Kathryn Cramer
An Historical Overview
by David G. Hartwell, Fashion Theorist
Wins "Most Original" in High School
Money is not the answer, nor is seasonable Fashion. Should anyone in Seattle have been taking note in the 1970s, they would have been able to mark the first glimmerings of the advent of a snappy dresser in 1979 at University Prep. That year Junior Kathryn E. Cramer was named "Most Original" dresser for her surprising juxtapositions of clothing in everyday life. This was in opposition to the One Big Dumb Idea, the male winner who merely went to school one day in a chicken suit. Kathryn has described her style as "Annie Hall on acid." At one point her hair was dyed in fine orange and blue stripes.
dyes hair purple after political defeat
Kathryn, then Mrs. Viktor Grabner, became involved in student politics at the University of Washington in the early 1980s. She became moderately invisible and on occasion dressed in suits. This was perhaps the nadir of her creative dressing, which ended immediately after a particularly galling defeat in the race for student body president, when she dyed her hair purple and became alienated. Somewhere in there, though, she took a course in modeling, since she was small and slim and in fact hadn't gained a pound since she was fourteen. This heightened her already acute perception of dress.
discovers NY boutiques and SF convention glitz, ca 1985
The Cramer family had been introduced to SF convenions in the early 1980s, but Kathryn had not immediately seen them as a fashion experience, in contrast to her sister, Marquessa Whitehawk, who discovered the possibilities of personal expression outside the normal boundaries of fashion at age fourteen at Norwescon in Seattle. 
However, when Kathryn left Seattle and came to New York in the spring of 1985, East Coast conventions were in the full flower of "killer dress" frenzy. She found this immediately likeable and plunged right in. Pictures in Locus and SF Chronicle of the time reflect this stage of development, as well as some memorable party stories, such as the illumination of Gardner R. Dozois at Lunacon, or the "what big balloons you have, my dear" party at Philcon.
This phase ended with the 1980s, and not entirely coincidentally with Kathryn's short marriage to James M. Young which began and ended in 1989, after which Kathryn was depressed and shy. At the same time, many of the other well-dressed women in SF got tired of this relatively expensive and more than a bit competetitive game and stayed friends.
discovers fabric shops and extends quilting skills to clothing.
In college Kathryn took up quilting and during the 80s went through periods of making interesting quilts, even taking a course in quilt design at one point. This skill was fueled in part by her abiding fascination with geometry (see her aphorism regarding Seminoles and sewing machines). Her first article of clothing was a Seminole patchwork vest, in the late 1980s. Then in 1990 Kathryn began to make art pillows (seascapes) and pieces of clothing, including one memorable patchwork suit.
This seems to have been a phase that ended in a year, but may well be only dormant. The legacy is interesting and still worn today.
discovers upscale thrift shops and builds designer wardrobe
In the late 1980s Kathryn was introduced by David G. Hartwell, fashion theorist, to the concept of the art of thrift shopping. Having followed the pattern of concentrating on very expensive neighborhoods and having the natural advantage of being a size 4-6, she began to build a wardrobe of ridiculously expensive clothes purchased at reasonable prices to mix with her already extensive wardrobe.
She is able presently to appear as if the best dressed and most well-connected people in the room ought to know who she is. They nod vaguely to her at public events. See also hats, and Paris.
chooses Her Accessory
Sometime in the early 1990s it became evident that Kathryn had chosen that accessory we now recognize as her specialty: the hat. Having read the autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein on the way to Paris, Kathryn became interested for the second time (see Annie Hall, above) in hats, and this time it seems to have taken more permanent hold. Her most striking outfits usually include a hat, often a dramatic one. Insert fair use quote from Stein.
There is still the possibility that footwear, always a subject of interest to Kathryn, may in the end dominate her accessory choices, but there is much evidence to indicate that extreme choices of shoes went out along with the "killer dress" mode.
