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Carnivale of Couture: Festive Fashion Finally!

This week's Carnivale was supposed to be last week's carnivale--but the holiday spirit has infused some fashionable dose of laissez-faire in the fashion blogging community and the whole thing got postponed. Also, my apologies for getting this posted rather late in the game--but here it is!

My question was about festive fashion:

What is the proper attire for 4th of July? In other words, can you be festive without being tacky? What does a fashionable woman or man wear while overloading on hot dogs and fireworks?

I wanted to keep my question away from the politics as I wanted to explore more the realm of the festive and the ceremonious as manifested in one's choice of outfit, with the obvious ensuing question, are festive concerns a part of our wardrobe planning? I vaguely remember a brief time in my childhood when Sunday outfits were somewhat "special" (and no, we were not going to the church--it was, I guess, just a trailing tradition). These days I try to dress nicely just about every single day--as a sign of respect for myself and for the others, and just plain because I enjoy it.

I never used to signal the national day in my old country through my dress. Fourth of July however seems a celebration of an entire different order of maginitude, eliciting emotions and gestures that are emphatically anchored in the visual (and partially, gustative) realms. Visual symbols are what one immediately associates with this holiday: the flag, the red white and blue, the fireworks.

And compared with such ostentatious display of patriotic colors, what kind of statement can one make that would matter? Still, the fact that we choose to make a statement at all, whether to embrace or to reject these colors emphatically is, I guess, says that we're still investing this holiday with meaning (positive or negative), and that dress is a way of doing it. So let's see what we got, shall we?

The fabulous Manolo chose to embrace the birthday of his adopted country by donning the festive and decidedly non-tacky attire: "the casual blue suit with the white shirt and the red tie with small white stars." Mmmmm, sounds good, Manolo! Won't you regale us with a picture of that?

Maria Palma from the Runway Scoop spends some time dodging the question, and has the wise advice, which I try to follow for just about any occasion: wear whatever makes you feel comfortable. But the fashionista in her caves in and she fantasizes about a festive mood that would make her wear "a white wrap dress with denim peep-toe heels and red and blue barrettes in [her] hair...." Not bad, not bad at all!

In the comments, Jitterbugbaby amps things up with a blue camisole, white translucent short-sleeved shirt, red leather tie used as a scarf paired with olive green shorts and black sandals. A good mix that's not overly festive but it's tastefully accessorized. Also in the comments, Nancy raises the temperature with festive underwear (red panties, white bra) but mixes it up with her passion for Brazil (green cami and yellow sweater). Well, soccer-wise, this hasn't turned out to be a winning combo (neither the US nor Brazil performed according to expectations in the World Cup) but I've got to admire the team spirit there.

This has also got to be the first time in my life I've decided (much like The Manolo) to don festive colors and go watch the fireworks:
That's me, Photoshopped for privacy, in a Michael Kors navy cotton skirt with geometric white prints (wonderfully light and breezy), and a Banana Republic red tank top paired with an onion-skin white cotton cardigan (also from BR). And the shoes? Why, the Hegos, of course--comfortable, cute, and theme-appropriate.

The holiday elicited some equally dramatic statements. Some just chose to ignore it, quoting the current political climate--Kathleen from the wonderful Fashion Incubator blog, for one. Who can blame her? Certainly not a certain anonymous in the comments who "wore black to protest the war(s)...and the irony of Dr. Strangelove in Korea."

This is a position -- and a choice color-- also embraced by Ella over at Kiss me Stace. Her outfit ("a black camisole over a heather grey tank with snazzy lace and dark blue denim knee-length shorts") is meant to show her sophisticated fashion sense rather than her patriotic vein. I would argue that it also is a political statement--one way or another, black or red-white-blue, or just ignoring it altogether, the way we behave sartorially on this holiday is inherently significant, whether we realize it or not.

No matter the colors we choose to wear however, it seems that we've all made some wise fashion choices, unlike this man on the right, which I found buried as a link in Manolo's comments to his post. To me, that is the perfect illustration of how NOT to do festive fashion. Somebody tell this guy that being tacky does not good to his country.

Until the next festive or not-so-festive occasion, so long, festive fashionistas!

posted by Cristina Hanganu-Bresch @ 11:37 PM