Cleaning Out The Closet

Earlier this month, we got a card requesting donations of clothing and such.. So like every year, I started to clean out my closet pulling out stuff that I have not worn in quite a while, worn too much, no long fit and clothes that should have been long gone. One of my favorite past time is to head go shopping for clothes. Two of my favorite places to find stuff are Loemann’s, and Nordies.

Recently Kenneth Cole ran a cover AD with Nina Poon who is a trans woman.
http://www.kennethcole.com/home/index.jsp

Nina’s Story;
http://www.kennethcole.com/content/index.jsp?page=advertising/bio4.aspx&h=550&w=898

I was pretty impressed with KC for running this AD featuring Nina. There is another transwoman, Isis, currently on America’s Next Top Model. The media release says they discovered Isis in a homeless shelter, no specifics of history has been released yet, but I suspect she is one of many, many gender different youth that has been abandoned by un-accepting family. We might learn more about Isis’s history in time. Transwomen models are not new. They have been part of the fashion scene for a while. Tula, once an 80’s Bond Girl and working model is just one of the notables in the world of fashion models. It’s not surprising that there would be some focus towards transwoman as fashion models. Some of the basic requirements for behind a serious working, “super model” height, 5’8” or taller, about 120 pounds, confident about their femininity, not much more than 20 years old and etc…. The physical requirements of height alone exclude the vast majority of women. I believe the weight requirement is too low for a host of reasons. It turns out this is what looks good on the runway and photographs well. Regardless, it’s great to see openly public transwoman become this successful in the fashion world. A page has turned in the world of fashion.

As for my closet, it turns out I have a bent towards “Designer Clothes”. Some of the “Designers” that I like; Anne Kline, Calvin Kline, Jones New York, Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan & DKNY, Nicole Miller, Elie Tahari, Malo, D&G, and… Of the clothes from Europe, I like many designers from Italy, the French tend to be a bit over the top for my taste, but the French really know how to make Lingerie that I like.

Better quality, less trendy clothes can be more timeless and durable, but quality women’s clothes cost more and this is one of the considerations that enter into my purchase choices.

Then there are the Italian / Brazil / EU shoes. It turns out another thing the Italians do really well are making and designing shoes for women. Like a lot of things, you get what you pay for in many ways.

Can’t say I’m really into purses. Many women are deep into purses and they can be a status symbol for women. I usually go for something that matches what I’m wearing.

Recently I discovered a Jovovich-Hawk dress a Loemann’s that I had to have which got me curious as to who this designer might be, It turns out, they are quite the fashion success story..

I have also learned over the years that being a tallish woman has its advantages when it comes to fashion. There are many things that simply look better on a tallish woman and I’m guessing it comes from the models that are typically 5’8” and taller. I have a number of women friends who are less than 5’4” and they tell me many times how they wished they were my height. My problem with getting many things to fit are boobage, they are just a bit bigger than what most clothes are cut for. If I go up a size, many times the proportions are wrong. The waist and bottom gets too big and it simply sits on my body wrong. Length is usually not a problem for me as nearly everything I try on ends up at about the right length. Being a current size USA 8-10 (it’s never accurate and varies by style, designer and etc), which is a very typical and common size and sought after. This can make shopping challenging due to the popularity of this size range.

There was a time when I avoided wearing heels due to my height, but even that is changing. There are social and fashion driven reasons why women wear heals the way they do. There was a study done recently that shows many professional women will put on a pair of “power heels” for an important meeting. Its one of the ways women increase their sense of power by using height.

Over the years, I have cultivated a fashion sense that fits me and what I wear has now become such an expression of me on any given day. This is one of the fun and interesting aspects of what women wear, it really is an extension of who they are in many, many ways.

Fall and winter is near and I’m going to do a few more rounds of shopping for these seasonal clothes. Gosh, I spend too much $$$$$ on clothes…

The Real Value Of Our Technological History

September 1, 2008

I had a chat with a friend / college who works at General Electric Nuclear Energy division who has been working there as a contractor for the past few years. Since the time he started, GEN got a new regional manager who got the brilliant idea of moving the entire operation to NC against the wishes of the vast majority of the staff. Adding insult to injury, he instated many oppressive requirements for all staff and just about anyone working there. It was not surprising that some of their most important staff members got fed up and moved. Keep in mind many of these engineers and scientists are not easily or replaceable as much of what they know is no longer taught in colleges or universities due to the public perception that nuclear power is evil and bad. The current crop of management graduates view human resources as nothing more than just a number and commodity which is why management treats staff and employees as a replaceable and disposable item. GEN recently bid on two power plants in TX and they lost the bid to Westinghouse. Losing this bid caused GEN’s partner Hitachi to investigate why this happened. Hitachi Japanese management was not pleased to discover what this district manager did while he was in charge over the past few years. He was fired on the spot by Hitachi management after Hitachi management figured out what happened. Hitachi now has big mess to deal with as the most important members of their staff got hired away by a French Nuclear Energy company or Westinghouse Nuclear. Once the French Nuclear Energy Company head about what was happening at GEN, they opened up a facility where these folks wanted to live, gave them a raise and bonus and they now work for the French.. It will be interesting to see if GEN can even bid on any new plant construction since they have lost the ability to design a nuclear power plant. They still have existing contracts to keep them busy for a while, but that won’t last forever. IMO, General Electric Nuclear division’s days are numbered… GEN is not alone in this technical brain drain. Hewlett Packard, Tektronix, Eastman Kodak, and many other cooperation are dumping their seasoned and experienced staff and replacing them with less expensive personnel and you see the results of this in the products they produce and sell. HP printers and instrumentation that were once considered a good, high quality product with real value and customer support has now been reduced to disposable junk. There is talk that HP might get out of the printer business due to competition. So much for Bill Hewlett’s efforts that got HP into the printer business. Tektronix now builds disposable instrumentation that is not user repairable, no service documentation, no parts support just warranty and if it stops working post warranty, ya throw it away. My Kenwood car CD player lasted 30 days post warranty before the rear channels quit and some of the front panel controls no longer work. It’s not repairable and the fix is to “get a new one”. The original SAAB / Clarion unit lasted for over 10 years. Speaking of SAABs, my 1991 9000 turbo has almost 330,000 miles on it. Everything works and is repairable, durable and properly designed. I would drive this car cross country with no worries as it has been properly maintained since I purchased it in 1994 from the original owner. They simply don’t build SAABs like this anymore. It was a dark day when GM got partial ownership of SAAB. Another once great engineering company with sound long tern values now builds up market disposable cars. No wonder why SAABs are not selling very many cars these days. To make things worst, GM fired and got rid of many significant staff members to “cut cost”. I suspect SAAB no longer has the creative and engineering ability it once had which will add to the companies demise. It’s all part of the disposable, consumable product ideology where a product sells on perceived need and marketing rather than actual value to the customer and meeting their real needs. Fact is, the throwaway capitalist driven society and culture is not sustainable over the long run. Growth is not endless, yet constant growth is at the core of the capitalist model for economic growth. The current world human population is about 6.4 billion and one must wonder how the earth’s resources could continue to support this population and beyond. The disposable and built in obsolesce ideology is not sustainable plan and simple. The knowledge and specific expertise individuals have should be preserved and respected and properly utilized by future generations.