February Burda and New Year's Resolution

 Happy New Year and wishing you a peaceful, healthy and prosperous 2012 with lots of love thrown in.

My New Year's resolutions include continuing my path back to health after 2009's Brush with D. by exercising more, and to see my friends more. Writers tend to hibernate in their own little bubble of frustration and doubt, then inspiration/concentration.

 So, Work More but also Play Well With Others, as you teachers say. Continue the Empty Nest Transition which is going well enough to annoy the offspring. And Sew More.

Well, that about covers everything, doesn't it, except Vaccuum More?

My play "Dear Mr. Rogge" about the extraordinary and brave Chinese dissident He Depu will be given a workshop reading in Feb. in Geneva, so I'm still working on the "what do writers wear?" conundrum, which is silly because it hardly bothered any writer I admire, dead or alive, except fabled "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" screenwriter Anita Loos. She was not only a pioneer among women in the film industry, but also a great clothes horse, according to her fabulous memoir, A Girl Like I, (out of print, but discovered in a giveaway bin at the American Library in Geneva.)

 Burda's Feb issue is coming out with some themes for 2012, which completely contradict the Guardian's Fashion Guru that the 20's Flapper Silhouette will dominate 2012. Instead, Burda is going with stripes (which require striped fabric, not always easy) and continue their love of the kimono. I appreciate the clarity and classic lines of this sheath below (although I doubt anybody on the planet needs another sheath pattern,) and as I'm basically a workaholic who would like to be a louche lounge lizard in Mitsouko perfume dripping silks and ennui in her trail, I probably will try to figure out another excuse to make another kimono. I still think Burda's best kimono pattern was the one I gave detailed three-posting instructions to a while back.

But here I'm going to lose some of you. I just hate colour blocking and I'm firmly convinced that it only works on women with the kind of strong colouring that can carry neon brights. I love the cut of the orange blouse below, but I think older women, blonde women, non-svelte women, short or medium height women, pale women, cannot handle that much blast of contrast. It may be fun, but if you want to wear bright colour, I think you've got to stick with one. Unless you're Erica Bunker.

Finally, I love the cheongsam cut of this and I suspect it's a knit which would make things easier. As I spent twenty years in Hong Kong, I'm tempted, but every western woman should think twice about a style that might scream "Chinese costume."

What are your resolutions???