Is the New Year a new start for you?

It generally hasn’t been for me. I much prefer the new book smell of fall for my fresh starts. New Year’s felt forced. I often worked that night and had to ask my patients the date every hour all night long. It confused all of us and constantly reminded us of the passage of time, blurring the effect of waking up to a fresh beginning in the new year.

This year was a bit different, right? A bit of a dumpster fire, by some estimates. Way out of bounds for what most of us expected.

The end of 2020 felt like the perfect time to embrace all that New Year’s had to offer.

I wanted just a few things from New Year’s this year. Each New Year’s, our family undergoes family drama. I’m not sure what it is about the holiday that puts us on edge, but there is always either a crisis or a huge fight right around Jan. 1 and this year was no different.

What was different? I gave myself a week off from social media and the news. I’m still fasting. I pick up my phone a lot less, and nothing bad has happened as a result of my being unaware of the current news cycle. (I broke the news fast not long after publishing this post, after getting two non-news related emails that referenced what went down yesterday. It was messed up, and there’s a lot to digest. I’m glad I wasn’t following it in real time. Initial thought? Black protesters wouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near the Capitol. This article sums it up.)

I also started making some costume pieces for a new time period, 1895-1910. This time period covers a lot of ground. Specifically, I was inspired by the practical, menswear-inspired costumes in Collette*, Victorian and Edwardian images and fashion plates (a Pinterest rabbit hole, sample image below) and the dreamy original Anne of Green Gables movies.Of course, one must always start with the underthings, and for this time period, I “need” a corset, a corset cover, split drawers, and here’s where the New Year, New You comes in: a bum pad and bust improver (Interestingly, the inspirational woman above may have forgone a bust improver and she looks amazing).

Both of those last pieces are exactly what they sound like: padding to make your curve ratio more pronounced for the hour-glass/S-shape look of the period.

As with all of my costuming ventures, it has been slow going – part lack of time, part fear of screwing up. This time period calls for super frilly underwear and I’m not into frills. I have to figure out how to get the look without sacrificing myself in the process. This involves some dainty (but not fussy) embroidery and pin tucks… which require more precision than I like, but it is what it is.

I am making silly underthings that will make my outside look a certain way for a certain time period, which is fun, and exactly the opposite of what current “natural” beauty standards demand.

Can you imagine a world where we make padding to fit the societal ideal and there’s no shame in it? Can you imagine societal ideals which required addition rather than subtraction?

What are your creative goals or intentions for the coming year?

*I can’t recommend Collette as a Must-See Historical Drama because along with lovely costumes, there was an overload of graphic sex. Modern movie makers are confused about what they must show to make us understand what happened.

Is it enough to hear the ring of metal and a dull thud, or must we actually see a lingering shot of the bloody, spurting stump in order to understand that a limb has been lost? Hollywood, we are not incapable of subtlety and imagination. You are training us to be oafs without nuance.