Outside and Underneath

There is a Shell Silverstein poem  I read as a child, Outside or Underneath.

Bob bought a hundred-dollar suit

But couldn't afford any underwear.

Says he, "If your outside looks real good

No one will know what's under there."

Jack bought some hundred-dollar shorts

But wore a suit with rips and tears.

Says he, "It won't matter what people see 

As long as I know what's under there."

Tom bought a flute and a box of crayons,

Some bread and cheese and a golden pear.

And as for his suit or his underwear

He doesn't think about them much....or care.

I liked this poem very much, its take on perspective and priority and the anti-materialistic, happy anyway message was never lost on me. But I'm gonna have to stray a bit here.Unfortunately for Bob, what's under there does matter. As a matter of fact, Jack,  your undies matter just as much and sometimes more than your suit. As for Tom he obviously had bigger fish to fry. We wont address him here.

My last post was about style; knowing how to dress your body in accordance with your taste and personality. Well consider this part two, focused on a somewhat overlooked matter. Underwear. A good foundation is essential to almost everything and no matter your style or fashion, wearing the correct undergarments would make you look even better. It makes no sense wearing 'pretty clothes' if they don't fit well, and more often than not this is due to the lack of proper underwear. 

First off; choose well fitted undergarments that compliment your figure. That would mean if you  have larger breasts you may want a full cup bra or a minimizer bra and avoid push up bras or padded bras simply because you do not need the extra emphasis. Squeezing your boobs into a smaller bra in an effort to make them look smaller or in an effort to create cleavage, would only result in them looking busted and misshapen.I call this the 'rachet titty' look and I know you've seen it before. Brings tears to my eyes every time.

Wearing panties that fit is also key. I know this may sound obvious, but if I had a dollar for every time I saw a panty printing out that was too small, I would be rich. It's just not cute okay. The point is to set the foundation for your clothes to fit seamlessly, whatever the style, not to cut off circulation to your labia.   

Many women today opt for Shapewear and this is an excellent choice to smooth and slim out folds and lumps certain body parts and hold every thing together. It improves the silhouette and even helps with posture but most of all it creates that seamless fit we all desire.

Your underwear should also be comfortable. Finding that balance between function and comfort can get tricky. This has been one of my issues, finding undies that give the correct support and at the same time feel barely there is always a challenge but with some cash and patience this problem can be solved. But COME ON!!! if you know the panty going 'parka' every time u move, if you know you going have to pick it out, don't wear it.

Another important element to consider when choosing the right underclothes is your actual outfit. What are you wearing? Fabric, color, cut and fit. Your undies must compliment this.

For instance, when wearing white clothes persons with darker skin tones should stick to black underwear, as it diminishes that look of transparency. If your garments are revealing choose underwear styles that accommodate for this; strapless bras, thongs or g strings, adhesive silicone bras and in some cases no underwear at all (once your body is tight this shouldn't be a problem). A colorfully decorated bustier can also come in handy. Always have a good full coverage seamless bra for tees when you want that flawless tee shirt look.

I can truly go on forever, but I hope by now you get the idea. There are tips and tricks all over the web as well. Underwear is important when getting dressed. The right undergarments create a good base for your clothes to fit the way they were designed to. Overall you look better in your clothes when you take your time to package whats underneath.  

TEMEL NOSCE

“Know thy self, and to man and God be true”

-Imhotep-

I've recently watched the golden globe winner 'Slum Dog Millionaire' a Danny Boyle film, director of another favorite of mine 'trinspotting'. It was a superbly directed movie (duh) although it's low budget was obvious, this didn't seem to make it look cheap. The story was complete and the characters were clearly defined yet there was some ambiguity about them that had to do with their life situation. If you haven't seen it yet I wont spoil it for you, all I would say is that it was as deserving of its golden globes as Heath Ledger was of his Oscar (!YEAH!!!).

Anyway after we turned off the computer and snuggled in to bed I couldn't fall asleep. Something about the movie was picking at my brain. You see earlier that evening I was reading a book by H.D Lawrence called the 'Plumed Serpent'. I hadn't gotten very far, chapter 3 to be exact, but it was obvious that a central theme in the novel was identity. This book tackled the strange dark ambiguity of Mexico and Mexicans and their seemingly lack and search of an identity.

You see you wouldn't quite get it unless you've lived there, but Mexicans are a very strange and contradicting people. They are complacent yet always against something, always protesting an “injustice”. They are lazy but most of them work 6 days a week sun up to sun down. Their favorite saying is !Viva Mexico! But here there is so much death not just of the body but also of the soul. They do not know who they are, and thus can never be congruent in their actions.

There seemed to be a slightly similar thing happening in 'Slum Dog Millionaire'. There is a struggle with identity that equally is not so much on a personal basis

but on a national level. The whole of India is caught up with the implications of identity, caught up in the web of labels and stereotypes so much that people do not even know who they are, only who they are supposed to be.

I began to think about my own identity, about where I came from, my roots. My thoughts drifted to my ancestors. To who they were before they were sold into slavery, what their names were, what they did for a living, where they had lived. I thought about their forced journey, their lives as slaves and how they lived after 1833. I wondered about how their blood came down through time to reach to me, and if they were in some place looking down on me.

It made me think in my father, a Rastaman whose dream it is to reach the shores of the land of his ancestors. And for the first time I truly understood how he feels. That night I had a hole inside me that I felt could not be filled unless I had something more to hold on to than a history of slavery and vague stories of a great civilizations. I understood then the drive Alex Heley had to find out where he had come from. It seemed to be the only thing that could complete me.

Deep down I think we all need that sense of connection to something that could define us, that could give us a sense of origin and identity. Marcus Garvey once said; “For man to know himself is for him to feel that for him there is no human master” I supposed that being dominated for so many centuries by others had taken away my identity. I felt no bitterness nor hate, just an insatiable need to know.