Because I'm not optimistic about the chances of finding Elegant Gothic Aristocrat/steampunk/pseudo-Victorian stuff in my size at a local thrift shop - even if one expands the definition of "local" to include the higher-end ones in Seattle - and under my current financial circumstances I can't really justify spending a hundred dollars for a dress, but - so pretty! I want to run around dressed like a steampunk adventuress, damme! So it seems that, in the absence of my personal economy receiving a great upturn, my best bet is to learn how to make my own darn promenade dresses. (Maybe I should switch to Elegant Byzantine Aristocrat - the clothes back then seemed to have much simpler basic structure.)

I have a character with strong bioelectric powers (she also has tentacles, a cute girlfriend, and a love of overly elaborate superweapons, but these are not immediately relevant). Since I'm the sort of person who gets compulsive about petty worldbuilding details before I have more than a few shreds of plot, I want to know what kind of underwear she's wearing. Her setting is based on Victorian Europe, and there's plenty of Victorian costuming resources out there, but her powers would probably make wearing anything made out of a highly flammable fabric a bad idea.
I know that rayon would be right out, even if she could make some with her Mad Scientist skills. Everything I've read on wool suggests that, for a natural fiber, it's very fire-resistant, but woolen underwear during a continental-climate summer doesn't sound that comfortable.

I sent in an application for a job today. (Actually, I sent it last night, but due to computer issues had to do it again this afternoon.) Since I don't know how many other applicants there are and just what standards the library system holds its prospective pages to, I don't have my heart set on this particular position, but it feels good to have done something. And if I do get in, it'll be work in a field that actually interests me, the money looks pretty decent, and I'd be able to bus to work.

Also, courtesy of a shopping expedition to Seattle with the sister (who is savvier about these things) I have acquired some "professional" clothes. Mostly separates, and a pair of new shoes. I'm not one for yuppie tailoring *at all*, but it probably comes in handy in some situations to own a few outfits that don't look like their principal components came from funky little fair-trade Asian import shops.

I want one of these. http://www.modest-swimwear.net/index.htm
They remind me of something some 1910s proto-flapper might wear to the beach, along with those cute little ballet-style canvas shoes with the ribbons. I think a black one with little skulls and crossbones or anarchy symbols would be particularly fun for inspiring cognitive dissonance in my fellow swimmers.

A girl in my dorms told me that I dressed like a librarian. The outfit that inspired that reaction was an ankle-length sleeveless embroidered lavender Indian dress worn over a pink turtleneck, so I'd thought before that I looked like a rather bohemian Orthodox Jewish girl. (Although I don't think that the red sequined scuffs are particularly tznius or particularly librarianish - they were because I didn't want to wear real shoes just to watch a movie in someone's dorm room, but stocking feet or fuzzy slippers seemed a bit too informal for visiting.) I suppose the two aren't mutually exclusive.

Most of my non-summer wardrobe is in this sort of style, actually, which could be very convenient if I ever do in fact take up librarianship or convert to a religion with a dress code.

I wonder what the next big fashion countercultures are going to be? It would amuse me greatly if rebellious young women (who weren't Muslim or Orthodox Jewish) started showing their distaste with mainstream culture and the fashion industry by running around in long dresses and scarves and giving the older generation terminal crescent-cringe. This seems the logical antithesis to the Britney Spears look, and given the current political climate I'm sure some parents would have a knee-jerk negative reaction if their daughters started covering up - "No child of mine is leaving the house dressed like a terrorist," and that sort of thing.

At least if this does catch on I'd be half-way fashionable for once, and corporate retail's inevitable attempts at cashing in on the trend would make the kind of clothes I like more accessible. (I'm not a Muslim, and I don't really dress to any set standards of modesty, but I like long skirts, long sleeves, and pretty ethnic clothes, and I often wear non-hijab-style headscarves, especially if the weather's chilly or my hair is looking sub-par.) Maybe it would also encourage the production of more swimsuits that don't require an accompanying program of large-scale hair removal.

How would this hypothetical trend be received by people and communities who traditionally dressed modestly for religious or cultural reasons? Would it stay just fashion or have an accompanying subculture? If it does collect a subculture, how would that connect to its adherents' ethics, politics, and manners? Would there be schisms? Would people who got disenchanted with the subculture run off to be topless dancers as a reaction? It raises all sorts of questions.