The Importance of Knowing
Hello all!
I’m Addie, I’m almost 25, married, a mother, a seamstress,
and last but not least, a Christ follower. This blog is to help guide you along
your alternative style journey and to intelligently dress in an alternative
way. (Truth be told, I hate the word alternative, but it gets the point across) The fact of the matter is, if we’re
doing something, we need to have an informed answer to why. As for myself, I’ll give a
slight back ground of how I came to be at the spot I am. In middle school, I was homeschooled and had one friend in
my neighborhood. I’m the third out of four children and I’m a pastor’s kid.
Make no mistake, I did NOT fall into the stereotype of a crazy pastor’s child.
In fact, I was quite the opposite and was very much involved in church and
loved it (still do). Middle school is when I began to have an interest in an
alternative style and I can thank my oldest brother, Ivey, for that. (This
would have been in 2005-2006, which was 8th & 9th
grade). Right smack in the middle of some of the best music ever written.
Being in a pastor’s family, we never had too much money and
that actually pushed me forward into the scene I’m still in. I ended up having
to make my own clothing or alter old clothing, because we simply didn’t have
the funds to go shopping whenever we wanted. My parents were incredibly
influential in this; they bought me my first sewing machine back in 7th
grade (I’ve been sewing since I was about 6, but it wasn’t until I was in
middle school that I got my own machine to use whenever I wanted). My first project
for my own clothing was a pair of jeans that I turned into a skirt because
those stinkin’ American Eagle jean skirts were so expensive for so little fabric!
Actual jean skirt from 2007
Finally, at the beginning of my senior year of high school,
I met one of the most influential ladies in my life; Mrs. Bessie Allen-Holmes.
She was the teacher of Fashion Fabrics and Design at Wando Highschool and she
very much shook my world. Mrs. Allen-Holmes pushed me in ways I never thought
possible and helped guide me to make my first clothing line (She passed away
last summer and if anything, that has pushed me even further in my career). She’s
the one responsible for helping me understand why we intelligently and
purposefully dress in whatever way we choose.
There are two people who I met in high school that have
greatly encouraged me over the years. The first person is my best friend Emily
Berger Teall, E.b. (She’s a fellow seamstress like me!)
Circa 2010
2015
The other is my stud of a husband, Patrick.
Silhouette
Overtime, I’ll cover more details of my journey,
but for now, let’s get into more of the fashion part of alternative style. One of the most important tips that I
can give you is knowing your silhouette. In fashion design, the body is separated
into eight segments. The head takes up three segments and the rest of the body
takes the other five.
I’m a huge fan of breaking up my silhouette even more than
that. I’m a relatively tall girl, 5’9”, and have always felt too tall. I’ve
always felt my neck is too long so I’ve worn chokers forever. When you break up
your silhouette, you make yourself look shorter. Alternative styles do a
fantastic job of that with layering. Layering is my best friend. I layer just
about every piece of clothing I have. I even layer my socks.
This is an older look from around 2013. In this outfit, we have tights, knee high socks, black suede boots, a dip dyed high waisted skirt, a base ball tee, choker, short necklace, and my hair is down. Apart from the obvious break lines, the skirt itself is dip dyed to further break up the silhouette. The 3/4 sleeve tee also serves the same purpose with only a little bit of skin showing on the arm. Anytime you want to look "edgier", break up your silhouette. Take a look at evening gowns and business attire; a lot of it is the same color and not to much attention to breaking up the human figure.
This next picture that I'm going to show you is from the same designer that the red dress is from. Dior is a high end fashion label and during their show this past Fashion Week in Paris, the label had these two dresses go down the run way. Notice how the silhouettes are broken up to make the gown look drastically different than the other one shown above.
I hope this gives a little insight to my method. The further the blog posts go, the more tips I'll give. This is an incredibly important bit of information to anyone who is wanting to make a statement in fashion. A little bit of thought makes an outfit go from "Eh, what an outfit" to "Wow, what an outfit!"
You can follow me on Instagram @adelaidexrawks
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