K(NAC)kered

This was the view out my window last Friday:

So for the next three days, this was my best friend:

I was not the only one gasping for breath in the trapped smog, the result of a temperature inversion that apparently is pretty common in Salt Lake City December through February. Wish I could have added yet another piece of gear, an extra (clean) air supply. That might look like this?

Air Quality Dress by Dominque Paul

Note to USFA--maybe avoid holding NACs in SLC during the winter months? Please?

Problematic breathing aside, a good time was had by most (if not all). 

On to the fashion coverage.

This gentleman seemed to be geared up for the October NAC, but whatever.

Baltimore Fencing Center's Pam Dressel models mask-cords-as-fashion-accessories:

(Note the new Coaching Credentials, including spiffy lanyard, which have the added benefit of letting you check in at all competitions for the coming year and eliminates the need for the stupid adhesive admissions wristbands. Which itch. And fall off.)

Spotted on the warm-up strip:

While colorful, this seems like a great way to put a hole in your club jacket.

Epeeist Michele Bodon (Northwest Fencing Center) gets bonus points for not only creatively mismatched socks, but mismatched shoes.

Russ Cain, also of BFC, sported the latest functional fencing accessory--the "brain hat." Guaranteed to improve your strategic thinking between bouts. (Wait, might it fit UNDER the mask?)

 

Absolute Fencing's Lewis Vaden found a "Lexington Legends" baseball cap that echoes his mustache. 

The phrase "gloriously bewhiskered" comes to mind.

Vet Foil fencer Anne-Marie Walters shows off her World Veteran Fencing Championships t-shirt. (Anne-Marie has fenced in every Vet Worlds competition from 2006 on. #WOW.)

Referee power fashion. (If being an official isn't intimidating enough, wear skulls.) 

Cutest spectator. Even if he is a badger hound

(What, you thought I meant the dude? :)

Finally, a diptych of Vet Women fencers, courtesy of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts:

On the left, Gemin Channing, my teammate from Rockville Fencing Academy. That's me on the right. (We wanted to pose with our foils, but smuggling them into the museum seemed...problematic.)

Follow the new @fencingfashionista account on Instagram to keep up with the latest styles in our sport. 

Until St. Louis, salute!