Cop Copine Out

  The weather's been gorgeous! Can't miss your 1/2 hour shooting window though, or you'll end up sort of red, like I am here.

Shirt: Cop Copine (thrifted)

Vest: Forever (thrifted)

Skirt: Ann Taylor (gift from Megan Mae)

Gloves: River Island
Pointelle tights: Hue (eBay)

Earrings: unknown, very old

Lightning boots: Naya (gift from Dad)

  Hope this isn't too similar to the last time I styled this skirt here. It lends itself perfectly to dark neutrals, okay? :D Since I am wearing my Naya boots that I wear in every other post, I am linking up to Citizen Rosebud's Shoe Glitterati.

  I really like this unique shirt by Cop Copine. It's got a knit body with a cowl neck, then button down fabric sleeves with slightly puffed shoulders, followed by cuffs and more knit fabric down at the wrists:

 There are even little cufflinks of buttons knotted together! ... well, one fake cufflinks. They were missing on the other side, so I made another pair out of the smallest round pearl buttons from my button box.

  I randomly found a missing vintage earring today, which is great! I found it while searching for my missing lipstick, which did not turn up. |= Soon I will have to issue a missing makeup report, because my pink eye shimmer is also missing, and it's simmering on the back burner of my mind, slowly driving me insane.

  This is perplexing me because I'm a reasonably clean person and I live in a tiny apartment. Too many things! Has anything you own gone missing lately? Does it ever turn up in the most obvious place, leaving you feeling asinine and/or infuriated? Does it also drive you to distraction when you can't find something?

Style or Die! challenge: Triple Five Soul vest

  Outfit 1 is everyday steampunk using the Triple Five Soul pinstripe vest:

Vest: Triple Five Soul (clothing swap)

Skirt: Ann Taylor (Megan Mae)
Aristocrat coat: CAbi (thrifted)

Lightning boots: Naya (gift, old) 8.5W on eBay

Rhinestone locket: Express (very old)

Grey shirt: Gap maternity (thrifted)

  I like this one so much I will link to Patti's next Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet style. :D

  I don't know much about the brand CAbi, save it's probably not Japanese, because kabi in the Japanese language means mold. I found out from Google images that this is called the Aristocrat coat. It's 100% merino wool and a teal color. I love it already.

  The skirt is brand new to me, having just received it in the post from Megan Mae! It's just the color I like, fits me at the waist (fantastic since I outshrank most of my skirts while in school) and has layers of ruffles that can be bustled up. Here I used a safety pin to take up the front. I think it's going to become a wardrobe staple really fast. :D

  If you've followed my blog for any amount of time, you'll notice I have a lot of vests. Most are thin and meant to layer under jackets. This one's is thick and double-layered, as well as longer and wider at the shoulders. It has to be worn as a top layer because jackets over it make me look like a fullback. Thin overcoats seem ok. I think it needs mid-length skirts at or near the natural waist so as not to look like office wear. Time will tell if this is too narrow a set of constraints.

  Tried this outfit with other vests and the proportions don't work as well. And it's *warm*. I ended up sweating while writing in my apartment, which is a good sign. For now, I think this one is a keep.

Taylored Fit

... 5 pairs of pants and every single skirt I own later, this is the best I got:

Asian-inspired vest: Ann Taylor (thrifted)

Beaded strapless top: Ann Taylor (thrifted, size 6P on eBay)

Embroidered trousers: Karen Millen (eBay)

Fan necklace: Joan Rivers (thrifted)

  Also, sorry about this weird spotlight business in these pictures. Some bizarre "sunlight" thing going on in the Bay Area. Happens every September. Whee!

  Swearing may not be seemly, but my internal name for this outfit is 'Augh this fucking shirt.'* It's a dark purple strapless Ann Taylor top with boning and beadwork. I thrifted it because I want to cut it down the front and make a cost-effective corset for Ye Olde outfit fun (and because it's too tight on top and loose at the bottom), but first I wanted to try styling it down for everyday wear.

* To be fair, many of my outfits are called this.

  It goes with nothing. Since it is structured and fitted, as well as formal-looking, I tried to pair it with loose/baggy things in opposing colors.

  I want to try it with a pair of loose legged trousers that cinch in above the ankle, but I donated my only pair of those years ago, after not finding anything to go on top of them. Today is not helping me squash my hoarder tendencies at all.

  Otherwise I kind of like how this Asian-ish outfit turned out. I found a golden fan necklace (Joan Rivers, thrifted) and I finally got to use these Karen Millen trousers after several years. I love the koi embroidery on them, but trying to alter them was a hair-pulling job and it took a long time for me to look at them without wincing. I'm glad I kept them (seriously, who else could they fit at this point?)  That silk vest is Asian-looking too, though I folded the heck out of it to keep the top from getting covered.. It's another one of the pieces on my long list of alterations I need to do.

  I'm working on a grey velour blazer now that will go with this top and make me look like a fancy toff. Unfortunately I don't have a skirt to go with it. Argh! I feel like I keep collecting pieces of a very elaborate large puzzle, and now it's slowly becoming clear which pieces I'm missing and what the picture is, but it sure has taken a lot of time and not a few clothes that didn't work out. -_-

  How did you all find your personal styles? Did you build them piece by piece, or did you find a brand that spoke to you? I read about minimalist wardrobes with fascination, because I cannot imagine doing such a thing. (:

  Please note that comments now let you get a ping if you want to know when you get a response! It's sometimes difficult for me to keep track of where I've left comments in the blogs I follow, so if you'd like to know if I reply to something you said, please tick the box! I like replying to comments. :D

A sash by any other name

Shirt: BKE boutique (thrifted)

Skirt: Ann Taylor Loft (thrifted)

Sandals: Laura sandals by Fitzwell (6pm.com, old)

  This full length Ann Taylor Loft skirt is new-to-me. I got it on the same thrift trip in which I found my shrug/cropped blazer.
  I was all, "Sweet, TWO things I've been looking for! Thanks, SF thrift store!"
  And the thrift store was like, "Don't worry about it, Aya. Congrats on summer school. See you next month."
  "Hey do you think I could also get-"
  "You're pushing your luck, kid."
  I might alter it to be narrower, more of the straight skirt look I want to wear with AZN tops like this one, but it was $5.50, lined, and the correct length for me. O.O  The plastic tag connector was still in it, so I suspect it's new. I think there is a well-off woman (or man!) in San Francisco with a 25" inseam who donates to that store. I donate some of my things in the hopes that s/he may find them and like them, too.

  I fell in love with this shirt when I found it a few years ago, but I haven't worn it much. I really, really like the sash because it looks kind of like an obi. Trouble is, it sits on my lower ribs, so I can't get it to lie smoothly. It's too tight when I inhale and sags when I exhale. It can be cut off and moved, but it sits on a full circle seam around the shirt's empire waist. I'm used to my wide belts sitting at my natural waist or just below it. Can I consult with all of you and get your suggestions? Sheila? Megan Mae?

   I'm mostly bed-bound for a few days due to an illness I put off for a month to smash through my chem courses. Don't worry, yesterday a wonderful PA-C took care of me and told me in no uncertain terms to never do that, and to take myself to the emergency room on Sunday if I haven't improved by then. Then she said my shirt was really pretty. I would have hugged her if I thought I could get away with it. So if I look a little stiff in photos, we can blame my kidney and not my camera shyness. :D
  I'm wearing my stash of soft, stretchy shirts while I am on the mend, because I can't physically do all the stuff involved in designing new outfits. I'll just sketch out new ones in my head to try later. :D

  Side-track!
  Patti of Not Dead Yet Style tweeted this link, a tutorial titled DIY kimono, and I like the looks featured, but I gotta say I disagree with the nomenclature the author used. In fact I believe the first words that came out of my mouth were, "Dude, that's a robe."
  I don't mean they aren't lovely ways to style the item, and I understand you'll probably get more hits and it sounds cooler to say 'kimono', but seriously, I think that there is a robe.
  Robe:

Kimono:

Robe:

Kimono:

  You're welcome.

Independence Day

  Happy belated 4th, everyone! My blog posts are delayed by several hours, so you all are reading this in the future.

 School nightmares and resultant insomnia aside, I woke up pretty happy and calm on my day off. It was spent indoors doing chemistry problem sets, but I didn't see any reason not to put on makeup and get dressed in something fun.

  I originally bought this Ann Taylor Loft dress as an underlayer to wear under dresses that were too thin, too short, or too strapless (or some combination thereof). It's a nice opaque knit, form-fitting enough to be flattering, and super comfortable. It has the added bonus of helping keep dresses up due to friction.

  The top of the dress is so fitted I didn't have to wear a strapless bra (they're massively uncomfortable!) and instead just put bra pads down the front. I hope it's not gauche/TMI to mention I cut the pads out of worn-out bras, serge them, and insert them in clothes whenever I can. It's such a comfortable alternative that I hope other gals know about it.

  It recently occurred to me that I could wear the navy blue dress as a dress in its own right, and I tried pairing it with a silence + noise jacket. I like the swoop cut in the back of the jacket, and it is one of the only jackets I have ever found with sleeves the length of my arms instead of sleeves the length of my arms plus my hands.

   I don't know whether it's the comfy knit fabric, or the plain cut, or the color, but I feel like my inner self in this dress. Normally when I wear a dress I feel kind of like a child peeking through an adult woman mask at the outside world, giggling to myself at the masquerade. Today I feel more like me.

  During my searches for wide belts on the internet the other day, I came across a Top 10 list of things short women should never do if they don't want to look fat, and wide belts was on it. Haha! No disrespect to those lists. I think style rules are great, so we can make informed choices of which ones we want to follow and which ones to break. There's a big difference between a wacky style choice and a wardrobe faux pas.

 

  I realized I was starting my 4th of July with a nice cuppa tea (haha!) and decided to wear my teacup necklace in celebration. The hat was my first hat in what is now a collection of several, and one of the only times I found a hat too large for my head. I wear it pulled over one ear at what I hope is a rakish angle. Come to think of it, this was also my first wide belt. It's like a 20s Aya reunion today.

  Last time I was trying to clasp something closed, I used a binder clip. I finally got around to making the shirt clasps I wanted to, using a thrifted pair of clip-on earrings. I'm happy with how they turned out! I might follow up with a post in more detail about them, since I have another pair of thrifted clips I want to transform, too. Would that be interesting? Boring?

Marching Band Jacket - silence + noise (thrifted)

Dress - Ann Taylor LOFT (thrifted)

Belt - kimchi blue (old)

Corduroy hat - GAP (outlet)

Hat pins - The Donut Lounge, Fangamer

Teacup necklace - Nordstrom (gift)

Shirt clips - DIY (thrifted earrings)

Sandals - Eastland's Lagoon sandal (product site)

A Dressing Down

  Last month my adviser at Uni took great pains to tell me several times the huge disadvantage I was facing applying to graduate school (I am a returning student who took a lot of prerequisites at the local community college, which has been awesome to me.) There was useful advice in there, but the vibe I got was 'don't bother, try paying for a masters degree out of pocket with all that money you don't have, then maaaaaaaybe.'

  Last month I also broke my $40/month budget for clothes. COINCIDENCE?

  I found this cool Ann Taylor pantsuit on sale for $25 at Black Pyramid, an online shop for vintage clothing.  The 80s and 90s count as vintage now! That's right, the clothes of my youth are now considered old, which by definition (or the transitive property) makes me old.

  Anyway, I loved the look of it.  The Asian style (henceforth referred as AZN) velvet long vest with frog knot fasteners? The long drapey trousers to which I could add elastic and make KUNGFU harem pants?  Yes!

  It arrived today and I am excited. "Pantsuit" means one piece, apparently, but it will not be difficult to cut the stitching that holds them together and make them separate items.

  And then I had a dream featuring Ken Watanabe as a helicopter pilot, and the forecast today is warm, gorgeous weather, so things are turning out all right.

  Ken Watanabe can fix anything.