miraculously, they were still there! But unpriced... I tookk them to the counter, prepared to have to rip someone one, but I guess the manager was managing the register. She gave them to me for $5. Score!



Luna is actually the first character I wanted to cosplay. On Halloween, I hate all the sexy costumes. Especially the ones with random cut outs that make no sense whatsoever. As such, I've avoided even my childhood hero Princess Jasmine because of the whole midriff thing. I might just do her next year though, since her costume makes sense and I love her so. Luna, though, is another childhood favorite of mine. I never really had a favorite among the inner senshi; Sailor Saturn and Sailro Neptune are my favorite scouts. I also took to the villains, but not the inner senshi. The only one I could name as a favorite among them would be Luna. In the anime, she only turns into her human form in the Sailor Moon S movie. It's the best Sailor Moon movie, although Sailor Moon R is so hilariously bad that it's good. The Sailor Moon S movie is also th eonly Sailor Moon movie featuring a story from the manga, whch explains a lot. It's a touching story that develops the cats, Luna and Artemis alot, though mostly Luna. Throughout most the series, she's just the wise character guiding all the rest of our heroes. In the American dub, she's portrayed as much older than the other characters, a bit of a mom or aunt role. In the Japanese version, they make it clearer that she's about the same age as the inner sailor senshi, as she is in the manga. In the movie, Luna falls in love with a human man who takes care of her when she's sick. I won't say more though to avoid any spoilers for those who haven't seen it. It's one of my favorite movies.

In the manga, Luna also turns into her human form to fight one of the evil Sailor Galaxia's underlings who happens to be from the same planet as Luna.

Alright, that's it for now kittens. Have a happy and safe Halloween! Watch out for edibles made in China.



Ivy Frozen

Thievery

Being a creative person, the issue of creative theft comes up a lot, in design and in blogging. While there is the obvious theft, such as when Unique Vintage ripped off a Trashy Diva design, there's also a lot of grey areas. The reason I opted to post this post is thievery seems to be coming up a lot in the internet sphere of fashion and style websites and blogs. This post explores two recent issues I came across.

Blog names and personal identities on the web. With the internet as popular as it is, there's bound to be two independent people who come up with the same name. Look at any popular membership-required site and see all the repeat names with numbers behind them. Within individual sites, it's handed with crazy spellings and adding numbers and words, but what about with blogs?

When I selected my current internet name, I made sure that it wasn't a popular name. I hate numbers in names; it's kind of like Prince changed his name into a symbol. The uniqueness of my name is one of the reasons it's stuck around with me for years and adorns pretty much every website account I currently use. It's also why I bestowed it upon my etsy shop and clothing. In all the years I've been using it, five now, six mid-January, there's never been another Ivy Frozen out there.

There are other Ivy's out there. Since Ivy is a real name, there are those truly named Ivy. In the fashion blogger sphere I know of Ivyology, Fashion Ivy, and several commenters who use Ivy to identify themselves with. On account based sites, Poison Ivy is usually taken and often Frozen Ivy is too. I feel my name is distinct enough as Ivy Frozen. Likewise, there's two Punky's writing popular blogs, but one identifies herself as Punky B while the other is simply Punky. I also think their names are distinct enough.

With all the years I've had my internet name, I feel a sort of ownership over it. I'd feel cheated and stolen from if someone else happened to use it for something. So what does happen when someone new on the fashion blogging scene uses the name of a moderately to highly known fashion blogger who's been blogging for years? The official titles of their blogs vary, but they identify by the same name. Is it laziness on the part of the newcomer?

When I selected my name, I googled it. It's actually the result of me googling the name I originally wanted, which turned out to be fairly popular and then playing off associated ideas and what I wanted until I ended up with this name. If you google Ivy Frozen, you'll get all stuff related to me, and the occasional site that happens to have both of the words.

Is it outright theft of the newcomer? The original blogger has been blogging for years, is fairly well known, and recently gained much deserved recognition in a very popular magazine. While the newcomer still might have been clueless when she started, she's now been informed by at least several bloggers of the mishap and doesn't care. Would she care if the roles were reversed?

So what do you think readers? It's okay, because while we may feel we own the names, we don't really. Two people may independently of each other come up with the same name, and as long as they aren't copying and pasting.

Or do you think it's just lazy, rude, and/or disrespectful. For bloggers, our names are like a brand. If you make a new toy, you don't use the name of a similar existing toy for it. While there is no law against it, it's just the tactful--and smart-- thing to use an original name when you opt for a pen name.

Now, to case two. A thread on wardrobe remix recently pointed out a site that takes a lot of streetstyle sites from other sites without permission or even informing the owners. A good portion of the photos on Whatthewear.com came from Wardrobe_Remixers. I recognized photos from Franca (you!me!dancing!), SwanDiamondRose, Strawberry Kitten, and Ranna right off the bat. A lot of people use photos from Wardrobe_Remix and street style sites on their sites; what makes this site different is that the photos are allowed to be rated. This is very against Wardrobe_Remix, which is against the rating of outfits and photos. While if you click on the photos you can find a link to orginal photo, the credit is unclear. The names' of the owners of the photos never appear on the site. In response to a query about using the photos in this way without even informing the owners of the photos, the owner of the site said that people should be "honored" to have their photo up there. They also state that in posting photos to Wardrobe_Remix, people give their permission for the photos to be used on the site in question.

When I use photos of Wardrobe_Remixers or bloggers, I always ask first. I also always make sure to give them proper credit and use their photos in a positive way. I'm also sure to send them a link once I have the post up. And when I post photos to Wardrobe_remix, I'm posting them to wardrobe_remix, not to other sites.

So, once again readers, illigal, merely frowned upon/kinda douchy, or a-okay in your book?

Some people use the internet to spread kindness. Others use it to be total dickwads. Where do you think these idividuals stand, and what about yourself?

Always trying to keep on the good side of right,
Ivy Frozen

Korean Style in List Form

I mentioned my current preference for Korean style over Japanese style on a post of Strawberry Kitten's a while back. She asked for more info, so here it is. What can I say about Korean fashion? Most of it I pick up from Korean drama series and films. But, for this post, I did go in search of Korean street style pics. My impression of Korean style is that while it has elements of the cute like most Asian styles, they tend to combine it in a more sophisticated, grown-up way as a whole. There are always outliers. And of course, most people thinking of Asian style think of the crazier Japanese styles like fruits, Lolita, and the Harajuku district. Even considering Japan's less out-there fashion, I think Korean style tends to create longer lines than those the Japanese favor. Click the Read More! link to go to the link list with images from Korean Vogue spliced throughout.



This site apparently hasn't been updated since '07, but it has some good streetsyle pics. Some of the pages even have some japanese street style pictures, so you can see a bit of a comparison so you can see what I mean about it having some of the same kooky cutesy elements of Japanese street style but coming off more refined. And I really love all of their guy street style pictures. My dream guy dresses like those gentleman.


Here's a more current flickr pool for Korean Street Style Pics.


Street Peeper has a lovely collection of streetsyle pics from Seoul.

Your Boyhood features street shots from Seoul.


I Heart Berlin has a post featuring some colorful Korean style.

Images not of me taken from the Korean Vogue official site and nihilistic youth's Fashion photoset on FLickr. I encourage you to check out nihilistic's fashion set too since it has oodles of excellent pictures from Korean Vogue.

Korean Vogue is my soju,
Ivy Frozen

*Health Alert*

If you haven't heard already, products containing Chinese milk products may be contaiminated with terrible toxins. Symptoms may take months or years to appear, but are serious and can be life threatening. Children are the most at risk. A lot of Halloween candies are made in China. Even Hersheys has a factory there. Unless you see some certificate saying that the item was tested and does not contain any of the toxins, please don't buy or eat it or hand it out at Halloween. It seems ALL of the milk producers in China were caught up in this scandel and none were cleared. Apparently only the US is in the dark about this, but I wouldn't know if that's true or not. 54,000 Chinese children ill and some even dead. Don't risk it! Read the label!





This has been an emergency health alert from Ivy Frozen. Regular programming will resume soon.

Extra! Extra! Read All About it!

Who cares what they're wearing

on main street and santa fe

It's what you wear from ear to ear

and not from head to toe


that matttttteeerrrs

So, remember those larger sizes I promised? They're finally here! A size medium and two larges shall be hitting the store this week. Plus, another small. All of them previewed above. I've shown the medium and small dresses before. I've just been delayed since I was ill last week. Tooth troubles and then a reaction to the medicine. Actually, I took the first pic when the side effects were just starting up. Yucky.

Hopefully, I can get some more posts up this week, but I have to play catch up with school work, so I might still be on the DL for a bit. I hope to get a better post for the two large dresses up this week, once I find someone who fits them to model for me. As you see, a hanger might be better than me for those two. The pinky-purple one has glow in the dark thread on it, which is awesome. The blue uses rick-rack.

BTW, anyone else creeped out by the whole followers thing? I feel like I have a cult or something. It's the only reason I haven't decided to "follow" all you lovlies. The name just makes me feel like I have to follow you around everywhere and adorn you with flowers. Or maybe you're running some crazy death cult or something.

Anyhoo, I got a post on Korean style, slips and other undergarments, and my fictional BFF planned, so stay tuned. They should appear by the end of this month.

Locked in the cult of domesticity,
Ivy Frozen

The First Hat Post

I haven't been dead. Just busy making good ness for you and musing about hats. Hats used to be such an important part of people's wardrobes. So important that numerous phrases make references to hats. "Hats off to ya." "That's old hat." "I'll eat my hat." "He just talks through his hat." "I'll put on my thinking cap." etc. In the early 1900s, hats were universal; the only people who didn't wear hats were beggears. However when President Kennedy opted not to wear hats, the rest of the nation soon followed.

Here's an article on the importance of hats in the film the Duchess and some further reading on the importance of hats in a wider sense from Fashion Era.com. Now the closest we get to a hat trends are of the ridiculus sort, like the trucker hats made popular by Ashton Kutcher. Wear a lovely cocktail hat and get in one man's first fashion impression, "Isn't that what they wear to funerals?" From the girls though I typically get a lot of hat love. Many girls say they love pretty chapaeus but wouldn't dare wear one. So, what is with the decline of hats? Why are they now almost a freakish component?

Hats were popular up until about the 1960s. During the 1960s, hair rose to new heights. The new hair styles made hat wearing difficult and undesirable. Imagine Elvis covering up that pompadour with a hat. It would completely defeat the point of the 'do. President Kennedy was the first president to forego a hat at his inaugaration. hat wearing by men declined and soon women's hat wear followed. I find it especially interesting that apparently Kennedy's inaugragation made his wife a hat wearer. Most musings on the decline of the hat point to Kennedy, as in this article. I find that article particularly interesting since it makes a connection between social manners and hats. While the author's connection is merely a touch, it does seem that our idea of manners have a direct connection to hat wearing. Perhaps hats were the expression of those manners, or perhaps those manners were dictated by the hat. But that's a detour from our present subject.

Considering hats have been popular for hundreds of years, there must have been something more than Kennedy refusing to wear hats that pushed them out of regular rotation. Barton Castor believes that sunglasses replaced hats and shoved them to a back corner.

The sunglasses make sense considering celebrities are more known for the sunglasses than their hats. People are also more likely to don an interesting pair of shades than a lovely chapaeu. Sunglasses also do share some of the functions that made hats popular, keeping the sun out of the eyes and making people look cool and mysterious. Those same girls who pine to wear hats would not think twice before donning a glam pair of sunglasses. Sunglasses are also more peopular than hats in modern times.

Thus as with most things, it was a combination of things that turned hats into fashion's shy, nerdy cousin. The new hairstyles, lifestyles, and sunglasses in addition to the decline of hat wearing by iconic figures diminished the social fashion importance and left us with mostly functional wear only.

If you've read my blog our followed a few of my outfit pictures, you should realize that I love hats. They're perfect to finish off an outfit and make it look complete, particularly when your hair is as unruly as mine. Here's a scan from my old Better Homes and Garden's sewing book illustrating the power of hats to balance a silhouette, which I often use mine to do. There is another reason I may favor hats though. Since I wear glasses and have no contacts, sunglasses are a tricky issue for me. I'd have to get some specially made and commit to that pair; no $7 sunglasses for me. Recently, I've been attached to my hat since I noticed considerable indications of sun damage popping up on my neck and face in a relatively short period of time. Thus I've taken to my hat, and as autumn rears it's head, there's quite a bit of wind around here. So, I purchased myself a hatpin from yakarina.

In one of those moments that make you really feel like a genius though, I realised I have no idea how to use it properly. I get the jist of it, but just how to set the pin through hat and hair without poking the pin through my head and have the feathers properly displayed on the hat eludes me. Research into the subject revealed that hatpins were popular with the suffragettes after a courtroom incident where suffragettes were required to remove their hats since the hatpins could be used as weapons. This was humiliating to the women, since although men were required by social manners to remove their hats indoors, it was optional for women to remove their headwear. I imagine in addition to the more elaborate manner of women's hats, it had something to do with the women's hair which was surely a bit mussed by their toppers.

Still trying to figure this hatpin out and expect the second hat post full of even more hatty goodness when I do,

Ivy Frozen