Link-tastic! 30 April 2010

Last time I thought I had set a post to auto-publish, I hadn't. Let's see if I got it right this time!

I have lots and lots of fascinating links for you this week, Fabulous Readers...

The Fashionable Academics want to know about your tattoos. I haven't talked about it (and it hasn't been warm enough since I started this blog to show it off), but I have a small tattoo between my shoulderblades, and am trying to figure out another one - or maybe more. I'm fascinated by the history, traditions, and varying social significances of tattoos, and think that well-thought-out, well-executed tattoo art is incredibly beautiful.

Looking for fashion and costuming resources online? Here's a pretty comprehensive list. As with any reference, be sure to check your sources: for example, one of the sites listed is a digital version of Braun and Schneider's The History of Costume, a 19th-century compendium that is an interesting historical artifact in and of itself, but is considered by modern fashion historians to be a pretty questionable source for the costumes it represents.

Speaking of fashion history, check out a brief blurb on the background of the French sailor's shirt (aka Breton stripe shirt)...

...and some lovely mauve. Did you know that mauve was the first synthetic dye to be developed and was immensely popular for both genders in the mid-1800s, then saw a second surge in popularity in the early 1900s as the signature hue of fashion designer Lucile, the woman who originated the phrase "It Girl"?

We always think of thrifting as a way to create a style different from the current fashion, but there's a level of discernment, sorting, and one might almost say curatorship that goes on between the donation/discarding of clothes by their original owner and their availability to secondhand consumers.

S. from academichic gets uncomfortable about the appearance of cultural appropriation. I'm in almost the exact opposite situation she's in - if I 'borrow' looks from other cultures it's pretty obvious that I'm not a member of the culture in question - but I still understand her unease. Cultural appropriation is a concept that's been on my radar a lot recently, and my thoughts are still percolating about it.

Gertie looks at the connections between home sewing and feminism.

Jacquard looms are big, expensive, and precursors to the earliest computers, so it's appropriate that there's a company out there trying to create an open source build-your-own loom project.