Sparkling On - Geometrics and Putting the Shine Back

Woo, only a couple of days to go! I'm sure many of you are already on vacation and ready for Christmas to come (I still have to get a few things, and then wrap it all). 

As of Friday, I'll be off until the Tuesday after New Year's. I am pretty stoked. This calls for geometric patterns!

• Top - Cartise, consignment; last seen here in March with fuzzy yellow
• Skirt - Nygard; last worn here in January with blue and black
• Shoes - Miista; last seen here (2nd iteration of the same outfit) in November with shiny patterned tights and velvet
• Coat (below) - Hilary Radley, thrifted

I know, right? The top - and it is a TOP, not a jacket! - is so cool. All those little white strips of fabric are sewn onto a thin, stretchy mesh. People love to look at it - it's a very complex piece.

The back is just as cool.

I'm happy to be wearing this skirt again - it wasn't worn in the spring/summer wardrobe at all. I liked how the geometric patterns in it went with the top - and did you notice (most visible in the first pic) that my tights have diamond patterns too?

Outerwear:

Still cold, but not like last week. Still wearing this combo of my Danier fur toque/scarf and my vintage long wool gloves. Yup, seen it before.

The stuff:

I adore these shoes, but they are getting beaten up very fast.

Minimal bling:

An outfit with this much texture and pattern doesn't need many accessories.

• Earrings - don't remember
• Lapis lazuli ring - Wendy Brandes

As you can see in that last picture, there are black scrapes all along the insides of my shoes. When I walk, the heels scratch the metallic leather, actually removing colour from the underneath black leather.

Tsk, look at those scratches!

How to fix this? I used Testor's enamel model paint (L and I both paint miniatures - me, not as much as I used to) in Gold.

This stuff is permanent. I have to use brush cleaner/turpentine to clean it off surfaces.

Like my finger, which is what I used to rub the paint into the surface of my shoes.

I daubed a fingertip of paint onto the shoe, then rubbed it in.

Before:

Sad! All scratched up!

After (a bit blurry, sorry).

The texture of the scratches are still there, but the black leather underneath is covered up again. This colour is a good match.

And before, the back inside of the heels.

I can't rub that off because it's the gold colour itself that has rubbed off.

And here's the after shot.

Pretty good, eh? I am happy with how my shoes turned out - they're all shiny and nice again!

Note: I do not ever recommend that you do what I do to my clothes/shoes. I am always taking the risk that I will f**k it up (which I've done before) and ruin something.