anna_wing

I was reading about byssus, the sea-silk woven from the byssus filaments produced by the mussel Pinna nobilis, now only woven in the traditional way by one woman in Italy for educational purposes only. So of course started looking into whether anyone was (a) synthesising the stuff and (b) whether other shellfish also produced byssus that would be usable for textile purposes. And no surprise, there's a lot of interest, since shellfish byssus (which they use to attach themselves to rock or seabed) has all sorts of potentially useful properties.

For my specific interests, this French company, Bysco, seems the most hopeful, since it's producing thread for industrial and technical fabrics from the byssi of farmed edible mussels (Pinna nobilis is technically edible too but it is highly endangered and a protected species under EU law).

https://lampoonmagazine.com/article/2023/11/06/french-start-up-bysco-bio-based-textile-material-byssus-fiber/

And here is some interesting research into the bio-mechanical properties of Pinna nobilis byssus itself. Much too technical for my level of knowledge, but the conclusion that the byssus evolved separately in different mussel species is very interesting.

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2019/sm/c9sm01830a


Apparently the proteins from byssus are used to synthesise spider silk too.

https://scitechdaily.com/the-future-of-sustainable-clothing-new-breakthrough-in-synthetic-spider-silk-fabrication/

https://boltthreads.com/technology/microsilk/


I do hope that Bysco or some company in the same line does eventually succeed in either industrialising byssus as a fashion fibre, or even in synthesising it directly. Artisanal traditions are good to preserve, to be sure, but it would be fun have a dress that started out as moules marinières.

Trouser suits are back, according to the Guardian. I had noticed signs of this last year, and am pleased that it caught on, as it should. These are just the most efficient and comfortable outfits for a woman who needs formal work clothes. Choices of style become much wider and more easily available when something is in fashion. There were long, sad years when it seemed as if the only choices were getting them tailor-made (the best way, but expensive for juniors) or outfits apparently intended for Korean boy bands.

I remember having to patiently explain to new recruits who had never seen a real trouser suit that no, Capris don't count and neither do leggings of any length.


https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2022/oct/23/at-work-or-parties-whos-wearing-the-trousers-everyone

Coincidentally, I have found an actual local tailor who can make Western-style suits, and intend to try them out next weekend with some of the Thai silk that I picked up at the Jim Thompson Factory Outlet the last time I was in Bangkok. I've dug out a 'vintage' Yves St Laurent suit pattern for Vogue that I bought when it was new. Fingers crossed.


The wife of an acquaintance had salmonella and dengue fever simultaneously, poor thing. Westerners working here, so they could afford a decent hospital, and she survived. She was morbidly obese and is still very fat, but definitely thinner now. Not a good way to do it, she'll probably regain, sadly. But at least she's alive. Salmonella's been going round, someone in my office had it, and so did her doctor, and they both had to be on an antibiotic drip plus orals.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/28/fab-abs-nicole-kidman-frantic-effort-to-look-half-your-age-demeaning

There are really so many bizarre elements in this article that I wonder whether it was edited for sense at all.

Quite a lot of people, including middle-aged women, actually enjoy vigorous exercise for its own sake, as well as for the real improvements in appearance and health that it brings. Not to mention that a body ideal that would at least encourage women to pursue strength, fitness and decent nutrition is a vast improvement on the ones we've seen in the last few decades. It is also pernicious to encourage the entirely false idea that striving for health and fitness are only for the rich. Not everyone can or wants to do five workouts a week, but surely a journalist would have noticed in nearly three years of lockdowns that free exercise videos are widely prevalent on the internet. Weightlifting is the current fad, but it's not the only way to get stronger. Calisthenics, and resistance exercises (I do those in my bedroom) work pretty well too. So does taiji. And any elderly or physically disabled person knows that maintaining as much cardiovascular fitness and strength as possible makes his or her daily life that much easier.

Really the only "demeaning" thing is the journalist's insulting assumption that women are stupid and can't tell the difference between the regime followed by a star actress with a specific professional interest in her own appearance, and one that they would probably follow themselves.

Some women do the full Korean ten-step skin-care routine, and others stick to soap and water and a dab of moisturiser. Some put on the full spackle every day, and others only wear eyeshadow for State Banquets (an Asian diplomat of my acquaintance, who in her mid-fifties had not so much as a crow's toenail around her eyes). None of them needs to be told what to do or what to think about their own preferred practice.

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2021/sep/12/double-duty-hybrid-outfits-suit-the-mood-for-return-to-the-office

(a) I would not myself consider the fashions in this article to be Western appropriations of a shalwar khameez or the general tunic-and-trousers concept of which a shalwar khameez is a local example. They are Western versions. It's rather common globally to have local versions of originally-foreign things, just ask Kit-Kat Japan, Jollibee, or Samsung.

(b) A shalwar khameez in its multiple Asian incarnations is not in fact "gender neutral", any more than a sarong or a longyi or a dhoti is. There are male styles and female styles. Wearing one when you're the other will at the very least require explanation, in most relevant countries ("I'm a foreigner" is usually a perfectly acceptable explanation; also "I'm a rich and upper-class local with avant-garde tastes in fashion"). The Western version may be considered so, I suppose, in the context of Western clothing conventions. The actual internationally accepted gender-neutral costume is jeans and a T-shirt, which has been in existence as such for some decades now.

(c) The Chanel frilly version with lace is basically pyjamas, to my eye. And not even proper lounging pyjamas (see the late, great Marjorie Hollis for the distinction among lounging pyjamas, hostess pyjamas, beach pyjamas and sleeping pyjamas).

(c) A tunic is not a frock, and never has been, anywhere, East, West or all points between. That's just fashion illiteracy.

This means incorporating historical or historically-inspired clothes into your daily life. It is a thing that some Western historical costumers do, and I should think it would apply to the Chinese 'hanfu' movement too. There is no specific period of history required, though it does seem to be used to refer largely to Western clothes of the pre-World War I period, which are very obviously not within the normal compass of modern fashion.

From about World War I onwards, the clothes became recognisably modern in style, and could probably be worn today with not too many eyebrows raised, especially if one simply says "oh, it's designer". And styles from about the 1930s onwards would probably be categorised as "vintage fashion", rather than "historical costume".

I wear a lot of clothes that are based on or directly copied from 1920s styles (the linear, tubular look suits the flat, rectangular body shape common in East and Southeast Asia perfectly), so possibly I'm doing it too!

French tips appear to be back in fashion, which is lovely. If your taste runs to the classic white-tip look (fancy coloured tips are Not My Thing), it is a magnificently easy look to approximate, for minimal effort. A coat of clear or lightly tinted gloss will do. Being lazy, I don't bother to even do that, since these days I mostly just buff my nails. This is best done with the four-sided buffers, with different grades of abrasiveness on each side. The roughest side gets used about once a month, and the smoothest once a week, which keeps a nice gloss on without significantly weakening the nail.

I have been buying stuff from small local social enterprises, just to help keep them going. A group of four women's co-ops sent over samples of their products to the office- soap, shampoo using some traditional local ingredients, bags, tissue box covers etc, so the minions and I did a collective order for ourselves, plus a bigger one as corporate gifts. The soap and shampoo are pretty decent, I will re-order.

Today a friend and I, and the Housekeeper went to the dressmaker, and a good time was had by all. I've ordered three dresses for myself, including a Vionnet chiton dress from 1920, which still looks pretty fabulous, in my view:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a4/34/13/a434135fce6aa5268bfefde5011ee6ae.jpg

https://thedreamstress.com/costume-portfolio/portfolio-1920s-vionnet-inspired-chiton-dress

I ordered a dress for the Housekeeper as well, for her birthday.

The modernism of 1920s fashion has held up remarkably well in terms of style, and in terms of comfort and convenience far surpasses some of the styles inflicted on women later in the 20th century (girdles, micro-minis, bubble skirts, four-inch heels...). Comparing Western women's fashion of the 1920s with what they had been wearing even fifteen years earlier, I'd say that there has never been a greater sartorial revolution. Also, the tubular, waist-suppressed look just suits the rectangular body type so well. The underwear was gorgeous too, both comfortable and becoming, and not horribly tarty. People did wear foundation garments, but they didn't have to. Vionnet certainly favoured retaining the natural line of the figure.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=1920s+lingerie&atb=v225-1&iax=images&ia=images

I can safely say that I know where my clothes come from...

This post was inspired by a colleague who stopped dyeing her hair because of the COVID-19 lockdowns, but had it cut it as normal. She now has a very stylish half and half long bob, with the top half pale grey and the bottom dark brown. It looks very cool. I am in mild envy, since my hair is going white but is not yet all the way there . It is going white in odd patches, with additional gentle sprinkles all over, so I resemble an elderly reverse Dalmatian more than a silver fox...

I've never bothered to dye it, since (a) dye is bad for your hair (my hairdresser makes most of her money from dye-jobs, but I am hooked on her approval for not doing it; (b) a proper dye-job is expensive and time-consuming; and (c) white hair reminds people of my seniority, which is a Good Thing. However as I get more white in, it would be nice to be able to add colour from time to time (I have been told about something called hair chalk, which sounds very promising), and I also rather fancy the ermine look, with all of it white and just the tips dyed black. Some Day.

As a now-VIP customer of the dance-shoe shop, when I went to pick up the evening shoes (having had them re-soled from felt to rubber for regular wear), they pulled out a couple of boxes of rolled-up strips of interesting-looking leather dyed in different gorgeous colours, and said, "Let us design you a pair in snakeskin."

So now I have two more on order, both in 1920s styles, with normal two, and two-and-a half inch heels for, hopefully, occasional day wear. I am not sure why they used Imperial measures, but perhaps this is the US influence on South Korea, where the shoes are made. One will be in a beautiful silvery-green snakeskin with silver leather trim, and the other in a bicolour pale gold and taupe snakeskin with bronze leather trim. I was firm in declining the suggestion of Swarovski crystals, even just a few on the strap at no extra cost. I did spring for the special inner soles with extra arch support.

I doubt that I will be able to return to the motherland for at least another six months, but the shop will hold my orders for me. Something to look forward to.

I got the Pfizer vaccine shots while I was back. No issues, much less painful than the tetanus vaccine. Sore arm on the second day after the first shot, and sore arm and sudden desire for an afternoon nap on the dayafter the second one. Some tenderness to the injection site for more than a week, but very minor.

There are more of them than there used to be in the seas where I would reasonable expect to be able to swim SOME DAY. Before going anywhere near a beach, therefore, I should order myself a nice, full-body swimsuit, the sort that sensible north-east Asian and Australian ladies wear to protect themselves from sunburn and melanomas, and also, it turns out, jellyfish.

These look quite nice:


https://www.ecostinger.com/women-full-body-uv-swimsuits/

Though I am not certain that it is necessary to go so far as this, if one makes sure to swim at dawn, preferably on a west-facing beach:

https://www.facekini.com/

https://sc01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1vdYwrMKTBuNkSne1q6yJoXXaH.jpg

They are pretty, though. I like the cat facekini, and the Chinese opera one is awesome. I'm not sure how the shoulder flap bit would perform, but I suppose it would be OK if one were just paddling about, which is all that I would be doing in the sea anyway. Laps are for the pool.