Florence Dress and Purple Boots

This is a long weekend coming up, so I am working weird hours this week so that I can have a nice 4-day stretch of time off without spending any of my vacation time.  

NEW: I've added a tab at the top of my main page called "Flashbacks!" - all of the Flashbacks I've done have been added there, sorted by category (eg. dresses, shoes), and are linked back to the post that the Flashback featured in. Enjoy! 

I had fun in my closet yesterday putting together outfits for the next few days, and have some groovy Flashbacks lined up for you. 

• Dress: I'M Isola Marras by Antonio Marras, Spring/Summer 2013; last seen here in June 2019 with tall boots
• Skirt - Angeleye, consignment, Vancouver; last seen here in May with the jelly-deer and a key bomber
• Boots - Prepare Map, Fluevog; last worn here in February for brunch with Betty
• Coat (below) - Lord & Taylor, thrifted; last seen here in August

Today, I'm wearing a favourite dress that I've had for several years, bought on vacation in Florence, Italy. 

And for the first time ever, I'm layering a skirt under it. This is also the first time I've ever worn the front unbuttoned at the neck (I wore a pale pink cami under it). 

I was very proud of myself for experimenting.

The dress has extra ZHOOZH in the back, which complemented the "mullet" hem of the skirt. 

We'll be having a Flashback on the dress shortly. 

Masked up: 

I wore my grey/white/yellow mask, as it was the best match, but I need more burgundy and darker colours. 

Outerwear - yeah, didn't need it. 

I was rather sweaty on my walk home. It's been a lovely week so far, with sunshine predicted well into the weekend! Summer is not over! 

The stuff: 

Aren't the boots amazing? We'll also have a wee Flashback on them.

Green bling: 

Some favourites. 

• Turquoise/silver ring - Karen's
• Silver poison ring - Taxco, Mexico, Karen's
• Silver/aventurine ring - consignment
• Brass/jade ring - vintage 70s, Mom's
• Earrings - consignment

Flashback #1: I'M Isola Marras Dress

I like to buy clothes and jewelry when I'm on vacation to commemorate my holidays, and I bought a few items of clothing while we were in Italy in October 2014 (here), including this 100% silk "patchwork" dress. I paid 210.00 Euros (around $325.00 Canadian) for it in a small boutique (using birthday money from my mother-in-law), and didn't mind the steep price for something designer that's actually made in Italy. 

The solid burgundy is one fabric, but the rest is a single print. It buttons up the front (the little buttons have "I'M" stamped in them).

The back has a keyhole, buttoned at the nape of the neck. 

And you can see the unusual draping/gathers and wrap of the ties in the back, which can be adjusted for a good fit. You can view the entire I'M Isola Marras Spring/Summer collection in this video here; my dress is briefly visible at 11 seconds, then 2:08 and 2:28.

There's my dress in the middle (the models wearing shorts and turquoise cowboy boots). I see that the fabric is cut exactly the same - the pattern "blocks" are identical. What a cool detail. Also, I need turquoise cowboy boots, please. 

I first wore it right away in October 2014 with another holiday item: the black Venetian glass snake pendant that Mom bought me for my birthday while we were in Venice. 

Ooh, these are the days of my swoopy "soft-serve ice cream" hair, ha ha! I still have the boots, which I bought only a few days after returning to Canada. 

I wore the dress again in November 2014, with the same boots. I saw so many women in Italy wearing short studded boots like this - they wore them with everything. 

I have worn a half-slip with the dress in nearly every outfit, as it's rather on the short side. The side of my head is shaved there! 

I matched it to my pale pink loafers in February 2015.

After multiple attempts over at least a decade, I've concluded that the loafer style of shoe isn't to my taste. No more loafers! 

Swoopy hair again in May 2015. 

I like the dressier look that the burgundy heels give it. 

Another pair of heels here in July 2015 - those are my genuine Tod's sandals that I found in a thrift store. 

This dress resists styling - it can't be belted, and layers under/over it don't really work. I tend not to do much with it, which is why I was so proud to have layered a skirt with it today.

I have lacy tights on here (just so you aren't scandalized by the amount of leg I'm flashing!) in June 2016.

Same boots as today! We'll Flashback on those shortly. 

In September 2016, I wore it with my camel boots. 

Yup. Those are boots.

Soft pink shoes in July 2017. 

I like playing with all the colours in the dress for my shoes and accessories. It has burgundy, pink, cream, brown, turquoise, white, mint green, olive green. That's a lot of colours! 

One of the very few wearings of my olive green baseball cap (bought on vacation in Portland, Oregon, and given to my niece Sydney a couple of years ago). 

The shoes are my gold Born flats. Nothing terribly exciting - this was a shopping outfit. 

I bought these Fluevog boots with Ally when she visited in April 2018. 

Those are in my fall/winter stuff, to be rediscovered in a few weeks.

And here's the last time I wore this dress, in June 2019, with my tall camel boots again. 

I like the tall boot - it helps balance the proportions. 

Mathy stuff: Including today's outfit, I've worn this dress 12 times, which is 17.50 Euros per wear, or $27.08 CAD. For a designer dress that I mostly wear 1-2 per year now, I'm good with that.  

Flashback #2: Fluevog Prepare Map Purple Boots

These boots were purchased here in March 2014 on our anniversary trip to Vancouver for $229 (I recall that they were on clearance); of course, L actually bought them for me, along with another pair, since they were both on sale (sometimes I can convince him to buy me two pairs, heh heh). 

Lucky me, L did agree to buy these for me, as he is NOT fond of them. That chunky heel and hidden platform - while they make MY heart sing, they do not work for him. He's a teen of the 80s, and his tastes are firmly in the pointy-toe pumps/courts camp. 

They lace up (no zipper) with thick leather/suede laces, with orange wooden beads knotted on the ends - total cat-bait! I have to keep these far away from Vizzini. 

I love the blue soles. These boots are hugely comfortable with a mere net 1" heel (heel math, platforms!). 

I first wore them with a blue dress that I bought on the same trip, in March 2014. 

Of all the goodies I bought on that trip, only the two pairs of Fluevogs are still with me, 6+ years later. 

The shoes are an unusual shade of mauve/purple, which I initially struggled with matching. Happily, I discovered that I owned purple tights in this exact shade (which I still have!).

Instead, I went with orange frequently, to echo the orange beads on the laces, as I did here in April 2014.

For an art opening in August 2014, I went funky.

I still have the necklace and the rabbit fur coat. 

More sequins here in December 2014. 

And a puzzled kitty!

My old vintage suede vest/jerkin in March 2015. 

Only the boots remain. 

I bought this purple velvet jacket in Vancouver at the 2015 Blogger Meet-up, and wore it in September 2015.

At this point, I just started throwing all my "close enough" purple clothes with the boots. They all go - close enough! 

As you saw above, I wore them with today's dress in June 2016.

After the first wearing, I started knotting the laces (which are wrapped multiple times around my ankles) in back to keep them done up, as they like to undo themselves. You can also see the two-tone of the matching leather fronts and suede heels/back of the boots here. 

I thought you would enjoy this "in the wild" action shot of me tipsily walking home from hanging out with friends after a vintage fair in November 2016.

My Matisse copper belt is in that bag, and I'm wearing my Yeti coat. That dress pilled horribly on its first wearing and was never worn again - crap fabric! 

The velvet jacket returns, plus my vintage black skirt. Yvonne has that jacket now (and I'll take it back if you don't want it any more, sweetie, hee hee), and I gave the skirt to Chloe.

Kitty lurking in the background. 

With floral and my dark purple velvet REAL Yves Saint Laurent skirt, in January 2018.

All the purples!  

I like the mishmash of colours in this outfit from October 2018.

The "patchwork" sweater has a lot of colours in it, but no purple. However, it does have blue and red...which make purple! So it totally works. 

A subdued combo in February 2019. 

Caro has that down-filled quilted skirt now (again, I'll take it back when you're done with it, hon). 

This sweater worked so well the first time, let's do it again! 

I wore this for Thanksgiving/birthday celebrations in October 2019 at Mom's place. I adore that tulle skirt and of course I still have it. 

I like this outfit from November 2019. 

The silk shirt is the exact shade of the boots, but it had stains I couldn't get out - it's been worn a kajillion times this summer around the house for temperature control. 

The purple of the boots nearly verges on burgundy, which is what I've matched it to here in December 2019.

The lovely silk blouse under the sequinned tank dress has bits of burgundy in it. 

And here's the last time I wore the boots, out for lunch with my former coworker Betty in February 2020.

That is the first time I ever wore them with pants! 

I wish I had worn the boots more than I have; most of these are "event" (going out) or work outfits, as these boots require dedication to getting them off and on without ruining or snapping the leather laces. They are no good at all for shopping, where I want to be able to slip my shoes off quickly. 

Mathy stuff: I have worn these boots 17 times, including today, but that still works out to only $13.47 per wear. They have lots of potential for more outfits in the years to come, so I expect that number to go down even further.