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White tote bag from Muji, defaced with acrylic paint by Ricky Villabona. I should open a shop called Niyurakan.

Reader Imma made these earrings for me out of earring parts. I thought they were interesting but lacked something so I rummaged among my old earrings for that something. That’s when I found a favorite pair of earrings I hadn’t worn in years.

Now they’re strange enough. Thanks for the earrings.

Vintage frames should always come from thrift stores, flea markets, junk shops and rummage sales. The archaeological element is a large part of their charm.

You will need

Paper dolls
3 or 4 gay or female friends
Nothing to do

Like many little girls I loved playing with paper dolls. I would expand their wardrobes with my own crude designs—I’ve always been partial to capes, armor-like shirtwaists and long coats that could carry a sword. Do kids still play with paper dolls? There are many websites that let you mix and match outfits, but there’s nothing like drawing designs on paper and cutting them out with tabs so they can be attached to the 2D mannequins.

Last Saturday while we were sitting around having coffee I took out the book of paper dolls that I bought for James and keep forgetting to hand over. (Maybe because I really don’t want to part with it.)

I haven’t seen these paper dolls in local bookstores, only Disney princess paper dolls and “beauty queen” paper dolls with fugly clothes. Dover publishes paper doll books with designs from the 1920s-1990s, the Belle Epoque, the Medieval and Victorian eras, etc; their website is here.

We started playing “Which One Is You?”, a game which usually involves going into a store and picking out an outfit or accessory. This time we passed the book around and each one chose the dress that was most herself/himself.

To make the game more complicated we also chose the dresses that we thought the others would choose for themselves, then the dresses we considered appropriate for them, then the dresses we guessed they would choose for us, then the dresses we thought they thought we’d choose for them. Because there is no game so simple that we can’t give ourselves headaches while playing it.

Big Bird chose this for himself: a short flowery muu-muu. Also, he liked the pose.

Ernie approved of this concept: peasant couture.

Bert went for the architectural.

And everybody knew which one I’d chosen.

It is not floral chiffon.

Soon to be reissued with English text: Take Ivy, a book of photographs that is also an ethnographic study of Ivy League campuses in 1965.

The book was commissioned by Kenzuke Inshizu, who founded an Ivy-inspired clothing line called Van Jacket.

So the preppy uniform gave rise to a passionate Japanese fashion cult.

Clearly preppy never changes. These photos could’ve been taken today, though not necessarily on Ivy campuses. We still see the influence of Prep on contemporary Japanese design.

I have the strange urge to turn up my collar and wear topsiders. Thanks to Tennis Mike for telling me about the book.