What I'm Sproutin': Specs Incognito

Dress and cardigan: H&M, leggings and scarf: American Apparel, shoes: Aldo, mitts: corner store, headband: night market, bag: Booday (蘑菇), birdcage necklace: Accessorize

Andrea of A Cat of Impossible Colour wrote a great post last week on how being the Girl with the Big Glasses used to define her personality -- and still does in a subconscious way. I had a good time reading because a couple weeks ago I had a corneal abrasion and had to wear glasses for a few days. I've written before about how putting on specs makes me feel like I'm slipping on a mask and walking around in disguise. I think my sense of style even changed temporarily. And since I had this big thing of plastic on my face, I decided to throw on some bright red lipstick for good measure. This outfit makes me look like an art student, in my opinion. I look like I'm about to go scream at prices for watercolor paper ("That's four sheets for how much!?!?!"). Or maybe I look like a journalism student, which would make sense, because a) I was a journalism student and b) those mitts sure would have come in handy when I developed a raging case of repetitive stress injury while in grad school.

My portable pet Gerry the Bird

The interesting thing about wearing glasses when you are used to contacts is that everything seems narrower, smaller and more distant. My seven-month-old cat looked like a tiny little kitten again. I was verklempt. I guess my glasses aren't just glasses, nor are they just a disguise of sorts -- they are also time machine googles!

Legumes of the Week #14

Mary Dixon Palmer, 1920, from Shorpy

• Antique patterns for all kinds of needlework, from sewing to tatting to knitting. Via WhipUp.net.

• Unclutterer shares three easy ways to straighten up your house (and computer) on weekends.

• Elsa Mora's adorable Kokeshi-inspired doll.

• Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing interviews Carolyn of Diary of a Sewing Fanatic on biases against plus-size sewers.

• My Favorite Color is Shiny comes up with a very sweet (and thrifty!) DIY Valentine's Day gift idea.

• The Happiness Projects shares 19 tips for cheering yourself up from 200 years ago.

• Fashionist, a San Francisco street style blog, showcases James and his amazing outfit for those in-between days when the weather can't decide whether it's spring or still winter.

Pound Puppies: Anyone remember them?

I've had this annoying theme song stuck in my head for the last twenty-three years or so; today, I finally did a search for "pound puppies" on YouTube. I found a cartoon intro that was disturbingly full of anti-feline rhetoric, but aside from that, it filled me with nostalgia for my early childhood in the early 80s. I don't think a lot of people remember the "Pound Puppies," because they weren't cool in the same way Jem, Rainbow Brite or Strawberry Shortcake were, but they definitely deserve a place in the pantheon of 80s cartoon greats (or at least goods). When I was a little girl, I was given a Pound Puppy radio. It was basically a stuffed animal glued on top of a cheap red radio, but I was riveted. Then Teddy Ruxpin came along, and I moved on. Sorry, Pound Puppies!

What I'm Sproutin': Aughty Go-Bye Nautties

Dress: Macy's, cardigan: Ann Taylor Loft, scarf: Oasis, gloves: Modcloth, boots: Breeze Center (威風廣場), beret: Muji

Whenever I upload outfit photos to iPhoto, I put them in a folder and give them a name. Well, these photos were taken about two weeks ago and I have no idea what the heck I meant by "aughty go-bye nautties." But I am keeping the name, because it cracks me up (yes, I am one of those people who laughs at her own jokes. Or in this case, non-jokes).

I remember being really obsessed with nautical-themed outfits when I was in sixth grade. I had a white sailor shirt, which I wore with white shorts; that same year, I wore a really awesome navy blue dress in what was perhaps my most unflattering school photo. I wish I still fit into it! As it is, I'm still looking for my perfect sailor dress. Andrea from A Cat of Impossible Colour showcased a really awesome one recently. It's a vintage Laura Ashley dress that's been hemmed. I saw a similar one on eBay right before I moved to Taiwan. I still can't believe I didn't buy it!

If you've been curious about the random boards that have been showing up above my head in the past couple of outfits posts, wonder no more! It's a giant dragonfly!

It's part of an advertisement for this year's Taiwan International Floral Exposition. That reminds me of the time my parents, aunt and cousin went to a orchid expo in San Franciso. I was back home for spring break from college and told them to just drop me off on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley so I could do some thrift shopping. That was a ruse; what I really did was go into a body piercing salon and get an industrial. My Mom was all like "we leave you alone for three hours and you get a steel bar punched through the top of your ear!?!" I really loved my piercing, but unfortunately it developed a keloid after a couple of years and I had to take it out. Boo-hoo-hoo.

Vintage Taiwan No. 3: Friends (and some thoughts)

I love this because the girl on the left is wearing a western-style sundress and her companion has on a traditional qipao

Here are a few more vintage photos I bought from an antique store in Taipei -- including one in color! The stone formation is called the Queen's Head (女王頭), a very famous landmark in Yehliu on the north coast of Taiwan. It's slowly eroding, so I bet tourists aren't allowed to casually lean against it anymore.

After I posted my first series of vintage Taiwan photographs, Threadbared included my blog post in a collection of writings by different bloggers on vintage fashion, race and politics. That entry was re-posted on Racialicious and picked up by Jezebel (Fashion for Writers' Jenny also wrote her own insightful and moving post on the subject).

I was surprised by some of the comments on Racialicious (which I am a fan of) and Jezebel -- many were dismissive of the issues that the other bloggers and I raised. Many commenters basically said, "what's the big deal?" or "I like vintage because it's pretty and I don't think it's worth politicizing."

I feel those responses missed the point of our posts (Julia at à l'allure garçonnière wrote a very thoughtful response). The main reason I enjoy vintage clothing is because it is pretty and different from what I can find in mainstream stores. It's not like race and identity politics are foremost on my mind when I go vintage shopping. But being able to take pleasure in the lush folds of a 1950s dress or a shimmery 1960s evening sheath doesn't mean I can't also devote brain space to thinking about the more difficult issues vintage collecting brings up. The two aren't mutually exclusive. In my case, I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to be mindful about the injustices dealt to Asian Americans and other minorities in the US during the last century, as well the more difficult aspects of Taiwan's social and political history.

I am absolutely not saying vintage enthusiasts who don't think about those issues are shallow; my passion for vintage fashion and design just happens to intersect with my interest in social history. I'm grateful for that because it makes the past come alive in a very immediate way.

On a semi-related topic -- I post these photos because they are novel to me. I rarely see photos of Asian people from before the 1980s doing "everyday" things (i.e. not posing with a dragon or giant pair of chopsticks in an advertisement or something). My family's old photographs are scattered among various relatives, so even those are hard for me to get ahold of. Whenever I stumble upon photos like the ones above, I feel a certain sense of glee -- and relief -- that's hard to put into words.

But I am also cognizant of idealizing the people in the photos. I try to remind myself that they were more than just the cute clothes they are wearing (that I want in my own closet). I know nothing about these people, just that for one moment they posed for a photo that somehow ended up in my hands. I'm planning to re-read "On Photography" by Susan Sontag and "Camera Lucida" by Roland Barthes so I can better articulate my feelings on this issue.

Any thoughts on either of these topics (vintage clothing and politics/race or collecting vintage photographs)? I'd love to hear your feedback.