Friday, April 5, 2013

My Forbidden Dress Week - Bad News, Bees, Billy and Boots

You know it, you love it - Dress Week is back!
Customized by me - the original stars Ava Gardner and is called "My Forbidden Past"
For this week's Dress Week aka "My Forbidden Dress Week", I'll be featuring shoes that did not get worn in the 2012/2013 "30 For 30 for 12" Capsule Wardrobe Challenge.

And the dresses are not really forbidden, but I have a penchant for using movie titles (usually horror movies) for my Dress Weeks. You can check out some of my previous Dress Weeks here (scroll down to "Dress Weeks", duh) - I've been doing them since 2008, making this my 5th year! Holy moly, where does the time go?

Feel free to participate! Wear a dress this week!
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Before I get into yesterday's and today's outfits, I want to take a moment to remember someone I met through blogging, Peg from Comox, BC. Peg died this week.

I met up with Peg, who always left wonderful comments as "Peg from Up-Island", in July 2012, along with Leslie, the gracious Hostess of the Humble Bungalow (Leslie wrote about Peg here).
Me, Leslie and Peg, sharing a lovely meal and a glass of wine
Peg was a 15 year breast cancer survivor, but the cancer came back in her lungs. She often came down to Victoria for treatments, and I wish I had met up with her again.

Please take a minute this weekend and raise a toast to this lovely lady. 
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Okay, now onto brighter topics. My niece's concert recital was...interesting. Dozens of kids sawing away on strings. I did enjoy the bake sale and striding around in my chartreuse dress and leopard heels amid the Lululemon pants and hoodies - crazy Auntie Sheila strikes again!

Speaking of chartruese...I finally had time to try on the wonderful silk bee dress that the fabulous Megan sent me and...

It's miles too big on me. I would require complete reconstruction of the dress, something I'm not willing to do (it's fully lined, making it more complicated/expensive too). So, I am putting it up for grabs!

Here's the picture again:
And here are the measurements - I think it's close to a size 12:
  • Bust (just under the armhole): 40"
  • Waist (narrowest part): 36"
  • Hips (widest part): 42"

Interested? Drop me an email and I'll send it off to you!

Last night a bunch of us went to see folk songwriter and activist, Billy Bragg (review of the show here). I'm not that familiar with his work, but I enjoyed it. I forgot to take my camera, but the concert was in a converted Methodist church that is now a concert hall - the acoustics are amazing. Link here to an image search on the venue - it is just gorgeous. We all sat in the centre balcony.

But wait, I did wear a dress! After all it is "My Forbidden Dress Week".
Yes, of course, I couldn't wait to wear this amazing green dress that I thrifted last weekend (here) for $8.50 (plus 25% off). I would place this as early 70s, and as I mentioned when I bought it, it is handmade. I need to name it - it shall be the Emerald Checkerboard.

I also wore the obi that I got on the same shopping trip.
And I did red accessories to pop off the green. Yes, bare legs again, even though it's been horribly rainy and grey the last few days.
But what are those gorgeous shoes on my feet? We'll get to them in a minute.

I did have to bring my red flats to work to swap out for walking to dinner and the concert. We stood in line outside (brrr! bare legs!) for about 40 minutes so that we could get good seats.
I was really glad I'd changed shoes by the end of the evening. I walked home in these as well.

Sorry, I didn't do close-up shots of the dress as I'd promised - by the time we got home from the concert it was 11:15pm and I was exhausted. Dang, I'm getting old!

But here you go, my wonderful red satin dragon shoes:
These are again one of the oldest items I have in my closet (that I actually wear). Like the leopard shoes, I have a big sentimental attachment to them - I was fat when I bought them, and they were the first pair of non-Fluevog shoes that I ever paid full price for. They are by Aldo and I recall they were about $89.99 - I bought them in the spring of 2005, making them 8 years old now. They had them in black and pale pink as well as the red.

I didn't manage to include them in any of last year's capsules, but it was not because I didn't want to. These are satin, and the heel is quite narrow. I don't ever want these these shoes to wear out, so I baby them. And is there any question? I'm totally keeping them, even if I don't wear them very often.

Check out previous outfits featuring these lovely creatures:

  • August 2010, with my lovely yellow halter dress that I've since passed along
  • September 2009, with jeans and my given-to-Mindy python leather jacket
  • February 2009, showing off my yellow cuff for the first time
  • August 2008, doing a trouser menswear look 
  • June 2008, with a cropped pant suit
  • May 2008, in a truly hideous yellow satin blouse; good picture of the dragons on the toes there
I'm actually surprised that I haven't worn them since August 2010! I wore them more frequently early in my blogging, when I didn't have as many shoes. I will definitely need to put them into at least a twice-a-year rotation going forward. They were fairly comfortable, although all these pointy shoes are wreaking havoc on my toes...

Dress (vintage 70s, handmade, thrifted), obi (thrifted), shoes (Aldo), earrings (locally made), bracelet (Fossil), ring (Oscar & Libby's). 

My late night left me feeling extremely tired this morning. What's a girl to do? Wear a dress!
My cowgirl dress! This is a Bodybag by Jude dress which I bought on consignment in February 2011 for $59.00. It has a name: "Love Dress O" (seen here on a defunct blog in 2007). After wearing it today, I have concluded that it's an orphan dress: nothing can be worn under it or over it, due to the ornamentation. It looks very Western, so that also limits what can be worn with it.

But you know what? It's okay to have a few orphan dresses in one's closet. It's nice not to have to put a lot of thought into accessorizing it, and it does have wonderful details (ruffled trim, front and back, little pyramid studs, ruffled hem!). It's also a stretch cotton velvet (so soft), but the biggest plus on the side of keeping this dress (because I am keeping it) is the fit. This dress fits me like it was made for me. No gaping, perfect at the bust, hips and waist. No pulling, no shifting.
I haven't worn this dress a ton, but it has enjoyed a bit of rotation since I bought it.
  • February 2011, same belt as today, different boots
  • April 2011, with a pale grey belt and my snakeskin wedges (just got rid of those recently)
  • October 2011, with the same belt as today, and different boots
Ya know, sometimes you just have to ride that groove.

I wore a full-length slip (vintage, naturally) underneath for warmth. I didn't mind my arms being bare.
Are you looking at the boots? Pretty amazing, aren't they?

They are the Blind Faith Hi Rebecca boot by Fluevog. I got them in March 2009 on one of our trips to Vancouver for our anniversary.

Here's how I wore them previously:
  • November 2011, with blue accents and leopard
  • March 2011, for Super Stripes Week (the heels being the stripes), in that awful oatmeal-colour that looks so bad on me, and the same belt as today 
  • November 2010, with a plush leopard skirt
  • March 2009, wearing my awesome plaid dress that I miss (but it was too tight and too short) - some good pictures of the details on them there
I have tried making excuses for these boots in the past (seriously, every one of those links above makes note about how tight they are, and how hard they are on my feet!), but they are brutal. I've had them off today for 2 hours now, and my feet still hurt.

Check this out:
I see a little white paw...
Those impressions in my legs are from the boots squishing my ankles. You can also see the line down the front of my shin from the zipper. 

These boots are not for the faint of heart, nor soft of foot. If we had a Fluevog store in Victoria, I would probably take them in for stretching (I don't fully trust the cobblers here), but we don't, so they will stay as beautiful torture devices.

Yeah, I said "stay." No way I am getting rid of these, but my wearing of them is not going to be frequent by any stretch of the imagination. They go into the archives, of little-worn but totally cool and keeper items. Maybe I'll change my mind one day, but for now, I'm keeping them.

The stuff:
I can't do a cowgirl dress without a cowboy belt buckle!

Dress (Love Dress O, Bodybag by Jude, consigment), boots (Blind Faith Hi Rebecca, Fluevogs), belt and buckle (Shi Studio), cuff (SkinZnHydez), earrings (Plum).

And now...it's Friday night and I'm exhausted and hungry, and the wine is calling to me. We start playing Ultimate again for the season tomorrow (yay!), so I need to make a semi-early night of it. 

Sorry I haven't been around visiting blogs much lately - life has a way of making things busy. Hope you all have a sunny warm weekend! 

19 comments:

  1. Aww, I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. Lots of hugs.

    I hope someone takes the dress off your hands! I thought it was so pretty.

    Also I wondered why I didn't remember those fluevogs! They're really cute, but IRRC, Vog ankles can be very very skinny. One of the reasons I like Fluevogs is they generally fit my scrawny stems.

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  2. So sorry to hear about your friend's passing.

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  3. I like this sense of continouity in your blog.Things you've worn before many years reappear again.Love the buckle.

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  4. Red satin dragon to cowgirl... I love how you mix it up. Yes, that latter dress does fit you like a dream. "These boots were made for gawkin'" - what a great post title.
    And a quiet moment for Peg. I'm glad you captured this happy photo of her at your meetup.

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  5. Sorry to hear about your blog friend, Sheila.
    Glad you got to see Billy Bragg, he's a bit of a national treasure, a lovely man and very interesting.
    The 70s dress is one of my favourites, what a beauty, especially with the gorgeous dragon shoes.
    Ooh, those boots are killers, aren't they? I think they would be on the can't-possibly-keep pile in my house after their bad behaviour! xxxx

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  6. There have been a number of new breast cancer drugs come onto the market in the past 15 years -- I hope Peg's variety will be responsive to some of them! If she'd gone 15 years without a relapse there is hope that it's not the most aggressive variety of breast cancer and can be beaten back again. Best wishes for her.

    I love the green patterned dress, but I'm afraid I never would have made it out the door in the heels. I can imagine it will go from Spring to Summer with just a few switches of accessories.

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  7. Sorry to hear of Peg's passing. That's a wonderful picture.

    Love your cowgirl dress, and the checkerboard dress too. Dress week is awesome!

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  8. I'm very sorry to hear about Peg, and I thought your friend also wrote a lovely blog post about her.

    I had wondered how the recital would go - particularly if it was strings... Thanks for linking back to old outfits, it's good to see how your style has evolved over your blog years.

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  9. so super wonderful to find you in blog world xxx so sorry your friend passed away! i will raise a glass in her honour xxx

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  10. I'd completely forgotten about that picture!
    We'll have an opportunity to toast Peg together sometime soon.
    John sent me a picture of Peg which I think I'll add to my blog post...she looks lovely.

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  11. How nice of you to remember Peg here. I never read her blog, but it's nice that you're sharing her memory.

    Cute cowgirl dress! I can see it would be hard to pair with something else, except maybe arm warmers? And it's impressive how you torture yourself for fashion! They are pretty gorgeous boots.

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  12. Oh my...the first dress is stunning. I love the bright jewel tone and the asian influence. And the shoes you chose to go with it. So, so pretty, Sheila.

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  13. .....and sending condolence on the loss of Peg.

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  14. I'm sorry to hear about Peg - may she rest in peace.

    I love the last dress - looks fab!

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  15. oh, Sheila, how rotten to lose a friend. It's great to see her looking so vibrant, stylish, and having fun with friends in the picture you chose. Life is such a dicey thing - a friend of my mom's just received a desperately needed liver less than a week ago (he's already home! yay!) So so very happy for him, and my heart goes out to the family who gave him that gift. We never know - like you say it's good to get together while we may :)

    oh i love the cowgirl ensemble! and those boots are sheer - well, sheer Johnny F ;) i managed to snag a pair of wonder everest's on sale few weeks ago, so i'm feeling that FFF vibe these days for sure! Give that fur guy a snorgle from us, have fun, steph xox

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  16. So sorry to hear about the passing of your friend. Cancer is cruel, cruel disease that takes people way too early.

    I love the torture device boots so much. I'd totally be keeping them - kind of like how I hang onto my Cydwoq boots with the elastic closures on the back. Somethings are just meant to be kept and worn sparingly, like the dragon shoes.

    I haven't been around the blogs much either since I'm trying to make a good impression at work. I've fallen terribly behind!

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  17. you have a beautiful selection of dresses.


    i am so sorry for your loss
    love lucy

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  18. I'm really sorry to hear of Peg's passing.

    Too bad about the fab bee dress and about your poor feeties, ow! But you are looking spectacular, these forbidden dresses are amazing on you, and I adore your special shoes and boots (even though they are mean).

    I have loved Billy Bragg since the early 80s and was so mad that though I signed up for announcements, didn't get the details in time for Toronto tickets. BIG pout! Lucky you!

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  19. I am catching up on old posts... i am sorry to hear about Peg, how very nice of you to take the moment to remember her-
    And i love that cowgirl dress and the checkerboard dress just reminded me of a red, blue and white dress i have not worn in a while, it has a similar cut.

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