The closest I’m getting to Halloween this year

I have had this skirt for many, many years.  I’ve always liked lacey stuff, especially black lace – the fact that the shops are now full of it, just as my income has been slashed in half, is proof that the shopping gods either hate me, or are trying to get me to wear what’s actually already in my wardrobe. Like this skirt:

My camera phone doesn’t show it in its full glory, but you get the idea.  The first time I wore it (with a plum coloured vest, a black cardigan and a deep red scarf) an adolescent youth called out “It’s not Halloween yet, love”, which I thought was surprisingly witty.  Indeed, it must have struck a chord, as I have worn this at least 2 Halloweens since.  (Except last year, when my friends and I dressed up as this:

Unfortunately, time has taken its toll on the elasticated waist, and recently I’ve not been wearing it in fear that it will end up around my ankles.  So last night, in honour of All Hallow’s Eve, i got to work with my safety-pin helpers to attach the top to a belt.  Put it on over a playsuit for further security, in case it decides to wander south, et voila:

[Skirt, vintage (Peekaboo); Belt, vintage (Absolute vintage); playsuit, vintage (Beyond Retro) – ooo, get me with the all-vintage outfit]

I bought this playsuit mostly for the 90s neckline.  It makes me think of Bryan Adams videos and Laura Ashley, two things I apparently like thinking about.

So that’s my Halloween outfit sorted.  It’s no lolcat/Amy Winehouse/slutty nurse, but it should keep the youths happy.

 

 

Fill my blogroll!

Tell me what I should be reading!  Give me more reasons not to get on with what I should be doing!

Speaking of shoes

Back when I was a wee undergrad, one of my seminar tutors got leave and for a couple of months we were left intrusted to the new guy.  Now this was all good, and we got a lot out of it, but me and my friend couldn’t actually concentrate because we were distracted week after week by an unbelievable picture on his wall.  I’ve just found out that it was actually the cover image for his latest book:

*emplodes at their awe-inspiring wonderfulness*.  The year later, I left, and he started teaching a module on the History of Fashion.  Just think, if I was born a couple of years later, I could be on my way to being a historian of fashion right now instead of a historian of medicine.  Now to find a way to bring the two together….

It’s just the shoes you wear…

The Strokes may have brought them back into the public consciousness in 2001….

….Avril Lavigne may have promptly killed their cool factor a couple of years later…

(This photo makes me realise why I was giggling nicknamed ‘Avril Lavigne’ by some strangers in the Dublin Castle when I was 17.  I really did look a lot like that)

…Mine may be looking a little worse for wear…

(This is far from my only pair)

…and they may have been responsible for one of the worst fashion/music crimes ever committed…

(Converse collaboration with The Clash, celebrating the 30th anniverary of London Calling, more here)

…but to me “Converse All Stars” will always be this song:

*sorry*

Jacket envy

Jackets.  Specifically, blazer-type jackets.  They’re everywhere.  Ever since I first found my face squished up against walls of maroon courduroy jackets at indie gigs circa2003 (and saw the track marks left down my cheeks afterwords) I feel that the ever-growing army of casual blazer-wearers has been sent on a mission to mock me.  I don’t know what it is about my body shape, but try as I might, I can never find a blazer that looks quite…right.

I used to think that it was due to an unfortunate shoulder-to-back ratio (one being averagely broad, the other being unnaturally short) and there may be some truth in that.  However, the recent crop of jacket styles has reminded me is that the problem I have with jackets is quite possibly the same problem that I have with most “fashion” clothes:  boobs.

Item 1:  “The Boyfriend Jacket”

“Oversized” (yet miraculously not on the arm or the shoulder), unfitted, long jackets are pretty much everywhere…

…on the high street:

[Velvet boyfriend jacket, Topshop, £85, available here]  I have extreme love for the whole velvet thing.  I tried on a long velvet skirt in a charity shop yesterday – needless to say, I was reminded how no one over a size 8 should never wear an elasticated waist.  Ever.

…on teh internets:

[Gabrille Ravelo Pink Contrast jacket, £120, asos, Asos Ruched Sleeve Blazer, £50, asos].  Wearing a navy blazer no longer means you’re a Tory :).

…on celebrities:

Rachel Bilson, long time supporter of the boyfriend jacket.

Now I’m not going to patronise you by saying any more about this ubiquitous and resilient trend, except for this…WHERE ARE MY BOOBS MEANT TO GO??!?!  My actual boyfriend’s jacket probably wouldn’t look to awful on me, but these (like so many trends around at the moment) are about flowing delicately down a long silhouette, unimpeded by anything as inconvinient as a pair of breasts.  Boo.

Item 2:  The Structured shoulder:

[Simon Wang Metallic Puff Shoulder Jacket, £95, asos]

Can you imagine that with a pair of 34Ds inside?  You can have a maximum of two things jutting out of any outfit.  Add boobs to that outfit, and you would have four things jutting out, which would just be a ridiculous catastrophe of over-juttage.  You’d end up looking like a dodecahedron.  And it’s not just the extreme structured shoulder, shoulder pads of any kind have the same effect.  It’s just too…busy.

I’ve picked out two extreme examples, but I pretty much always have the same problem.  Now, my issue with the lack of boob-space in fashion is a rant for another post, but for now I can show you how I’ve managed to get around it…by wearing a jacket two sizes too small:

[Jacket, H&M many moons ago; skirt, American Apparel; t-shirt, New Look; tights, Falke]  My camera has decided that it never again wants to talk to my computer so I’m giving phone photos a go – hence the weirdness!

I can’t get it done up, or even close, but as long as I leave it open it sits nicely on my shoulders, without all that stuff flapping around the front that almost-but-doesn’t-quite go over my chest.  And it looks way better than when it supposedly “fit” me.

Maybe there’s hope for me and the jacket yet.

It’s a nice day for a….red carpet appearance?

Last week, Nicola Roberts wore this to the highlight of any serious British fashionista’s calander..The Pride of Britain Awards.

As I’m sure you’re aware, that is a Vivienne Westwood wedding dress worn by Carrie in the SATC film (*shudders at the rememberance of that piece of cinematic excrescence*).  Now the first thing that comes to my mind is that it is a truly dedicated fashionista (see how I use that instead of ‘fame whore’?  That’s because I like Nicola and I’m not Perez Hilton) who decides to wear such an obviously headline grabbing outfit, at an awards ceremony that’s supposed to be about the “inspriation stuff” done by “ordinary people”.

But the second thing is of course:  is this going to become a trend?  Are we going to start seeing more wedding dresses on the red carpet?  I’ve been wracking my brains trying to remember who it was, but I’m sure there was a picture of another celebrity recently wearing another wedding dress like it was any old gown.  The best I can come up with is this:

…worn by Emmy Rossum (I know, who?) at a recent event, which people seem to be accusing of being a wedding dress, but I think it has to be certifiably wedding-intended in order for this game to work.

I suppose it makes sense – if you’re going to spend thousands of pounds on a designer gown, it might as well be a wedding dress.  And given that the ‘white wedding’ has become a pretty meaningless tradition, why not wear these beautiful garments devoid of their symbolic baggage?  Is it in fact a feminist statement?

I think I’m taking it a bit far so I’m going to end on an even more confusing note by posting this image of Dita Von Teese in a Christian Lacroix wedding dress in a shoot for Harper’s Bazaar Russia.

Try wearing THAT to an afterparty at Mahiki.

Silent Style

A friend of mine (the lovely Lauren of thepocketrocket) recently paid me the amazing compliment of tagging me as “Clara Bow” in a facebook photo.

I’ll save you the near-impossible task of differentiating between us, and tell you that I’m on the left (wearing a grey h&m cardie and an amazing red velvet vintage dress) and cCara’s on the right.

I can tell you that Clara Bow was a 20s film starlet, and one of the first 20th century sex-symbols (according to my GCSE history teacher) , but I don’t know much else.  In any case, I would definitely consider her a sartorial inspiration, especially on the hair front.  So, thanks for the (however overly-kind) comparison my friend!

Deceptively comfortable?

There’s been mumerings about these Alexander McQueen shoes in some feminist corners of the internets, and they’ve been one of the most-pictured items from the fashion weeks:

Now I’m one of the first people to wonder at how on earth so many women manage to go around all day in any heel above an inch (I think this is to do with having short legs.  In order to keep up with people I can’t totter, I have to stride).  But I reckon the model’s feet are almost flat inside these cocoons.

For real killer boots, one need look no further than ones local friendly fetish retailer for a pair of these bad boys:

*ouch*

Good mourning

I was idly looking through the vintage section on ebay the other day, as I do on occasions of severe boredom/procrastination, when I came across this:

(Victorian (apparently) black and lace mourning cape, ebay)

It ticks a lot of the boxes on the whole gothish/blackonblack look thats been bubbling under for a couple of years (since A/W 07?  A remember a few months of journalists attempting to get us to use the term ‘new grave’…).  This has all been very exciting for me and the ghost of my 15-year-old self.

It’s also an all-in-one answer to Queen Michelle‘s decree of all-black outfits needing to be multi-textured in this post.

I was anguished to find that it went for a mere £49 (which I couldn’t afford, but only by, like, £39), so decided to look around and see if mourning capes were on the up more generally.  I found these:

(ebay, still available here:  http://bit.ly/RttaL – quick, but it or I’ll have to!)

(etsy, http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=30168023)

So, what do you think?  Would you wear a Victorian mourning cape, or would it make you feel a bit like you were going to a funeral?

A bit of a Fearne Cotton

Cotton, Fearne (n):  a British TV presenter and ‘style icon’.

“A bit of a Fearne Cotton” (n): 1.  Someone who has good ideas and is definitely going in the right direction but just doesn’t get quite it right.  2.  An outfit which suggests that the person wearing it may be such a person.

Exhibit A:  Love the dress, the statement shoulders show clear psychic abilities (she wore this in 2007!), and the length shows off her awesome legs.  The dolly stripper shoes stop it from looking too cutesy, as do the black tights.  That necklace might also be a good choice, but I can’t tell.  Why?  BECAUSE SOMEONE THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO PUT LONG HAIR OVER THOSE SHOULDERS.

Exhibit B.  Those round-the-head headband things that push your hair up and make you look like Frankenstein should not be worn by anyone over the age of 18, and only then because they can get away with blaming it on youthful indescretion.  Black socks.  Under.  Shiny gold tights.  That’s like the kind of thing I would do….