For February, the Geek Fashion Blogger Alliance theme was Galentines! The challenge was style an outfit based on a lady in fandom that inspires you. Of course the first challenge was to pick just one awesome lady that inspires me from fandom. I had to pick one of the powerful ladies from comics, because my main area of geekery is comic books, but then the question was still which one?
There are quite a few inspirational ladies in comics, and I found myself poring over my bookshelves and enjoying the fact that I had difficulty choosing because there were so many good choices. Batwoman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, the Lumberjanes, Gert from I Hate Fairyland, Thor, Ms. Marvel, Batgirl, Harley Quinn, Squirrel Girl, Wolverine….. Of course there could always be more awesome ladies in comics, but even this short list was somewhat overwhelming!
Eventually I settled on Mockingbird, Dr. Bobbi Morse. She is a scientist, a spy, and an incredible sassy character. Her most recent series written by Chelsea Cain and with art by Kate Niemczyk was tragically short, but was long enough for me to fall completely in love with Bobbi’s character.
The outfit I threw together was mostly thrifted or basic blacks from department stores. The two exceptions being my very favourite stompy boots from Doc Martens and the patches I sewed on to the cardigan. The patches can be ironed on, but I always sew patches on to stretchy fabric as I find it gives the fabric a little more flexibility and it’s not as likely to give it that welted look. I stitched them whilst on the train commuting to work, I love using this train time to do little creative things like this or to read comics!
Any time I have a camera pointed my way the largest amount of my time is spent in messing around. With a character as awesome as Mockingbird I really wanted a cool background to take photos, and this train station provided a great backdrop. Of course the somewhat grungy location did noting to dissuade me from messing about. So I played with my Mockingbird action figure and pretended I was flying in the wind. The wind was great to take photos with! Added an extra little bit of movement to my scarf and hair. Of course that usually meant that my hair was in my face, but there was lots of laughing and dancing about and I had heaps of fun!
The look of a contrasting scarf on a mostly black outfit is a look I really enjoy. I tend to be comfortable wearing a lot of black and a scarf is a way I can add colour (or contrast in this case) to an outfit without my clothing feeling weird. I love how the simple white scarf against a plain black outfit mimics Mockingbird’s costume so effectively. With the addition of the S.H.I.E.L.D. patches just finishing the outfit off.
With this outfit I’d like to channel Bobbi’s sass and bloody minded determination. I admire her grounded approach to things and how she is aware of and points out some of the issues in her world. I see her as an inspirational character, and I really enjoyed dressing like her for a little while.
