Saturday, October 16, 2010

What Not To Wear: Jack Attack Edition

These are certain fashion choices/trends you will most definitely not catch me sporting any time soon:

1. Visible bra straps. I don't know what it is, but it irritates me to no end when a girl wears something where you can see her bra straps. Either wear a strapless, some sort of cover up, or no bra at all. Seriously. What's worse is when the bra is a completely different color than the top, so it stands out that much more. Like a bright pink bra with a black top. Uh-uh. I have no idea why it bothers me so much, I can't trace the origins of my abhorrence to visible bra straps, but I think it looks cheap and sloppy.
2. Animal prints. Any kind of animal print: leopard, cheetah, tiger, giraffe, zebra, etc. I find animal prints (in fashion, and actually, in decor as well) to be the most tacky and the most chintzy display ever. To me, nothing screams "I have no taste!" more. (Sorry to anyone reading this who owns animal prints. It's nothing personal.)
Perhaps you noticed, to be fair, I put two pictures up for the animal print. The first one is more an example of what we're more likely to see on the street, and the second are designer creations with animal print. I can honestly say I don't like either, even the "high-end" animal prints. Ugh, they hurt my eyes to even look.
3. Fur/Feathers. Yes, big surprise, I don't like furs or feathers. I think feathers look campy, and I think fur, more especially, is extremely gaudy. But not only do I dislike the aesthetic of both, I would never, ever wear any fur based on morality issues. (Doesn't it kind of creep you out to touch real fur or feathers? It definitely creeps me out.) Even faux fur and synthetic feathers I wouldn't wear. I just don't care for it.
4. Skins. (Things are about to get preachy in here, just to forewarn.) You know what I'm talking about: crocodile skin, snake skin, leather/suede, elephant skin (!) etc. While every other fashion trend on this list is banned from my wardrobe because I don't like the aesthetics of the item, this is the one item where (for the most part) I don't think it looks bad, I am solely opposed to it for humane reasons. The hardest one would have to be leather and suede, though, because if I'm being honest, I think leather looks really chic and cool. And it's really hard to buy boots or purses that aren't made (even partially) of suede or leather. But I'm going to take a stand here and say I won't wear leather or suede because I don't support killing animals for fashion. (I have a polyurethane jacket instead of a leather one.) The snake skin and the crocodile skin I'm not tempted by, they don't appeal to me as much, but I still don't agree with them (even though I am totally freaked out by both snakes and crocodiles) I don't think their skin should be used for boots, belts, etc. But the elephant skin!? I didn't even know that elephant skin boots even existed until earlier this week. You ready for my story? Okay.
Earlier this week, I helped a woman at my work who came in to return a pair of boots that she decided she didn't want. She didn't have a receipt for her item, but the original price ticket was still on there. Whenever this happens, I'm supposed to put the ticket numbers into a program that tells me what the product is (so I can make sure it is the correct product) being returned, ya dig? So anyway, that's beside the point. I noticed these boot were particularly expensive, $150.00 expensive. I thought it was odd that they were so much because I could tell right away that they weren't leather (which is obviously expensive) but I couldn't tell what they were made of; the texture felt and looked odd to me. So I put the ticket info in, and lo and behold, the computer told me I was holding elephant skin boots in my hands. I seriously felt like throwing them on the floor after I found out, I didn't even want to touch them after that.
But then I got to thinking, how could elephant skin trade even be legal? I know ivory is most definitely not legal trade, and1 elephants are ENDANGERED animals. Both the African and the Asian elephant are endangered. So I did a little research when I got home. Turns out that elephant skin trade is completely legal in the United States. I was/am so pissed about it. While I am sympathetic to bovine, I am so much more emotional about the idea of elephants being killed for fashion.


I'm sure there's more, but this post is getting pretty along. Maybe I will make a second edition. We'll see.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

terms of endearment

During my orientation for my current job, my manager talked about how we shouldn't use terms of endearment towards the customers. No sweetie or sugar etc, because people can find it to be diminutive or condescending. It got me thinking about it, and you know what? It's never bothered me when someone calls me hon, and in a weird way, I kind of like it. Only from older women though, not men. (Except, I think some older men can call you hon without it being creepy.)

One lady at my work calls people all sorts of pet names. It cracks me up, because hers are pretty unconventional. She calls a lot of people "dear heart" and if she really likes you, she calls you her "sugar lump." I'm pumped on it. (That's probably because I'm a sugar lump and not a dear heart.)

But it got me thinking about whether or not I ever do that. I didn't think I called people by any pet names. (People I don't know, that is. I call my boyfriend babe, and every once in a while I'll call him a couple others, mostly as a joke e.g. "boyface" and if I feel like being really obnoxious: "peach pit.") But I decided I would make a conscious effort to notice whether or not I ever said any terms of endearment. Turns out, I do. Not to adults, but to kids. I hadn't even realized it. But I noticed that I almost always call little boys "buddy" when I'm talking to them, and little girls are either "honey" or "sweetie." I wonder how long I've been doing that.

But now the question is, are people getting offended if I call their kids that? Would you get offended if someone was calling your kid buddy or honey?