Tick Tock, High Socks

Gah, I am so tired of being sick. I demand that I be well when I wake up tomorrow! Didn't the Sick Gods get my memo? I put a cover on it and everything!

Mom came by and took me for lunch today, so I thought I'd put on something that would be fit to be seen in public:
I really didn't want anything being too tight or constricting, so I went with tights, a baggy dress and thigh-high socks.

I felt so daring with the socks - but the tights helped keep them from being too risque. I picked the socks up in Florida in the store on the main floor of our hotel.

I've worn the dress many times before (last seen here), and those are my trusty black riding boots.

The socks have little buttons on the sides that are sewn with red thread. I quite like the effect, but two of the buttons have already popped off. The socks themselves remind me of sock monkeys.

I wore this new watch pendant that I got last week:

It was half price at Plum, for $14.00. I never wear a watch, so this is great for those few times when I actually need to keep time...or when I feel like playing with a menswear look. Groovy, eh?

Dress (Max Studio), boots (Aldo, consignment), socks (Steve Madden), watch pendant (Plum).

Friday Hallowe'en Madness

Well now. I am a fan of Hallowe'en and dressing up in general (check out my Alice Cooper concert-wearing outfit here, and last year's non-costume outfit for Hallowe'en here).

My Book Club meeting was last night (check out Sherylyn's Severed Foot Cheeseball recipe over at Yummyland!) and we decided to do a theme night in honour of Hallowe'en: come as a literary character. I chose the Mad Hatter from "Alice in Wonderland":
I also decided that, despite the lack of morale in my department at work lately, I would dress up for work today in the same costume. Some of these pictures I took last night and some are from this morning.

The full costume:

The coat is the only thing I've never worn on the blog. It is Noa Noa and I got in the spring (it's been too warm to wear it up to now). It was regular $375, marked down to $79.99, with an extra 30% off, so $56.00. Not bad!

Last night, I used my shiny black purse to carry my book to the meeting:

All done up. I got some strange looks on the bus on the way there!

The thing I like about my costume is that I didn't buy a single new thing for it - I had all this stuff in my wardrobe or in the house. For me, that makes it more creative and special than going out and buying a costume. Here's how I built it ('cause I know you guys like to see how it's all put together).

First, I did my stripey tights (previously seen here) and my red vintage slip (seen here):

Then I added the blouse I wore to the interview a couple of weeks ago, and my flouncy Noa Noa skirt (seen here):

I gathered the black skirt up and pinned to the red slip to show off the red more. I also scrunched my hair up with a glob of volumizing mousse.

Then I added my plaid bustier (last worn here) for a nice smooth look:

Lastly, I put on my coat, tied a long scarf-belt (from an old skirt) around my neck as a floppy bow-tie, and put my hat on. And I added the boots (last seen here with the same black skirt):

I tied a long length of ribbon across my body, and draped a measuring tape around my neck.

Here's a close-up of the upper body details:

I copied Johnny Depp's makeup from the recent movie (it's not very good, by the way, but pretty to look at). Those are my lace cuffs from my "Never Seen" series (here). I raided my knitting box for various pins with fancy heads, my seam ripper and scissors (in the breast pocket). I also had a big needle threaded through the measuring tape, which was wrapped around the brown ribbon.

Some coat details are needed! The back is embroidered in cross-stitch: As is the breast pocket:

So amazing. I love details like that. I looked at this coat for weeks before I finally bought it - when I had that "what if it's sold?" panicky feeling, I knew I had to bite the bullet and buy it.

Here's how I decorated my vintage 80s top hat:

I tied my Smoking Lily obi around it, then started pinning things. I cut out a sticky note and wrote 10/6 on it (it's the one feature I made). I've had the feathered eidelweiss pin and the bug pin for ages. You can also see that I hung needle threaders on my hoop earrings. The starburst pin is the one on my skirt.

I also pinned one of my butterflies that I got at the Victoria & Albert Museum gift shop in London on the hat (seen on another hat here), along with a couple of straight pins:

I like how the ends of the obi looked:

Mom's old kilt pin (noted in the "Never Seen" accessories post linked above).

Here's a shot of the lace cuffs and my red fingerless gloves (it's a little chilly today). The gloves looked great with this.

And the tape measure...for good measure.

I hope you have a safe and spooky Hallowe'en! Let me know if any of you posted costume pictures - I'll link to them if you like.

By the way, I won my company's Best Costume contest today! I got a $35 Visa gift card.

Coat (Noa Noa), bustier (Le Chateau, consignment), blouse (Esprit, consignment), black skirt (Noa Noa), red slip (vintage, Suzette Lingerie, consignment), tights (Hue), boots (LaTianna, consignment), top hat (vintage 80s, Le Chateau, L's boss' wife).

Never Seen - What the Hell?!

Okay, I've saved some of my most fun crazy stuff for the last installment of "Never Seen" - this is the totally whackadoo pieces that cause me to get funny looks.

This is my pixie skirt. I bought it new from a shop that carried retro clothes and local designers. It's from around 1992 - no label on it. Each of the points has or had two tiny round bells on it, so I jingle when I walk.
I used to wear this with my purple suede thigh-high boots (the ones that got ruined at a Gwar concert), a big wide belt and a black top. Occasionally, I wore it with a white button-down. I last wore this to an 80s party 4 years ago - I crimped my hair, haha! Yes, I still have my crimping iron.

I bought this in Vancouver in a vintage clothing store in 1985.

Aw, there's Othello in the background. I miss my kitty...

It's a men's bathrobe, and still has the sash (it's tied behind my back). I am sure it could not have been more than $10, since I was broke when I was 17.

This is exactly how I wore it: with a black dress, heels and usually a pair of big gold or silver hoops. I also put shoulder pads in it at one point, but they are now long-gone.

Like my 80s dancing?

Here's the label:

Looks like they are still around! I would guess this bathrobe is from the 70s.

I love the awesome fabric - irridescent green and orange.

Ha, and you're in luck, look what I found:

I'm in my bedroom, I'm 17 or 18, and I'm dressed to go out dancing! Check out my perm, big earrings, shoulder pads...yikes! I like seeing little things from my past there: my watch wall clock, my stuffed koala collection, my dictionaries, and my mom's painting (which is on my wall in the den where I post now).

Heh, I bought this robe for a specific party about 9 years ago, the Glitz, Glam and Gaudy party:

It's big on me now, but it was va-va-voom then!

The label:

Oh, and you know I had to have a picture floating around of me dressed up for the party:

Those are my Betty Boop shoes from the Never Seen - Shoes! post. I'm also wearing fishnets, my trusty miniskirt, my tiara, and a big glittery stick-on lip-print. Yes, people kissed it. That was a wild party!

Believe it or not, I wore this to a wedding:

Actually, it was two weddings: our friends got married in a Sikh temple and in a Catholic ceremony. For the Sikh wedding, I wore a long black skirt, a black turtleneck and covered my hair with a gold scarf. For the Catholic wedding, I switched to a short black dress, similar to this one.

I'm pretty sure this was a handmade vest, and from the fabric, I'm going to say 1970s. It was $9 at Value Village about 9 years ago.

It makes quite the swoop when I walk:

Now, I don't want to scare you, but I also have this bright orange bob wig:

I shrunk this picture before I cropped it, so you get to see all my stuff piled around for pictures, and my messy house.

Did I wear the wig and the vest together? What do you think?

Heck, yeah! That's what I wore to the Wine Festival about 7 or 8 years ago. I'm wearing my mom's vintage gold chain belt, and a lion head gold chain pendant. Ha, I'm rather boob-tacular in that picture!

Well, that's it for the "Never Seen" things. I hope you enjoyed this peek into my closet and my vintage and "home-grown" vintage clothing.

Cheers,

Sheila

A Hot Mess? And Memory Fails Again

I got some interesting reactions to today's outfit. From my boss, "Oh, Sheila's all fancy!" to my husband, "I don't like it." I'll stick a poll at the end and let you decide.

First, here we go:
I spotted this skirt at Dots a couple of weeks ago - a big section of Noa Noa samples (some crazy stuff, like lace-trimmed pantaloons!) that they're clearing out.

I think it will be groovy underneath another skirt (it flattens out well - I could even do it under a slim skirt and have the ruffles peeking out), but the lining is thick enough for me to wear it on its own.

Of course, I had to wear my granny-boots with it! And then the vest just seemed very "Little House on the Prairie", then the bigass flower to bring that little Victorian touch, and the satin blouse to calm it down a bit.

What satin blouse, you may ask? (Edit: minus the jacket, this is what the top half of this outfit should have looked like. Here's a shot of just the blouse.)

Ah, right, the one I left hanging in the closet when I packed my clothes last night! This is not good, people! I think I am losing my mind! First I forget my top altogether, and now I'm left with a cami and a vest all day.

Fortunately, I think I got away with it this time. I only told two people and no one commented on my lack of sleeves. Also, the HVAC in our building was busted all day and it became sweltering, so my timing couldn't have been better!

Anyway, I am going to keep an eye on the Noa Noa samples, because the quality is just fabulous. There's a crazy long jacket that I might have to go back for - and this stuff is not to everyone's taste, so I think it will be marked down further...that's what Dots does!

I took a picture of the tag, because the whole buying process that stores and boutiques do fascinates me (I used to be a buyer for a store I worked at):

This skirt would have sold for $150 retail in Canada (but I got it for $34.99 - and an extra 20% off! - score!). It would have come in salt, farm, grain, bleach and carpet. What colours do you suppose farm and carpet are?

The stuff:

Trying to get a few more wears out of my boots before we get full-on spring.

This is my new leather cuff:

It's stamped "Catalyst Reaction Leather" inside. It was on clearance at one of my favourite gift shops for $9.99. I love the little grey planes and the dark green stripes.

Oh, and one more detail about the skirt:

Teeny metal buttons on the waistband. Now, that's amazing - metal!

Okay, I promised a poll:

Okay, whaddaya think?
	L is right, it's a hot mess
	Nah, I'm with the boss: fancy!
	I like it...but the blouse would have helped
	I love it just as it is
	Heh, she said "bigass" again
	I like polls, all clicky-clicky buttons and voting and the whatnot
	Where's the cat?
pollcode.com free polls

Vest (Vero Moda), cami (Mexx), skirt (Noa Noa), boots (LaTianna, consignment), cuff (Catalyst Reaction), flower (Roberta's Hats), earrings (Plum, gift from L).

It's All About the Shoulders

Today's outfit features three (count 'em, three!) new items, but mostly, the shirt steals the show. It has Shoulders. I felt like a Rocketeer all day in this.

"To Infinity...and Beyond! Is that a sale I see?"

Heh. One of my co-workers who never - I mean NEVER - comments on my clothes enthusiastically said she liked this outfit. I was somewhat taken aback.

The top has all the things I like: pattern, floral, pretty colours and even some glitter (it has a slight gold sheen woven in). It was $37.50, I believe, on sale. I'm looking forward to layering it over camisoles in warmer weather, or over a dress.

Did I mention I feel very futuristic in it, with the wide capped shoulder?

"Yes! We shall proceed to the Mall! That way, my minions!"

The red long-sleeved tee is also new: $17.00 on sale. The other new thing is my socks! Did you notice that I'm wearing stripey socks over my taupe fishnets? There they are, peeking out the tops of my boots.

The stuff:
Stripey goodness! Plaid-tastic! Great goldy uh...goldness!

Top (Bianca Nygard), t-shirt (Press), skirt (Kensie), tights (Hue), socks (Hue), earrings (gift from Bonnie), bracelet (The Bay).

Weekend Outfits - Long Weekend Edition

I'm home! I had a lovely birthday!

I was sung to by the entire staff of my favourite diner (and they brought me a cup of whipped cream with a candle in it), I got a tattoo gift certificate (woo!), and a gift certificate for shoes (oh yeah!). I was spoiled.

We arrived in Seattle on Friday night:
I was in my travelling clothes:

The belt is another Shi Studios item, but I didn't take a close-up of the buckle - it's a damsel with two cowboys facing off over her.

I wore my whackadoo python print leather coat all weekend:

I kind of wish I'd worn tights, but it was pretty lovely and sunny all weekend.

I changed up the top for shopping on Saturday:

Those boots were so comfy! We walked all over Seattle, hunting down vintage and consignment clothing shops. I found a great skirt and a pair of shoes.

We always go out for a nice dinner when we travel, so I brought a pretty dress:

I have already had a few glasses of wine there, so am a bit silly. "Oh, go on!" New shoes (from a few weeks ago).

Then last night we went to see "Zombieland" (loved it!), and it was colder so I did a lot of layers:

My first wear of my dark cotton trench and these cool boots this season.

A long cardi for keeping warm in the theatre:

And I dyed my hair too:

I'm tired! But a great weekend...thank goodness for a short week!

Crazylegs!

Perhaps I went a little too over the top today:
I did hesitate before I bought the tights. It's the pattern. Those diamonds are just too big, and they make my legs look odd, and the colour is not quite right (too pink on the tights). But, oh well, fashion is meant to be fun, and this was a fun outfit to wear!

The stuff:
My new grey leather belt, which I just love, is from Plum (shout out to Tracy, best salesperson in my city). The awesome cross L bought me years ago, my old cuff and the shoes...ah, the shoes.

A close-up of the necklace:

I don't know what "JS" stands for.

Dress (BCBGirls, thrifted), shrug (Debut), tights (Hue), shoes (Ralph Lauren, consignment), cuff (vintage, mine), belt (Plum), necklace (from Plum, gift from L), crystal stud earrings.