“MeMadeMay (2020) day 1: It’s here again already! This is kind of a soft open for me, because I made the (boring) skirt, but I got this blouse with abalone buttons and the biggest shoulder pads I’ve ever owned from the thrashed threads Facebook group, and haven’t had a chance to wear it out yet. Hair was an experimental wet set, which turned out… just ok. I look like a foot. Photos by Monterrey Jacques.”

Ahh, what is there to say about 2020? There was nowhere to go. The only places we ever went were to Beans and Bagels, to talk to other humans through a hole in the door that was blocked by a crate, and to Vaudezilla’s studio, to take advantage of free laundry, and to delude ourselves that I needed to keep practicing my acts, as if I’d ever return to the stage.

MMMay 2020 was a weird one for a lot of reasons. Mostly because the world was in a very weird place. But the upside to having nowhere to go and nothing in particular to do to fill up the days was that I tried a lot of different things. Like my attempt at hair.

Skirt is the bottom half of Anne Adams 4526. Also of note, the lipstick I’m wearing in these photos was Makeup Monsters (later Menagerie Cosmetics) matte liquid lipstick, in the colorway Mermaid Avenue. I’m mentioning this entirely because I’ve only ever referred to it as “Natty Ave.” which is, not-at-all-coincidentally, also how I constantly refer to John Lodge’s 1977 solo album, Natural Avenue. (Yes, I’ve absolutely been this weird for… decades at this point.)

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“MeMadeMay (2019) day 27. We took these pictures approximately 2.5 seconds before it started pouring rain. I was initially skeptical about combining this skirt with this particular blouse (vintage 70’s) but I think it fits my primary aesthetic of ‘high school English teacher’.”

I love that I somehow have no eyebrows in any of these photos.

This is one of those looks that was born out of… desperation, basically. You can really tell that I was stretching things by the end of the month, even in spite of the fact that I made three new pieces within the month of May to try to increase my options. (I’m not sure I’ve ever finished three pieces in a month before or since then.)

The skirt is, once again, the bottom half of Anne Adams 4526, and the top is one of my staple ugly 70’s blouses.

I’m also amused that this might be the first mention of my preferred aesthetic (of the time, at least), the High School English Teacher. My own high school English teachers wore the weirdest outfits, vacillating between tartan blanket-wrap-skirts, pieces that vaguely resembled a NASA pressure suit, and those late-90’s maroon-and-tan colored dusters with clogs, and I loved every minute of it. Nowadays, I would probably define my style as “anything John Lodge wore that wasn’t leather” which is… shockingly not a lot, that man loves leather in a way that I just can’t fully understand. But a lot of my vintage sensibilities came from the gatefold of Natural Avenue (IYKYK), the Rainbow Tank, and his persistent tendency to wear anything with the front open most of the way to the navel. And, honestly, I love that for me.

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“MeMadeMay (2019) day 9. Considering how much I love prints, I did NOT make this top. Nope, I made the completely boring black skirt. It’s part of that ostentatious 1940’s skirt suit with the seafoam brocade color block top, but I need serious foundation garments for the top to fit me, so I’ve been outsourcing the skirt to other outfits until all the heavy things I’ve been picking up lately take effect. (Read: I finally joined a gym) Skirt is beautiful rayon crepe lined in cupro, both from Mood fabrics.”

Pattern is Anne Adams 4526, from some time in the 40’s. The rest of this one can be seen in the photos that I (still) use for my avatar in most places:

This is one of those posts that sort of encapsulates the essence of what MeMadeMay is supposed to be, or at least supposed to establish for most people. What you wear, and how you wear it. The top for this ensemble is beautiful, but it has never once actually fit me, which is a real shame. The skirt, while boring and utilitarian, does get out from time to time. The thing I appreciate about this particular day, though, is that I was still trying to stay true to the overall aesthetic of the whole outfit when I chose another blouse to pair it with.

Apropos of nothing, I loved picking up heavy things at the gym. Everything about the way my body functions changed very abruptly after we got COVID, and I haven’t been back since then (it’s been… 2 and a half years now?) and I’m really not sure I’d even be able to handle it anymore. But it was fun while it lasted.

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