Monday, May 29, 2006

Gowns!






















Ever wish you were part of the cotillion set? No, me neither. But it sure would be nice to wear a gown like this once in a while. Check the seafoam green...dreamy...

The plum is from the 30s...red is 50s.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

I've been tagged...here are my 5 fives

5 items in my fridge:
1. 16 packets of seeds for various perennials that will live in a cryogenic state for all eternity
2. walnuts. i'm addicted to walnuts. gotta feed the squirrel.
3. 2 drawers of rotting fruit and vegetables
4. 10 egg whites and egg yolks conveniently packaged in neat little spheres
5. a case of Guiness, for...uh...health purposes

5 items in my (dream) closet:



















5 items in my car:

1. a blanket with more fur than the dog who sits on it daily (moose, I feel your pain)
2. a small drugstore's worth of half-empty, dust-riddled kleenex boxes
3. about 8 tubes of lipstick (a stylaholic's gotta look good)
4. all the CDs I don't feel like listening to in the car anymore
5. at the moment, my husband

5 items in my purse:
1. my personal digital assistant who, frankly, would be fired if it wasn't for Jawbreaker
2. enough plastic to refloat the Titanic
3. an obnoxious multi-gizmoed soccer mom keychain, even though I have no kids
4. a matching change purse and makeup bag decorated with vintage fashions
5. is 'lint' just too obvious? I fear yes.

5 people who are tagged:
1. bobbysan
2. superchop
3. jackp
4. gizzy
5. mia

Check that crazy 60s silhouette...newage I love




Some great 60s newage looks from Balenciaga...

Friday, May 19, 2006

Giggle...

Monday, May 15, 2006

ErĂ¯nge, goddess of jewellery, smiles upon her happy disciple

I recently featured some cool vintage earrings I'd purchased from one of my favourite online purveyors. They are so pretty. They are so unique. They were so missing from my ears all of a sudden this past Saturday...

Backing it up a little, I was delighted to receive my little package of loveliness in the mail this week. With a birthday brunch for G planned for Saturday, I thought: what better venue to showcase the famous earrings to my friends, who make up the sole constituents of my blog readership?

But the thing about the dangly little lovelies is that they're screw-ons. For those who have never inherited jewellery from their grandmothers' 50s collection, or purchased vintage jewellery, or generally living under a style rock, screw ons are, well, exactly what they sound like. Rather than putting the earring into your pierced ear, they have a little blunt-ended screw that you tighten to fasten the earring to your lobe. (There's a women's studies paper waiting to be written on this mid-century aversion to ear-piercing/piercing as a harlotous act of penetration in the 1950s...) If the screw on sounds uncomfortable, it can be. If you tighten them obsessively. Which I will now do every time I wear them.

Because after we walked about 6 blocks from the restauarant to an art show, and I spent half an hour casually perusing the exhibit, I reached up to touch my lovely earrings--only to discover they were gone. My lobes were naked. One of the earrings was nearby, but the other was nowhere to be found. Check my coat, check the floor, check baby J's carrier over which I'd been leaning to goo-goo-ga-ga, check the floor again, obsessively re-check pockets, check purse, enlist friends in re-checking all of the above.

These can't be replaced, of course. They only cost $32, which comforted me a little, but it was just such a shame. I retraced my steps twice, covering all 6 blocks again and again. Needle in a haystack doesn't even cover it.

But guess what? On the sad trip back to the car, I found my little treasure! She'd been run over, stepped on, and possibly marked by a large canine, but she is basically intact. The gods of vintage smiled on me that day, and all I can say is 'bring on more vintage jewellery!'

Monday, May 08, 2006

Drool...


The perfect summer dress...late 50s/early 60s....

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Like a lizard in a blanket...

This entry is sort of an appendix to my earlier posting about the return of the Miami Vice look for men.

Women have been experimenting with skinny jeans for a few years now. I love retro looks. But as Stacey London of What Not to Wear (American version) has said (and I don't agree with everything she says--for example, I find the 'jeans and blazer uniform' really boring), this look is good on no one. It's not meant to look good, I guess. It's supposed to look hip. But that only really works if your skinniness is part of your coolness, a la Chrissy Hynde, whose gawkiness is sexy. Let's face it, though--there's only one Chrissy Hynde.

So for me, the skinny jeans = not so much. But a new chapter has opened in this story, people. Or should I say a new line has been crossed. It's the return of the skinny pants look for men. And it chills me to the bone.

I remember the 80s. I was there. (God help me, I sound like my mother talking about the 60s). I did the lie- down- use- coat- hanger- to- zip- jeans thing. But that doesn't mean I want to see my husband doing that. Ever.

The jeans in this photo aren't too bad. But you've just got to know there will be abusers. Recall, if you will, how quickly the tight jeans trend for men devolved to the 'it's manly to wear spandex' trend and the dawn of the whole heavy metal look. Do we really want to go there again? And if so, why? What deep reptilian impulse drives the wheels of fashion toward the skidding death-plunge that is men's skinny jeans? I'm afraid. You should be too.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Okay...last purchase for a while. Really.


They're just so... unique... and... pretty.... and... I... kind of fell in love. They needed me. I had no choice. They were rock-bottom cheap. They're collectors items. I, uh, can't find any other earrings to wear with my new kimono. Hey, look, I don't need to justify myself, okay?

Uh, sorry about that...I know you were just sitting there, minding your own business.

What...me, defensive? Oh yeah? Well maybe you're the one who's defensive, eh Guilty McGuilticuty? Ever consider that?

Besides...they're my reward for, uh, working 12-hour days for the last 2 months. There: justified.


Ah, sweet self-delusion.