archival allure

rookiemag: ofanotherfashion: Maybe the most stylish librarian ever - check out that fascinator!...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:47:33 -0500

ofanotherfashion:

Maybe the most stylish librarian ever - check out that fascinator! Lucille Baldwin Brown was the first Black public county librarian in Tallahassee, Florida. This photograph is part of the collection at the State Library and Archives of Florida.

jamie

iliketodrawexplosions: Library science heels! I have mixed...

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 22:06:56 -0500

iliketodrawexplosions:

Library science heels! I have mixed feelings about a) the sexy librarian sterotype and b) these shoes, but I do love the copy, just because it uses the phrase “Dewey Decimal darling” (although I’d prefer to see “Library of Congress cutie.” LC just doesn’t get enough love).

Friday Cocktails! 16 drinks named for authors and their books

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:57:44 -0500

Friday Cocktails! 16 drinks named for authors and their books:

Great drinks for your Friday Cocktail literary needs!

Imbibe on concoctions such as Oscar’s Wilde Thang (3 oz Vodka Citron, 1 oz Cointreau, 1 oz Fresh Lime juice, 2 oz Cranberry juice)!

Or others like:

Cormac McCarthy’s Bloody Meridian

Jack London’s Call of the Wild Turkey

or The Ernest Hemingway Special

Tights! With Glasses!

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:07:00 -0400

Tights! With Glasses! :

Anthropologie designs a winner with Lost Glasses Sweater Tights!

via blackandwtf: filing this under “reasons it’s...

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:06:02 -0400

via blackandwtf:

filing this under “reasons it’s great to live (and dress) in the 21st century”

the great book clutch!

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:53:28 -0400

Clutches by Olympia Le-Tan

Clutches by Kate Spade

A special thanks to KB for the sharp eye!

John Smedley's 'The Archivist'

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:37:43 -0400

I know it’s been too long since I’ve posted, but being AA’s (sole?) male correspondent I found this link shared by colleague Amanda Keys too good to pass up.

Fancypants luxury brand John Smedley (known for “high quality knitwear and a rich 225-year [sic] heritage”) has introduced their Autumn/Winter men’s collection and it all looks exceedingly sharp. From the website:

Our menswear collection draws inspiration from the personality of ‘The Archivist.’ Exploring the concept of a ‘collection’ in all its guises, the range blends well-loved pieces with future classics to create a textural and colourful anthology reminiscent of a passionately compiled archive. These will be timeless pieces to collect and to treasure.

While I can’t deny that the clean, classic lines, modern fit and distinguished footwear has the fashion nerd in me salivating, the $100-$200 price tag on most of these items place them far outside of my budget. Ironic, isn’t it, that a representative of the intellectual inspiration of this line is rarely if ever paid enough to afford its wares. Let us then, in turn, be inspired ourselves to research & appraise all of our fashion resources, and to “passionately compile” this look for less!

Drawn Together…. I’ll confess… before most...

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:29:51 -0400

Drawn Together….

I’ll confess… before most travel or major shopping excursions I end up drawing the outfits I envision for my quest. Drawing your outfits planned for extended travel can be fairly helpful when you’re in a rush to get dressed on the road. Imagine sharing bathrooms and negotiating shared sleeping quarters. (Can you tell I often use hostels?) These drawings were never something I expected to share on the Web, with a little inspiration from some style blogs out there I thought I’d propose the idea.

Easy to Wear Pleats - the knee lenght circle skirt

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:29:47 -0400

living in: party girl

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 21:51:17 -0400

living in: party girl:

from design sponge: “1995? Parker Posey? New York? Sounds like a classic in the making.”

love this recreation of the style of a favorite fictional librarian!

It turns out this photo is from 2006, which somehow makes me...

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 21:17:32 -0400

It turns out this photo is from 2006, which somehow makes me feel a little bit better about these two looking like they are ready for the reference shift circa 1978… but I’m still a little creeped out.

The cataloging nerd in me loves these tights that classify your...

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:59:00 -0400

The cataloging nerd in me loves these tights that classify your level of daring based on skirt length. Did I mention they’re tights with words on them?! ‘Nuff said.

(Also available en Español!)

la

Sick of articles about the future of reading? Try this drinking game.

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:37:00 -0400

Sick of articles about the future of reading? Try this drinking game.:

Perfect for FRIDAY COCKTAILS!

A drinking game for getting through those fruitless articles about the future of the book.

A sampling:

“Will e-books wipe out/kill/decimate/pulverize/HULKSMASH/angry verb real books?” — one drink

Above question is lede — one drink

Every use of phrase “real book” — one drink

Expert you’ve never heard of before predicting percentages — one drink

Any predicted percentage of anything over 30% — one drink

Any discussion of book world after 2020 — one drink

“old-fashioned” — one drink

Passionate defense of DRM — one drink

So get reading/drinking!

wellwellwell: “What’s your style? My style is community-college...

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:45:52 -0400

wellwellwell:

“What’s your style?
My style is community-college librarian.”

- zach galifianakis in nymag

i think the man looks good. also, i would love to work with this guy.

Friday Cocktails - Interim Edition After a long hiatus of the...

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:14:00 -0400

Friday Cocktails - Interim Edition

After a long hiatus of the Friday Cocktail, I bring you only this image as a poor subsitute for a clever drink recipe. But isn’t it cool? Found it at my library and needed to share.

Real Friday Cocktail posts to come…

Obsession: New Dress A Day

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:44:00 -0400

Check out this fantastic exercise in fashion, creativity, self-control, and sustainability: New Dress A Day

Before:

After:

http://newdressaday.wordpress.com/

A special thanks to Ms. KB for pointing out this amazing blog!

the long of it...

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:43:51 -0400

I love a nice long skirt - though not too long, with my short legs I like to avoid floor length in favor of something closer to tea length. I like this length for a couple reasons - for one, it is really comfortable - no concerns over indecent exposure, and two, it manages to look classic and professional without being too business-y.

Early one morning a couple of weeks ago I had the take a train for an all day meeting, plus overnight - the longer skirt proved comfy for the train trip and managed to look decent once I arrived, despite hours of sitting.

jessicaleanne: hrrrthrrr: I am lusting, drooling, wishing and...

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:39:00 -0400

jessicaleanne:

hrrrthrrr:

I am lusting, drooling, wishing and just generally wanting this bag….bad. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. Hey Archival Clothing, if you need to test this bag out…I’m available.

AGREED.

1. I LOVE this bag. Roomy. Sturdy. Perfect for toting books, tools and picnics.

2. “Archival Clothing”?! How have we missed this company??

3. I vote for a letter-writing campaign to institute a archivist’s discount.

Discussing the LBD (Librarian's Best Device) via the Uniform Project

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:31:00 -0400

LA’s recent post left me thinking about the contrast between the allure of the LBD (little black dress) and the less alluring notion of BCLLA (black-clad librarianesqe ladies’ attire). LA wrote:

blackandwtf:

via State Library of New South Wales collection.

I don’t have much to say about the dullness of these black-clad librarianesqe ladies’ attire. It’s dull. There. BUT I think I might have to adopt “festive and feminine” as my personal summer style mantra.

I wonder where is the practical difference between these two Platonic garment ideas that has fueled their respective connotations. The LBD enjoys notions of simplicity, practicality, and glamor, but the later substitute’s the sheen and opalescence of “glamor” for just the opposite, dullness. The difference between the two ideas seems to be essentially a combination of the following: a) hemlines b) cleverness of construction and c) fit.

Now according to Wikipedia the legend of the LBD specifies that it is “cut simply and often quite short.” The legend of the librarian diverges depending on whether you take the school marm legend (in which case don’t expect to see any knee) or you prefer the promiscuous, minx-like, or naughty librarian stereotype (in which case expect to see much more).

What’s a style conscious, professionally minded, school of information graduate to do? Where the rest of the world sees two categories in which to fit librarians’ attire either a) school marm or b) slut, we live a outside of these distinctions.

Since the cocktail dress characterization of the LBD doesn’t fit within the working environments of the information professional you might wonder aloud “Where’s our LBD!?” I think we should look to a even more versatile approach to this garment one that is more glamor appropriate (perhaps less Lipstick Jungle as the one pictured above), one that is more situated to the real life working conditions for those outside of Madison Ave.

Wikipedia describes the LBD as

Because it is meant to be a staple of the wardrobe for a number of years, the style of the little black dress ideally should be as simple as possible: a short black dress that is too clearly part of a trend would not qualify because it would soon appear dated.

Doesn’t the dress pictured below fulfill all of those requirements?! Yes it does and how!

The garment shown above is a blank canvas. It seems to balance the need for versatility and practicality in a librarian’s LBD while giving a 1-2 punch of moxie. Further still it seems that this dress derives its talismanic quality from is ability to amplify the wearer’s unique and quirky sense of style. Interestingly this dress, which is made with almost no embellishment, bears no likeness to the attire we see in the oft cited source of Librarian fashion plates, Anthropologie (as EV has discussed in a related post). Instead this dress uses the cleverness of its simple design to provide at least a year’s worth of great outfits. The cut of the dress invites interpretation as you can see below.

Worn as a jumper over pants.

Worn as a business-appropriate statement on modern art.

Worn as topper to a steam punk inspired skirt channeling Marie Curie perhaps.

Worn as a Hump-day (by which I mean middle-of-week-I-woke-up-late-and-almost-missed-my-train) dress which was simply accessorized to emphasize graphic impact and comfort. (Although racier interpretations of “hump day” don’t seem out of the question.)

So readers, do the possibilities seem endless to you? If they don’t yet then take a look at the blog dedicated to perpetrating good in the world using this marvelous dress by visiting http://www.theuniformproject.com/year1.

For those of you interested getting your own LBD check out their store at which you can either 1) buy an LBD or 2) buy the pattern and fabric. As soon as my pocket book allows I hope to invest in one myself!

Much Love!

//ecw a.k.a. miss-zola

Dispatch from the Field

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:21:44 -0400

So, the thing about a style blog, and more specifically the thing about a fashion diary is that it takes a lot of confidence to actually take your picture every day (or even every week!). And you want to know what kills confidence? Walking around in a record high heat wave. Hair goes wild, unsightly stains emerge. sheesh!

Despite my strategic packing and lofty plans of daily photographs from the ALA annual conference in Washington D.C. I returned with quite a “farmer’s tan” and an empty roll of film (or, you know… memory card). Between record-high heat and usual conference exhaustion I just couldn’t cut it.

Luckily, Archival Allure’s special correspondent, EK, saved the day with a very distinctive fashion dispatch from the Rare Books & Manuscript pre-conference:

Nothing is a suave as a classic three piece suit. Here, EK makes his look more casual by ditching the tie and keeping his collar unbuttoned:

The arched eyebrows and unassuming expression don’t hurt either.

It is never easy to balance conference flair (giant name tags, etc.) with personal style, however EK managed to pull off a bow tie and red jacket, AND the requisite lanyard, badge, magenta flag:

I think this particular ensem can be filed under the ‘gutsy’ category. It takes more than a little confidence to throw on a red sports coak and a bow time. Now, I think EK here has some actual bravery, but in case you don’t check out this recent Kendi Everyday post about faking fashion bravery.

As always, a very special thanks to our special correspondent, one of favorite fashionable AA men!