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!