{"id":6630,"date":"2010-08-04T14:17:41","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T18:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=6630"},"modified":"2011-01-11T17:16:49","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T22:16:49","slug":"ossie-clark-is-fugging-fabulous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/ossie-clark-is-fugging-fabulous\/","title":{"rendered":"Ossie Clark Is Fugging Fabulous"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to commenter Carrie for pointing out that director Lucy Walker’s vintage Ossie Clark dress made it onto Go Fug Yourself<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Courtesy of Go Fug Yourself. Click photo to read the whole post.<\/p><\/div>\n

Carrie remembered that I had re-posted this 2004 photo of myself last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Click for original post of this photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

I read Go Fug Yourself from 2004 to 2006, when comments were regularly allowed (now they’re selectively allowed<\/a>.) Commenters ranged from comic geniuses who tried to outdo the bloggers in hilarity to people who seemed determined to prove they were dumb fucks. Didn’t a great man once say, “Better to step away from the keyboard and be thought a dumb fuck than to type ‘u r jellus’ and remove all doubt<\/a>“? It was the dumb fucks and h8ers<\/a> who helped me develop<\/a> my Wear What You Want<\/a> policy, which has been part of this blog since I started blogging in July 2007. “Too much good taste can be boring<\/a>,” said Diana Vreeland, and so can too much negativity.\u00a0\u00a0 I felt like hardly anyone was deemed acceptable — everyone was too dressed up, too casual, too wild, or too conservative. They were wearing the right dresses at the wrong events. Shoes were either too impractical or too business-like. Complaints about TV stars snapped on set wearing puffa coats or Ugg boots with their glam TV wardrobe because they were trying to stay comfortable during a 16-hour day on the set? Zzzzz. Wake me up when the actors wear that evening-gown-and-Uggs combo on the red carpet and I’ll try to care a little.\u00a0 And people who are deliberately dressing outrageously to get noticed, like Bai Ling<\/a>, can be fun to dissect, but after the 100th bad outfit — obviously selected because fashion police are the only people who care about her — it’s kind of silly to get outraged. For some people, you need to say, “Yeah. It’s Cher. That’s what she does,” and move on.<\/p>\n

I speak from personal experience when I say it’s more fun to be considered a fashion disaster than to be a perfectly acceptable — and invisible — wallflower.<\/p>\n

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I love to re-post this image. Click for the original post.<\/p><\/div>\n

You’re never going to be ahead of the fashion pack if you don’t take any chances. Maybe you don’t want to be a leader. Maybe you want to be right in the middle and go unnoticed. That’s fine. But if you do want to stand out, remember my other fashion philosophy: Never Is the Next New Thing\u2122<\/a>. Leopard is EVERYWHERE now. You can’t swing a dead leopard<\/a> without hitting leopard Lanvin<\/a>, leopard Dolce & Gabbana<\/a>, leopard Louboutins<\/a>, leopard accessories<\/a>, leopard<\/a>, leopard<\/a>, leopard<\/a>. Like red lipstick, leopard never truly goes away — it just takes occasional vacations before bursting into popularity again — so I won’t take credit for starting the latest leopard love affair by wearing that 1980s Patrick Kelly gown (Yeah, I know it looks like a catsuit from that angle, but it’s a dress!) in front of a bunch of cameras in 2008. But when I say something is in the air, believe<\/a>. Can’t wait to see y’all in your knickers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UPDATED TO ADD: More Vreeland quotes, including one about lettuce, can be found in her New York Times obituary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UPDATED AGAIN TO ADD: Siouxsie Law wrote a great post<\/a> on wearing at least some of what you want in the corporate world while still holding onto your job.<\/p>\n

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Thanks to commenter Carrie for pointing out that director Lucy Walker’s vintage Ossie Clark dress made it onto Go Fug Yourself. Carrie remembered that I had re-posted this 2004 photo of myself last month. I read Go Fug Yourself from 2004 to 2006, when comments were regularly allowed (now they’re selectively allowed.) Commenters ranged from…<\/p>\n

Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[507,479,48,41,103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-leopard-print","category-never-is-the-next-new-thing","category-ossie-clark","category-pictures-of-me","category-wear-what-you-want","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t