December 18, 2007

A little rant

The colors on this one are really striking. I'm always impressed by those brave enough to put art in very strong colors on their walls. Here, my initial response to the request for a red background was a muted, grey-specked affair, but Rychelle insisted on a dark barn red - with great results.

Stencil Portrait - baby Rychelle

Incidentally, I added a flower applique onto a new grey hoodie, using some iron-on interfacing on pieces of old clothes. The hoodie is from the boy's department, and was so blank that I thought it needed a little something more.

Grey hoodie with flower applique

Speaking of which, I have a bone to pick with the manufacturers of girls' clothing. Boys' clothes are practical, sturdy, and season-appropriate. Right now, for winter, they have warm sweatpants, fleece-lined khakis, thick sweaters, and the like. Girls? Girls are apparently never supposed to go outside. Ever. Their clothes are a mockery of winter clothes - miniskirts made of corduroy, edged with fake fur. Tiny denim dresses with short sleeves, with snowflakes embroidered on them. "Sweaters" made of the thinnest possible knit cotton. And of course everything in the pinkest pinky pink. And people seem to buy this idea that girls should just be cold. I cannot stand the very frequent sight around here of parents walking, swathed in heavy puffy winter jackets, pants, and boots, while their girls walk next to them shivering in tiny "winter" skirts with bare legs (I'm sorry, but tights don't count as pants when it's 30 degrees). What's the deal? All I know is, Lara is dressed head to toe in what I find in the boys department.

Ahem. Rant over. Carry on.

3 comments:

M. B. Karger said...

Here, Here! I share your frustration. Clothing manufacturers must think little girls don't like throwing themselves into snowbanks or spending any time outdoors when the temp is cooler than fifty degrees.

That said, I love your applique hoodie. It's a smart parent hack.

ANI said...

this is inspired by your recent post about windows being washed at Anthropologie - i was sorting through a pile of catalogues (about 3 months' worth...i've got a problem) and came across this little item from the faux-French retailer - http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_dynSessConf=-8234543117508537904&id=77624&parentid=APP_KIDS&pushId=APP_KIDS&popId=APPAREL&sortProperties=&navCount=4&navAction=jump&fromCategoryPage=true&selectedProductSize=&selectedProductSize1=&color=mul

recycling to the highest degree, and not at all hard to make:)

ANI said...

oops, it cut off the URL:

http://tinyurl.com/2n9l75