This is the time of year when many little tikes are gearing up for the big day and hoping for the costly techy toys that their parents would never buy them otherwise. I never once asked for tech when I was a kid. It was all toys. Then it was clothes, but gadgets never interested me or even really seemed like a gift. It's like looking at old photos and seeing the classic housewife getting a new vacuum cleaner and you kind of go...uhhh, is this a gift? Tech, like vacuum cleaners have always seemed like useful tools, but not toys--even the ones that are intended as toys. Someone once bought my brother a Simon game. Watching his frustrated attempts to tap the colored buttons in the same complicated pattern as the game from memory, I knew he must have done something horrible to deserve that "gift."
When I was in my early 20s and hopelessly bored during the one and only summer I took off from university, so bored I wished I could just be in class taking tests and pulling my hair out, I was introduced to a few benign cutesy games which I really enjoyed...in the total absence of anything else to do. One of the games I used to love was called Animal Crossing. It was on the Nintendo Game Cube and I played it for years until I had pretty much done all the interesting things there were to be done. They've since released newer versions like New Leaf and New Horizons which are so much more involved I don't think you ever really run out of things to do. I know because my children are constantly playing them and have been for years now.
At this point you might be wondering what on earth any of this has to do with anything. Hang with me, we'll get there. The game involved moving to a town, earning money, helping locals, planting things and celebrating holidays. Around this time of year you got to meet a character called Jingle. Jingle is basically the Santa Claus character but for "reasons" it's a deer called Jingle instead of a jolly saintly fat man being chauffeured by a herd of aerial deer. The Jingle character was pretty cute and I don't mind a little appropriation to make something new. Let's face it, cultures have been borrowing off each other since the dawn of time and the results can be pretty awesome--I'm talking about you, American-made Korean BBQ Taco!
Is she nearly to the point? Yes, indeed. I like it when we borrow a little from here and a little from over there, when we press up against an idea, suggestive instead of shrieking, and make something unique. It worked for my favorite taco place, it worked for Animal Crossing, and it can work in the fashion world too.
So, borrowing an idea from Animal Crossing and Jingle, today's outfit is a bit of Christmas cheer without being too on the (shiny red) nose. A little khaki sundress with a duck hunting print from my favorite novelty print dress maker, Ting--proprietress of The Other Sparrows. I paired it with a thrifted forest green bow top, green tights, and of course my deer beret. Christmas-y? Yes, in its own way.
Don't be afraid to borrow here and there to make a look that is uniquely you. It's ok to give credit to your sources for good measure, but ultimately we're all influenced by others all the time and it's ok to blend all those influences into our own style. So, I guess one good thing did come from all those wasted months of playing video games, just don't tell my children that I said that. As far as they're concerned, I'm still firmly against them. And, look at that, in my own meandering way, I tied it all together again. Good for me and thank you, Jingle.
Shopping Info: Dress from The Other Sparrows, Tights from ModCloth, Hat from Aliexpress
