Monday, December 15, 2008

I knowIknow I know I said

I'd give you a running commentary on the history and formation of the PAC the last time I was here. But you can wiki that for yourself. I have a somewhat more pressing matter than an almost defunct political party to discuss.

Recent weeks have seen me being forced to participate in my most hated activity. Shopping.

I had this discussion with the delightful Prixie the other day too. Am I the only one who does NOT want to relive 80s fashion? Am I the only one who has enough taste and good sense not to want to wear a hot pink, bridal satin bubble skirt? And skinny jeans ('nuff said? And those crinkle tops that looks like something is has shrivelled up on you? And plastic shoes? Let me not even get started on the cap and puff sleeve phenomena. Just because Anne of Green Gables spent half her childhood crying for them, does not mean we all want to wear it.

Somewhere in the 90s I read that the 80s will be remembered as a decade devoid of taste and style. Why revive it? Most of the people who have embraced the 80s look are those too young to have remembered the atrocities of it, and they think the mini party dress ala Kylie Minogue in the "Ishouldbesoluckyluckylucky" video is "kewt" and "kewl".

I really dunno about all of you out there, but I cannot find anything remotely near wearable in any store. I don't like the shimmery and shiny stuff and I don't do the big bold prints either. Another problem I find in SA is that all the stores seem to stock the same kinda stuff. So in essence, everyone dresses the same. You can look at a person walking into a room and think "Edgars", "Woolies", "Truworths" because the stock is so rotated and even the prints are available in most chain stores, maybe just with a different style design.

This recent battle to find stuff worth buying, has made me consider something I haven't done in a while (and the thought scares me), do I pull out my machine and start stitching up my own creations? Or am I missing the point of the revival thingy somewhere along the line?


On the plus side though, after the horror of the 80s- came the 90s :)

Have a happy 2008 folks
rah*

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9 Comments:

Blogger M Junaid said...

i agree. the eighties should be forgotten.
I dont follow fashion trends - i was late on the cargoes bandwagon. never owned a bomber jacket and I will not wear Pink

December 17, 2008 12:49 am  
Blogger Aasia said...

I have been having the same problem. I don't do shiny,sequinned, puffed, capped, printed anything.

finding T-shirts are hard enough, and I planning a trip to the Plaza for materials.

Like you, Im considering doing a whole range of clothing for me...my way

December 17, 2008 7:18 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

the 80's should be buried away.
husband bought glittery dress.
wife returned glittery dress.
sweet of him to think of me though.

what's with all the scary prints on shirts at the moment?
my mother used to wear those type of things in the 60's!

i have gone for neutral shades nowadays. i used to love bright colours, but i'm staying away until this current madness ends!

btw ql, i missed you :/

December 17, 2008 9:58 am  
Blogger Saaleha Idrees Bamjee said...

I found a fashionable-fatty-store that sells interesting modest things I can layer.
The general shopping mall size seems to be lilliput when it doesn't look ghagha.

December 17, 2008 1:28 pm  
Blogger Prixie said...

the 80s make me cringe! the bubble dresses are all the rage in london for the Xmas parties this year! i defied it and wore a classic dress - which was hard to find!

stick to the clothes you have, the 80s will eb over next season!

December 18, 2008 12:56 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

a friends wife recently moved here from SA and she had the nicest clothes. I was surprisd that they were bought in SA because you right when you say all the shops seem to have the same things and they not that interesting anyway. I asked her where she shopped and apparently she shops at boutiques that are in Jhb and she reckons that they are cheap enough when you get them on sale. So maybe thats an option :) Good luck getting through the 80's. BTW try a bubble skirt- it might not be that bad :)

word veri- boings (lol)

December 20, 2008 4:33 am  
Blogger Zaahir Essa said...

ffs my dear mother, ur black and white themed text/background totally fucks up my beautiful pilot eyes by the time im done reading a post.

ah, being a guy is cool. altho im finding it hard to find tshirts to wear :/ fuckn wacked out shit. hence i will now paint my own designs on plain shirts, yay. the reaper becomes public!

i see smurfy bits gobbler still loves u dearly :P happy new year!

December 31, 2008 10:29 pm  
Blogger Safiyya said...

i agree with you... 80s is long gone and should stay that way...
the most ridicluous thing i came across was the waistbelt worn under the breasts- Double Support perhaps...

January 01, 2009 1:22 pm  
Blogger rah* said...

@ MJ: Do you remember the most famous Bomber Jacket Movie Scene of all time? Karate Kid (2 I think?) where Daniel-San is wearing his bomber jacket inside out, ie orange on top and is all furious and annoyed and says "Lighten up man! It's the 80s!"

Oh yeah...but to be on the forefront of Modernity has always been the arrogance of our Age. (I could be the next Virginia Woolf with that line :P)

@ Aasia, I tend to avoid wearing t-shirts because I can't stand the prints and tacky slogans. My friend and I actually saw these 12 year old looking mall-rats parading about in a T Shirt that said "Single and Fabulous", my friend *HAD* to go up to them and say "Darling, at your age I should hope so". Last I sewed was a skirt the day before Eid in 2006 I think lol, purely because I couldn't find anything else to wear and because I had an assignment due...procrastination ftw :)


@ fatima: the prints are horrific, some tops (you know those yergh ones with the bat-wing sleeves) look like they shot something on it


@ saaleha: where'd you shop at? My problem with a lot of the stuff is that the sizing is so out, you could be fine in one store and feel decidedly "large" in the next store cos your size number's gone up by 2. I blame China and the Farce that is YDE. I am convinced that stuff is not South African. Over priced shoddy quality stuff in the most outlandish sizes. Seriously now, who has a waist or shoulders smaller than my foot? And the lengths...

@ prixie: I think I'll do just that, it's too painful to look at the stuff that's out and about now. I'd rather look like a vagrant from last century than relive the 80s.

@ emm: Welcome to the Chronicles :)Boutique-ish stuff is okay if you're into that sorta thing, but I spend my life in jeans and stuff so it's not really practical and I am the last Indian still working Indentured Labour system and being exploited. Also, I find boutiques scary, I always feel like I am going to break something or do something retarded and they'll call security in :P

@ my son: darling dearest, because of you and your complaints I will consider doing a screen re-vamp. Any ideas? I want a reaper t shirt

PS aaaaaaaaand, doesn't everyone :P

@ safiyya: lol @ double support, I've seen those, I once spent 5 minutes marveling at it in a shop window wondering what will possess someone to wear something like that.

January 06, 2009 5:21 pm  

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