Ensembles

1. The
Difference
Between an
Outfit and an
Ensemble
An outfit is a complement of
clothing, footwear and
accessories that is on your body. It is more personal, and
the wearer is an integral part of the whole. Their hair,
complexion and body all participate in making a great
outfit.

An ensemble is a complement of clothing, footwear and

accessories that is off the body. It is less personal and does
not include the wearer. When I present an ensemble I
might talk about how it would work with different body
types and colourings, but that isn’t essential.

Whether it is on me or one of my clients, I like showing

outfits because it is a more complete picture. But I like
ensembles just as much because I think presenting the
items without the wearer leaves more to the imagination.

So wear an ensemble and it becomes an outfit. What you

are wearing right now is an outfit! Take it off, assemble it
on the bed, and it becomes an ensemble.

2.The art of wearing ensembles

Lana Wharry, 42, works for vintage sellers in the New York area
and is a jeweler, sculptor, and metalsmith. She is famous for her
carefully crafted outfit combinations.
“I wear ensembles – everything needs to go together. Jewelry, hair,
glasses, and especially shoes are part of the outfit. An outfit can be
ruined by an inappropriate pair of shoes.
I search endlessly until I find the right, matching
pieces and the outfit is complete. I won’t wear a
piece until I find the entire outfit.
I never wear the same outfit twice. If I repeat a specific piece, I will
wear it in a new way, and I upgrade my outfits constantly. In order
to know what I have, I organize most apparel in clear totes by genre,
and I have my ‘favorites’ all together for easy access. I definitely
have more clothes than any person should have during their
lifetime. The way I dress is one of my art forms.
Thierry Mugler is one of my favorite designers because I have a
feminine hour-glass shape and he designed clothing to accentuate
the curves of a woman’s body. His vintage pieces fit my body type
amazingly well.
This jacket is reversible but I will likely never wear the black side
out. I was sold when I saw the neon rainbow side at Thriftwares.
This same jacket was in the world’s first Thierry Mugler exhibition
at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
The pants are Issey Miyake and I found them at Gypsy Nation
Vintage. I’m not the biggest fan of Issey designs, because many of
them are too minimalist for me. I picked these pants because I had
never seen an Issey piece in plain cotton with rainbow print.
 Jeanne Marc

Issey Miyake Pleats Please pants are from eBay. They looked like a
circus and I fell in love. The top is Jeanne Marc from Prizes for
Arla.
My style has a lot to do with color. Bright colors resonate with me,
and I love matching my outfits, but it has to be done in a very
creative way. I love finding complementary patterns with explosions
of color.
 sequin jacket

If I think back, I believe that I’ve always worn vintage. I loved thrift
shopping in high school, and even younger, my grandmother
managed a huge secondhand shop so we always got cute vintage
baby clothes. I studied apparel design in college and one always
looks to the past and fashion greats for design inspiration.
The thing I love about well-made clothing, in
general, is that if it’s a good design, it can be
relevant in any time period.
My vintage collecting really began when I moved to New York about
8 years ago because some of the best vintage on earth is here. New
York women have always had amazing style, so one doesn’t have to
look much further than the tri-states to find stunning, timeless
pieces.
This jumpsuit is by Rudi Gernreich, a designer from the 60’s that
made dynamic, bold designs, and his 60’s era fashion is difficult to
find now. I was lucky to find this piece, but it did come with a few
tiny moth holes. I don’t mind, because I can fix them and this is for
me to wear.
I never buy anything that I can’t wear, because
for me, the fun of fashion is in the wearing.