A Fluevog A Day - Listen Ups Ivanna

I have embraced Casual Friday as a way to play a little bit with the business casual dress code. Maybe I'll wear something made of denim (a dress, a skirt, a vest, a jacket, jeans) or maybe I'll just wear something a bit...different. Today's Fluevog is an old favourite: my Listen Up Ivannas.

However, the real star of the outfit is the pants. But onto those in a minute. Here's the outfit: Pretty sedate for me, yeah? Nice brown pants, black cardi, pretty top with some sparkle, and oh, check out the shoes:

It poured all day today and my feet got wet every time I went outside. I have thick socks on now.

I got this top at Plum in their closing out sale. It was $18.00. I love the pattern and the loose tunic style. I don't have a lot in this cut, so it's been a bit of a challenge to find something to wear it with.

Yes, these are real leather pants! I found them in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago at a retro/vintage/thrift clothing store (the same store where I got my python jacket and my vintage Gianfranco Ferre pencil skirt).

They felt wonderful on the rack and when I tried them on...well, they fit like they were made for me. The length is perfect, they don't sag anywhere and they're not too tight (they're lined from the waist to just below the knee). They were $59.99, and worth every penny. It's hard to see here, but the colour is a rich cognac brown.

And they do amazing things for my butt:

I felt powerful in these all day. No one said a thing to me, although when I was standing at a stop-light a lady asked me if I worked in Melanie Lyne (a clothing store that caters to middle-aged rich women - they have nice things, but I have only bought jewelry there) because I perfectly had their "look." I think it was a compliment.

They are way better than my last attempt at a (p)leather pant.

When I got them home, I went through the pockets and found this piece of paper:

At first I thought it was blank, but then I saw very faded printing:It's a receipt from Finale Bar in Cambridge, Massachussets (which apparently, still exists). Not a huge deal (although cool that my pants travelled all the way to Vancouver), until I spent some time figuring out what else was printed on the receipt.

The total on the bill is $19.85 for a drink and white chocolate cheesecake, but the interesting thing is the date of the receipt: Dec 31 '02, at 10:37 PM. Someone was wearing these pants on New Year's Eve 2002, and paid for her food and drink before midnight! And then she obviously never wore them again, because this receipt remained in the pants' rear pocket for over 8 years.

Isn't that neat? The stories these pants could tell! I wonder if she had a bad date, or left to go to a(nother) party? Maybe these pants had such a bad association with her NYE that she never wanted to wear them again and they sat in her closet accusingly until she threw them in a garbage bag and left them at Goodwill, where they sat on a $5 rack until a buyer for this retro store spotted them and shipped them back to Vancouver and marked them up horrendously.

The stuff: A much better representation of the colour of the pants there. That's a pretty high waistband, but it felt comfortable all day. At least I didn't have any plumber's crack or muffin-top going on!

These shoes were last worn here. I got them in October 2008 (on sale) at the Granville Street store in Vancouver. They are the last of the old Listen Up line, with that exact heel. This was a shoe that didn't grab me at all until I put it on, and then I had to have them!

Oh, one more thing about the leather pants. Since they're from the Gap, it's easy to figure out exactly how old they are: All Gap (and Banana Republic) labels have the season on them (it's true, go look). These pants are from Fall 2000. Hmmm...and these are vintage how, exactly?

The sparkly stuff:I love the coppery sequins on the tunic, so themed my accessories to go with that, rather than contrast. Please ignore the Band-Aid sizing on the ring.

Cardigan (Kensie Girl), tunic (Dex), leather pants (Gap, thrifted), shoes (Listen Up Ivanna, Fluevog), leather cuff (Oscar & Libby's), ring (Fossil), earrings (Plum).

Inigo was just being so cute last night:We restocked his cat fud (spelled like in The Far Side) and gave him the tray to sit in. All cats love sitting on any kind of paper product. It's a fact.

Inigo sort of...overflowed his tray: Still - utter cuteness! Have a great weekend and may all your trays be full.

Weekend Outfits - Winterizing Summer Dresses

I occasionally view my Stats tab on Blogger, just to see what people are looking for when they end up here. By far one of the most searched-for topics is "how to wear a summer dress in winter" (closely followed by "dress like a song" which gets them this post). So they find this post, which I did a couple of years ago in response to a question from Faithful Reader Alison.

Well, here's another post for you folks to find! It's been so freakin' cold the last few days, I swear, my hair is going to crack like shards of ice and fall from my head. Anyway, I've been winterizing some dresses for a couple of special occasions.

Last night, I went as my mom's date to an awards night put on by the athletics club she (and my dad, when he was alive) belongs to. I'm so proud that she won Racewalker of the Year - AGAIN, for the fourth time! I cried with pride as they reviewed all of her accomplishments. You kick butt, Mom!

I spent a lot of money on this dress in London and I aim to get a lot of wear out of it:
As Sal over at Already Pretty will attest, Desigual makes the most divine, interesting and unique clothing I've ever seen. I fell in love with this dress as soon as I saw it, in the Desigual store near Carnaby Street in London. It was 169.00 pounds (over $300 Canadian), making it the most expensive piece of clothing (including shoes) that I've ever owned.

You should see the amazing jackets they make using the same technique of patchwork (if you do an image search on "Desigual coat" you'll see a bunch). I didn't get a jacket, though, because they button up on one side (like this dress does) and they only looked right when they were done up. That's not very practical, in my opinion.

I've worn this dress four times previously (here, scroll through the other stuff - there are some good close-ups in the last post from the first time I wore it), always bare-armed, sometimes with a jacket. This time I added my long-sleeved turquoise tee underneath and I had a cami underneath that! I'm pointing at the rooster, in case you are wondering.

Even with the layer underneath, I was still freezing, so I wrapped this orange scarf around my neck a few times and pinned it in place.

I've got my eye on you!

I wore thick purple tights, wooly socks and boots. This worked quite well to keep myself warm.

Close-up of the top:

Mom gave me this pin for my birthday and I've been remiss in wearing it. I liked how it went with all the different buttons thematically and kept up the round theme with the bird ring.

The stuff:

Dress (Desigual), tee (Plum), scarf (vintage, thrifted), ring (Lavichy), boots (Aldo, consignment).

Today, I went to my regular WW meeting (down a pound! Woo!), and had a bunch of errands to run. I needed to be warm, as it is still trying to snow, and also needed to be light on the scale. Did you know that a pair of jeans weighs nearly 2 pounds?

I'm trying not to cough. But there you have it - same formula: one light dress, one long-sleeved tee, one pair of tights, one pair of boots. Voila!

Dress (Gap, consignment), tee (Press), Boots (Aldo, consignment).