No Christmas presents today, kids, sorry.
So here's the thing:
I've noticed that most people's style tends in one of two directions: naughty or -- you guessed it -- nice. I'm talking about people's personal style here, not their personalities. You may be a serial killer for all I know; that would be naughty indeed but not relevant to the topic at hand.
Take me for instance. I'm a nice and always have been. This is about as naughty as I get (Cathy styled this photo -- it's a little out there for me.)
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| From NEW LOOKS |
Normally I look like this. Aging but wholesome!
Then there's my partner Michael. He's a naughty. Left to his own devices, he'd wear jeans cut too low and ripped in all the wrong places, a see-through tank top, and studded leather wrist bands. Ewww. I've actually given up trying to do anything about it (as you may recall) though I'm not above the odd barely-audible-but-definitely-hostile chortle.
My style icons? Wholesome.
or this...
or this...
Not sure which type you are?
Here's a simple test. Complete the following:
Debbie ___________.
If you said Reynolds, you're a nice. If you said Harry, you're a naughty, see? Here's another.
Ozzie __________.
If you said Nelson, you're a nice. If you said Osborne, you're a naughty.
Simple.
More naughty:
More nice:
Frankly, readers, it seems that people today are so desperate to be naughty -- think Halloween and all the naughty Santa, naughty nurse, naughty everything costumes that are all the rage -- that projecting nice is positively subversive!
So how about you? I can say with confidence, having read many of your blogs and comments here, we have some definite naughties among us -- I won't name names!
Are you a naughty or a nice? If so, why do you think? Were you rebelling against an oppressive childhood of church picnics and beach party movies? Was your mother a Donna Reed wannabe? Or just the opposite: were you raised by a woman named Rainbow on a commune and forced to wear fringe vests and peace-sign-embossed leather headbands, and chew peyote gum?
How does your nice/naughty style manifest itself?
Are you Debbie, Doris, or the devil?
Enquiring minds want to know!
Decidedly nice. I LOVE Doris Day.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely a nice, always have been but I think it originated more out of being shy and self-conscious than anything. Now I appreciate my nice look, but every once in a while I feel the need to wear something a little less nice. Alas, my wardrobe just won't lend itself to that.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, hard to say. My answers to your quiz were all over the place. I guess that means I'm a naughty. I'm subversive about it though, so that might be surprising to some.
ReplyDeleteNaughty. But as I leave my twenties behind me I'm attempting to explore this "nice" thing... I no longer (usually) feel the need to dress as skanktastically as possible. I still like a little edge, though.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be a little sunk in two or three years when my daughters hit adolescence, though... I can just see it: "You're not going out of the house in that outfit!"
"Why not, mom? You did."
Actually *being* a Debbie, I had no idea where you were going with the Debbie ______ in the first "test," so that threw me off. Now that I've regrouped, my answer is: in my younger, thinner days in person I was definitely the Debbie Harry / Ozzie Osbourne type. Now the *look* is only in my mind but the naughty is still there somewhere. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI guessed Debbie ... Gibson! Am I hopelessly stuck in the 80's? Does this make me wholesome or just plain weird? I'm actually pretty borderliner, style wise, nice by day, due to boring office job and naughty in the weekends when I channel my inner Patty Smith. And the question is of course, how long can you go on looking like Patty Smith without looking ridiculous? Is there a age-appropriate naughty style?
ReplyDeleteGlenn Close, Sigourney Weaver, Diana Rigg - all still naughty later in life.
DeleteDebbie, if anyone responded "Cook" (other than you) to that Match Game question, I'd refer them immediately to Pattern Review!
ReplyDeleteIrene, you're sounding dangerously wholesome to me.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think of myself as "nice". ;) Although I tried the naughty thing at one time, it didn't go over too well--I always felt terribly self conscious! Occasionally I'll veer more towards naughty, but in always a completely nice way (how's that for confused personality?! rofl). I think it has something to do with growing up in a very conservative household; I've always had a pretty intense sense of projecting a nice rather than naughty attitude. Maybe I'm just too up tight?! I've often wondered.... haha!
ReplyDelete♥ Casey
blog | elegantmusings.com
Ah Peter - if you refer them to PR, they won't find me anymore. We'll all just keep meeting here at your blog instead. ;-)
ReplyDeleteAging but wholesome!
ReplyDeleteThat's me most days, but every once in a while the naughty appears. That's why my MIL thinks I'm the devil.
naughty on the inside, nice on the outside?
ReplyDeleteSeriously, if I do a "naughty" look, I just end up looking trashy...
Oh my goodness! I am a bit shocked about it, but according to your poll I, apparently, am a naughty! (12 years of Catholic girls' school will do that to a person.)
ReplyDeleteTotally, undeniably nice. I was raised by a mom who had matching shoes and handbags, who ordered us never to wear shorts to go downtown, and whose favorite admonitions were "Remember who you ARE"(a question which plagued me forever growing up)and "Don't embarrass the family!" I tried to be horrifyingly naughty ever since I left home for college (hard when the 'rents come to visit a couple of times a month)and lived in New York (my elderly Italian nona neighbors told my father when he helped me move out that I was "a good girl" - damn). I gave up and embraced the Nice Me - and yes, I do wear shirtwaist dresses -- why did you ask?
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I am the world's biggest goody two-shoes and most of my outfits are definitely on the "nice" side, but I've got LOADS of black leather, pyramid studs, and crazy stripper shoes. And I wear them with pride. Perhaps I'm a lunatic hybrid!
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm a nice. And does it count when I said "Ozzy and Harriet"?
ReplyDeleteI'm nice! I've always got a cup of sugar for you to borrow, too. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm nice. There were a few outfits in college that might have walked the line with naughty, but these days I won't even get risque with my t-shirt slogans. I'm a mom of two young girls and I don't want to embarrass them. Like when we go to school open-houses and someone's mom struts in looking like she just got off the pole at the "Classy Chassis" or the dad shows up wearing a t-shirt (sans sleeves) that says "Will work for beer."
ReplyDeleteAnd, since this is just between us, I will admit that I have made my kids matching dresses. And we watch musicals together (including Doris, Debbie, and Shirley). I'm definitely more Sandy than Rizo (though I have been known to dress up for the Rocky Horror Picture Show).
Another Catholic school girl here! I was definitely a naughty in my younger years but have become a nice with a hint of naughtiness. ;)
ReplyDeleteOK, THAT is the difference. While some teenagers stayed up past midnight to see Rocky Horror, I was staying up to watch "Meet Me in St. Louis" on the Late Show! LOL
ReplyDeleteMy response to Debbie was "who?" This really sums up my personal style: lazy.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely a nice. My style icons are Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, June Carter Cash, and Kate Winslet.
ReplyDeleteA little of both here. My husband laughs at my prim and proper look while he claims I have quite an edge to me -- he also says most people don't see it because I'm so shy it takes a long time to get to know me. I've been said to be completely Goth but without all the black clothes and white makeup. I'm a confusing mess I guess.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it all depends on my mood.
Naughty...how else can you explain my history of Halloween costumes, which started at age 9 as a "Like a Virgin" inspired Madonna? I was Madonna again at age 16, only that was during the Jean-Paul Gaultier gold corset/conical bra "Vogue" years. Then in college I teamed up with four other friends to go as the Spice Girls and I was Baby Spice (like I even had a choice on that one). In 1999 it was a 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' video carbon copy of a pre-mental breakdown Britney, and then this past year was my tribute to Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman.
ReplyDeleteI stayed up late watching Rocky Horror last night, but I saw it for the first time at age 15, and it has influenced my preference for men wearing black thigh high stockings.
I have an offensive t-shirt collection that has gotten me threatened by strangers in the grocery store parking lot (if you consider a T shirt that says "LEGALIZE SAME SEX MARRIAGE" offensive).
Yet when I sew, it is almost exclusively from Audrey-Hepburn/Jackie Kennedy style vintage patterns, and for work attire I prefer orthopedic thick soled clogs and demure knee length skirts and tailored trousers.
Variety is the spice/a little bit naughty/a little bit nice.
ReplyDeleteTo the poster who wondered about older naughty -- how about Joan Collins in Dynasty? Joan Crawford? And as for men--Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Alan Rickman
Anyone else have favorites?
I am a nice without a doubt, but sometimes I am viewed as naughty (mostly dirty old/young men).
ReplyDeleteFor instance I went to my Christmas party in a vintage red kilt...all the men oogled and ahhhed...I guess they were having "Catholic girl" fantasies. And the other day I wore a vintage dress with my hair in braids...same oogling. This time it was "fair maiden" fantasies.
Now I feel like I need to ask myself what my latest vintage look may evoke in said "dirty old/young men".
Regardless I am a NICE!
I am definitely a bit of both. Depends on my mood. The clothes I make for myself reflect a bit of both sides. My Halloween costumes have always had a bit of gothicness to them, too, except for the year I was pregnant and went as the Fertility Goddess. ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm nice. Sometimes I try to be naughty, but it doesn't work out for me very often. I must have one of those faces where my naughty look is more like "well at least you tried."
ReplyDeleteOh, Nancy, I can relate. Like, the only boots I can wear are Clark's desert boots. Anything vaguely suggestive of a rocker or -- God forbid -- a biker, looks ridiculous on me; a total costume. I'm just too nice.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm...definitely a combination. Style-wise it's difficult, though, because I'm small and always end up coming across as "cute" instead of "hot." But those who know me well know I'm naughty at heart. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen you said "Debbie__", I immediately thought "Does Dallas." So, does that make me extra naughty? ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty nice from the knee cap and above, but from there down, a straight up shoe 'ho.
ReplyDeleteI am certainly nice - being pretty teensy sort of bumps me down into the "cute" bracket regardless of how edgy/naughty I am trying to look. That having been said, I really enjoy dressing in pretty sun dresses and cute little shoes, so I can't really say that I want to be naughty, but hey, a girl can dresm (of that leather pencil skirt and high ponytail...).
ReplyDeleteI'm really more of the nice but well balanced with spice type. I'm definately not vulgar however in my early 20's I helped pay the rent by being in bikini contests - they started getting waaayy to risque and that freaked me out so I quit. My naughty is not for public consumption.
ReplyDeleteAnother small=cute cursed to be nice, regardless of personal preference. Mostly I prefer nice, but it would be nice to bust out once in a while.
ReplyDeleteThe dolphin cracks me up.
ReplyDeleteMy style leans toward the nice side, although personally-wise I've been called many names that are not nice.
I'm sure I'm ultra conservative and nice, but then I have a really wicked shoe collection and even my 'nice' outfits get a twist in them by adding funky shoes. I guess that makes me somewhere in between. Oh and I LOVE Doris Day!
ReplyDeleteI need to revise my "lazy" comment.
ReplyDeleteI went to the grocery store this morning for milk wearing only what I wore to bed last night. (It was 6:45 am.) Now, I don't normally do that, and I felt bad, so I apologized to the clerk. What I wore to bed was a long-sleeved tee, a fleece sweat shirt, and long pants, so there was nothing really to apologize for, I just felt sloppy. The clerk said, "at least you've got clothes on." And so we then had a conversation about people who go shopping or anywhere in public in inappropriate attire, which led me to tell her about the peopleofwalmart website. (It's terribly mean spirited, so don't go there if you can't handle that kind of humor.)
My point, however, is that one of the themes of that site, and the grocery store in my neighborhood and probably yours, is that people can't seem to cover themselves in appropriate ways--be those ways naughty or nice. For the most part, I'm not really a prude, but my one fashion rule is that I do try to cover up loose fat. If it jiggles when I walk, it should be enclosed in clothing.
You won't see rule that in Vogue.
Excuse me....but you made (and wore) harem pants! Sounds naughty to me.....
ReplyDeleteI think this is my first time commenting, but I've been a reader for a few months. This post was very insightful! I'm DEFINITELY a 'naughty.' I got the "Debbie" and "Ozzy" references (spelling corrected, lol) immediately. I'm always looking for ways to spice up my outfits and show just enough to not be too overt about it. Gotta keep up the charade at work....
ReplyDeleteBack when I had the figure and youth I was Naughty, very Naughty. Now I am a Subversive Nice. I hate the corporate world!
ReplyDeleteI don't really get the difference. In my way of seeing it a 1950s clean sundress can be naughty and ripped jeans + t-shirt nice.
ReplyDeleteMy style is sort of Chrissie Hynde, Juliette Lewis nice!
I didn't have Robert Wagner pegged under "nice". I always thought he had a salicious edge. At least on tv in the 80's...
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one that said...
ReplyDeleteDebbie....Downer?
-Allie
According to your quiz, def. naughty. For some reason, I tend toward nice in spring and summer, and for sure naughty in winter. There is something about the world being in the dark that makes me think darker thoughts and create darker feeling clothes/ ensembles.
ReplyDeleteWow. I got Naughty across the board. I never thought of it that way!
ReplyDeleteI said Debbie.... does Dallas.
ReplyDeleteDoes that make me naughty?
'Nice' clothes, slutty undies. Little Shirley there looks like 'Ask me to sing that song again and I will throttle this duck'.
ReplyDelete