Happiest of Holidays

My grades are turned in!  This means that I have met the beta goal I set for Rags against the Machine--to post every day of a semester.  I want to take the next ten days to regroup--The solstice, a lunar eclipse, Christmas, and the New Year are upon us. 

DH and I want to wish Rags readers the happiest of holidays, whichever ones you may celebrate.  Know that your blogs and your comments on Rags have been gifts to us each day of this semester.  We'll be back at the new year.

Peace on the earth and Good Will to all!

Alphabet Soup

The biggest challenge of trying to track down information on the origins of my clothing in a globalized economy has been finding timely information.   When fast fashion moves in 90-day cycles, information like Clarren's on the Northern Marianas Islands (2006) and Rivoli's on China (2005) seems reactive and terribly dated.    Now add to the remix, my favorite t-shirts. all of which were manufactured in Central America.  My best guess is that they were manufactured in maquilas after NAFTA (North American Free Trade Act) and CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Act). 

A free trade advocate is likely to say that increased trade is the best way to eradicate poverty because sweatshops provide employment opportunities for workers.   It is just as easy to say that it allows exploitation opportunities for corporations.  Garment factory workers are, as they have been from the beginnings of the industrial revolution, the shock troops of the global economy.

"A footloose industry scours the world for the cheapest wages; countries eager for any kind of investment auction off their workers to the lowest bidder; government regulators deliberately look the other way when abuses occur in order to keep foreign investors happy."  (Global Exchange)  For workers, the current system is a trap.

NAFTA gave U.S. and Canadian corporation new incentives to relocate factories to Mexico, where wages were lower and labor unions weaker.   The U.S. lost over 879,000 jobs under NAFTA, many of those moving to Mexico.  The 800,000 manufacturing jobs claimed by the Mexican government to have been created under NAFTA disappeared as companies moved once again to cheaper labor sources. 

Under CAFTA, corporations would be able to pit exploited workers in Costa Rica against even more desperate workers in countries like the Dominican Republic.  Prior to CAFTA, the majority of textile and apparel products produced in Central America already entered the U.S. duty-free.  What CAFTA did was allow companies to relocate to Central America, import textiles from other countries and then import finished products to the U.S. duty-free, actually reducing the demand for U.S. made components.

Even while DR-CAFTA underwent the ratification process, the jobs that it was supposed to save began to evaporate.  Several central American countries in an effort to compete created separate, lower minimum wages for their maquila sectors (free trade zones). 

The downturn has been most dramatic in the Dominican Republic, where garment exports have fallen by more than half since 2005 and 73,000 jobs have been lost.  Most of the other DR-CAFTA countries also saw their exports to the United States drop between 2005 and 2008;  23% for Guatemale, 37% for Costa Rica, 5% for El Salvador and just under 1% for Honduras.  The exception is Nicaragua; the DR-CAFTA country with the lowest labor costs was the only one to post an increase in apparel exports, up 31% over the same period.  The overall share of the U.S. import market claimed by the six CAFTA countries has declined from 13.3% in 2004 to 9.8% in 2008.  (Werner & Blair, 2009)

What's an unemployed maquila worker to do?  Shop Rodarte? Affliliate with the drug trade?  Immigrate and attempt to learn English?

What's an unemployed textile mill worker in the Carolinas to do?  Reminisce?  Retrain?

What can we all do?  THINK when we purchase any item, whether it be cotton underwear or a t-shirt.  Learn to measure value in ways beside the dollar.  Help economists to think like anthropologists.  Consider the unintended consequences of free trade on the environment, health and safety, wages and hours, working conditions.   Enough said.

_______
Werner, Marion and Jennifer Bair. "After Sweatshops?  Apparel Politics in the Circum-Caribbean."  NACLA Report on the Americas.  July/August, 2009:  6.  Web.

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The Race to the Bottom

Pietra Rivoli has saved my sanity this week!  Her book, Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy, located in our college library, synthesized everything I was worrying about Monday evening.  She is on the faculty of Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, where she specializes in international business, finance, and social issues in business.  And it was a student activist who prompted her to do the research for the book.

She starts with a $5.99 t-shirt purchased in a Walgreen's store and then tracks its manufacture from the subsidized cotton grown in west Texas to the mitumba markets in Tanzania.  Her t-shirt I realized is more traveled than I am. 

Rivoli I would guess favors free trade, and yet I found her to be fairly honest about the hypocritical position of United States.  Politically, we say we favor free trade and yet, historically and economically, we practice protectionism.

In Part 1, her book details the growth of the American cotton industry from 1792 and the development of the cotton gin through the use of slaves, sharecroppers, and braceros to harvest the labor intensive crop.  She argues "suppressing the labor market has been a central 'how' of American dominance in the global cotton industry" and that the ABSENCE of the market dooms workers.  Nowadays, cotton is picked by machine.   But, cotton subsidies guarantee that U.S. farmers receive almost double the world market price!

In China, she visits Shangai Knitwear, watching the transformation of lint.  She sees it carded, slivered, fed into spindles, twisted into yarn, wound on bobbins, fashioned into cloth, mechanically cut, and sewn.  But, just as she did with cotton farming, she takes a step back to look at sweatshops historically.  Whether in Great Britain (18th century) or the United States (19th century), Japan (1950s), Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan (1970s) or China (now), the ideal textile worker has been a "docile" worker, too often women and children with few alternatives.  The industry no matter where it is located has been dependent on poor people with few alternatives.  Yet, the women sought AUTONOMY.  She writes, "As factory experience melts away docility, workers have stood up and stared down bosses, raising the bottom for themselves." and "Global capitalism and labor activism are cooperators in improving the human condition."   

The book attempts to explain the alphabet soup of trade agreements the United States has entered into.  I suspect that the book may already be a bit dated in this area.  Foreign competition to U.S. textiles has grown steadily since WW2.  A series of agreements have attempted to protect the American textile industry, even though some recent studies suggest that the economic costs of "protection" may be as high as $174,825 per job saved in the industry!  Again, she argues that the best economic policy is not to erect trade barriers but to compensate the losers via retraining. 

Her book explores how American quotas have unintentionally incubated the textile industry in developing nations as production moved from country to country.  Setting quotas fueled the race to the bottom as politicians attempted to protect American workers.  Now, lifting trade restrictions and tariffs will be harder on small countries than on South Carolina.  Compare the loss of 300,000 jobs in the U.S. with 30 million worldwide.

The book ends with an examination of the free market in Americans' discarded clothing.  In the market for worn clothing, the U.S.A. holds 40 % of the market share!  And while some countries restrict the importation of used clothing, Rivoli celebrates the free market and enterprise that have sprung up in Dar Es Salaam.  There, Tanzanian entrepreneurs specialize in baby clothes or blue jeans, or t-shirts. 

Short of going naked, I don't know that any American clothing consumer can shop for a clothing product that is ethically pure in all respects.  If we could be certain that children were not working ungodly hours in factories, I suppose our shopping does help raise the bottom for sweatshop workers and if only as discards, it fosters capitalism in developing countries.

What do Chinese Sweatshop Workers Wear?

The majority of my remix items were manufactured in China. Initially, I found this:

China has emerged as the largest exporter of fast fashion, accounting for 30% of world apparel exports, according to the UN Commodity Trade Statistics database. Each year Americans purchase approximately 1 billion garments made in China, the equivalent of four pieces of clothing for every U.S. citizen. Some Chinese workers make as little as 12-18 cents per hour working in poor conditions.

As I tried to compile my research Monday evening, into a presentable blog article that was fair and balanced, I found myself in a veritable tizzy.  Unable to think straight, my husband and I got up in the middle of the night to discuss globalization!   I had looked at a brief history of the textile labor movement in the United States; I had considered a FAQ from a progressive point of view defining sweatshops; I had stumbled across the phrase "race to the bottom" in an article from the Economist;  I had pondered Nicholas D. Kristof's assertion that in some locales "a job in a sweatshop is a cherished dream."    Finally, I had pondered a book review from the Candian Journal of Sociology Online.  Unraveling the Garment Industry by Ethel C. Brooks found fault with consumer-based politics like we've seen over Nike and Gap products.  She asserts that change in the sweatshops must be driven by the workers who work in them.

The central question seemed to be this:  "Should we be in favor of free trade or protectionism?  Proponents of the former argue that frictionless commerce makes for cheaper stuff--and plenty of it.  Protectionists, who support tariffs, quotas, and subsidies, say that, without government guardianship, American firms don't have a chance against foreign counterparts that can pay lower wages and save money by ignoring human rights and environmental concerns."  (Patricia Marx, the New Yorker, March 16, 2009)

I promise you that  I will post pretty pictures on my blog again and SOON.  The purpose of this series is simply to explore questions I posed to myself at the start of the remix;  it is NOT to induce guilt in my readers!  I fell asleep that night recalling something my father told me in the early 90's; he doubted that we would see stability in the world until the standard of living "evened out" worldwide.  I wondered what sweatshop workers wear.  And I resolved to track down a book by Pietra Rivoli, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy.

Made in America?

Just one of my remix items was made in the U.S.A., the sweater tunic.

Currently, 86% of American wardrobe dollars is spent on clothing made abroad.  (Patricia Marx, The New Yorker, March 16, 2009)

My skirts were made in Northern Marianas Islands.  Here's what I've learned:

The Northern Mariana Islands, a Pacific archipelago located about three quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Phillipines were acquired by the United States from Japan following WW2.  Saipan, the largest of the islands, serves as capital of the Commonwealth and the center of its one-time $2 billion garment industry.  Among the privileges reserved to the commonwealth were the right to set its own immigration policy, exemption from labor and workplace safety regulations, exemptions from tariffs and quotas, and the right to label as "made in the U.S.A." 

Once upon a time, Tom Delay once referred to Saipan as "a perfect petri dish of capitalism."   Clothing made in Saipan could be labeled "made in the U.S.A", despite being produced from Chinese fabric by Chinese laborers who labor under Chinese law.    The 30,000 "guest workers" there--predominately women from China, the Philippines, and Thailand who sew clothing for top-name American brands, which are then allowed to label them "made in USA--were not covered by U.S.  minimum-wage and immigration laws.

Rebecca Clarren, writing for Ms. magazine in 2006, described these garment workers as beginning their sojourn in the Marianas with a huge financial deficit, having paid recruiters as much as $7,000 to obtain a one-year contract job.  Many of them borrowed the money--a small fortune in China, where most are recruited--from lenders who charged as much as 20 percent interest.

In a situation akin to indentured servitude, workers could not earn back their recruitment fee and pay annual company supplied housing and food expenses of about $2,100, without working tremendous hours of overtime.  Most of these workers had only a third- or fourth-grade education.  Many had left children back at home with relatives, hoping they'll would earn enough to finance their offsprings' education.

If they happened to get pregnant while working in Saipan, they faced a new nightmare.  A number of Chinese garment workers reported that if they became pregnant, they were "forced to return to China to have an abortion or forced to have an illegal abortion" in the Marianas.  At the time Clarren wrote, many believed that if they got pregnant, their employers would not renew their contracts for another year.

Jack Abramoff, the former Republican lobbyist, brought in nearly $11 million in fees from the Northern Marianas government to block Congressional efforts to raise the minimum wage there and eliminate the islands' exemptions from U.S. immigration laws.  He cultivated DeLay, who as majority whip, could keep a bill off the House floor.  Abramoff arranged for Saipan junkets for members of Congress and their staffers.  As many as 100 traveled to the islands.

Several suits settled with the garment industry in 2003 for a total payout of $20 million.  The money was earmarked for workers' back pay, a fund to help out workers who couldn't earn enough to repay their recruitment fees, and an independent oversight board to monitor working conditions at 27 factories on the islands.  Pressure generated by the lawsuits led most of the companies that once labeled their garment "made in the U.S.A." to change their labels to read "Made in Northern Mariana Islands."

Since the Jack Abramoff scandal, Saipan's garment industry has all but vanished.  In January 2005, the GATT treaty, which had regulated all global trade in textiles and apparel since 1974, expired, eliminating quotas on textile exports to the U.S.  Without these advantages, manufacturers  increasingly moved to places such as China, Vietnam and Cambodia, where they can pay even lower wages.  All factories were expected to close by 2008.

And those garment workers desperate to pay back their recruitment fees have turned to sex tourism.  An estimated  90 percent of the island's prostitutes are former garment workers.

Info from:

Clarren, Rebecca.  Paradise Lost:  Greed, Sex Slavery, Forced Abortions and Right-Wing Moralists, Ms, Spring, 2006.  Web.

Grigg, William Norman.  Slave Labor:  Made in the U.S.A.  The New American, February 6, 2006,  Web.

Who knew my skirts were so storied?  A veritable artifact of trade agreements, indentured servitude, abortion, and political corruption.

Alterations

Monday, I took two items to the dry cleaners.  One is the grey skirt I wore through the remix challenge, the other is a blouse I likely won't wear until April.  While I was there, I inquired about the cost of alterations to an item I purchased recently at my Salvation Army.  For $3.99, I purchased an oversized men's shirt.  The tag indicates that it was made in Saudi Arabia.  It has fine detailing in the collar and cuffs and is made of a beautiful, lightweight nubby silk.  I had thought I would subversively style it as a dress, but when I tried it on I realized that I would need to take in some of the extra bulk to make it look the way I wanted to.  In the middle of Kansas, I'm not likely to catch a hot desert wind.

Yes, the dry cleaner replied, they could do alterations.  The price for tapering would be $15 for each seam or a total of $30.  I thanked her and decided I would also get a quote from a local seamstress, whom I've not contacted yet.  The shirt has excellent big side pockets and I want to preserve those.  My thought was that I need to convey my vision for this shirt to someone person to person.  But, this raises the question of how much I am willing to pay.

I own a sewing machine myself, although it has been years since I've had it out and used it.  My own sewing skills are pretty ruidimentary, but at least I know how to do it.  I don't trust my own skills to make of this shirt what I envision.

I realized that the questions I was pondering weren't much different than the question raised by Stowe's parable of the "Seamstress."  As a consumer, I want VALUE for my money.  In other words, I seek to pay as little as I can.  But, in terms of style, I have a vision.  I don't want to pay $30 for simply stitching two seams.  I want to convey my vision and end up with a quality product.  This requires a person with skillz.  VALUE is not the same as QUALITY. 

How much is too much to pay to restyle an item I only originally paid $3.99 for?  I went to bed last night thinking of this dilemma, realizing that I'm at cross purposes with myself.

The Parable of the Seamstress

The homework I assigned two days ago was a story by Harriet Beecher Stowe.  When I read it for the first time this semester, I found myself pondering the time that all clothing was made by hand.  The story features an impoverished widow and her two daughters who sew to make their rent.  And contrasts two different clients of theirs.  One, Mrs. Elmore, more freely gives charity than she pays her workers:

Mrs. Elmore never accused herself of want of charity for the poor; but she had never considered that the best class of the poor are those who never ask charity. She did not consider that, by paying liberally those who were honestly and independently struggling for themselves, she was really doing a greater charity than by giving indiscriminately to a dozen applicants. 

The other, Mrs. Page, is comfortably well off, but delays payment for the work until it has been asked for repeatedly.

Mrs. Page was an amiable, kind-hearted woman, but one who was so used to large sums of money that she did not realize how great an affair a single dollar might seem to other persons. For this reason, when Ellen had worked incessantly at the new work put into her hands, that she might get the money for all together, she again disappointed her in the payment. 

In Stowe's quaint 19th century writing style, she moralizes:

It is better to teach our daughters to do without expensive ornaments or fashionable elegances; better even to deny ourselves the pleasure of large donations or direct subscriptions to public charities, rather than to curtail the small stipend of her whose "candle goeth not out by night," and who labors with her needle for herself and the helpless dear ones dependent on her exertions.

For me, the story captured my thoughts on those in the Northern Marianas Islands who made the skirts I wore in the remix challenge.  It captured my thoughts about workers in central America (Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala) who made the tee shirts I love.  It made me wonder about the seamstresses in Chinese factories stitching my blouses and beading my sweaters.

I like to believe that buying my clothing from thrift stores puts me at one remove from the MACHINE of  the fashion industry.  But I can only think of once in my life that I chose not to buy a product because of an educated guess about the working conditions of the worker who made it and that was a beautiful piece of "Battenburg" lace, made in Bangladesh. 

I'm wondering if my readers have ever refused to purchase a product for similar reasons.

Jaded and Faded

This is the last of the outfits from early November.  You've seen the shoes, and the slacks, all during the Remix Challenge, but the ribbed sweater in this faded green is "new."  This color combination has always garnered compliments in year's past, though I think now, it is too subtle.  I have added a simple jade necklace.  I bought this for myself during a vacation in Alaska, only to have the department secretary tell me that this particular style of necklace should properly only be given as a gift.  Do any of my readers have the scoop on this?

My office mate Jan often wears head scarves.  I think of it as a signature of her style.  Her training is in teaching English as a Second Language and her grateful students have brought her head scarves from all over the globe.  This was my first stab at wearing a head scarf.  Nary a person commented on it...which likely means it is NOT something I should try again.  My coloring is not as vivid as hers.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

This is the shortest thing I've worn all semester!  I'd visited enough blogs to know that I might possibly be able to get away with this petite grey jumper if I wore tights with it.

I wore it through three hours of American Literature...dazzling them with my tights if not my intimate knowledge of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom's Cabin, the original American "best seller".    I tried to show clips from early black and white versions of the film, which you can compare here.  It is safe to say that Uncle Tom's Cabin was the first piece of American literature to inspire so many media tie-ins, to possibly include a Civil War.



At this point the jumper has been returned to the thrift store, as has the black blouse, which was always difficult to iron and not worth the dry cleaning expense.

Those of you interested in my 3-part series on the origins of my remix items might first want to read this short story by Stowe, "The Seamstress."

The American Way

As this posts, I am grading papers.  Luckily, I have three looks from early November that have never been posted. 

Above is a poignant photo I snapped en route to Lawrence, KS one Saturday to thrift.  It is one of a collection of buildings in unincorporated Pleasant Grove, KS, a town about to be by-passed by a new highway.  If you look carefully, you can just make out the word unbreakable above the faded flag, obscured by the overgrowth.

The following Tuesday, I wore an outfit inspired by my banker on a Casual Friday:  wide wale cordoroy trousers, a light blue shirt (with my favorite French cuffs), a grey vest I snagged out of a bag middle daughter wanted to return to the thrift store.   I'm sure my banker would also appreciate the penny loafers.

 

After work, I made my way to the local polls to cast my vote in the mid-term elections.  Generally, casting my vote is a sleepy affair, but on this day voters were out in droves.  Many of them were accompanied by their grade school children who were "voting" in cardboard voting booths and learning a basic lesson in democracy.

Like the building in Pleasant Grove, I am a little worse for the wear.

Friend Friday: Reader Connectedness

1. How important do you think reader connectedness is to the success of your blog?

Reader connectedness is the most important aspect of blogging for me.  I doubt that I would have persisted without early friendships with Christina, Paula, Serene, Desiree, Sarah, Pixie, Emily, Leia, Pam, Steph, Brett, Sacramento, Veshoevius, Reva, Vixen, Zoe, Cynthia,  and on and on.  For my age, I worried that I was a little crazed to undertake this at all and yet, I kept discovering others out there with similar interests and we bolstered each other.  I feel like I have an inner circle of 12 or so very faithful and devoted commenters.  I know from comments I receive at work and from family members that there are more people reading than are commenting, but it is these devoted regulars that keep me going. 

2. What do you do to draw readers in and create that writer-reader bond?

I try to honestly share my interests and worries, the good pics and the not-so good pics.  I try to let my thinking process show and to photographically respond to suggestions my readers make.  I try to respond to their comments both on my blog and by returning a visit to their blog.  In the beginning, I would point blank pose a question at the end of the post, but now I tend to do that only when I honestly wonder.  Readers here know, I think, that they can honestly share their position and it doesn't have to agree with mine.

3. What is one way you could improve this connection?

One of the first things I realized I needed to do was to learn a blogger's real name, not just their blog's name.  The more I was able to learn about their lives and personalities, the more on target my comments on their blogs could become.  I gradually learn who I can kid with and who is a more serious personality.  I tend to gravitate towards blogs that have a bit of the personal about them rather than blogs that are only trying to sell me something whether it be a product endorsement, an Etsy shop, or an e-Bay dealer.

4. Is there a blogger you think does a great job creating that writer-reader bond? Why?

Hmm.  This is a loaded question.  If I name one name, then I seemingly ignore the others, and I am very pleased with the comments my regular readers leave.  The length and the candidness of their comments indicate that we recognize something about one another.  One blogger that did not name above is Charlotte.  Her blog is not a fashion blog per se, but often her comments reflect a special sort of insightfulness that is due to being a poet, essayist, and short story writer.

5. What do you do to cultivate new readers? How do you get them to your site in the first place?

I like to read the comments on my friends' blogs.  Often after two or three insightful comments all by the same reader, I will click on their name and travel to their blogs.  This is a way of scoping out blogs that seem to have a similar sensibility as myself.  An example of one I've discovered just this past week is Anne at the Frump Factor. 

I cultivate new readers by visiting a wide variety of blogs.  When I'm moved to do so, I leave a comment.  There are blogs I have commented on for months before I receive a return comment.  This apparently new reader may actually have been visiting for some time before they are moved to comment.  There are also blogs where I have consistently left comments and I never receive the favor of a return visit or reply.  That's okay too, although I tend to lose interest...if I begin to feel that I am somehow bugging them.  It's possible that they did visit and in a bit of unconscious ageism decided not to think about for a few decades.

Remix Recap: Simplicity Makes a Statement.

Some of you will recall my great excitement on starting the Remix.  I wasted several hours attempting to snap an obscure photo in the sauna.  I've kept trying over the course of the past month, but the photo above is the clearest of some thirty attempts!    Promise kept.

I'm pretty sure that I was the oldest remixer.  I mention this because after a time it began to seem like an unfair advantage, as I visited the blogs of women all over the globe and at various income levels and stages in life.  When I was a poor student, I couldn't possibly have participated in a challenge like this.  Having been in my career for over 20 years, remixing from 30 basic and neutral items began to seem too easy.

The excitement began to wane after the first ten days or so.  After the 20th day, I began to look forward to the end and then, along about day 25, there was a sudden burst of new ideas.  I thought I would feel relieved when it was all over.  Instead, I stood in my closet scratching my head...and ended up wearing outfits 31 and 32.   On the third day after, I finally wore 3 items that were NOT part of the challenge.

Most of these "lessons" have been mentioned in previous posts, but for those who may have missed them, this is what I've learned:

• I had good foundations.  My skirts and at least one pair of trousers was of good quality and could withstand repeated wearing.  The grey slacks were not such good quality and required more frequent pressing and care.  The pair of stretch denim jeans stretched out too fast for repeated wearings.  I own REAL denim and could have included it.  The dark denim jeans were one bad choice.  Possible moral:  spend my dollars on better quality foundations.

• I had an array of tops in basic colors and a variety of fabrics.  Only one had strong definition that limited the ways I could style it.  A dark (black?) silk blouse might have been nice.  From these tops and sweaters, I would have been appropriately dressed for most work situations.  I had nothing though that would have worked at a cocktail party or the opera.

• Tee shirts are important to me and they CAN be dressed up. 

• Shoe-wise, I had an appropriate array.

The laundry was lighter than usual, except for all the towels that came from the attempt to get the above photo for my readers.  Mending, if I kept this up, would become more important.  Two pieces need to have buttons snugged up.  One piece needs to go the dry cleaner.

                                                                                                                         

The urge to shop was powerful during the first 10 days or so.  I had to get over the feeling of the little Kendi in my brain shaking her finger at me and remind myself that I was the one who had signed up for the challenge.  In that sense, the timing of this challenge was wonderful as it allowed me to focus on holiday shopping

The most challenging aspect of the remix was the photography.  Quite a number of remixers were obliged to drop out because of this.

I was stunned to realize one evening that Kendi Everyday has only been around for a year!  In that time, she has done three rounds of this remixing, including other bloggers in the last two.  The greatest value of doing the challenge is the sheer variety of new bloggers I met:  guys and couples and children and women of all faiths.  Linda of The Auspicious Life takes the cake for blogger who most consistently visited every blog, but I did get around all 300+ of them.

I think in the coming year, I will do a variation on the challenge each month of the year.  My intention is to select a signature color each month, then organize the pieces I'll need for 12-15 looks around that color and clear any other item out of the closet.

Day 30: All Wrapped Up!

To celebrate the completion of the Remix Challenge, DH and I got up early on Sunday and drove 50 miles to a local nursery.  I knew after trying to snap photos of the last outfit at home, that I needed some visual interest.  I think we've hit on the perfect spot for winter photos;  it's just too bad that's it's so far from home.  After the shoot, we knew would try to complete our holiday shopping.

Here's a little something for those of your friends, who think they have everything.  But possibly even better for those who think they have nothing!

 

 

I had not realized how starved I was for light and color and growing things until we took a leisurely stroll through this gigantic greenhouse.  In the upper left is something called a mandrake.  Upper right, some sort of exotic fingered lemon.  Bottom left, an orange tree with fruit.  Bottom right, a plant I can't recall the name of, though I was quite taken with its sensuous shape.

The top is polyester--not my favorite fabric, but the crimped collar, the wrapped cut and the large bow made it seem like a stylish way to end the challenge.  I bought this NEW in a thrift store, although like most of the items I've worn over the past month it is made in China.  The tag, in the American fashion, listed a price worth more than it was worth, but that price was slashed to reflect the true cost of the top.  It is my good luck that no one fell for it!

 

After a half hour of snapping photos, we left without spending a cent.  This bobble-headed owl scarecrow though was something I might have to go back for, as several more of our pigeons have come up missing since Thanksgiving.

I treated my photographer to breakfast afterwards.



















He perked up!

Day Twenty-Nine: Color Blocking

I'll be the first to admit that my sense of color is fairly two-dimensional;  two colors is about my maximum mix.  Before the challenge was over, I was determined to try to add a third color and possibly a fourth.

I could have tried this with the grey skirt, purple tights, blue tee, and black belt, though I didn't.  It looks okay I guess, but I'm not  comfortable with it.  I admire the style of E. at Academic Chic, who is also participating in the challenge, and she always comes up with surprising color combinations.  But then, isn't she an art historian?

One of  the most important things I have learned from the challenge is the value of a wide array of accessories.  I had filled up a laundry basket full of possibilities before the challenge began and this is all that didn't make it into one outfit or another.

 

You have seen the woolen scarf before.  The fishnets would have been a new one on you and on me.  I had intended to try the tassel as a neck tie, but never found the appropriate ensemble for it.  I was surprised at the pieces of jewelry I didn't wear.  A couple of the items were my favorites a year ago.

And this is the array of ALL the accessories I DID wear.  I deposited them in our unused easy chair after I had finished with them.  The tapestry purse is part of the grand finale, although it's not visible in any of shots we snapped.

I was probably the oldest participant in the Remix challenge.  I am grateful that Kendi organized this challenge and allowed me to participate.  I discovered that I have my own rhythms as a blogger and that I should respect that.  Cynthia at Be Fabulous Daily* and Anne at the Cohabitating Closet have a new challenge that begins Dec. 13 and runs through January 13, and Brett at Silvergirl has her own personal challenge going with all things glittering.  For the moment, I am content to be an observer.

*Cynthia's blog is on Tumblr. The last time I tested my link, it wasn't working.

Day Twenty-Eight: More Multiple Choice

 

In the waning days of the challenge, as I have posted multiple variations on the dress, the tunic, the skirts, I have realized that there are as many as 50 presentable outfits to be made from these pieces.  For the first time in my life, it has occurred to me that  I could invest in brand NEW, high quality pieces and be somewhat content. (Check out what Paula at Fashion Over Fifty is doing along these lines this week.) It is no longer necessary to thrift everything, financially, and yet the desire to shop that way is not likely to go away any time soon.

I think I like the purple tights better with the black skirt and tee with scarves.  the skirt must tone down the purple or something.  The scarf in the right picture above is burnt out velvet and of such a subtle (nuanced?) color that like the color purple itself, it's hard to photograph.  In the blue variation below, I've added no accessories, letting the color carry the weight of the look.  The pushed up sleeves, a la Rosie the Riveter, is truer to how I might wear a tee in real life.

My Christmas present this year is new flooring in the master bedroom that's been cleared for remodeling this past three years.  It is wonderful to get that done at long last, but as I was snapping these photos yesterday, DH was toting in 12 heavy boxes of the flooring and walking through the very area in which I was snapping photos.  I set the timer and then he walked in front of the camera.  I scurried to catch the shot... 

Then to add insult to injury, I was informed that the flooring will continue into the carpeted closet--meaning that I have to MOVE all of the clothing I've stored there during the challenge.

   

         

Day Twenty-Seven: Multiple Choices

I started college at the University of Missouri, aiming to be admitted to the School of Journalism.  After a semester there, I decided I didn't care to write for deadlines.  Then, for two years, I took random Creative Writing courses at the University of Montana with the likes of Alaskan poet John Haines, William Pitt Root, and Richard Hugo.  When I finally wrapped up all these odd credits at the the University of Missouri-Kansas City, I was obliged to take 13 hours of freshmen science in my senior year.  The ten hours of Physical Science I took that year, proved to be the most invaluable course of my undergraduate career because it was taught as a history of science course and involved  a lab in classical physics--pendulum and all.

But freshmen biology proved to be one of two C's I received as an undergraduate.  The course was taught in a huge lecture hall.  Testing was multiple choice.  In my senior year, well-accustomed to building beautiful essays, my mind simply refused to think in stark, over-simplified choices.  I wanted interpretation and nuance.  And chances are, there was far more nuance in biology than they could afford to teach to freshmen.

I found myself thinking about this in a marathon photo session this afternoon.  I decided to snap photos of ALL the remaining outfits of the challenge so that come Monday I could truly begin to focus on grading papers.  So today, you will see multiple variations on the sweater dress. 

Here, I've paired it with colored tees and colored tights.  My students wear these purple tights all the time, but I can more easily see myself wearing the blue than the purple.  By the time I got to third variation on this one item of my remix that was made in the U.S.A, it had developed some static cling.

The ensemble on the left features Hebah's scarf again, while the one on the right features an interesting trio of knitted bangles.  I don't mind the scuffed look of my boots, having lived out west long enough to believe that's how a boot out to look.  But I do mind the static cling!  It's in my hair!  It's everywhere!

Day Twenty-Five and Twenty Six: Playing Catch up

This photo has been in my camera since Wednesday morning.  Once I realized that it was a little brisker out than I realized, I switched to the black slacks and added a third layer at the top.  A new piece actually.
In this iteration, you'll see the grey silk blouse, and the purple that is so hard to photograph, with the skirt from my suit that looks like it will soon need a trip to the cleaners.  It's bagging from wear!

I realized that the outfit looked suspiciously like the hay bale ensemble from week two--but it features a different blouse and no cardigan.  The black cardigan that I thought was so indispensable to the challenge has probably been the least worn item!




I've added another of my ribbon necklaces.  This one features a snowflake crystal.  For a long time, the crystal hung in our dining room window and cast rainbows across our breakfast table, as the sun rose in the east.

I visited a blog recently that used an obi OVER a blazer and I am anxious to try that look once the challenge is over.  To the right, you'll see how I actually looked on that shivering day.  I kept hitting the junk food machines, something I almost never do, to restoke the calories I was burning keeping warm.

The grey blouse I added to the mix is one of the 30 items I hadn't worn yet.  It's a Banana Republic in a crisp cotton and made in China.  I liked how it looked much better on the following day.

For most of the day, I wore the sweater buttoned up even as I realized one of the buttons is on its last threads.  The new shirt still looks crisp.  I've added my cinnabar elephant and a second ribbon strand with a single cinnabar bead.  I'd forgotten all about those silver flats.  In the interests of honesty, I decided to chop off my head after taking a gander at my bags that morning.  The ones under my eyes and not the one full of books and papers.

I'm posed in the doorway of our music room.  The kitchen you see in the background was for the motley crew of teenagers, who lived in an adjacent apartment to ours, as we attempted to blend our families.

Friend Friday: Blogger Burnout

1. How many hours a week do you spend blogging? Has that number changed since you started blogging?

Rags against the Machine began for one simple reason, to counteract what felt like impending invisibility.  The beta version of the blog has succeeded beyond my wildest expectations.  So, while it felt like a hobby at first, it has become quite an undertaking.  I would guess I'm spending 15 hours a week at it and yes, that has changed since I began blogging.

2. There is always more you can do, write, read, comment on... how do you limit your time spent on these tasks?

I'm still learning to how to limit my time.  I set myself the goal of daily blog posts when this semester began and I think of this as the beta version because the semester is not quite finished yet.  I want to see if I can keep that promise to myself.  I plan to take a week off during the holidays to rethink my purpose and frequency.  I had really wanted the blog to more thinking about fashion and less about pictures of myself.  I feel like I've gotten sidetracked from the original intent somehow.  I've done loads of research on a variety of fashion related topics, none of which has posted yet.


What I struggle with most is the feeling of commitment to regular readers of my blog.  My work schedule sometimes interferes with my ability to respond in a timely manner to their posts.  I feel the same commitment to ALL of them, as I do to my students...with the result that the relationship sometimes feel obligatory.  I am still pondering ways to check that.

3. Have you experienced Blogger burnout yet? How have you dealt with that?

In some ways, I may have, but I really fault my work schedule rather than blogging.  I took on too much this semester.  Blogging has been a creative outlet and it has been a way to maintain daily balance in my life.  Without the blog, my commitment to my students would fill my spare time.


I do think that I need to learn how to build some downtime into a pattern of regular blogging.  Perhaps I should blog 5 times a week and regularly take a day or two off. 


I have many ideas for the blog I have yet to pursue!


4. This time of the year is always a lot busier than any other time. Will your blogging change as a result?

While I hope not, it is a possibility!  In addition to holiday considerations, I am facing the pressure of finals.  I may falter a day or two before the semester ends.


5. Could you forsee a moment in which you are not blogging anymore?

No.  But I have kept another blog previously on different subject matter than Rags.  I can easily envision a blog with a focus on books I read sometime in my future.  I think I will need to retire before I can sustain a blog like that.

How would you you identify that it's time to walk away?

Perhaps I'm too new at this to know.  I recognize when I need to give myself a bit of a breather.  I recognize that I need to schedule a week off between Christmas and the new year.  I have encountered a number of bloggers who take off a month or six months and return.  For example, Orphaned Apparel appeared on my bloglovin feed yesterday.  I had not heard from her in three months or more, but the photos she has posted have been worth the wait.

I'll have Remix photos up this afternoon!

Hibernation?

At one point in the Remix Challenge, I entertained the possibility of taking one shot in which I wore all 30 items at once.  I have decided against this...but for the past two days I HAVE been dressing in layers just to keep warm.  I have an office with a window...which might indicate something about the pecking order at the college (or not), but during these chill winter days, I sit and shiver. 

Today I came home, curled up under my comforter, and did not come alive until I had taken a three hour nap.  So, I'm not going to post a photo, although I have three outfits to put up.  Instead, I'm going to spend the evening visiting YOUR blogs.  I will be participating in Friend Friday this week.  Look forward to a post on Friday.

Day Twenty-Four:

 

I have another long day ahead...evaluating another colleague, updating the gradebook with all kinds of late items that have begun to drift in, and discussion of Hawthorne and Melville tonight.  It's begun to spit snow in flurries in our area, although nothing has been to accumulate.  It's an empty threat.

You have seen all of the items in this look before, although these ribbon necklaces are new to the blog and the remix challenge.  All three were made over a decade ago.  I used to wear a single strand with a tee-shirt and jeans, the lone simple item of interest in an ensemble.  At the time, I was admiring the beads in a local shop, but could not afford enough of the semi-precious stone beads for an entire strand.  The lock and key are something I salvaged from our home-remodeling in 1997-1998 and polished up.  You cannot find metal work like this key opening today!

Didn't actually wear the ribbon with the jacket, although I thought it was interested to try.  The ribbon appeared previously on my Thanksgiving look and originally came on the wrapping of a gift from a girlfriend.  I am so grateful for my readers' faithfulness and I promise to get around to all of the blog entries I've missed Thursday night, even if I have to stay up all night to do it.