Dirt Chic

Getting Dressed: Red Hat Society Gone Wrong

A few things:

1. The straight bangs have gotta go.  Too much work.

2. I just need a new mirror.  That's all there is to it.  Not enough time to set up tripod and deal with finicky apps.

3. I wish there were more dresses like this in the world:

Why?  Because all I have to do is put it on.  It doesn't require jewelry - it has sequins, and ruffles, and tassles (though I like to wear my red ring with it).  It doesn't require a belt - it has the only truly-acceptable kind of elastic waist, that is more about hardowrking ruching than utilitarian comfort.  It doesn't require a slip.  It doesn't require commentary, really, but this is Dirt Chic, so you're getting it anyway. :)

I'm not changing today.  The only thing that is high-maintenance about this dress is I worry a little bit, about the sequins.  I'm kind of hard on clothes, and I find sequins all over my apartment.  Poor things.  (I leave them where I find them, because I like them to dot my life.)  

Diane Freis dress, which you most certainly have seen before, but only here: $24.

I Do More Than Get Dressed (But It's a Good Thing I'm Clothed)

It's been a weird three weeks.  This semester is so different than the last.  Though, some things stay the same.  I overuse this word: chatoyant.  I learned it when I started obsessing about gemstones in 9th grade.  But it's kind of my word.  It's what my days are like.  It's what my mind is like, good or bad.  It's been a chatoyant 3 weeks, for sure.

Mostly, I've just been focusing on teaching my ONE class this semester (that's how the cards fell.  Is that even a phrase?), and boy, are those students getting my full attention (not that they necessarily appreciate this ;).  However, I am not living a life of leisure.  I've got two books to write, and there are two more RPM shows that I'm going to catch up in Chicago, and then who knows.

But at least I have time, now, to appreciate the little things, more....

Like Canada geese migrating.  Doesn't do it justice.  There were SO many of them.

Like packaging.  Okay, I always notice packaging.  And animals.  Doesn't this look delicious?  Are you so excited when they make fudgsicles and call them poopsicles?

Like things that make me shake my head in wonder, like "Travel Lube", which I would imagine might be owned by whoever brought us "Kum & Go" gas stations.

Like people-watching at the bookstore.  Perhaps I shouldn't have taken this woman's picture but I noted her entire stack of everything was British and she had a BBC-embossed tote bag.  But what really amuses me about this picture is that there is a magazine called "Majesty".  

Like finally having the ability to sit in my pink office, dream about fragrance, color, and texture, and dive back into my novel, which has been problematic for me.  I've been making good headway on my biography (and whenever I say "my biography" I fear people will misunderstand and think I've been commissioned to write my autobiography, which is amusing as well).  I've been nerding out on dramatic literature and have been developing syllabi on history plays and family dramas and religion/metaphysics and theatre.  I broke my brain last semester.  I really did.  For all the reasons it happened, it's been up to me to mend it.  Well, Scorch the thrifted dragon has helped.  He says hi.  His little brown eye makes me happy.  

So anyways.  :)

Getting Dressed: Pretty Close to 90's All the Way

But not entirely. ;)  

Having that bound 6-month "book" of 1993 Vogues in high school did a little number on me.  I will never be the same.  I bow low to Versace, Chanel, Escada....

Jacket: free from the beloved Ashley (came with a dress; someday it will fit).  80's Beach Bum t-shirt (heh heh, it lurks everywhere): stole from the beloved Mary 13 years ago.  Black pants: $20 at TJ Maxx.  Belts: $2-3 each.  Necklace: $6.  70's pumps: $5.

Getting Dressed: A New Look

This has been a long time brewing.

It's everything I love in dressing - casual, but not too casual (fabrics are comfortable but not shabby); vintage elements but not straight-up retro; bold color but also plenty of black; menswear look; CUFFED PANTS AND HEELS WITH SOCKS.  Bam.  

Expect to see a lot more variations on this.  (Unless it snows.  But even then.)

Blazer: fav from H&M, $6 at SalArmy.  80's Hawaiian-print shirt: $3.  Pants: $30 at Old Navy (the only major thing I buy new, and this was years ago - they have held up well).  Neon socks: $3.50 from welovecolors.com (I buy socks and undergarments new, too - with GOOD REASON).  Black and white 80's pumps: $4.  Huge neon scarf: $6 (it had crystal tassles that I detached).

And also... expect to see some better pics.  Love my vanity and all, but the mirror is so bad for photos....

Sneak Peek: 'Cuz It's Witchcraft

Check out this puppy.

Doesn't quite fit.  But it will.

I'll have to fight the urge to wear it with green tights....

Getting Dressed: Applause, Applause, Applause

The title is a quote.  This one goes out to Mary.

Yep.  A Jessica McClintock strapless dress ($8) with a contemporary sweatshirt ($35), and a chunky necklace my friend Gina gave me, bless her heart.  The poofy skirt makes me look a little bottom-heavy, but who cares.

Perfume: Happy by Clinique.  Glad you can bottle such things.

More RPM.

Pete-O gets some attention. Maybe he will become less loquacious. (Let's hope not.)

Getting Dressed: Lest You Think I'm Straight-Up Retro

No.

Granted, this is heavily 80's - but the hat is pure 60's.

Today required a little bit of tweaking.  

First, the luscious silk shirt (a choice prize from Ashley) had these ENORMOUS shoulder pads.  I am not, on principle, adverse to shoulder pads, but these... were keeping me from wearing the shirt.  I had Guilt that it might ruin the look of the shirt, if removed.  But the Guilt was making me want to put the shirt back on the hanger.  So I sucked it up, trusted my instinct, and seam-ripped them out.  Man.  They were the size of, like, those knee pads or whatever that hockey players (goalies?) wear.  (I'll have to brush up on sports terminology.  In, like, 5 years.)

Second, the hat ($14).  I have had this hat for about 4 years, which is no big deal, except that I've never worn it.  Why?  Why not just get rid of it?  I almost did.  It made it to the purge pile.  But - I love it so.  I love hats.  This one just didn't fit.  It was edged inside and out with a grosgain ribbon, and while I have a bit of experience with hat-making, I felt this was out of my league.  For some reason, sticking it on the purge pile (as well as amassing quite a few choice hats this year), made me not want to give it up, to give it another try.  So I seam-ripped the grosgrain off, fully intending to wet and the stretch the felt somehow.  Turns out, I didn't really need to.  The felt stretched without the grosgrain.

Anyway. I enjoy a little tweaking, a little sewing, a little ripping, a little whatever that gives something I know I love a second chance.  

Belt: $3 (had to tweak this one too, back in the day!  Seam-ripped it from the buckle, cut it to length, sewed it back on).  Shoes: $4.

Getting Dressed, But Not Really: Thriftherapy

After my purge-a-thon, I knew it would be stupid to go buy a bunch of stuff again, and besides, I shouldn't anyway, as it costs $$$ and I should be saving $$$.  I haven't felt super up to thrifting, anyway (gasp), so it hasn't been an issue.  But I went yesterday.  I needed a little pick-me-up.

I noted, in my purge, that there were a few items I used to think were edgy and fantastic, but have, well, been edged out by ever-more-fantastic items.  I love how style morphs, though it can be problematic from a frugal standpoint (and others, I'm sure).  So, I wasn't interested in finding anything so-so.  I just got rid of a lot of so-so.

This is what ended up in the dressing room.  Only the blue skirt didn't make the cut.  It was too... big.  And the color... well, I enjoy the color as there is so much of it, but long skirts have to be just right, to be chic.

So this dress is a Size 3, and I was extremely surprised that at least part of my body fit in it - but of course, part of it didn't, as my thighs (or as Anne I learned the French call cuisse - thank you Serge) are not nor will ever be a Size 3.  So I decided to remove the skirt part and wear it with pants.  Even if the skirt fit, I don't do short.  Dress: $9.

I'm wearing it with these AMAZING Connie D'Orsay pumps.  I have a lot of Connie shoes, which, as far as I know through mild research, were the mid-level comfortable "commuter" shoes from the 80's (and before).  So, all my shoes are highly wearable pumps.  It was strange and awesome to come across these leather D'Orsays, which, in my opinion, are one of the chicest style of shoes out there.  I wasn't really surprised that they are super-comfortable - if a pump fits well, it doesn't need a strap to be comfortable and stay on.  I need to get a little navy polish to spruce them up, but otherwise, they are fine.  Shoes, $5.

Ahhhh.  Lanz of Switzerland, and your bra-defying all-natural-fiber ways; I have yet to really be able to pull off a Lanz look.  And the prints tend to be too sedate for me.  So to find a watermelon-and-palm-tree Lanz sundress, smackdab in the middle of January?  I had a bit of trouble with it - put it on abckwards, apparently.  The back is a wrap-style, and the V went down to nearly my waist, and one thing I hate is a summer garment that requires another garment underneath, such as a tanktop or slip.  But then I turned it around.  Duh.  Maybe you can wear it both ways.  I will only wear it this way.  Thankfully, my strapless bra cooperates with it (my other ones don't) and doesn't show.  Dress: $4.

Winter Fragrances - A Trio of Rumination

If I have to be bundled up, wearing too many layers, layers that forget me that I have a body, and forget me that there are times in the year when it is not perpetually cold, at least give me a warm, ambery, resiny perfume that wafts up out of those layers with meditative richness - and only the faintest hints of vanilla and flowers.  If I have to wait it all out, let it be deep and let it be lasting, and don't tempt me with goldanged citrus and hibiscus.  Take your Victoria's Secret alchoholic body splash and shove it.

;)

Lancome Tresor, Chloe Narcisse, Bourjois Evening in Paris.  I've long known there was a link between my favorite winter fragrances - but before today, I never sniffed them side-by-side.  They all belong under thrice-wrapped knit scarves and crossed fur collars.  I truly can't wear these in summer - they can't have too much air.  They need exquisite escape routes, occasionally. (I've learned from my favorite perfume writer to spritz my ribcage, under my, well, brassiere. ;) They are all content to hide, and then surprise.

Highly acceptable.  I am grateful.  Daily fragrance, from perfume to candles, is extremely important to me.