Bigass Weekend Wrap-Up: Red Swoosh with Grey, Feathered Green Fete, Pink Shopping Tiger, Posh Party Purple

A lovely weekend over here on Canada's west coast - cold, rainy, but with lots of fun things to do! I hope your holiday plans are underway, and wish everyone a very Happy Holidays and a happy and healthy New Year!

Let's start 'er going with Friday's work outfit. Comfort and ease with a dress and cardigan, a totally simple outfit. 

 Make it a long swooshy red dress, and wear that beaded cardigan! It's time to break out all the special sparkly clothes!

• Cardigan - Cable & Gauge, consignment; first seen here in September with white perforated pleather
• Dress - Talbots, consignment; last worn here (3rd outfit) in November 2016 for a theatre outing with Mom
• Shoes - Almafi, vintage 80s, thrifted; last seen here in August with a faux flapper dress
• Coat (below) - Denny Rose, consignment; last worn here in November

 I love this beaded cardigan - a few of my coworkers were shocked that it's not a vintage piece.

Showing off the bias-cut swoosh of the dress' skirt portion.

 This wide! It also has pockets, for the win!

Because I carry a photo ID, two access cards and a ring of keys at work, I actually belted the dress under the cardigan to clip all my clattery stuff to.

 I did a lot of running around on Friday (literally! but never with scissors, hee hee) and this skirt swooshed and flowed around me.

Outerwear - I walked to and from work and felt nice and visible. As you might have noticed from the stair picture, it's pretty dark out in the morning and early afternoon right now!

 It was warm enough to just do a little scarf and fingerless gloves.

• Fur scarf - Danier, thrifted
• Wool gloves - Parkhurst

The stuff:

 These shoes are such a comfy height, and so classy-looking!

Shiny bling:

 The vintage rhinestone necklace was more visible in real life than in these pictures.

• Necklace - vintage late 50s/early 60s, gift from L
• Earrings - don't remember

I rushed home after work, and got changed - ready to go to my coworker's house holiday party!

 L just got a new tattoo started on Friday, so he stayed home taking care of himself. I took the opportunity to bust out this dress that I've owned for nearly 20 years. That's maribou feathers on the cuffs! So Klassy!

• Dress - handmade, no label, vintage 60s, modified by me; last seen here for Christmas Day 2014
• Shoes - Half Truth Veda, Fluevog; last worn here a couple of weeks ago with a mustard patterned dress
• Coat - BCBG Max Azria, thrifted; last seen here in November

I chopped about 6 inches off it, hemmed it, and removed the giant fabric-covered buttons that marched down the front of this dress, soon after I bought it, sometime around 1996-7. I still have the buttons.

 I keep this dress in my "Vintage closet" (near my coat collection). It's pretty specifically a holiday dress, so I keep it in rotation like my gowns and other vintage dresses. I like to space out my wearing of my specialty items so that I can keep wearing them and shopping my closet, instead of buying a new party dress. But of course, that's never stopped me from buying another party dress!

Bundled up - I walked to Terry's house, then got a ride home after a few hours.

 My practical walking boots. I save these for quick trips outside - I no longer track them on the blog.

• Wool gloves - vintage, thrifted

The stuff:

 Comfy shoes for standing around chatting! These are starting to wear out a bit, but I still have lots of mileage in them.

Seasonal bling:

 The tree brooches were gifts from my old boss Evelyn, from when I worked in a year-round Christmas store in the 80s/90s (story here from 2009).

• Brooches - gift from Ev, c. 1996
• Earrings - thrifted

On Saturday, L and I were up early to do tattoo care, and to get a jump on the hordes of Christmas shoppers downtown. Off to breakfast!

 It was very chilly that day, so I wore my thickest, warmest dress. Tiger Dress!

• Sweatshirt dress - Kenzo, thrifted; last seen here in December 2016
• Boots - BCBC Max Azria; last worn here in November with a PANK dress
• Leather coat (below) - Danier Leather; last seen here (3rd outfit) in October

This is my entry for "Visible Monday" over at Patti's Not Dead Yet Style. Rar! I have a tiger on my chest - I was definitely visible!

Only the Floyd's Diner staff and patrons saw me like this. Guess who the dress is by?

I don't usually like to advertise brands (I'd rather brag about them and show off the inside label), but I love this awesome tiger with the "Kenzo, Paris" on it. This dress is the thickest, fleeciest sweatshirt material ever. It's REALLY warm. I didn't even feel the cold.

And it has pockets! Best dress ever!

 I adore the short "skater" style of it - every time I've worn it has been with these boots, to give me leg coverage. I also have a short black half-slip under it for full bum coverage.

 This is the second time I've worn it with these purple tights, too! There is purple in the heavy embroidery of the tiger.

And a bit of yellow in there too, so that drove my selection of outerwear - the first time I wore this dress, I also wore it with this jacket. Hey, why mess with a winning combination, right?

 I added purple accessories.

• Beret - consignment
• Wool gloves - Parkhurst

I went shopping after breakfast, getting the last couple of things for L and my mom, mostly stocking stuffers. It was nice to stroll around town and enjoy the atmosphere. While in one store, an older lady came up to me and told me how much she loved all my colours - we were both very colourful in a sea of beige blandness. I thanked her, complimented all her colour and told her to rock on with her bad self. I hope she took that as a compliment - it was!

The stuff:

 I finally put some non-slip grippers on the ball of the foot area of these leather-soled boots. No more slipping!

• Earrings - vintage fair

I had a quick poke in a couple of my favourite stores and may have found a couple of things for myself...

I found this long black and lame (lah-MAY!) sweater vest in Flavour Upstairs. I thought it was a dress at first.

 It's not much until you realize that it's split to the waist on both sides. Cool!

 I do love a long front and back flap. I can't wait to swan about in this.

I didn't know this brand, Limited Edition. Well, that's rather...generic.

 But it was only $14.99.

And then I found the M&S (Marks & Spencer) tag in the inside lining.

 Oh, I know "Marks & Sparks"! We used to have one here in Victoria until the late 80s. I don't think this is that old, though, although I can't find the same vest/gillet online.

I've seen that the 90s are having a resurgence, so it's fun looking for actual 90s items or the modern reinterpretations in thrift stores. I also found this silk slip dress in Flavour Upstairs.

 This is a modern version - I love the pale gold satin and the abstract black "dry paintbrush" design. I plan to wear this in a winterized version at some point.

 The back is also quite nice.

The brand is Huanba, designed in Italy, but made in China.

 It was $19.99 - it's not a top-line item (the seams are just serged), but it does have a side zip and the fit is really nice (no pockets, though!). I can't find anything online at all about this company, but I'm still good with $20 for a nice dress.

I ventured over to the WIN Warehouse store for a quick peek around. I spotted this necklace right away. It was only $4.00!

 It's so pretty! I love the big bold domed-shape pendant, and that is an original chain with it.

I checked immediately for a stamp and was thrilled to find "Trifari" on it.

 I have a few Trifari pieces that I've found over the years (picture links):

• This gold leaf bracelet 
• This black and gold cuff
• This gold and faux pearl bracelet

I think the bottom of the pendant used to have an additional piece on it, that perhaps broke off or was removed.

 I see darker spots at the tips there, and can feel that they are rough, not smoothed out like the rest of the pendant. Ah, yes, I am correct, this is what it would have originally looked like:

My piece is missing those bottom 3 sections. Eh, I still like how mine looks, and if you didn't know it was broken, you'd be none the wiser!

I also found this sparkly necklace that called to the crow in me.

 The beads are not glass, but they alternate with a dark and light brownish shade. This was $5.95.

They had a glass of hematite rings for $1.00 each, so I bought another one.

 I'll stack it with my other hematite ring.

I spotted this stripey bit of goodness in with the scarves.

 Biggest scarf I've ever seen! It's black and a light tan, and is made of modal, so it's super-soft.

It was only $7.95 and is by the Masai Clothing Company. I played around with this, and can use it like a wrap or sarong, but I'll probably mostly wear it as a scarf. Most of Masai's scarves on their site retail for $39 Euros, which is about $60 Canadian, but this one is much larger.

I had time for a nap and a quick dinner before L and I got ready to go to our friends Nick and Karen's annual Christmas party.

 I am a Glamourous Grape Goddess in my new-to-me purple vintage dress!

• Dress - Missy House of Canada, vintage 60s, thrifted; purchased here for $11.50
• Shoes - Big Presence Desmond, Fluevog; last seen here in October with my Prusa dress
• Coat (below) - Forever 21, thrifted; last worn here (2nd outfit) a couple of weeks ago

This dress is a completely non-breathable 100% polyester. I stayed well away from all the candles! I'm flammable!

 I did my easy accessorizing with all gold stuff, to highlight this gorgeous rich violet purple.

 It was comfortable for an evening of standing around, noshing on good food, sipping tasty beverages and generally carousing with all my favourite people.

 Trying to show off the front slit - not an easy thing to do. Gotta really work that posing!

Outerwear - Nick and Karen only live a few blocks from us, so L and I walked both ways.

 I'm laughing here because as I set the timer on the camera, I took a deep breath and POP! goes the snap on my coat. My boobs have so much power, ha ha!

There we go, all Klassy again.

 My dress was so warm, that I didn't need more than this.

• Fur toque/scarf - Danier
• Wool gloves - vintage, thrifted

I walked there in my silver booties.

The stuff:

 I totally forgot to do a picture with my sequined purse with my dress, oops! I managed to stand in my shoes until 1am, when I finally kicked them off.

Gold bling:

 I shortened up the chain of my new-to-me necklace so that it sat nicely in the circular neckline of the dress.

• Belt - gift from mother-in-law, purchased in a thrift store in Powell River
• Necklace - Trifari, vintage 60s, thrifted
• Cuff - Lia Sophia, thrifted
• Earrings - vintage fair
• Amber ring - c. 1996
• Silver/amethyst ring - Dad's, vintage 60s, Frances Jewellers
• Purse - Accessorize, thrifted for $5.50 here new with tags on it over a year ago

I'd forgotten about this purse in my wardrobe, so was happy to break it out at the party. I put it on and tried to keep Cat's hands off it (she covets it).

 The back of it is thickly covered with pink sequins.

Which match the pink satin lining!

I must make more of an effort to wear my own sparkly things!

I'll be posting regularly all this week, but then will be off for the holidays! I can't wait, but I have lots more exciting things on the horizon ahead, including loads of shiny and sparkly outfits planned this week.