The auction location is 8275 Manitoba St. in Vancouver, BC. The auction starts at 10AM on Friday, March 7th, 2009. Merchandise previewing is this Friday March 6th, 2009 from noon - 6PM.
This is a happy coincidence, because earlier today I was chatting with somebody who’d invited me to speak at their event. I’d written up the usual session description, and she’d asked me to swap out the phrase “real-world case studies” for “local examples”. I asked why, and she said:
Some of the feedback that we’ve received from other social media sessions say, “That’s great for those in New York, Toronto, etc., but what are people here doing?”
And here, lo and behold, is a local auction house making effective use of YouTube:
That clothing video has already had 3500 views (it would have had more if they’d used a description title and written up a description of the video, including a link back to their auction site). A nice result for the tiny effort it took to create.
When we were in New York, we set one afternoon aside for shopping. We meandered through Nolita and Soho, checking out the boutiques. I was dismayed to discover that there was nary a men’s shop in sight. I later checked with my fashion designer aunt, and she told me most of the men’s boutiques were in Chelsea (home, of course, to a large population of gay men).
So I came back from New York with nothing but new socks. I still needed clothes, so I asked local fashion blogger Victoria for some recommendations. She wrote a great post describing nine stores, most of which I’ve never visited. It’ll be very handy the next time I need some cool clothes.
I’d add a couple of stores to Victoria’s list: You and Whose Army (I couldn’t find a site for it–is it still around?) and Moule (not only a men’s store, but they had some nice clothes at very healthy discounts when I visited last weekend).
I really enjoyed “The Bourne Identity” when I first saw it in the theatre (here’s an early, rambling blog post on the film). I also really wanted Matt Damon’s sweater. He wears this kick-ass black, military-style sweater in the film. Of course, he looks way better than I would in it, but that’s also true of togas, house coats and djellabas.
At the time, I imagined a website which tracked what actors wore in movies, and sold real-world equivalents which you could buy. This was back in 2002, and I remember searching for a website that filled that role. I couldn’t find much. I did a few quick searches today, and still didn’t find anything super promising. SeenOn.com looks like the right fit, but it lists all of three movies thus far.
CoolSpotters has the potential to become such a resource, though it seems more targeted at off-screen It Girl bollocks. I read about it today on TechCrunch:
It’s an eye-candy celebrity-focused site that shows users the products celebrities are wearing in various photos. Users can then talk about and, of course, purchase those items.
Users can track celebrities, products, brands, shows (TV, Movies, etc.), places, events, and more. The idea is to show connections between people and stuff. These connections are called “spots” (as in, “I spotted that”), and show details on the item. If something is incorrect, users can change or remove it, and add new people and things.
They kind of combine the crowd-sourcing of Wikipedia and Facebook tags (or Flickr notes, if you like) with the smarmy photos of gossip blogs. It’s a smart approach.
Caution: travel snobbery and tourist judgment ahead.
So we’ve been living in Essaouira for about three weeks now. It’s a tourist-friendly town on the coast, and we’ve already noticed a slight up-tick in the tourist numbers since first arriving. I’m glad we’ll be leaving before the full weight of the spring tourists descends on these cramped streets.
As you probably know, Morocco is a Muslim nation. It’s quite a liberal one (the most liberal, I’m told), but you still hear the haunting call to prayer five times a day, and there are mosques–with very unassuming doors–on every major street.
As such, men and women dress conservatively. For women, the dress varies from cover-every-but-the-eyes djellabas to conservative, professional attire that covers everything from the neck to the ankles. Here in Essaouira, the rate of women who wear a head scarf covering at least their hair is probably about 75%. In larger cities, that rate would be lower.
Your choice of attire still may be perceived as a sign of respect for yourself, your family and your hosts (or lack thereof)…So if you want to make your family look good, and don’t want to miss out on some excellent company–especially among older Moroccans–do make a point to dress modestly.
For men and women alike, this means not wearing shorts and sleeveless tops. Even in trendy nightclubs, clingy clothing, short skirts and low-cut and midriff tops could be construed as, ahem, the oldest kind of professional attire.
That advice is reflected in online forums I’ve read. You’re always going to be recognizably a tourist (more on this in an old post), but it’s easy to respect the local dress code.
And in Essaouira, 19 out of 20 tourists do. Unfortunately, the twentieth always manages to embarrass themselves horribly. It’s not such a big deal for men, but they should leave the shorts on the beach (frankly, that advice ought to apply to the whole globe) and they should not, at any time, wear one of the local’s full length, hooded djellaba. I saw one North American doing that the other day, and he was getting all sorts of smirks from the locals.
Women are more restricted in what they should wear. As such, their fashion faux pas are more egregious. Shorts, short skirts, midriff-baring and low-cut tops, sleeveless shirts–it’s all pretty shameful.
A Few Brain Cells and Jedi Robes
It doesn’t take too many brain cells to:
Read a guidebook or travel forum and follow some basic sartorial advice.
Look around. See how much skin the locals aren’t showing, and dress accordingly.
Once every couple of days I see a ridiculously-dressed tourist that I just want to smack.
On a related note, the djellaba was almost certainly the inspiration for Jedi robes (and, come to think of it, the Jawa costumes). In fact, I suspect the costumer on the earliest Star Wars movie just bought one off a Berber’s back in Tunisia and threw it on Alec Guinness.
Julie and I were remarking on this fact the other day while shopping in Gozo’s only mall. I’m not talking about sportswear here–just standard, average clothes for day to day ‘business casual’ or weekend wear. I’m also not referring to people who voluntarily wear big brands across their chest. This is more insidious.
The branding tends to be small but present on men’s clothes. It’s a visible tag along a shirt’s side seam, or a stitched logo on a the sleeve or pocket of a dress shirt. Here’s a good example of what I’m talking about. The branding is often in a similar colour to the garment itself. It doesn’t stand out, but it’s certainly there.
A few years ago I bought a grey hoodie from FCUK with a grey logo high on the shoulder–I didn’t notice it until I brought it home. Being averse to visible brands, I was displeased.
This occurs much less frequently with women’s clothing. Why?
In a recent post describing her latest ridiculously high standard (her term–they sound fair enough to me), Jen recounted some shortcomings of a suitor. These included the following crimes:
-HORRIBLE Kisser. Like, worst I�ve ever encountered. Sad but true. Although he can, Man should not kiss with (stiff lips and) tongue alone. Picture if you will (or don�t if you�d prefer not to): open mouth, seal it with other open mouth, swirl tongue around while leaving lips completely still. Drooling ensues.
-He wore pants with pleats. PLEATS!
-Goofy teeth! (Not horribly goofy, but I’m strangely hyper-sensitive about teeth.) For Christ’s sake, your father is a doctor! Don’t tell me you couldn’t have had braces when you were younger!
It’s that middle one that threw me. Pleats are verboten? Why didn’t I get the memo? I know I’m sartorially-challenged, but this had me really worried. Happily, Jen clarified in a later post:
The thing with pleats is that they add extra fabric to to the front of your thighs. If they’re not able to lie absolutely flat from waist to mid-thigh, they’ll just pucker and pooch out and look silly. This means that if your beer-gut prevents you from actually wearing your pants on your natural waist, or means that your body does not have a flat surface from navel to crotch, you can NOT wear pleats.
I actually thought pleats were designed for people with beer guts, in order to give them, you know, some more breathing room. But what do I know?
In a recent post describing