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Developing Your Personal Style, Thursday, Period 1

"Hey, guys!" Petra said cheerfully once everyone had gathered in the classroom. "So, most of you probably already know me, but for those of you that don't, I'm Petra and I just graduated, so, none of this 'Miss West' or anything, I'm not old enough. Just Petra. And this is Developing Your Personal Style. I want to apologize for class not meeting last week, ~~LJ was being a dick~~ I had something come up." 'Something' being a conference call with her lawyer and the other Teen Dreamers that ran waaaaaaaaaaay over. Lots of shouting. Lots of it. "It won't happen again, I promise, but if I do have to break that promise, it's okay, because you have two fabulous TAs, Minako Aino and Kenzi...um, Kenzi, I can't read your last name. Whatever. Minako and Kenzi! Your TAs!

"Moving right along, last week I would have had everyone introduce themselves, so we're still going to do that. I want your name, year, and three words that you think describe your style. And then we're going to refine that by defining our personal aesthetic. I know that sounds really technical, but don't freak out." Petra bent down to pick up one enormous bin, then another, and place them on her desk. One was full of fashion magazines, the other, assorted fabric remnants, bits of trim, accessories, feathers, that kind of thing. "We're going to be making collages!" she said enthusiastically. "Using materials that relate to how you see your style and how you would like to see your style. And then if you would like to, you can explain to the rest of the group how you chose the elements you did. Okay? Okay!"

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Stylishly.

Rilla Blythe

Bay Kennish

Minako Aino

Emily Thorne

Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar
(Zhari)

Kenzi!

Jessica Drew

Listen, react, talk.

Name, year, three words to describe your style, anything else you'd like to add.

"I'm Rilla Blythe, going into my final year," Rilla said, enunciating precisely so she wouldn't lisp. "I suppose my style is considered vintage, though back home it's quite modern."

Back home in 1916, yes. "So...vintage, pretty, economical?" she offered.

Or at least economical after the Green Hat Debacle.

"I'm not really sure I'm comfortable calling 'economical' a marker of personal style," Petra said gently. "Like, you can be stylish at any price tag, it's not your fault you have or don't have a ton of money, and it doesn't have to limit you unless you let it."

"Hi, I'm Bay Kennish, also a senior," Bay said, smoothing down her skirt. "I think the style I like best is creative and sexy, but still practical. Like, no shoes I can't walk in, nothing super-tight. But I was stuck in uniforms for 11 years, so I'm still figuring out what to wear now that I get to dress myself."

"Ugh, uniforms," Petra said, rolling her eyes sympathetically. "They are the devil. And they totally stifle your self-expression!"

"I know," Bay whined in return. "We had more latitude than a lot of schools, but there was still plaid and white shirts as far as the eye could see."

"I'm Emily Thorne, senior," Emily said, still wondering how had she ended in this class. It wasn't bad though.

"Uh...comfortable, simple and pretty?" Emily said, clearly doubting she had any idea of what her style was. Not too long ago she wore whatever she had on hand, and soon after she was sticking to sweaters and jeans, or ridiculously skimpy dresses. Now? Now she dressed with ridiculously expensive, pretty clothes she hadn't bought herself.

So she had no idea of what her style was supposed to be.

"Okay, but that could describe a lot of things," Petra said. "Try to narrow it in more. Do you like more edgy clothes? Retro? Structured pieces? What appeals to you?"

"I...have no sense of fashion. All of this? Someone else bought it. Or it looked pretty and I just picked it," Emily said, blushing much against her better wishes.

"We can work with that!" Petra said encouragingly. "Think about the stuff you picked out for yourself, what were you thinking when you bought it? What about it appealed to you? And I don't just mean, 'it's pretty,' you can't build a wardrobe just by buying random pretty objects. I mean, I wish, but the end result would be all over the map and pretty nuts looking. And you can look through some magazines, pick out stuff that appeals to you, and then look for things those things have in common, maybe?"

"I'll...try?" Emily said, still uncertain of how to do this. "I mean I'm pretty pragmatic, so I guess I can start from that, right?"

And from another student not from the moder world... "Hi, I'm Zhari," Zhahar answered, hoping that no one was looking too closely at the student register to notice her name didn't show up on it. "I like simple, airy, and light clothing. Things that move with me and look pretty when they do."

Petra checked her roster, looked up at Zhari, then back at her roster. Then back at Zhahar. "Okay, I'm sorry," she said slowly, "but I don't seem to have a 'Zhari' on here."

Mother damn it all! Why couldn't the universe listen just once?!

"Again?!" she asked, sounding frustrated. That, at least, she didn't have to feign. "I really did sign up for this class, Miss W-- err, Petra. I don't know what's going on in the office, but I've had this same conversation in several of my classes."

It was like she didn't exist in the student records of something! Go figure!

Petra didn't remember seeing the other girl around, either, and it wasn't like it was a big school, so maybe... "Are you new? Maybe they don't have your records straightened out yet."

The easy thing to do would be to say yes, but Zhari had been out slightly too often to make that a possible thing to do. She shook she head. "No, just...not really sociable. Especially after stuff like the dungeons and whatall."

Petra frowned at the roster for a moment, kind of wondering if Zhari seriously thought her being shy explained a paperwork error somehow. But, "I'll talk to the office," she promised. "We'll get it straightened out."

Zhari had been so busy trying to explain that she wasn't new, that she'd lost sight of why Petra had asked in the first place ~~and also because I fail at reading comprehension and had answered the unasked question, d'oh!~~.

But talking to the office? That might be baaaad, yes. Bad for Zhari and her sister, anyway. "I have this problem in another class, so I was going to speak to them myself?" she tried. "I'll mention both classes and have them look into it. This is dreadfully irritating to deal with, I know."

No worries, Petra! Zhari will ~~pretend to~~ take care of it, really!

"But I've been really looking forward to this class, so I hope you'll let me stay until it's all straightened out?"

"I'm Jessica Drew, a senior," Jessica said. She started to give some serious thought to the last part of the introduction. "And my style is, um, active... adaptable... and layered."

Because Petra thought letting you start with actual clothes might be a little advanced.

Rilla was finding bits of lace and linen to use on her collage--silk, while lovely, was entirely too dear for her wardrobe.

Bay picked out dark-colored scraps with plenty of texture to them, with a few bright bits of scarf to keep the whole picture from getting too dreary. She liked velvet, lace and leather, what could she say?

Emily started cutting, until...

"I have no idea of what I'm doing."

"Dude." Hi, Emily. "What're you trying to do? I mean, it's a collage. You did these before, right?"

"Uh, not really?" Emily said. She had actually wrecked havok every time someone had tried to make her draw or paint or do something. It sure sucked to be stuck on a mental institution when she was a little kid.

Kenzi shrugged, then started picking out some smaller squares. "So, pick some photos of stuff you like from the magazines... and pick out the colors you like..." She held up one square of dark red silk, then a different one of lavender cotton. "Glue 'em in place, and you're set. Voila. Art. At least as far as anyone can tell, right?"

Before settling in with the trims and accessories, Zhari started flipping through the magazines, trying to find modern clothes that still looked like things she could wear.

As Jessica started on the 'how she would like to see her style' part of the collage, she made a point to go for some more actively girly images. In some ways, she was the ultimate in recovering tomboys after all.

Once they ping in.

Edited 2013-05-23 14:56 (UTC)

OMG, she was a teaching assistant!!! For a class!!! Her mom was totally going to flip out and think she'd been replaced with an academically oriented pod-person!!!!!

...Minako wasn't telling her mom that it was for fashion class, no.

Kenzi was happily playing with the black swatches. And the red swatches. Making a little Goth Kenzi Pony doll. She may have been overly influenced by Pinkie the last few months.

"Anybody need help? I'm happy to give opinions."

Yeeeeah.

Who looks somewhere between really excited and really nervous.

"Frappachino!"

Look, Kenzi just figured that was part of her TA-ly duties. Here, Petra.

"You are the best," Petra told her. Coffee, mmmm. "I'm not sure if I did something to get first period or what."

"Maybe all the teachers demanded the option of sleeping in in the summer," Kenzi theorized, drinking her own. "I would." She yawned, but still looked fairly perky.

La!

How is Italy?? :D

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Developing Your Personal Style, Thursday, Period 1

Sign In

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During the Lecture

Introductions

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Arts & Crafts

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Talk to the TAs

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Talk to the Instructor

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OOC

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