Mixed Mustards and Circus Skirt Flashback

Hello, my friends! It's...Monday. Oh, joy. 

I prepared myself mentally and sartorially for my Big Meeting early this morning, only to discover that it had been pushed out to later in the morning! Oh jeez, I rushed around for nothing? 

Well, at least I have my mixed mustards: we have both yellow mustard and a Dijon mustard here! It's Colour Therapy! 

• Jacket - Sarah Pacini, consignment; last seen here in December 2020 with McQ
• Top - Desoto; purchased here for $15.99
• Skirt - Dries Van Noten, consignment, San Francisco; last worn here in September 2019 
• Shoes - Summertime Moonbeams, Fluevog 2007, consignment; first worn here in July with Space Pants

I should have unzipped the jacket for the stair picture, as I wore it undone like this all day.

I've had this skirt for nearly four years, and I have always struggled with what to wear with it - we'll have a small Flashback below so that you can see how I've styled it before. 

I was quite proud of my double mustards today - I don't think I've ever tried bright yellow with mustard yellow before and it totally works! By the way, my personal favourite is Dijon, although I grew up with the Canadian classic, French's mustard. 

My arms are akimbo as I'm showing the weird pockets in this jacket. They are set on the sides instead of the front. Very odd. 

I loved how well this darker mustard went with the circus stripes of the skirt. I need to be more creative with my colours!

I'd actually removed this jacket from the closet at the start of the spring summer season, and it's been languishing in the giveaway pile for months...but I've been thinking about it. I pulled it out last week once I realized I was missing it.

Here's the top on its own. I am thrilled that it is not transparent, translucent or otherwise see-through. This doesn't seem to be a huge "ask" for a yellow top, and yet 99% of them are so sheer you can see your bra through them. How is this practical? 

This is the Best Yellow Top (Always Be Upgrading!) I've ever found, and I've been looking for years, because it's a very useful colour to have, especially when you own patterns with yellow in them. 

It was cloudy out in the morning, but my desire to be incognito overrode the world seeming a little bit darker.

It was sunny by the end of the day.

Masked up - more yellow! 

The mask has white polka dots on it, so matches the circles of the necklace. 

• Mask - Lazy Susan's

The stuff: 

My first time wearing these shoes for work, and they were excellent. These are as comfortable as wearing flats, I kid you not. 

Circular bling: 

The skirt has fine white/cream stripes down the centre of the yellow, so I mixed black and cream for some more visual interest.

• Necklace - Monet, vintage fair
• Earrings - vintage, vintage fair
• Amber ring - c. 1996
• Turquoise/silver ring - Glee

Dries Van Noten "Circus" Skirt

This skirt belongs with my collection of Clothes I Bought On Vacation, as it was purchased here in September 2017 in Wasteland, a consignment store in San Francisco, for $75 US/$90 CAD. We'll use the Canadian amount for our "mathy" calculations. 

I'm a big fan of Dries Van Noten, and have owned several pieces by him that I've picked up here and there over the years. This gorgeous wool skirt has pockets and I love the bi-level hems, but it's the "circus tent" stripes that have always called to me. 

Despite trawling through Vogue.com's archives of Dries Van Noten's runway collections (going back to Spring 2007!), I was unable to find the collection that this skirt belongs to - I can only conclude that it's pre-Internet, so sometime in the 90s (Dries has been around since the 80s). 

I wore my souvenir skirt to work right away, in September 2017, and went with matchy colours. 

Yellow shoes (I no longer have those), a grey sweater (moths got it) and a Helmut Lang jacket (not my style, passed it along). 

A few months later in November 2017. 

A simple outfit with my silvery-grey shoes. I had this top for several years, but it got quite worn and raggedy and yellowed over time. I do love a funky cream top.

This was in February 2018, and I'm trying a new colour with the skirt: olive green! 

I layered a mustard cardigan over it (now gone), and did the same grey/silver shoes. 

I think this is probably my favourite outfit so far - the stark black makes the yellow pop and look slightly cartoon-y. 

This was in May 2018. I let go of those shoes (too high). 

I had a cashmere sleeveless sweater in a pretty lemon yellow, but as with many yellow tops, it was very sheer so I had to layer a cami under it. Sadly, this one was ravaged by moths. 

My shiny Smoking Lily moto-jacket has a silvery sheen to it, matching with the silver platform sandals and necklace. This was in September 2018.

You might remember this May 2019 outfit from the recent Flashback on my pre-customized cream Fluevogs. 

That cream top is not right - this whole outfit is just not quite there. 

And here's the last time I wore this skirt, in September 2019. 

I discovered that the stripes matched this blouse really well, and played up the brown/caramels with the sandals. 

Mathy stuff: I've now worn this skirt 8 times, which is...okay. I'm at $11.25 per wear, so on the higher side still. 

I didn't wear the skirt at all in 2020 - it's always been slightly snug, and well, 2020 was that kind of year - but I do plan on keeping this lovely piece. I am really pleased with how well this Dijon mustard jacket goes with it (even the black zippers match), so I'll likely try the skirt with my mustard sweater this fall. 

What would you wear with it? Do you have a favourite look?