department of parkas and re-creation

Shapeshifting my clothes has turned into a veritable pastime of mine...albeit an unintentional pastime, but nevertheless time-consuming enough of an activity to be worthy of many a dreamecho blog post. While scurrying around in front of my overflowing dresser drawers (garments perched and primed for the impending Great dreamecho Dresser Drawers Avalanche of February 2008, yes indeedy), trying to outfit myself for one thing or another, I oft get drawn into a trance. Buttons, zippers and pull-ties lure me in with their siren calls, enticing me to blissfully yank and fasten. I swivel and twirl, rotating garments 90 degrees counter clockwise with respect to a bird's eye view of the plane parallel to the ground. And so on and so forth.

the_kitten recently completed various and astonishing transformations with her H&M parka, so I decided I better get on it and post my own languishing photos with a slightly different H&M parka. (One which, featured at top left, Lauren and I both own.) Equipped with the aforementioned snaps (down the center), zips (also down the center) and pulls (at the waist), this blushy pink outerlayer is perfect for a game of Twister: The Fashion Version. The key here was that I started with the parka upside-down, i.e., the neckline points downward while the hemline points skyward. Arms still go into the sleeves. After that, it's all about making use of the functional bits. Through all of these mutations, I never once fully had to take off the parka.

Exhibit A involves gathering the bulk of parka forward and tightening the waistband around my neck. The bunched-together mass causes the zipper to swirl.

Exhibit B now relies on the bottom hem to step in as the neckline. To get the image on the left, I merely folded down the hemline to make a sort of elongated collar. I achieved the look on the right by overlapping one side and buttoning the front three buttons near my actual waist.

In Exhibit C, I think I look like a hot air balloon! Anyway, this version required me to flip out the real bottom half of the parka. This half is inside out; you can see the vertical seams. I tightened the drawstring around my neck again and then did a couple of buttons to accentuate the balloon effect. Up, up and away!