Mar 7th - Outfit #6 - The Squid Mystery

I love the first week and a half of these monthly capsules; all the clothes feel new and exciting! Today's outfit features all fresh items:

My beloved sheer leopard shirt (last seen here), my olive corduroy vest (last worn here) and this new-to-me skirt.

I love how the blue and olive looked together. I'm not really a blue person (said the woman with about 50 pieces of blue clothing of various shades), but this skirt caught my eye when Lorinda and I were out thrifting. The colour was lovely, it's a wool blend, it's a nice A-line (flattering!) and what the heck? Is that a squid I see?

I excitedly checked the label: is it Smoking Lily?? It looks like Smoking Lily! They would totally do a squid design!

But...No! It's...Jacob? Jacob, the store for very basic plain clothing? Jacob, the cheaper version of Club Monaco? Really? A squid skirt? A squid?

Then I took a better look at it and my Nancy Drew brain got to thinking:

This is silk-screened. Hand-done. You can feel the texture of the ink printed on the wool. The design is centred on the panel perfectly and the silk-screening itself is not sloppy and does not have that mass-produced look to it. The skirt itself is good quality and I can easily see it being sold at Jacob in the last 10-15 years.

There is no way Jacob sold this skirt with the squid on it. It's not their aesthetic, it would be monstrously expensive to hand-screen these onto each skirt, and wasteful to produce squid-printed fabric only to cut out one panel. Ergo, the squid was added later.

But I have a theory! Actually, I have two.

One: I think someone at Smoking Lily owned this skirt herself, bought it at Jacob. I think she tested this print on her skirt, or wanted to jazz up her skirt with this design. However, I can't substantiate my theory; I can't find any pictures of a Smoking Lily squid design, although I found mentions of them doing a giant squid design.

Two: They do print-making classes, where they show you how to do screening and you get to take your screen home so you can do more on your own clothes. Someone made this design in class and jazzed up a skirt at home.

I think theory number one is more likely, actually. This design would be way too difficult for someone to do on a screen in a one-day class, and I don't think Smoking Lily would give away one of their designs in a  workshop. I am 90% sure this is one of their designs.

Anyway! Enough detective work!

I bought the skirt for 25% off $14.50 so it was $10.88. A good deal, in my books.

The stuff:

I adore these metallic shoes. Every time I wear them (last seen here) I feel like dancing.

I wore my locally-made earrings and my Wendy B ring as well:

I have a sleeping kitten on my lap...shhhhh...

Blouse (Planet, consignment), vest (RW & Co., thrifted), skirt (Jacob, thrifted), shoes (Jeffrey Campbell), earrings (Shi Studio), ring (Wendy Brandes).