Emerald Armour; Fendi Flashback

Hello, my friends, I'm back! I'm doing...all right. "As well as can be expected" is the usual line, right? 

Yesterday/Monday was a rough day. I was at work, but exchanging emails most of the day with L and Caro and my girlfriends. Karen peacefully passed, and we are left with a void in our lives. 

Blogging has always been a therapeutic thing for me. Wearing clothes, talking about them with like-minded folks, and showing the fun things I have in my closet is a way for me to retain control over those things that are uncontrollable. It's also good for my mental health to be creative in my dress, and to write about that. So, I'm not going to stop anytime soon (in case you were worried); I've been doing this for over 12 years, and it's a huge part of my life. 

I will be doing at least 2 bigass retrospectives of pictures of Karen in the near future, partly for me to heal, but also to share with my friends and family, as something we can go back on and remember. I thank you all for bearing with me - as always, read what you want to, or just look at the pictures. You do you. There's no right or wrong here. 

Anyway, I'm still getting dressed, and of course I armoured up for my difficult day. Karen was a very stylish woman, and I know she would have appreciated this. 

SO GREEN. I felt like a million bucks in this.

• Dress - Escada, vintage 00s, consignment; purchased here for $149.99
• Shoes - Chie Mihara; last seen here in May for an at-home outfit

I spent a good chunk of time going through all of Vogue.com's online archives of Escada's runway looks, and I've concluded that - while this is definitely typical of an Escada look - this coat-dress predates their slideshows, which only go back to 2013. They certainly don't shy away from satin - some of their garments are incredibly gorgeous. I think this is from the early 00s.

 As this coat? dress? coat-dress? is generously sized, I put a massive honkin' belt over it so that I didn't look like a Christmas tree.

The caramel colour of the accessories helps. I promise I will never wear this with red unless it's actually the holiday season.

 Pockets...yes... I wore a black vintage half-slip under this and a black cami on top. It was fine for sitting at my desk, walking and eating on a patio - no gaping, lots of room to move in.

I was hugely impressed with the lack of wrinkling, especially since this is a silk satin (even the lining is silk!).

Here it is without the belt. As you can see, there are no wrinkles at the waistline even though I had it cinched within an inch of its life.

This is just too loose for me to wear it like this, though. Needs a belt. I would make a lovely coat over a party dress, wouldn't it? I could see it with a turtleneck and a pair of funky trousers too, with it worn open. Lots of potential!

The stuff:

I adore these comfy shoes, which are really only a 1-inch heel. After work, I walked in them to the Commons for drinks and appies with my gals, and we talked about Karen, and just shared our grief. L and Casey took care of Nick all day, well into the evening. Such generous, giving friends I have.

Caramel/copper bling:

I gravitate to my vintage copper pieces when I need comfort. The earrings and copper/turquoise ring belonged to my Grandma J, and the silver/crystal ring was bought with my birthday money from my Winesday Women years ago.

• Belt - Fendi, thrifted
• Copper necklace/earrings - vintage 70s, vintage expo
• Copper/enamel cuff - Matisse, vintage 60s, vintage fair
• Copper/enamel earrings - Matisse, vintage 60s, Grandma J's
• Copper/turquoise ring - Grandma J's
• Silver/crystal ring - Uffizi Gallery gift shop, Florence, Italy

Flashback! 

I don't track the wearings on my accessories, but this belt is one of my swanky designer pieces, and I found it in the WIN Warehouse thrift store here for $19.99 back in July 2016 What a score that was!

My belt is probably from the early 00s, is made in Italy, and I've even verified that the serial number and model number inside actually match Fendi belts of this same design on auction sites. It's genuine - not that I had any doubt when I bought it (Victoria is home to a lot of well-off people). It likely retailed for around $200-400 at the time; Fendi's belts now start at $900 and go into the $1000+ range.

It's the only piece of real Fendi I've ever bought (I've seen a couple of really old pieces at vintage fairs, but they either didn't appeal or were too pricey for me), so why not have a little retrospective to see if I've gotten my money's worth?

Of course, I had to wear it IMMEDIATELY, here in July 2016. Get used to seeing it with this dress. Guess how many times I wear them together!

I wore it again later that month, where it's more of the star of the outfit.

You'll start to see a pattern in what shoes I put with it - I nearly always go matchy. I still have everything in that outfit, except for the silk blouse, which I ruined. Gah, peri-menopause was a sweaty time.

I'll have to do a Flashback on this Dept dress when I bring it out in the fall. I paid very little for it (under $10) and I'm sure I've reached 30 wears. This was in January 2017.

Even when I wear the same outfit, I'll change things up with different accessories - here, I'm wearing my navy blue vintage slip under the dress, with blue tights.

The boots and belt combo are now firmly entrenched, here in January 2017 again.

This is a vintage dress that I no longer have - it was really thick and sweaty.

One month later, in February 2017 - deja vu! Different tights.

My hair's grown fast!

I love this look from May 2017 - I miss that vintage sweater (it wore out).

 My See By Chloe skirt is still around, as are those chartreuse shoes.

I'd forgotten about this dress - it was a cheap H&M one that I wore for a year and then passed along.

This was in June 2017, just after I thrifted matching sandals - think we'll see those again?

Here's the same dress in September 2017, in an autumn-ized version of the first look.

"Hey, it's me!"

I prefer the matchier caramel boots.

There's my Urban Camo dress again, in October 2017

In which I discover that my vintage Fluevogs go perfectly with the belt.

I notice that I frequently wear it over a patterned dress. This one is Christian Lacroix for Desigual (thrifted for a ridiculously low price).

I like my ultra-minis in fall - this is November 2017 - when I can wear tights with them. Matchy boots!

Obviously, this dress/slip/belt combo is one of my "no-think" go-tos. I'd bet that these are mostly Monday outfits. This look is from January 2018.

This time with blue velvet boots. It's totally different!

A rare outfit in May 2018 that shows the belt off more.

I love the this look, but neither the denim dress nor the skirt lasted too long. This is the second outfit with the matching sandals.

And here's the second time with the matchy Fluevogs, in October 2018. My hair got a lot lighter in just a few months.

 As the belt is so wide, it functions well for reining in a thick or bulky fabric, like my Teddy top.

That dress again, in November 2018.

Different shoes; totally different outfit (ha ha). I hated those shoes - I think I gave them to one of my coworkers.

I've found a new patterned dress to wear with it here in January 2019 - this floaty cotton Kenzo dress has bits of rusty brown in it.

It's also quite voluminous, so it needs a wide belt. That's a January "going out" outfit, which is why I'm showing a fair bit of skin in a winter month.

Here's the work version of the same outfit, in March 2019.

I recognize those boots.

One of my favourite recent-ish dresses is a natural match for the belt, in April 2019.

I bought those sandals (which are the same ones I wore in this post's main outfit) to replace the previous caramel ones, which were too high.

This is the sixth time I've worn this belt and dress together (did you guess right?), in November 2019. It's also the sixth time that I've paired the belt with these boots.

It's the same outfit as July 2017 but without the blue tights.

And here's the last time I wore it, in February of this year for theatre with Mom and Cat/her mom.

I love this look - that tulle skirt is a favourite.

I've learned from this flashback that I need to break out of my dress/belt rut, and to experiment more with outfits that let the belt really shine. As for my cost-per-wear, I've worn it 20 times, including with the green Escada dress above, so I've hit the $1.00 per wear mark! Wow!