"West Coast Dressy"

Amigos, it's party time.

As you may have heard, Project Somos is putting on its first fundraiser on Wednesday, November 19th.  The Benefit Fiesta will be a chance for friends and supporters of Somos to come together, share some wine, sweets & music, bid on some excellent items up for auction, and pledge their financial support to the project.  

An excuse to get together with great people and take in chocolate, wine & tunes, you say??  I'm in!
 
So, now that sweets have been ordered and the wine is on its way, it’s time we address another clearly crucial element of the Fiesta—the dress code.  

Perhaps you’ve noticed on your ticket that the dress code for the evening has been set somewhat elusively as “West Coast Dressy.”  For those of us who may be a bit confused by this term, lets take a moment to explore ourselves, shall we?

Since my move to the West Coast two and a half years ago, I’ve had to re-evaluate my conception of the word ‘dressy’.  Vancouver is the first city I’ve lived in that allows, among other things, yoga wear and micro fleece into the category.  

And rubber boots.  They’ve somehow made the cut as well. My mom worked with a Vancouverite professor at the University of Saskatchewan who proudly wore her Wellies to work under dress pants and skirts.  Being from a particularly dry part of the country, we found this to be a rather strange choice of attire for an otherwise very elegantly-clad woman. For us, rubber boots were something worn only by gardeners and splash-happy children after the occasional rainy day.  Surely just a quirky lady, we thought.

But no—it’s West Coast, maaan.  Those boots are a venerable fashion accessory here.  

Other noticeable flavours include a tendency toward anything made of soy, hemp, or linen, and a relatively high prevalence of ‘vintage’ garments.  

Further, as a proud resident of East Vancouver, I have observed a refreshingly large number of gender-bending outfits in and around the neighborhood: women in poor-boy hats, slacks & suspenders, men in tutus & eyeliner...

And I love this.  I love that comfort and creativity take priority over some arbitrary rules of fashion set in some other time and place by someone who surely didn’t understand how good Lululemon pants feel to dance in at your cousin’s wedding, or how handy it is for a guy to be able to go from the crag to the club by simply slipping a fluffy red tutu over his wind-resistant, stretch-woven MEC climbing pants..  The wrinkles enhance the look of the hemp-soy trousers, dontcha know.  I personally like a guy with a little eye-liner on, anyway.

In short, you lovely Coastal folks have repatriated the rules of fashion into a version that just...fits ya’ a little better.  This is a wonderful thing.

So, instead of deeming it a formal or semi-formal evening, we thought we would embrace this under-celebrated cultural constituent by inviting you to turn up the West Coast dial a bit when you’re getting dressed for the Fiesta.  

So sisters, don your tutus, and gents, your suspenders—or vice versa.  GORE-TEX tuxedos and organic soy-cotton gowns are most welcome, as are ultra-breathable thermal wicking quick-drying all-terrain tanks, or anything you find in your grandpa’s trunk.  Fresh, inventive, and comfy are all adjectives I encourage you to keep in mind when getting dressed for the night of the 19th.

Basically, be creative, be comfortable, wear whatever makes YOU feel dressed up, and you’ll fit right in.

-Kate