Ah, Movember. That magical time of year where men’s faces start to resemble wild boars, and a simple kiss can feel like an exfoliation scrub. Hallowe’en is over, but it’s spirit lives on as men continue to emulate the virile mustaches of Tom Selleck, Burt Reynolds, or Jack Layton (RIP).
Everywhere you turn, there are fresh whiskers growing on a previously clean-shaven man. Whether you love them or hate them, these mustaches are not grown in vain. Men reject their razors in order to garner donations and raise awareness about prostate cancer and men’s mental health initiatives. Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer in Canadian men, and four thousand will die from the disease in 2012. Nuff said.
While it is relatively easy for men to get involved in Movember (Case in point: Open a social media account on Mo Space, stop shaving upper lip), it take a lot more innovation and intuition to get women involved in the campaign to end prostate cancer.
Ryley Kornelsen has innovation and intuition in spades, so finding a unique way to make a Movember contribution was easy. She is on the pioneering front of Mo Fashion, (or ‘staschion) as a way to get more women involved with the Movember cause. Ryley thinks that women “can do more than just support, encourage, or have sex with men with moustaches during Movember. Yes, I’m pretty sure Have Sex With a Guy With a Mustache Day is a real thing.”
While women can participate in ‘No Shave November’ by letting our gardens grow, Kornelsen doesn’t think it has quite the same feeling of heightened dapperness that men can achieve by growing a mustache. “While I support my sistas if that’s how they want to demonstrate solidarity, the moustache represents a sort of fun, glamourous personal expression, and making fun clothes and outfits brings the glamour for me.”
In November 2011, she hauled ass to local thrift and craft stores to purchase black felt, fabric paint and spray paint and used them to fashion mustaches she would use to decorate her outfits. Almost like a niche fashion blog, she dutifully uploaded a picture of each outfit to her Mo Sista page. “By the end of the month, I really just wanted to crank it up so I kept combining pieces in different ways. I think my favourite outfit was the combination of the MO tights, MO sweater, scarf, ‘stachel and jewellery. I felt pretty hip and casual, and was still able to rep multiple visual moustaches.” This year, Ryley aims to use her mad fash to become the number one Mo Sista in Canada.
Silly mustaches shapes — from the handlebar to the horseshoe — are currently experience a fashion revival, perhaps in part to the genius marketing of Movember. In any event, it is quite easy to find mustachioed garments and accessories available in stores like Urban Outfitters, Little Burgundy and online marketplace Etsy.com.
But it’s hardly necessary to drop your cash at mall stores, when it is so incredibly easy to replicate your own mo-style. Ryley suggests making clay mustaches out of Sculpey dough and hot-gluing them to old jewelry or “printing off your favourite moustache shape, stenciling onto clothing and then tracing the shape with fabric paint.”
For the serious Mo Sistas prepared to take the drastic leap into a lifestyle of Mo Fashion for the rest of the month, Ryley has prepared a simple DIY for making your very own Mustache Shoes, or, “Mopeds” (mo for mustache, peds for feet – get it?)
Necessary Supplies:
Favourite moustache shape
Fabulous cheap ballet flats
Felt
Hot glue gun and glue
Method
1. Find your favourite moustache shape on the internetz. Print a copy that’s about 3 inches wide or so.
2. Find some fabulous cheap ballet flats. I used some from Wal-Mart; Value Village or other thrift stores will also work.
3. Acquire some black felt (or, hell, any colour felt. BRIGHTS ARE BIG. BRING ON THE BRIGHT MOUSTACHE!)
4. Cut out favourite moustache shape.
5. Trace favourite moustache shape onto felt twice.
6. Cut out felt favourite moustaches.
7. Glue felt favourite moustaches onto toes of fabulous cheap ballet flats.
8. Post pictures of yourself rocked fabulous favourite moustache flats to your Mo Space (you have one, yes?) and raise bitchin’ dollarz for the cause!
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Isabel Slone is a Toronto-based fashion blogger and writer. Follow her on Twitter at @isabelslone.
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