INFLUENCES

It would be strange to talk about clothes and not mention my influencies and inspirations. Because every composition is influenced and inspired by something, wether the creator likes it or not.

First important thing is, I don´t really have an identifiable style or, I go in and out of every style I fancy - choose the one you find more apropriated. There are some styles that influence me more than others, that is pretty obvious. I will mention them in a moment. The other important thing is inspiration...and I am inspired basically by everything that catches my eye and my soul.

So...styles. The first of my loves in terms of style is Vintage. I love vintage since...well forever. I was interested in vintage clothes long before I was aware that word actually existed, long before I knew there was such thing as vintage clothing. Since I was a little girl I´d religiously collect every piece of clothing that had been in my family for long. Anything that smelled like past. I am attracted by old days. Say it clothes, environments, movies, music, pictures, objects....it has a hold on me. It catches my eye, it catches my soul, it makes me dream and wonder, it gives me a sort of non-logic nostalgia for something I never really lived.

On the other hand, I was always a thrifty buyer. I love the hunting. It probably came from my father, and assumed thrifty buyer and garbage searcher...you never know the treasures people can throw away. My father wasn´t so much of a clothes searcher, his fields were more stamps, or anything he could find useful (and you´d be surprised by the things my father could find useful.....from graduated glasses sold at the market to metal searching machines, anything could be of some interest to him!) I do like objects and matherials in general (something I can work on, something that can become something else), but clothes were always at the top of my 10-most-wanted-items.

I can´t really explain the feeling of fiding a place where you find all the items in a pile or in some sort of strange order, and you can´t really imagine at the beginning what you will find in there at the end. It´s the hunt, and I guess to fully understand it, you must be a hunter yourself. It´s not the same as finding bargains at sales. That can be fun, but not half as fun. If you go to a known clothing store, you are aware of what you´re likely to find. There won´t be big surprises. A thrifty store, a market, a charity shop, a vintage shop or a second hand shop, are something completely diferent. There is always room for surprises. You know you´ll see hundreds of things that don´t really interest you that much, but there are treasures hidden. It´s the hunt, and once it starts few things can stop you. If you´re a hunter like myself, who likes bargain treasures, money is not often a problem. Sometimes, obviously, you´ll find a few items you´d love to have that are out of your price range. But most times it´s fiding treasures at ridiculously low prices that makes your day. And when I say low, in some cases I do mean low, as in I-couldn´t-buy-a-coke-for-that-amount-of-money low.

So...that´s how I get my stock of clothes....collecting long lost family pieces, hunting. Part of my stock is also provided by my mother, who is, in her own way, a clothing fanatic as well. For years, this resulted in a large wardrobe from which I would wear only half, as my mother is an elegant woman, but in a classic sort of way. She doesn´t risk and mantains her style for years and years. She dresses originally for her age, and in a way always did for her generation....but she is very plain. Elegant pratical clothes with a touch of originality, usually in form of a hat or a scarve. But that´s her. Plain colours, plain lines, comfy clothes. She is addicted to buying clothes for me, though. Even more as the years come buy and she stopped working and doens´t have that many social ocasions to attend. For years and years she would buy me clothes that were not exactely what I would dress. And to be very honest, by that time, I don´t think I was absolutely sure about what I would dress. On the last few years, she has been catching much more my sort of style, although with some allowable mistakes. My clothing transformation tecniques (the ones I intend to learn soon) may become handy to convert some of those clothes.

So vintage is definately my main style influence and inspiration. When it comes to defined styles, I also have a secret love for hippy clothing. Long skirts, jewellery, flowers....pretty much into it. But I guess hippy would classify as vintage as well, and when it comes to vintage I can go pretty much into most of the decades, excluding the eighties which honestely I find slightly....well....horrible. Most of it, anyway.

I also like the more ethic sort of orientacion, mixing influencies from other cultures. I am not likely to dress all in one style, except ocasionaly when it comes to vintage.

The truth is, I like so many things it´s hard to name them.
But in a general way I love colours. My two favorites since ever are dark purple and red, but then there are others, many others. The last few years I developed a love for teal. There is hardly a colour I don´t like at all. I have my days and I like to change. Sometimes orange is good fun too. Dry green, roasted yellow (yeah, I know there must be a better name for this), deep dark reds, all the variations of purple, teal, strong blues are probably the first ones calling for my attention. Strong greens, dark blue or pink are not amongst my favorites...which doesn´t mean they can´t be worn. Brown is good to combine with other colours.
I can´t even choose between dark or light colours, soft or strong. It depends on the day, it depends on the moments.

I have a weakness for vintage floral motifs. I like to combine different textures. I love applications, beautiful drawings, elegant shapes, odd shapes, old time shapes. I absolutely adore hats. I like scarves and accesories. I believe I´ve learned to like every type of accessory with time, until the point when there´s is hardly any type I wouldn´t wear at all.

As for inspirations, and those will be more important when I start making clothes myself, or modifying them more (I have a few embroyed items, for example, which counts as a modification for me) and as I said, I will use everything that catches my eye. Nature is probably one of my main ones....but isn´t it so for nearly everybody, when talking about colour and shape?

I guess from now on images will speak for themselves. Don´t get too excited tough. This is mainly my daily style...which means you shouldn´t expect to find cameleon David Bowie showing up in every post. It´s, as I said, living and experimenting. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes this will probably be just boring. I don´t know what will come up, but I am willing to find out.

I am guessing, by the road I am starting to go down, that this won´t be exactely only a diary of the clothes I wear. I will probably be also showing things that inspire me, my experiences in making pieces of clothing and the results from my hunting.

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