Monday, April 26, 2010

An Old Outfit (and Androgyny)




My weekend was jam-packed with activities.  The result was that I was incredibly tired when I got up this morning and I wasn't entirely up to the task of being creative in my dress.  I wanted to take an old outfit (an outfit from my pre-blog days) and make it a little more Western than it had originally been, but nothing really worked.  So, instead of wearing an experiment and being completely unhappy with it, which was what I was sensing was going to happen, I opted to just rewear the old outfit in its original state.  The outfit comes from a time when I was heavily into 60s looks.  It was inspired by the Fall/Winter 2005 Paul Smith Women ready-to-wear collection.




Lately, I have found myself checking out what men on the street are wearing more than what women on the street are wearing.  More and more, women seem to be settling for a uniform of one sort or another (head-to-toe black; yoga clothes).  I, too, revert to a uniform at times.  Men, on the other hand, seem to be experimenting more.  I am not passing judgment on anyone here.  I am simply presenting my experience.  I look at how people on the street dress as a source of inspiration.  At the moment, men are providing me with more inspiration than women.  It's probably a good thing that I am attracted to androgynous looks.






coat: Banana Republic, old
scarf: ?
shirt: Gap, old
sweater: Benetton, old
skirt: Old Navy, old
belt: Gap, old
tights: American Apparel, old
shoes: Zara, old

Here is the Paul Smith Women look that inspired today's outfit:


Paul Smith Women image from style.com

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Make-Up Blue Day No. 2




Today was the second make-up blue day of the month.  I don't want to say that I have been defeated by the monthly colour challenge.  But I have tired of it.  I want to have fun with what I wear.  When there are preset days on which I am expected to follow strict rules (like a rule that I have to wear a particular colour), even if I have set the rules, getting dressed is no longer fun.  So, after only one (official) month of the monthly colour challenge, at the end of this month, I am ending the challenge.




Today's blue outfit was inspired the Spring 2010 Ralph Lauren ready-to-wear collection, one look from that collection in particular.  I don't really have much else to say about today's outfit, so it will just have to speak for itself.



jacket: Bedo, last season
scarf: H&M
shirt: Gap
overalls: H&M
vest: H&M, old
boots: Fluevog

Here is the inspiration look:


Ralph Lauren image from style.com

Friday, April 23, 2010

A Favourite Designer


One of my favourite local designers is Susan Harris.  She uses discarded clothing, and, sometimes, other discarded fabric items, such as curtains, bed linens, tea towels and tablecloths, to fashion new clothing.  Definitely green, which alone is a good reason to consume the clothing.  But, if I am to be honest, I purchase Susan Harris Design pieces because of their aesthetics.  I find them stunningly beautiful.   And, I just love the different prints that adorn the clothes.


As for the particular outfit that I put together today, the Spring 2010 Marc Jacobs ready-to-wear collection was a clear source of inspiration.  When I first saw the collection, one of the pieces in my wardrobe that I immediately thought of was the Susan Harris Design dress.  The idea to pair the Susan Harris Design sweater with the dress came later, when I saw the sweater about a month ago at the Spring One of Kind Show and Sale.  The idea to add into the mix the Susan Harris Design jacket came just yesterday, when I wore the jacket with another outfit.  The idea to wear the Susan Harris Design arm warmers came today, right before I left my house.  Sometimes I am truly amazed at how outfits are conceived.  And, a little scared, because it all seems to depend on serendipity.  What if, one day, things just stopped coming together?

 

On a different note, I have not forgotten that today was a monthly colour challenge day and that I was supposed to wear blue (the colour for April).  A part of me is starting to give up on the challenge.  What was I thinking?  When it comes to getting dressed, my nature is so "anti-constraints".  Right now, I can't even promise a blue make-up day.

jacket: Susan Harris Design, old
belt: Gap, old
scarf: ?
arm warmers: Susan Harris Design, old
blouse: Gap, old
dress: Susan Harris Design, last season
sweater: Susan Harris Design
leggings: Gap, old
socks: H&M, old
boots: Fluevog

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Looking Back


After I had gotten dressed this morning and had merrily set out on my way, en route to the subway, I started to wonder whether I had just put on the same outfit that I had worn on Monday (albeit in a different colour scheme).  And, if I had, did it really matter?




At a slightly higher level, I am also starting to wonder where exactly I am going with my clothes this Spring and Summer.  It was my intention to try out the same theme that I was working with throughout the Winter -- the "Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing" theme -- but it is becoming apparent to me that I am moving more in the direction of a Western theme -- cowboy boots, western-style shirts, plaids, stripes, western-style belts, denim jackets.  This is a theme that I am familiar with, having already worked with it a few Summers ago.  There is no reason why I couldn't work with more than one theme, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the Western theme might take over.  I am a bit disappointed.  I don't dislike the Western theme, but I was looking forward to something different and new for me.  It might be fair to ask why I don't just push myself towards the new theme.  The answer is that I need to go with what feels right.  And, right now, the Western theme feels right.


Going with what feels right is also why I may have put on today the same outfit that I was wearing on Monday.  To answer the question, Does it matter?  For me, no, it doesn't matter one bit.  I can't ignore what feels right.



coat: Urban Outfitters, old
scarf: ?
blouse: Club Monaco, old
vest: H&M, old
skirt: Urban Outfitters, old
jacket: Susan Harris Design, old
tights: Old Navy, old
boots: Frye (from Get Outside)

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

I Wake Up and it Dawns on Me







Can a blue red work with an orange red?  You bet! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!  It never ceases to amaze me how in the wee hours of the morning, different shades of a colour (in the case of today, red) really look like they are from the same family when they actually aren't.  I don't know whether it is because of poor lighting in my house -- I tend not to like bright artificial lighting, at any time of day but particularly in the morning -- or whether it is because I am never fully awake until about one hour after I have left my house.  When I finally get into some good natural lighting and am fully awake, it dawns on me that I may not be wearing matching shades of a colour.  Sometimes I care, sometimes I don't.  Today, I realized that I "accidentally" put together some blue reds with orange reds.  Today, I absolutely, positively did not care!




jacket: Gap, old
scarf: Zara, old
shirt: Gap
skirt: Gap, last season
sweater: Zara, last season
belt: H&M, old
boots: Frye (from Get Outside)

Monday, April 19, 2010

Imagining Outfits





When I started this blog, it was my intent for it to be a record of outfits that I actually wear, not of outfits that I put together just for the blog.  This isn't to say that I haven't included pictures of clothes that I didn't wear but just photographed for the purposes of this blog.  I have done this, for example, when I wasn't happy with certain clothing choices and ought (in my esteemed opinion) to have worn something else (that is, when I have had, what I have called, a "wardrobe mishap").  In addition to wanting the blog to focus on my actual fashion and style experience, time is an issue for me.  It takes relatively little time to photograph what I actually wear on a given day.  It takes considerably more time to photograph additional outfits.  Although I wish I had all the time in the world to dress up and take photographs of the results, I don't have endless amounts of time on my hands.  At the moment, blogging is something I do for fun.  It is an "extracurricular" activity; I have a full-time job (and a part-time job on top of that).  Today, I had a bit more time on my hands than I ordinarily do.  I couldn't think of any other way that I would rather spend that time than to add to the outfit I actually wore today to show an outfit that I might wear.  The outfit that I actually wore today is shown above.  The outfit that I might one day wear -- the imagined outfit -- is shown below.  Unlike the "actual outfit", the "imagined outfit" is something that I might wear on a day when my work activities call for a jacket or suit.  As an aside, there is a little bit of vintage in the imagined outfit: the jacket.  I love the closure on the jacket.  And, the colour couldn't have been more perfect.  Yay!  As another aside, I think the coat that I wore today has reached new favourite status!  Double yay!




coat: Beebop and Wally, last season
blouse: Club Monaco, old
skirt: Gap, old
vest: Preloved, old
jacket: vintage (from Sally Jane Vintage on Etsy)
tights: ?
socks: ?
boots: Fluevog

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Make-Up Blue Day






Yesterday was the (third) monthly colour challenge day, but, for reasons revealed yesterday, I didn't wear blue.  Today was my "make-up blue day".  It isn't always easy to say something about the clothes that I wear, because sometimes I just get up and get dressed.  Once I am dressed, the clothes fade into the background and my life comes into the fore.  Giving it some thought, two factors influenced my decision to wear what I wore today:  The first was the weather:  After a couple of days of warm weather, it turned cold again.  So, I wanted to be warm.  The second was my being really, really tired:  I needed to be comfortable (not to mention comforted).  It was serendipity that the warm, comfortable clothes that I reached for this morning made up a blue outfit.



coat: Lululemon, last season
scarf: ?
dress: Zara, last season
sweater: JCrew, last season
leggings: Lululemon, old
socks: ?
boots: Hunter