DCC Episode 35: Gigi Castorina “Everyday vintage at Gigi’s House of Frills!”

DCC 35: Gigi Castorina &amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;Everyday vintage at Gigi's House of Frills!&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; [ 59:16 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (32)

Gigi is a long time vintage collector, appreciator and wearer. And an even longer time lingerie enthusiast! She is the owner/operator of Toronto’s only Vintage Style Lingerie Boutique : Gigi’s House of Frills.

We talked about ‘everyday vintage’, and her dedication to fashion and details from the 1930s to ’50s. I love how her store makes you aspire to a more glamourous lifestyle, where you might entertain in loungewear or do your pincurls in a nightgown from the 1930s.

Yes, this adorable night set is emblazoned with “Whiskey” on the left breast…

We discussed the immaculate style of Pee Wee Herman (“He never fails!”), and when Gigi picked up this book by Man Ray she remembered her love for Salvador Dali too!

Of course we also discussed pin curls and hairstyling (she has a hair drying chair at home naturally); plus her love for Divine, and of course Betty Boop.

She also told me about her love of reading the obituaries, and imaging the lives people lived; and her first memory of touching silk lingerie around age 5 (her mom had to drag her away).

These are the types of labels that Gigi loves so much:

Gigi sent over some of her own snapshots too:

Gigi told me after our interview that this yellow dress is probably her favourite piece of clothing

Gigi with her husband Rob.

Gigi’s House of Frills carries vintage lingerie, glamourous loungewear, hosiery….all in new and vintage (for the the purist). She focuses on both leaders in vintage style lingerie and also local designers. Gigi’s is a stockist for the following vintage and vintage style brands:

What Katie Did lingerie and stockings
Dottie’s Delight’s loungewear
Inspiration Vintage undies ( or knickers, you pick!)
With Love Lingerie
Sarina Poppy handmade swimwear
Libera Lace Briefs
Under The Root
Fiore Hosiery
Deadstock Vintage…..and more!

Things Gigi likes!

Tailoress on Roncesvalles in Toronto for alterations

Local Toronto Vintage;

She’s local to Kensington market: Flashback, and Courage my Love, and Cabaret online.

Freddies — where Gigi finally found a pair of jeans she likes!

The Lingerie Addict

The Nylon Swish

Va voom Vintage is another blog but she also has tutorials.

And in Gigi’s words….

“For clothes, I am not loyal to any one etsy or ebay shop and I try to buy in person–but etsy seller’s who constantly bring pieces that impress and delight are : Butch Wax Vintage, Garb Oh, Fab Gabs, Wildfell Hall, Guermantes Vintage, Dethrose Vintage…. I appreciate what they are doing!”

Also a great site for anyone with a keen interest in vintage beyond trend is the Vintage Fashion Guild.

For makeup, I am just about to announce we are starting to carry Besame which is a vintage style brand. They are gorgeous quality and stunning vintage packaging. The lipstick colours are actual reproductions of vintage colours, for example “Besame Red” was *the* red of 1920!

I am a big fan of Graydon Skincare, a Toronto company, they make great…well skincare, especially their completely natural, effective and good for your skin sunscreen that I wear every single day, all year.”

Music:

Radio Dismuke for popular and jazz music from the 1920s and ’30s.

WFMU’s Rock and Soul Ichiban

Book:

The Man Game by Lee Henderson

You can follow Gigi on her twitter: @gigisfrills

Instagram: gigisfrills or gigi’s house of frills, and of course her website which features information about the store and lookbooks….

Thanks Gigi! ♥

DCC 34: Amazon Syren — Little House on the Orchestral Pagan Folk Metal Prairie

Leave a reply

DCC 34: Amazon Syren - Little House on the Orchestral Pagan Folk Metal Prairie [ 1:09:31 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (37)

Amazon Syren is a queer, poly leather femme, a sex-workers’ rights activist, and a Professional Naked Girl. She’s also a witchy glamazon who sings opera, writes poetry, reads tarot, grows veggies, works magic, spins her own yarn, cooks, preserves, and darns a lot of socks. The secret ingredient is always love. She lives with her wife and an assortment of metamours in 1821.

DIY is very close to her heart.

She has opinions! Which is what I love! We discussed the business of being tall women (she’s 6’4″ and I’m just under 6’2″), from slouching to people’s surreptitious checks to see if we are wearing heels.

We also covered her ‘femme muse’ Musetta from La Bohème, queer hanky codes adapted to femme flagging manicures, and what a newly minted dyke wears to pride in 2008,

DIY is a big deal with her, from knitting and handspinning yarn to gardening, preserving and cooking. She also weaves and sews. As an urban homesteader, the ‘little house in the big woods’ thing is no joke.

We also discussed using terms of endearments with friends and acquaintances, or, on odd and uncomfortable occasion, the use of ‘honey’-‘sweetie’-‘baby’ by men…..

“I would assume it’s either flirting or misogyny, and sadly there’s an overlap…”

We discussed the terminology around ethical non-monogamy, and the idea of being “solo” poly, which she points out has no meaning unless you’re working from a coupled default position. She also clarified the differences between pansexual and queer poly (spoiler alert it’s hetero-normativity).

“I switched to hot pink and I’m so much happier”

“It’s not just the queers who flag!”

Click To Tweet

“There [are] a zillion other kinds of femme…

so I try to find the other kinds of femme.”

She recommended:

Music: @solstafir

And please find Amazon online via her twitter, @amazon_syren, and also her two blogs:

Urban Meliad + Syrens

Thank you so much Amazon! It was a pleasure. ♥

All photos by Sarah Innis unless otherwise noted

DCC 33: Femme Space — A Reclamation Project with Amanda Arkansassy Harris

Leave a reply

DCC 33: Amanda Arkansassy Harris Femme Space a Reclamation Project [ 36:43 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (58)

*featured photo is a self portrait by Amanda Harris

encountered Amanda Harris’ work via a gender and media class. I love her Femme Space project and was so excited to talk to her for this episode! Amanda is a queer high femme charmer from the South. She was the co-curator of Y’all Come Back: Stories of Queer Southern Migration in the 2015 National Queer Arts Festival, where she exhibited portraits in her EXODUS series.

Her photographs have been published in Glitter & Grit: Queer Performance from the Heels on Wheels Galaxy, G.R.I.T.S.: An Anthology of Southern Queer Womyn’s Voices, Towards the “Other” America: Anti-Racist Resources for White People Taking Action for Black Lives Matter, as well as various online sources including Al Jazeera America. She believes in the future of the femme oligarchy and the power of portraits to tell stories.

These images and the words from the femmes are directly from femmespace.net and used with permission. 🙂

Pizza Cupcake, 27
Oakland, CA
Fat, Femme, Queer, Genderfluid, Vegan

photo by Amanda Harris

“People often see fat folks as taking up too much space by simply being themselves and the same…

Click To Tweet

Cinnamon, 28
Emeryville, CA
black, sex worker, fat, gender queer, non binary, queer, porn performer, adult entertainer, activist, artist, femme

photo by Amanda Harris

“I made my space mine! Near my community! And chosen family. Yay!!!”- Cinnamon

Click To Tweet

Violet, 19
Little Rock, AR
Trans Woman, Latina, Queer, Scientist, Neuro Divergent, Crafty, Alien Girl

photo by Amanda Harris

“I will walk with confidence and radiate beauty like the Sun Goddess I am.”–Violet

Click To Tweet

Rahel Neirene, 29
Brooklyn, NY
Queer Black Femme

*Rahel is currently raising funds to help cover the costs of her Myomectomy. Your support great or small would help this badass femme on her journey: https://www.generosity.com/med…/rahel-is-having-a-myomectomy

“My femme isn’t fragile. My femme is coarse, rough, instantaneous, and full of amethyst.”- Rahel

Click To Tweet

Kimmie, 29
New York, NY
femme, Filipina-American, nerd, kinky, nonmonogamous, queer, little

photo by Amanda Harris

“Femme invisibility is common…”– Kimmie

Click To Tweet

Lexi, 24
San Leandro, CA
Transracial adoptee. Trans Woman of Color. TransLatina. Survivor. College Graduate. Boss Ass Bitch.

photo by Amanda Harris

“As a visibly feminine trans woman of color…I am queering the space and reclaiming sports…”-…

Click To Tweet

Amanda’s art and activism has been informed and nurtured by online femme community. We talked about femme visibility and marginazation in queer and other spaces. She also talked about taking the conversation beyond queerness to include race, class, ability, emotional labour, privilege of butch and masculine of centre people –and letting femme stand alone—femme sex, and femme on femme relationships

I liked hearing her perspectives on collaborating with vs exploiting femmes from marginalized groups. On the topic of privilege, she referred me to an article online by Cyree Jarelle Johnson, here.

….also to a wonderful resource for femme articles and resources—intiated and collated by Blyth Barnow, reflecting the wisdom of large community of facebook femmes!

Of course in the bonus round I asked Amanda for her book and music recommendations.

She mentioned Amber Hollibaugh, whose book My Dangerous Desires is a favourite of mine too.

The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader

She recommended work by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha whose most recent book is Dirty River I totally recommend too!

And…Amanda contributed to a recent book, Glitter & Grit: Queer Performance from the Heels on Wheels Femme Galaxy. which I’m gonna try to get my hands on soon!

Her music recommendation is GAYmous which you can find on FB….but you probably want to watch their video for the song Femme on Femme, featuring femme witches…..below!

Amanda’s latest project Y’all Come Back Now, is here, and looks amazing. Thank you so much Amanda! You’re a charmer for sure. ♥

Thanks for listening and ‘y’all come back’ now ya hear?

DCC 32: Crystal Kotow “Fat Feminist Killjoy”

Leave a reply

DCC 32: Crystal Kotow 'Fat Feminist Killjoy' [ 54:18 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (58)

Crystal is a fat activist who moved from fashion blogging to tackling more contested spaces in fat feminist thought: cultural hatred of fat bodies; and how fatphobia can manifest as violence in intimate partner relationships. She’s in her second year of a PhD gender, feminist and women’s studies.

“I’m told to look good as a fat woman I’m supposed to dress a certain way, I’m supposed shrink my body, or bind my body in particular ways, that create a particular shape….that conforms to what we are told is feminine, but that’s completely unnatural to the way my body goes…”

I had been bugging Crystal for over a year to come on the podcast (!) Finally I realized the easiest thing was to just get into the same graduate school as her and work on her from closer up. jk!! One of many nice things about Crystal is she seems to look pulled together effortlessly….which belies her thoughtful and reflexive approach to fashion, fatshion, getting dressed and fat activism, and how all these things intersect. She questions and challenges not just the status quo, but also her own belief systems. I think this is pretty rare and awesome!

I love the black and white graphic prints in these photos!

“It’s not the clothing that gives me a unique or distinct look; it’s my body.”

“The way I see that tumblr /online blogging community manifesting…they are making it very apparent that we have money…..so a lot of independent designers starting to creates lines are making lines to fit plus size bodies. And then there are a few, some of my favourites that cater to above a size 26…and I think that comes straight from this recognition of looking at the community.”

oh and she accessorizes:

Crystal’s lipstick game is tight. She makes lips and eyebrows look like a polished face of makeup! Magick!

I love this whole nautical cruise ship thing.

She wasn’t joking about the Birkenstocks. This is so reassuring to me being similarly obsessed with them!

oh yes she did! best tattoo ever and ultimate accessory, really.

Crystal’s recommendations!

Crystal was excited about Charlotte Cooper‘s Fat Activism: A Radical Social Movement –which is out now!

Websites she likes!

Fat Girl Flow — specific to fat fashion: website and YouTube channel.

Dances with Fat — about fat activism

She’s radically limited her presence online recently. If you’re interested, she has a tumblr….feminist quotes!

Thank you Crystal! I love you!

DCC 31: Jenna Danchuk “New Age Vamp”

Leave a reply

DCC 31: Jenna Danchuk - 'New Age Vamp' [ 1:04:02 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (77)

Jenna Danchuk is a writer, researcher, and occasional maker of things. She is also an Assistant Editor for Spiral Nature, a magazine-style website dedicated to alternative spiritualities, practical magick, and exploring occulture. She’s a PhD student in the Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies program at York University studying the role of cultural production in feminist witchcraft and magical communities. Jenna is a former Associate Editor of WORN Fashion Journal and her writing has also appeared in Shameless Magazine, FUSE, and on Bitch Media’s blog. A training ceremonial magician, but a feminist witch at heart, she has an interest in reconciling the two.

We talked about fashion and chaos magick, shopping guilt (this comes in so many varieties!), imagining an aesthetic bridging goth and new age, kung fu, academia, spirituality, astrology, and women of the esoteric western spiritual traditions.

Jenna is also a die hard thrifter. Did you know Value Village is owned by Walmart? I am still reeling.

“I feel so guilty about this… I thrift a lot!”

Jenna also sent me some of her own images. She was an editor at the late and great Worn magazine, which obsessed many people for a decade before it ended in late 2014. Worn struck a chord for many people who were tired of a didactic fashion press, and still loved clothes. Not just clothes though, the stories behind the clothes whether personal, sociological or anthropological. It felt collaborative, inclusive and smart. It was probably one of the many reasons I started this podcast tbh.

photo by Lisa Kannako.

photo by Becca Lemire.

The magazine pages are from Issue 16 of WORN, credits for the shoot are on the title page “Magnetic Field.” And a short video accompanies the shoot!

What we talked about:

Cultural exchange vs appropriation, Jenna recommended an article by Mimi Thi Nguyen on the subject. It’s here and is well worth a read!

Jenna forwarded another piece from the Atlantic about cultural appropriation—it;s something she is very thoughtful about.

Haven’t you heard? Chaos magick is in right now (insert barf emoticon):

I guess the Guardian knows.

And I told Jenna how I loved the WORN magazine editorial guidelines, especially the one that banned use of the word “fashionista”. Jenna mentioned an article she read wherein the originator of the much abused term apologized for it’s invention:

Jenna’s style/#lifegoals inspirations:

Rosaleen Norton~ (1917-1979)

Rosaleen Miriam “Roie” Norton, who used the craft name of Thorn, was an Australian artist and occultist, in the latter capacity adhering to a form of pantheistic / Neopagan Witchcraft which was devoted to the god Pan.

She was a contemporary of Aleister Crowley and Gerald Gardiner.

Marjorie Cameron~ (1922-1995)

from the Wormwood Star film

the Wormwood Star

Marjorie Cameron was an American artist, poet and occultist. She was a member of the OTO and influential to Californian surrealist art and to the Beat literary movement.

I’m excited to start reading her biography The Wormwood Star myself.

Fillmaker Curtis Harrington was inspired by Marjorie Cameron to make the surrealist film The Wormwood Star in 1955:

And I mentioned:

Lynn yeager, the iconic Vogue fashion editor:

and Vali Myers… the ‘witch of positano’

http://witchofpositano.tumblr.com/

Jenna reads and listens to:

Podcast: the Higher Side Chats -paranormal and conspiracy show

Music: She mentioned Joolz

Books: Women of the Golden Dawn by Mary Greer about the women of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn at the turn of the century.

Thank you Jenna! Look for her on tumblr, and twitter.

DCC Episode 30: Vivek Shraya “What I’m doing is not about performance”

Leave a reply

DCC 30: Vivek Shraya &amp;amp;amp;quot;What I'm doing is not about performance&amp;amp;amp;quot; [ 59:14 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (78)

Vivek Shraya is a multimedia artist living in Toronto with strong ties to prairie malls.

She’s produced 10 albums, written 3 books (with 2 more set for release next year) and created 4 short films, all to great acclaim. She talked to me about the production of art, and how performance grounds her,

“I feel like I’m at peak VIvek, which is scary because, what happens after?“

Her debut novel, She of the Mountains, was named one of The Globe and Mail’s Best Books of 2014. A three-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, Vivek has read and performed at shows, festivals and post-secondary institutions internationally, sharing the stage with Tegan & Sara and Dragonette, and has appeared at NXNE, Word on the Street, and Yale University.

“Style sometimes comes with a class privilege” – Vivek Shraya

Click To Tweet

Vivek is a three-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, the 2014 recipient of the Steinert & Ferreiro Award for leadership in Toronto’s LGBTQ community, recipient of Anokhi Media’s inaugural Most Promising LGBTQ Community Crusader Award in 2015, a 2015 Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award finalist, and a 2015 recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Prize Honour of Distinction. Both Vivek’s debut collection of poetry, even this page is white, and first children’s picture book, The Boy & the Bindi, will be published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 2016.

“What I’m doing is not about a performance, but yet in some ways I feel most safe in a performance space, because gender can be and has been challenged in performance spaces in a way that it hasn’t been on public transport.”

Her POC fashion project (co-edited with Karen Campos Castillo) is at

http://heart-beats.ca/

We talked about Rihanna, Beyoncé, gender expression, performance vs ‘real life’, and style as class privilege. She also educated me in the nicest way possible about being so judgemental about other people’s style.

“That person saw it, and they liked it and they wanted to wear it….”

the selfie can be a way to show yourself to yourself. Vivek is good at the art. :)

the selfie can be a way to show yourself to yourself. Vivek is very good at the art. :)

She had some recommendations for–

Books;

All my friends are superheroes by Andrew Kaufman

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. I love that she said about this book

“I’ve never read something so beautiful…it’s made me want to stop writing.”

Music:

Empire (yes the TV show!)

Lion Babe

and of course Rihanna and Beyoncé (duh).

Vivek’s films are here. You should really go look at them, they’re visually striking and smart.

Here’s the trailer for “Holy Mother My Mother”

the short film “Ache in my Name”

Look for Vivek on her website plus on social media

Twitter
Instagram
Tumblr
Facebook

OMG i almost forgot Vivek was featured in Nylon this week! http://www.nylon.com/articles/queer-women-in-fashion

Thanks Vivek! You’re amazing!

DCC Episode 29: Andrea Zanin “More butch….and more femme”

1 Reply

DCC 29: Andrea Zanin &amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;More butch...and more femme&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; [ 1:04:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (92)

(cover photo by N Maxwell Lander)

I can’t believe I took an inadvertant DCC vacation this summer. I’m baaaaack this week with Andrea Zanin, a butch/femme academic and leatherwoman who writes prolifically and teaches about BDSM/Leather/kink, power dynamics, non-monogamy and queer sexuality. She’s also pursuing a PhD in Gender Feminist and Women’s studies (I didn’t realize when I booked her that we’re in the same program!) –and her thesis is about Canadian leatherdyke history.

Andrea’s erotic short stories and essays have been published in numerous anthologies.

Her online home is here.

“A friend once told me ‘You’re both more butch, and more femme than me’….

and I thought, Yeah!”

10495355_10154822197920315_5762660114430189949_o

photo by N Maxwell Lander

“The ‘problem’ with being really genderqueer is you need a lot of wardrobe”

Click To Tweet

more butch…..

AND more femme….

than you!

She talked about how she noticed people’s gender essentialist expectations would dictate her presentation–at a certain point it can be easier to present in accordance with other people’s expectations.

“It really encapsulated how people’s perceptions of gender can push you to enact that gender.

And [it] can be different depending on who’s looking.”

We talked about the Andreas love of leather both for itself and as a totem of BDSM culture. Andrea’s been asked to judge leather contests on occasion (something she has mixed feelings about), and was also called on for commentary a LOT during the explosion of media interest in the wake of consent scandal in Canadian media and in consideration of a book series that became popular in recent years.

She also had lots to say about spending the time to learn the origins of subcultural style (esp if you’re an interested participant!). Lots of people wear leather, but with respect to kink it demonstrates respect for tradition when people educate themselves. (So you might want to think twice before donning a muir cap to go to a fetish club.)

[Aside–if you’re curious about the Muir (aka “Sir’s” or “Master’s” cap)….Sarah Sloane gave me permission to link this post. Thanks!]

As for her own reading recommendations, she came up with:

Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold—a book about queer culture in Buffalo,

and another resource, a PhD thesis by Robert Bienvenu about Sadomasochism as a cultural style–sadly not available online at this time. Andrea has a curated list called “Readings for the aspiring leather leader” on her website though!

“Respect where the things are coming from; wherever the things come from that you’re interested in…and don’t sweat it too much.”

Andrea ♥’s Fluevogs….enough to be part of a FB group dedicated to them.

Andrea co-organizes the annual Canadian leatherdyke weekend An Unholy Harvest and runs a pervy book club called The Leather Bindings Society.

FInd Andrea on twitter too: @sexgeekAZ

Thanks so much Andrea! See you at book club 🙂

DCC 28: Mimi Thi Nguyen “New Wave Party Girl…or Monster High Doll”

Leave a reply

DCC 28: Mimi Thi Nguyen "New Wave Party Girl....or Monster High Doll" [ 56:14 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (125)

I was so excited to talk to Mimi Thi Nguyen this week on the show! She’s an associate professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois. Her research interests are war, empire and…zines!

“If I’m teaching, I imagine myself as a new wave party girl who’s been forced to teach.”

I loved that she told me that she prefers to interview with zine/podcast makers, and turns down CNN. I also loved everything she said about how ‘authority’ looks, and how to look ‘capable’ without compromising what makes you feel good. Oh, and her thoughts on getting her eyeliner to match up on both eyes: “I just don’t care”.

“I try to dress to feel like I’m capable, and sometimes that means that I don’t look to other people like I’m capable, but I know that I am, so that’s been a big deal to me. I know that I don’t look like a tenured professor, but I know I’m good at whatever this is that I do”

I first encountered her work via her amazing blog (a collaboration with Minh Ha T Pham) called Threadbared. Her zine work includes Slander, Race Riot (that link is to a pdf made possible by the POC zine project!), and a couple years ago Guillotine Press put out a chapbook called PUNK, a conversation beween Golnar Nikpour and Mimi about how amorphous the concept of ‘punk’ is, and how it represents a constellation of scenes, ideas and identity, and ultimately proves an unwieldy subject.

“How do I look professional, without looking like I hate myself?” — Mimi Thi Nguyen

Click To Tweet

Her first book is called “The Gift of Freedom: War, Debt and other Refugee Passages” (Duke 2012).

“I remember when I was first getting out of graduate school and on the job market, people would give me tons of advice on how to look professional and look hireable and stuff….And all of it involved colours, and clothes, and I’m like.…I’m going to look like a dirty 14 yo kid who put on her mom’s suit, and it’s going to look…terrible”

She describes her looks a “New wave party girl who is forced to teach”, although her 9 yo friend thinks she looks like a Monster High Doll.

uh, yeah. i can see this now!

“So I don’t really try to think too hard about whether I look like I belong” –Mimi Thi Nguyen

Click To Tweet

She mentioned her women in Punk style icons….

both past–

Poly Styrene (X ray spex)

Alice Bag (Bags)

Eve Libertine (Crass)

Debbie Harry (Blondie)

and present!

Marissa Paternoster (Screaming Females)

Katie Alice Greer (Priests)

Book recommendation:

Clothing Matters: Dress and Identity in India by Emma Tarlo

we also mentioned The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo ….as something we should both read asap.

Music recommendations:

Please see www.dresscodecracker.com for images and more show notes!

twitter: @dresscodecrackr or @sarahinnis

and Mimi tweets at @Inzombia !

~thank you Mimi!

DCC 27: Zoe Dodd “You’re cool, stay weird, don’t change”

Leave a reply

DCC 27: Zoe Dodd "You're Cool, stay weird, don't change" [ 57:34 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (99)

Zoë Dodd is a harm reduction and hep C worker, an antipoverty + social justice activist….and an anarcho-feminist with a hippie side. She’s also a longterm participant/contributor to Toronto’s hardcore music scene. And apparently a bird watcher? She’s definitely a bird magnet…lent a very Snow White vibe to her femme punk look.

“I definitely have a hippie side…peace, liberation, anti war, destroy the government…I love that”

“People actually have very similar aesthetics, you see the same look

over and over.”

metal band brooch on a tea dress is very Zoe-ish

I wasn’t really surprised to hear that her favourite shopping is for books and records, and she talked about how clothing acquisition via friends adds sentimentality.

She’s listening to:

Podcasts: Dear Sugar with Cheryl Strayed and the Maximum Rock’n’Roll podcast

Music: Downtown Boys + Flesh World

She’s reading:

Octavia Butler RIP and check out Octavia’s Brood, an anthology that merges science fiction and social justice (AK Press)

and she liked Cheryl Strayed’s Wild –especially liking the messages of not having regrets and guilt, and not wasting your energy on shame spirals.

Links:

CIUT show Equalizing Distort – most recent episode from July 6 featuring the shequalizing crew.

Toronto’s Harm Reduction Worker’s Union

and of course, OCAP.

Thanks Zoe! I will never (ever) call you a rabble rouser, or a pundit!

~xo 🙂

Zoë Dodd “You’re cool, stay weird, don’t change”

Click To Tweet

DCC Episode 26: Sam Conover “Lady drag”

Leave a reply

DCC 26: Sam Conover "Lady drag" [ 56:10 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (85)

Sam Conover is a bra fitter, blogger, artist and art conservator. Her fashion interests span the 1940s to early 1960s, and she describes it as deliberately feminine, modest and ‘mumsy’.

We talked about nostalgic fashion and the interesting effect it has on people, catcalling, the concept of ‘normcore’, and of course her obsession with lingerie.

“I like a dress that looks like a conservative housewife from the fifties, rather than a cool, young pin-up….I like to look a little mumsy”

“I guess for me, what I like about dressing the way I do is–this sounds really self absorbed–I like making people happy”

She said she never recovered from getting an subscription to Vogue from her grandmother when she was in fifth grade.

“People come up to me on the street, and they’re excited . They just seem really pleased to see someone wearing something colourful and sort of fun…and that’s a nice feeling”

Her influences:

Betty Draper from Mad Men

Betty and Veronica of Archie Comics

Audrey Horne from Twin Peaks

Katharine Hepburn

Sam is especially taken with Hepburn’s trouser game

And of course, Gibson Girls

and given her druthers, she would recline à la Helena Rubinstein in lucite bed (wouldn’t we all?)

#lifegoals

She likes this stuff:

The nylon swish Australian vintage shapewear and stockings blogger.

Lost in the 50s French, 1940s/50s lifestyle and fashion blogger

Vivian of Holloway shopping–Sam especially likes their 40s style vintage trousers

And she likes the following lingerie labels (a lot):

I emailed her with a question about vintage hair styling,Nostalgic fashion: “If you want to fall down a terrible rabbit hole, the fedora lounge (online forum for golden age enthusiasts has a few different boards. I read them for a bit, then realized they were making me unhinged-this is when I started to think it was a reasonable idea to search out a vintage romper for gym wear.
http://www.thefedoralounge.com”

and regarding those hair/makeup resources….

Vavoom vintage has wonderful hair tutorials

The 1940s Look and The 1950s Look, both by Mike Brown. Sam mentioned that these two books in particular focus on everyday hair/makeup and clothing, rather than specifically pin-up or high fashion looks.

Sam also does amazing artwork with paper cut-outs….

Giles

Hand to Mouth

wolfsaint

and she draws too!

kiss kiss

By No Human Hand

You can find her on instagram as @mandytori and read her thoughts on bra fitting and the body positivity movement here:

http://www.thelingerieaddict.com/2015/05/bra-fitting-and-the-body-positivity-movement.html

Thank you Sam! May you always be admired (and feared)!

~til next time

Things Gigi likes!

And in Gigi’s words….

Music:

Book:

pass it on....

“I would assume it’s either flirting or misogyny, and sadly there’s an overlap…”

“I switched to hot pink and I’m so much happier”

“There [are] a zillion other kinds of femme…

so I try to find the other kinds of femme.”

pass it on....

Pizza Cupcake, 27 Oakland, CA Fat, Femme, Queer, Genderfluid, Vegan

Cinnamon, 28 Emeryville, CA black, sex worker, fat, gender queer, non binary, queer, porn performer, adult entertainer, activist, artist, femme

Violet, 19 Little Rock, AR Trans Woman, Latina, Queer, Scientist, Neuro Divergent, Crafty, Alien Girl

Rahel Neirene, 29 Brooklyn, NY Queer Black Femme

Kimmie, 29 New York, NY femme, Filipina-American, nerd, kinky, nonmonogamous, queer, little

Lexi, 24 San Leandro, CA Transracial adoptee. Trans Woman of Color. TransLatina. Survivor. College Graduate. Boss Ass Bitch.

pass it on....

“I’m told to look good as a fat woman I’m supposed to dress a certain way, I’m supposed shrink my body, or bind my body in particular ways, that create a particular shape….that conforms to what we are told is feminine, but that’s completely unnatural to the way my body goes…”

“It’s not the clothing that gives me a unique or distinct look; it’s my body.”

pass it on....

“I feel so guilty about this… I thrift a lot!”

pass it on....

“I feel like I’m at peak VIvek, which is scary because, what happens after?“

“What I’m doing is not about a performance, but yet in some ways I feel most safe in a performance space, because gender can be and has been challenged in performance spaces in a way that it hasn’t been on public transport.”

“That person saw it, and they liked it and they wanted to wear it….”

pass it on....

“A friend once told me ‘You’re both more butch, and more femme than me’….

and I thought, Yeah!”

“It really encapsulated how people’s perceptions of gender can push you to enact that gender.

And [it] can be different depending on who’s looking.”

“Respect where the things are coming from; wherever the things come from that you’re interested in…and don’t sweat it too much.”

pass it on....

“If I’m teaching, I imagine myself as a new wave party girl who’s been forced to teach.”

“I try to dress to feel like I’m capable, and sometimes that means that I don’t look to other people like I’m capable, but I know that I am, so that’s been a big deal to me. I know that I don’t look like a tenured professor, but I know I’m good at whatever this is that I do”

pass it on....

“I definitely have a hippie side…peace, liberation, anti war, destroy the government…I love that”

“People actually have very similar aesthetics, you see the same look

over and over.”

pass it on....

“I like a dress that looks like a conservative housewife from the fifties, rather than a cool, young pin-up….I like to look a little mumsy”

“I guess for me, what I like about dressing the way I do is–this sounds really self absorbed–I like making people happy”

“People come up to me on the street, and they’re excited . They just seem really pleased to see someone wearing something colourful and sort of fun…and that’s a nice feeling”

pass it on....

Pizza Cupcake, 27
Oakland, CA
Fat, Femme, Queer, Genderfluid, Vegan

Cinnamon, 28
Emeryville, CA
black, sex worker, fat, gender queer, non binary, queer, porn performer, adult entertainer, activist, artist, femme

Violet, 19
Little Rock, AR
Trans Woman, Latina, Queer, Scientist, Neuro Divergent, Crafty, Alien Girl

Rahel Neirene, 29
Brooklyn, NY
Queer Black Femme

Kimmie, 29
New York, NY
femme, Filipina-American, nerd, kinky, nonmonogamous, queer, little

Lexi, 24
San Leandro, CA
Transracial adoptee. Trans Woman of Color. TransLatina. Survivor. College Graduate. Boss Ass Bitch.