You may wonder where I’ve been for the last five centuries. The truth is, I’ve not been very well. But I’m back, and I’m writing about… clothes. I’m such a girly girl.
I can count on at least one hand the number of human beings who refuse to be seen around me during daylight hours. Not, as one would expect, during a particularly violent bout of PMS or when I’m stifling drunk on a bottle of high-class vintage (2008) red wine. In fact I could be cross-eyed and tipsy, spraying on endlessly about my loathing of the arrogant mop-haired chap on the Confused.com adverts – Punch! Slap – yet I would still find a faithful friend stationary by my side, willing to endure the Wrath of Stacy ‘til the bitter – and often empty-bottled – end.
But I digress. What really embarrasses people is, in fact, my fashion sense. In an over zealous attempt at keeping ‘in’ with the ‘trendy peeps’ (if you’ll excuse my vernacular) I wound up at a hopeless loss, ultimately unable to sustain any sort of Cosmopolitan magazine without drawing moustaches and other amusing ‘items’ on the airbrushed models.
And this is where gaming meets garments. After bouts of changing room try-outs where everything seemed to make me look like a 12 year old playing dress up rather than a sophisticated young adult, I gave up. One day while browsing the games stores I happened to spot various t-shirts associated with Gears of War. It was a revelation. Suddenly I too wanted to wear fabricated blood and guts, skulls and similar symbols associated with the sadistic enjoyment of blowing people’s brains out. Just as football fans pay faithful homage to their teams, I wanted the whole world to know just how I felt about Doom. So I bought a t-shirt with the Doom slogan. And then I bought a Pac-Man t-shirt. Then I decided I wanted a change of pace so I bought a red tee with an old 286 IBM and the slogan ‘just DOS it’ printed underneath, which I thought was rather clever. Unfortunately my boyfriend didn’t agree and when I bought a Star Trek t-shirt he finally lost the plot and bought a Sheffield Wednesday strip (his beloved hometown team) just to wind me up. It worked. On the plus side this compromise allows me to toddle around Trekked up to my heart’s desire, though when he caught me on Forbidden Planet’s online shop dribbling over an Uhura costume dress he drew the line and threatened to embarrass me by publicly displaying a flat cap and pipe, as I am informed all Yorkshire men like him “were born to do”.
Of course I take all of this with a generous pinch of salt. At the end of the day clothing is clothing, no matter how it looks (with the exception of that football shirt, which looks hideous). One thing that does get to me though is the gender-based inequalities associated with fashion. Maybe it’s the social scientist in me taking over, but when I scour the rails of stores I often find it frustrating to see little or no clothing franchises [for females] that aren’t garish colours of baby pink/blue or related in some way to High School sodding Musical. It must be remembered that there are women out there who love their gaming! Every time I browse clothing sites or spot quirky 8-bit apparel my heart leaps, only to realise that even XS sizing would still make me look like a makeshift tent.
Luckily there are a handful of useful websites that challenge the traditional aesthetic of female clothing styles. Stuff those delicate t-shirts with decorative floral patterns; I want Master Chief plastered across my front!
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August 15th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Great read Stacy! And you make a good point. It’s so annoying! I want to express my geeky side without looking, as you said, like I’m wearing a makeshift tent.
I’ve searched and searched for official Gears of War t-shirts in women’s sizes and found absolutely nothing, so if anyone ever finds one, please, lemme know! :)
Also, “Uhura costume!” WANT!
August 15th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Does that come with the giants fans of feathers too?
I do not own much gaming related clothing. I’ve seen a few things I liked but never bothered to buy them. I think the only gaming clothing I have is a tee with Rock Band on it. I must change this
August 15th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
i’m working on it ;-)
August 16th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Jinx is a great place to get some awesome gaming related clothing, they do girl styles as well to boot.
Is a USA company though so delivery times can sometimes take a while but well worth it, artwork is super and the quality is great too :)
http://www.jinx.com
August 16th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Jinx is great. One of my friends bought me a Red vs Blue tee online, love it!
August 17th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I actually sent a pissed off message to the Lucasart site place which does the Monkey Island tees since they don’t seem to cater to female gamers and they have some damn good looking tees but all in male sizes :(