The slogan for iCiNG is “dress up, leave a false name, be legendary”. I must admit that I borrowed it from Hakim Bey’s essay on poetic terrorism, but that doesn’t make it any less applicable to my life or this website.

I was reminded of this when I read my friend Penny’s journal post, “Dressing Like A Girl“. She wrote,

Today is day one of Dressing Like A Girl Week. It means dresses all week.

‘What a fantastic idea!’, I thought to myself. I then decided to shamelessly rip her off, but it’s okay, because she was originally inspired by me. It’s a lovely follow-on effect, innit?

For those of us suffering from a dreary attack of general wardrobe malaise, choosing a theme & dressing accordingly can be an absolute blessing. Last week I did a fair amount of channelling Diana Vreeland: headscarves as turbans, immaculate nails, red lipstick & gliding rather than walking. (I also decided to grow my hair long, but that’s a long process.) It’s quite easy to do all this, simply ask yourself a few questions:

Who do you think is consummately stylish?
Whose wardrobe would you love to peer into?
What style have you always wished you could pull off?

Maybe you have always wanted to dress like a spy (scarves, big sunglasses, trenchcoats, heels), or Patrick Bateman (immaculate suit, Oliver Peoples glasses) or Weetzie Bat (pink sunglasses, feathered Indian headdress, dress printed with Disney characters). Quite frankly, my darling, I don’t know what you’re waiting for. Of course you don’t have to go the whole hog, but there is no rule that you can’t incorporate parts of your desired aesthetic into your daily outfit.

You could also try doing a rainbow theme — not necessarily the whole outfit, but just accessories. On Monday wear red shoes, on Tuesday carry an orange umbrella, on Wednesday wear a yellow cardigan… you get my drift, oui? See if anyone “gets” it. Penny kept it simple by choosing to wear dresses for a week which is a great idea if dresses aren’t usually something you get a lot of wear from, but you could do something similar with pants, heels or anything, really.

I would love to organise a day where everyone who wanted to participate would dress in a certain way, & after the event we could post everyone’s photos from the day. That would be so great. Would anyone be interested?