Wednesday 26 January 2011

16

Ottobre says 'Party at the Back'

A slightly surreal issue of Ottobre this quarter. Things are different across the channel, I'm sure of it. Some of the differences are very good:

Less gendered designs and colour palette, hooray!


Unusual detailing, hooray!


Things I would wear myself, hooray! No, truly, this is almost the same as the woman's one I still haven't made. And yet...


By virtue of being Continental, I am inclined to allow them a handful of WTF outfits per magazine. Harem trousers would probably be cute on a baby. And practical.


But I cannot get behind them on people who are bi-ped.


Ruffles: in and of themselves not alarming, but I find the fervor with with they are embraced in 'Euro-fashion' alarming. Especially 'Euro-fashion' as interpreted by Americans. Ruffles only to the back of a shirt? A stepping stone towards hard-core weirdness.


Yes, that cardigan is on backwards; it can be worn either way. Anything can be worn either way. But people will think you're mental. Probably even in Europe.

Any dissenters in the ranks? Do you rock your cardigans backwards?

16 comments:

  1. I sense some grasping happening. Perhaps their design team is burning out. I think this is the perfect opportunity for you to submit your application with a nice essay about how assinine the current issue is and how you can make it better. Include lots of examples (like this blog post for starters) and at least one pie chart.

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  2. My aunt told me that years ago (like 55 years ago) the style was to wear their cardigans backwards like that.

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  3. The weird ones are so close to being normal. The buttons up the back of a little sweater could be super cute. It's the pockets that make it look odd.

    And the link to the item on ebay? That stuff SELLS like crazy on etsy.

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  4. Oh I love, love, love the ruffled cardigan. It's times like this I long for a daughter. Mind you I am the woman who made herself a skirt with enormous bustle (own design). I obviously like a full bottomed look! Not too sure about the harem pants though...

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  5. Anyone remember Kris Kross? They wore all their clothes backwards. It looked stupid then, and it still does. Or at best you can hope tht strangers think you let your kids dress themselves... in the dark. I agree that the pockets push that look over the edge.

    I cannot get behind harem pants for anyone who is not a part of a harem (and even then I think it would seem kind of cliched, you know?).

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  6. MC Hammer pants on anyone walking...no way, no how in this house. Ruffles along the back of the shirt...I'm okay with that and wish my 5 year old liked the shirt but she doesn't. The sailor pants...I'm okay with those too and think they need to offer more girly pants with neat design details. Love the fleece hoodie and will be making that for my eldest as soon as I trace the darn thing off. I loved the other pieces that were on that page too. The cardigan with pockets on the back...not so much.

    I really liked this issue and have a couple of patterns already traced off and one (the raspberry tunic, I think? #12) finished except for the hem. I still haven't sewn anything from the last issue, I liked a few of the patterns but nothing jumped out and begged to be made.

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  7. Hmm, might have to go hunt down the latest ottobre. Not liking the ruffles or back to front cardigans, but... looks like it's worth a look:)

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  8. Yeah, I was underwhelmed by that issue - there's a lot I've seen already in previous mags.

    I hadn't quite clocked the amount of weirdness, though, until you pointed it out, but you're not wrong.

    Also, too much knit! I'm still scared of/can't find decent jersey, so that rules out about 90% of the girls' clothes. Thankfully the harem pants are in that 90%, though, so that's something...

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  9. I thought exactly the same when I was clicking through the images on the Ottobre website. I haven't quite decided whether to buy this issue or not - I tend to only buy one or two from each year, and I'm not sure there's anything to hold my interest in this one. Doubtless I'll see one cool pattern from it though, and have to have it.

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  10. my daughter has just been given some harem pants - actually they work better on bi-pedal personages than babies because when the baby crawls it's legs slip into the overlarge crotch space and get caught up - resulting in a very angry trapped baby rolling around on the floor!!!
    FYI xx !!

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  11. I am of the opinion that they throw a few unusual designs in there to cover up that the rest of the patterns are very similar to what has been in the past.

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  12. lol cool little bit of style wearing cardigans backwards like that!

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  13. You do make me laugh! Wearing a cardigan backwards IS most definitely mental!!

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  14. Believe it or not I have been thinking about this all day! Harem pants....no way, never. Cardigans backwards...never either.

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  15. I think most of the issues have some weirdness. Mostly with some of the photo layouts. I've always just assumed it's in their Finnish nature to be a little quirky. No offense to anyone from Finland who reads this, I still think the mag rocks. They do repeat things from previous years but to their credit I traced a lap tee from two different issues convinced it would be identical. Turns out they were very different.

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  16. I kindof dug the shirt with the ruffles on the back but I was thinking for my three year old which is a totally different story than an older child. Too old to sport the ruffle-bum-anythings, but young enough that borderline-ridiculous is adorable.
    THAT SAID
    I have had a few good doses of "wtf,ottobre" over the harem pants that keep showing up in the last few issues. I acknowledge they are showing up a smidge in high fashion. And maybe alright on a baby. But yet, totally durrr oy um er NO on the older kids.
    The ottobre woman that just came in the mailbox, however? LOVE. lots of it. A few 'ehehe... pass' things but mostly just LOVE.

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