International Dress Up Day -- Your Help Please!
[ 23 August 2007 ]
Hello my lovelies.
I’ve been thinking about International Dress Up Day, & realising that I am dissatisfied. I have come to the conclusion that it either needs to be changed or canned completely. Recently I haven’t been very excited about doing it, & this has trickled down to everyone else. It’s impossible to encourage people to do something that you, yourself are not crazy about — & the whole point of iCiNG is doing what makes you happy!
I think a lot of it is due to the direction I’ve pointed it in. Every month we dress up as characters — & I’m not really interested in “being someone else”. I am happy being me, & I would rather dress to ENHANCE that, rather than escape into a fantasy world. Do you know what I mean?
So… I need your help. How can we adjust International Dress Up Day so that it is a celebration of ourselves, rather than a day of pretend? It may be that we change the name to more accurately reflect what it becomes. Who knows, maybe the whole format will be altered. I would still like to hold a regular celebration that we can all participate in, I’m just not sure how to swing it around. Do we need to dress up to celebrate? Should we alter the timing, so that it happens once every three months instead? Should it be more of a project than a send-your-photos-in-today kind of thing?
What do you think?
Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala 
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I see what you mean. Maybe it could be International Celebrate Your Life Day, or something not quite so long haha. Then people could do whatever they wanted… whether that’s dressing up, trying something new, or making cupcakes! (?!)
I love the idea of setting aside a day to dress up but I agree that it should be about enhancing your own personality.
I think it would be marvy if we, every International-Dress Up Day, could accomplish one style challenge we’ve had.
It could be any type of style challenge, whether that be inner or outer style.
Maybe, one I.D.U.D, it might be, “Be someone inspirational” and we have to dress as the person we wish to be. Think of it like, us, but fifty thousand times better. Some people might believe that to be inspirational, it would be to leave unsigned love-letters behind car-windshield wippers while wearing a ridiculously extravagant hat! Or, sing kareoke dressed as a favorite childhood hero!
That’s just my suggestion, and it’s weird, but I hope I provided something to help.
:D
Hmm, lets see…
*you could go with more general themes maybe, eg. 1950’s, 1920’s, Hippy, What to Wear to a Ball in Antartica, What to Wear to get out of a Speeding Ticket, What to Wear to Elton John’s Birthday Party
*It could be just a day to wear all your fanciest, favourite stuff that you never get to wear, like formal dresses, old dancing costumes or the lovely stuff you buy and then get home and realise you have nothing to wear it with – like kids dress-ups, wearing all the prettiest stuff out of the dress-up box
*Or it could be purely visual themes eg. pink, green and orange together, spots, glittery etc.
*Or just pick one item of clothing (or not even clothing!) and you have to build the entire outfit around that eg. a tie, a shoelace, a beret, a…fish?
*Or go really random and pick a 1 or 2 word theme each time eg. Elivs, book, computer, Sydney, tree etc.
Your blog is awesome by the way – I stumbled onto it a few weeks ago and it’s just like cupcakes. And the colour scheme makes me happy :)
maybe a “show off your favorite piece” day or a “showcase your favorite thing about yourself” day? too broad?
I think that maybe the reason IDUD used to be more exciting was because it involved doing things other than dressing up. Like the unbirthday one, where we got to have unbirthday parties, for example. Maybe we need to have celebrations that involve dressing up, instead of just dressing up for the sake of dressing up. You once posted about finding things to celebrate (I think…), and you mentioned celebrating famous icons’ birthdays. Maybe we could come up with a list of people we admire, and celebrate their birthdays. Or we could come up with a list of things we love about our lives and take times to celebrate those things. Or we could think of things we’ve always wanted to do and take time to do them together. Just some thoughts…
I concur that it should be less often.
I agree with kori. The whole IDUD thing is getting dull because it simply is putting on a facade of someone we WISH we could be. Thats kind of the opposite of what iCing is about. I like the whole celebrating thing though. Any excuse for a party and I’m totally there!
What I like the most about iDUD is the ‘photography assignment’ aspect of it.
I also enjoyed the long lead-in and anticipation and planning, which we didn’t have so much this month.
And I LOVED reading everyone’s stories about their alter egos and childhood ambitions.
Of course the tricky thing is planning an outfit based on stuff you actually have access to – DO NOT expect me to dress as Elvis! Or wear anything orange.
We have plenty of opportunity to share all kinds of wonderful thoughts, ideas and experiences on various themes through the comments; the different thing about iDUD was sending in photos. I like that aspect but I can also see that it’s possible that this idea has run its course.
Maybe we could celebrate “Gala’s Birthday” every September by sending in photos of an ensemble inspired by the Daily Outfit photos? (I would totally love to do this.) We could send the photos in over a longer timeframe – maybe the month before or after the Big Day.
I definitely agree, but i think it should stay as a monthly celebration. A celebration of ourselves. Maybe so it CAN be more of a project we could be something like a monthly get together time, and we could all get together with some of our friends and have a different thing to do each time. As in one month it could be a movie night and another could be a day of window shopping. And we could take pictures and or write about what happened during that day and send it in to you. ^^
I think International Dress-Up Day is a wonderful idea. It’s fun to know that other people – people on different continents, even – are doing the same & look just as silly as you do. [In a good way, of course!] It’s like a global fancy dress party, & who doesn’t love fancy dress parties?
I think it just needs a renaissance. Maybe instead of being a supervillain or a faery tale character for an afternoon, everyone should dress in turquoise or wear a fancy hat. iCiNg is about being ourselves, and I don’t think dressing up as Cinderella or Catwoman is really betraying that. [Although I AM Cinderella, as far as I’m concerned.] I just think it’d be much more appropriate if we were to just look fabulous and celebrate ourselves instead. ( :
I really liked the IDUD concept to start with, but the way it has panned out has made me question whether I understood the concept to begin with!
My original understanding was not so much Dress-up = Costumes, but Dress-up = Make an effort to come up with an outfit that looks fabulous… and I thought the idea of the theme was more to shape and inspire our outfit choices, not a costume theme.
Perhaps that’s more how you saw IDUD to begin with, or where it might go from here? More like the way you mention your inspirations in your daily outfit photos, or the way that clothing designers do collections that are ‘inspired by film noir’ etc? So, modern and stylish clothing, accessory and make-up ensembles which have the feel of the theme set for that month.
Or, alternatively themes could be more specific, and posed as a challenge… along the lines of ‘Dress up a plain black T-shirt’ or ‘rock out a business suit’, or something?
I’ve really wanted to get behind the IDUD idea and participate, but found it hard on most occasions to dress as someone else because the clothes in my wardrobe reflect who I am – not someone else. :)
I’m thinking maybe the kind of themes that express parts of yourself and your life, say:
-dress so you smile every time you catch your reflection in a mirror
-dress to brighten your lover’s day
-dress to feed your inner child
-dress so that you feel invincible
That kinda thing
I like the idea someone mentioned of dressing to look fabulous and combining it with an activity.. and maybe focusing not so much on turning yourself into something else, but focusing on an aspect of yourself that you don’t normally see day to day but want to share. Like… bringing out your sexy side and focusing on things related to that for a day… Or maybe trying out new fashion styles that you might not have the courage to before like EGL or Fruits.
These are the comments I agree with:
“Maybe instead of being a supervillain or a faery tale character for an afternoon, everyone should dress in turquoise or wear a fancy hat.”
“My original understanding was not so much Dress-up = Costumes, but Dress-up = Make an effort to come up with an outfit that looks fabulous…”
“Or, alternatively themes could be more specific, and posed as a challenge… along the lines of ‘Dress up a plain black T-shirt’ or ‘rock out a business suit’, or something”
I really thought it was more about fashion than being silly, which is why I have yet to play along. Certainly I could put on funny hats and glasses and take pictures in my house, but it’s not really my personality to wear that sort of thing in public. (Unless, of course, for a specific occassion- in that case I agree that the themes have to involve some sort of party type situation.) I think that the outfit should be something that you would ACTUALLY wear on a day to day basis, just with some sort of theme or one element that is the same in everyone’s outfit.
i think that weekly, or monthly, or bimonthly, or just when ever it suits your fancy, you should issue a generalized challenge requesting outfits based on one easy theme. examples:
-the color purple
-a garment you’ve owned since high school
-rubber galoshes
-the best earrings ever
-something you made
-including something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
then we can have a large gallery of submissions that just involve us dressing like ourselves, and you can pick your favorites to feature. i am thinking along the lines of the themes at http://selfportraitchallenge.net/.
I agree with less often. I was sort of new to the site and didn’t know it was to happen so often.
I would like it to be something along the lines of: Dress up how you “love” to dress but don’t get to in your day-to-day. The level of this will vary depending on how conservative you feel you have to be everyday. In my case, I would like to wear more of my hats and gloves, etc. during the work week but then everyone give me the “You’re nuts” look at the office. I break it out every once in a while, but it makes me sad to think my fabulous hats are sitting in their boxes.
So that’s my idea, a “more myself” theme, in a nutshell (not like Austen Powers in a nutshell!)
Luv
Poochie
http://shoedaydreams.blogspot.com/
I agree that about having the day be more about everyone’s individuality rather than pretending. I was never very interested in dressing up in a costume, especially when it would just be so strange to leave the house that way, because I always seem to be out and about those days. But off of the top of my head, some other random ideas… Adapt your favourite runway style (probably a seasonal fashion week type thing), base an outfit around your favourite accessory or pair of shoes, dress like/trade looks with a best friend/your mom/etc., put on that outfit in your closet that you love but never wear because you think you “can’t get away with it” or it would “draw too much attention” (bet everyone would get TONS of compliments if they did this), wear one of your favourite looks from high school, be the best dressed grocery shopper, convert an out-of-style look that you still love to work with current trends, everyone wears their favourite jeans, wear one piece two completely different ways… There are plenty of other good ideas in this thread, and I’m sure some brainstorming could result in plenty more!
Maybe it could be changed to “Personal Wonderland Day,” where everyone makes an effort to live the iCiNG manifesto, and then reports back on what they do. It would be nice to have a day set aside to be especially good to ourselves, be fabulous and live our lives with a little more wonder.
Maybe we could have an international dressup day thats in fact
not at all pretend
like, for example… “Dress up as your personality”
Like a symbolic type thing. (i.e. i wore pearls to show my love for all things vintage, or i wore wool because i’m a softy)
and I love all of Candice’s ideas as well.
Don’t give up Gala! You’re my fairy godmother! I.D.U.D. WILL survive :)
don’t worry
My first post to your blog! In my defense I can say that I have been reading for less than a month, but still, I’m a lurker!
Anyway…
I think that as a celebration to every single one of us, and still aking it dress up, a cool theme would be to find the perfect outfint to wear to several ocasions. This would stand out everyone’s own style and still have a common theme. Like perfect oufint for walking in the park, Perfect job interview outfit. Best stay in clothes. Faviorite Pajamas. Stuff like that.
I agree with Shauna and Dorkas. And the phrases ‘style challenge’ and ‘celebration days’ come to mind.. It would be cool if it was a subtle theme that lots and lots of people would participate in and then one day I might see someone on the street wearing, say, a great hat, or a green outfit and maybe know why they were wearing it that day in particular. I like the photos. But maybe stick them in a gallery instead of in entries.
I rather like the suggestions about wardrobe challenges and general themes, rather than a costume contest-type day. Ideas/challenges for parties would be fun too, so that way we’d have an excuse to be silly with friends.
I really like the once-a-month format though. I haven’t been able to participate yet, because I’ve been super-busy on idud days. If it were every three months, I’d have to wait forever for another one.
I agree with Nadia. I think not only would it be fun but also inspiring for others to see. Another idea that could go along with it could be for each person to also submit a ‘style tip’ kind of like the ones you post. (example: Write a wish on a balloon then let it go)
ps, I also like the idea of putting them in an online gallery of some sort rather than posting them in entries.
What happened to the slumper party/sleep over?
How about something on Flickr – I dunno – Friday Fabulous or something where you either post your outfit de jour – or save something up and post it as a bit of fabulousness for Friday?
A Dress-as-yourself day?
You dress how you want to be inside, not how you’re expected to look, so you can stop pretending to be normal and dress as elaborately as you want for a day! :D
From what I can tell IDUD was all about celebrating individuality as a community. I think it would be a shame if it weren’t to continue in some form… I was thinking possibly monthly themed tea parties with cupcakes (obviously!), milky tea, and cucumber sandwiches. Participants would send in the resulting photos. Themes could be ‘sugar violets’, ‘rainbow bright’ and ‘confetti’. I think whatever you decide, the themes probably need to be more abstract than they have been of late. It’s perhaps the restrictiveness that has so disenchanted you.
I like Myrth’s ideas:
“Perfect oufit for walking in the park. Perfect job interview outfit. Best stay in clothes. Favorite Pajamas. Stuff like that.”
I also like the idea of a photo gallery.
I agree with what others said, but i’ll chime in too. I like the idea of enhancing a part of who I already am. It could be celebrating any aspect of myself. I’ve never taken part of dress-up day (though i’ve only recently discovered this wonderful site), but the changes you are considering would lead me to jump on the bandwagon for sure. :)
Illustration Friday (http://www.illustrationfriday.com/) has a pretty cool concept- they pick a word/ topic and people submit artwork. I like the idea of drawing something out of a hat and trying to base a cool outfit on it. Challenging yourself is good.
Hi,
This is only my 2nd post, have mostly been lurking, but this sounds like a great idea:
“Maybe it could be changed to “Personal Wonderland Day,” where everyone makes an effort to live the iCiNG manifesto, and then reports back on what they do. It would be nice to have a day set aside to be especially good to ourselves, be fabulous and live our lives with a little more wonder.”
It seems like this would be more do-able. Also, maybe a Flickr-group for the photos?
:)
Please don’t stop I.D.U.D.! I’ve just found this site and I’ve been telling all my friends how amazing it would be to have a group I.D.U.D. and take lots of fabulous photos at places which really reflect our lives.
I do, however think it’s a great idea about making the day more reflective of our own style and personalities. We could choose our favourite feeling and try and reflect that in our clothing.
Maybe people should try and make the event bigger and more prominent… involve friends, have an I.D.U.D. party or picnic. Generally make a huge effort to change the day into something truly special… I think your idea of making it less often is good becuase it would make the day really exciting!
We could make I.D.U.D. fabulous… I’ve got a big group of friends who are raring to go! I could be better than it already is!
xxx.
you could always arrange meet ups for example where you are you could say “lets have a picnic and and just brain storm ideas” and get everyone having their own icing meet ups and then tell you the stories of what went on and it means everyone gets know one another more or less
Yay, such good ideas! Thank you so much everybody. This conversation has definitely spurred my brain into action… stay tuned for secret plans & exciting schemes!
International Pink Day!
Wow, everybody’s already said everything I could ever say…
Instead of dressing up why don’t you give us missions…
these can range from clothing (“wear your sunday’s best on a tuesday day” or “if you were a socialite, what would you wear? day”) to doing little things (“buy balloons and hand them out to strangers day”... or “act like your inner child day”... or “have a picnic in an unexpected place day”)
Since this blog has grown beyond being just a fashion blog, shouldn’t our celebrations? The clothing missions wouldn’t involve other characters, they’d involve oneself, and the random ones would brighten everyone’s day!
I aggree with you that i.d.u.d. needs to be change, because its become more about costumes and less about fashion :/
You could change it to a day-long, themed celebration of yourself in which you make little choices throughout the day that fit in with the theme and give you a little bit of glee. For example, if it was an Alice in Wonderland day you could do anything from making yourself “Eat Me” cupcakes to throwing an entire Mad Tea Party for all of your friends and screening the movie to simply wearing a black headband with a blue dress. Then everyone could send in pictures and descriptions of how they spent their day and had a small fiesta just for the sake of reminding them that they are alive and special, and are part of something bigger than themselves, and should take the time to create and appreciate beauty around them and celebrate life.
I would love to see it become “take a style risk” day. I know I certainly own pieces I’m intimidated to wear out, and I’m sure a lot of people do as well. Or wear an outfit you love but doesn’t fit with your “established style”. Or — get a crazy haircut, or wear a wig of a style you’ve always wanted to try!
That way, we could keep the fun of the day — trying something different, sharing it with one another — and if could reflect our individuality at the same time.
yey! i was definitely thinking this when the last i.d.u.d. was going on. i was so dissapointed in the direction things were going.
in the last i.d.u.d post i suggested maybe having a challenge where we all wore a layered style and photographed it. you could have every one pick a color theme and dress in the one of thier choosing. one could be based on accessories and what we can do with them…etc. by keeping things broad like that we can dress like ourselves but still know we are being a part of a cohesive group on that day! that would be a lot more fun for me then dressing up like someone else EVERY month (though once or twice isn’t bad and i still like the slumber party idea).
I agree it should be once a month or days we are all aware of in advance. Sometimes I didn’t even had time to plan my outfit, it would be good to have time to plan it.
Also it would be great if the IDUD themes involved acts to make our world more beautiful, for example
-make a good deed
-make someone smile
-preserve our enviroment
-teach the icing community something about your culture (cause this is something I love about this blog…we come from everywhere baby)
and all of this wearing cute outfits.
And we will not only make the world a better place by looking cute :)
keep up the good work Gala…hope you can figure out something from all our suggestions :)
I concur with Ritalin. “My original understanding was not so much Dress-up = Costumes, but Dress-up = Make an effort to come up with an outfit that looks fabulous… and I thought the idea of the theme was more to shape and inspire our outfit choices, not a costume theme. “
I’d love to coninue to do I.D.U.D. monthly – but I’m more likely to participate if I can use the style I’ve already got…rather than create something new.
This could be a repeat from above, but an idea I really like is what YOU would do in a situation or time period.
What would Midwest Jess wear to a 1950s PTA meeting. What would Midwest Jess wear for a Midsummer’s Eve Cocktail Party.
Instead of just dressing up crazy and wandering around your backyard, incorporate the dress up date into an activity. A tea party for your girlfriends. A wine and cheese picnic in the park. A theme for an event might go much further.
I think revamping the idea is wonderful and exciting, but I think it might encompass more then just fashion (though dont get me wrong. There is nothing in the world that I love more then clothes.) Maybe, some months we could send in a picture of what we see out our bedroom window, or drawings of what our perfect home would look like, or the sillyest graffiti that we saw that day, in additon to wonderful good deeds, cupcake baking and fabulous individual style, weather it be colorful and outlandish, or quiet and subtle.
Its all about being us, after all!
It could be a dressup of something in your character, like say for the sake of a cliche you were pretty firery, then you could dress in accordance to the trait or dress in accordance to a passion, like if it were ponies you could wear your riding gear to the supermarche ;)...
perhaps, rather than dressing up, we have to pick out the pieces of our wardrobe that makes us feel wonderful, and, even if they don’t match, make an outfit of them. like, a black shirtdress and a pink peasant skirt. or something like that. or, like kirsty said, pick a characteristic of your personality
Hey honey, so many comments! Hope I don’t repeat myself here because it’s five in the morning SG time and I need to hit the sack soon (like seriously!) and I don’t have time to read all of em ideas. So here’s mine.
We can keep the dress-up bit, but why not dress up as the person you aspire to become? Maybe, think of yourself in ten years time, who do you want around you, what do you want to be doing, what do you hope to be wearing, where you hope to be staying in… stuff like that. It could be fun because this way you get to involve other people significant in your life like your potential life partner, or your family or your best girlfriends. And you can even decorate the plc where you’re shooting so it looks futuristic etc.
If I were to do this, I’d find a place and dress it up as a pretty pretty garden, wear a lovely tea dress, and pretend to work on my notebook, with my boyfriend dressed up in a power suit, kissing our babies (well, pretend, of course).
Okay I’m doing a bit of a McDreamy here but you get the picture.
Hey everyone,
apologies if I’m going to reiterate or repeat what anyone else has suggested. What about dressing certain aspects of your personality or character traits? Dressing as your favourite historical figure? Or, like an exaggerated version of yourself? I’m not sure I’m making much sense but I hope the general idea comes across!
Hello!!!
Loving pretty much all of the suggestions. I think the best IDUDs (even though I’ve only been here for three of them, I’ve gone back and read through all of the rest) are the broad ones that gave an opportunity for true personal expression, where I felt like I knew a little bit more about each of the entrants after seeing their pictures and reading their blurbs.
In alter-ego/evil twin, there were almost no rules, and it showed! We saw an enormous range of characters, and learned something about each other in the process. Same thing with the Childhood Ambition IDUD. If we stick with themes like that and avoid ones that are just costumey, it will be more exciting.
I could see doing it less often, but not much less… maybe every two months, with the theme announced a few weeks before the actual day? I’m also a big fan of doing other events in between, like actual activities for everyone to do on a particular day, or pictures of other things besides our beautiful selves :)
Anyhow, that’s enough of me blathering, ha ha ha!
Kelly /`
hello from new york. to be honest, i was kinda, not surprised to read this post of yours…. when i saw your pictures for the last idud, i thought they were fun and cute and all, but somehow i felt that you weren’t really going all out to do it either. :< which was a little sad.
anyway, all the ladies here have said some incredible things which i’m sure you must be thinking long and hard about. i think it’ll be great to keep things realistic, while dressing up at the same time. something that everyone can do and not just people with extra wardrobe. don’t fret too much about it hon.
I only recently discovered your blog and IDUD. I really am excited about the entire idea. Please keep it around! I agree with many of the comments; a lot of the appeal for me was inventing a storyline, having a build-up, and celebrating with my friends.
I’d love something like ‘International Room Showcase Day’ or something, where we all take pics of our bedroom [or our favorite room in the house/apt].
this entry is way back to Aug 2007,
but i just saw it today [April 2008]
and i tot “ Icing Day” or “Icing urself”
would be good, firstly its simple.
and icing is like the clothes that the cupcakes wear,
its their decoration and wht makes them more pretty.
So icing urself , is still being u , but icing it up.
I dunno , or maybe i am just being completely stupid.
xxx