All Dress Weather, All the Time

Good news: when I picked out clothes for my limited closet space, I brought a bunch of warm weather dresses!

Bad news: a dress is an entire outfit, so once worn, I feel like I can't wear it on the blog again for a while. I haven't featured this dress on the blog since-holy crap-almost exactly a year ago though, so I guess it is okay.

Dress: OzzOn Japan (secondhand, Japan)

Cropped blazer: Isaac Mizrahi for Target (thrifted)

Tensha bead earrings: The Thorn & Rose (etsy)

Bracelet: Foreign Exchange (old)

Sandals: Fitzwell (6pm.com)

It's not showing much, but I'm also wearing a perfectly-sized racerback underdress that's the same shade and that conveniently covers any gaps in the hem that might flash too much thigh.

It also enabled me, while attending my friend Athena's wedding, to take the dress off in the parking lot and offer it to a near-stranger who was admiring it so she could try it on. Alcohol was definitely involved.

Athena, incidentally, was the very one who introduced me to this brand! The day we met, I noticed two things about her: first, she was intelligent and outspoken (three things?), specifically on the topic of an awful textbook that had been required reading for one of our introductory courses, and second, that she was wearing a jacket that was sweeeeet beyond all recognition.

I complimented her jacket and introduced myself in the ladies room. And the rest, as they say, is history. :D

Orange is the New Black Widow

  First up, dear readers: if you're interested in entering the Couturgatory giveaway, leave a comment in this post with a valid e-mail address. I need an e-mail address to contact you if you win! If you forgot to put one, just leave another comment, and of course if you're not interested in entering but just want to say hi, you can leave it out. :D

  You can enter until Saturday, November 9th 11:59pm Pacific time. Then I'll draw the winner!

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 We've had some November sun breaking through the cloud layer the last few days, and I am loving it.

Shirt: Rennes (cheap junior store)

Vest: Last Kiss (same junior store)

Trousers: Cop Copine (thrifted)

Bracelet: Foreign Exchange (old)

Boots: ALDO (thrifted)

  I got the shirt and vest at the same cheap junior store in Colma that was going closing up shop. I never thought of wearing them together until now. I think the shirt looks a little like a shop apron in front, and I really like how the backs layered over one another:

  I feel like a black widow spider, except of course I don't kill and eat my lovers, haha. (:

  I merely lay my eggs in their bodies so that when they hatch, my larvae consume the organs and eat their way out of the thoracic cavity. Technically, my hands are clean.

  Last Kiss is kind of a macabre brand name. Last kiss of what? Of death? Of fate? Of the dragon? (Go with that last one. I had a professor with a huge crush on Jet Li. I approve and she's an amazing teacher, to boot.)

  I mentioned making a Facebook life event before to commemorate hemming some complicated pants. These Cop Copine ones are the second pair I was referring to. They look simple, but the cuffs are sewn in place with an invisible stitch, and I was worried when I cut the fabric that I wouldn't leave enough to fold under, hem, then fold back up and invisible hem. You can still see the line where I pulled the cuffs back to do the stitching.

  I've been wearing these ALDO platform boots a lot, and I never have a good, close shot of them. Reader Sue mentioned having wide forefeet, and when she mentioned squished toes, man oh man did I relate. I found these at the thrift shop and although they are only M width, the squared high toe boxes fit great. They're my go-to boots now for when I need to be on my feet for a few hours.

  Sometimes "wide shoe" labels can be misleading, because our feet have so many dimensions. People can have collapsed or high arches, high insteps or flat ones, edema or bony feet, wide forefeet and/or midfeet, or anything in between. I've learned through trial and error at 6pm.com that Naya width C is the exact width as Fitzwell EE, for example. (I have multiple pairs from both companies, and placed sole to sole, they line up perfectly.) They both run a little narrow for me, but because they are all leather they stretch out over time. Or around a big rock, which is what I use when I get impatient/uncomfortable.

  And since my feet are very wide at the toes (think bear claws) but bony at the heels and skinny on top, David Tate WW shoes are comical on me. It's like someone blew up a balloon around my foot and I have a fascinating empty space all around between me and the shoe. I'm assuming those fit feet that are wide in the up-and-down sense as well as the side-to-side. They *were* one of the only sandals that ever let all of my toes roam free, though. Sigh. Maybe I could buy them again and inject them with foam that would harden around my feet and make the perfect fitting, if really ugly shoe.

  My friend Ally has mentioned difficulties finding size 12, and I have the opposite problem where many companies carry 6-10, and I'm 5.5. What are your shoe fit problems?

Subtle Embellishments

  This is my old uniform: some sort of unique/graphic tee and some cool pants or jeans. I wore this style every day for decades. I love my skirts and my other clothes, but I find this the most comfortable. I thought I'd share it with you. What is your go-to or zero point outfit?

Top: Foreign Exchange (thrifted)

Ryan Bootcut Pants: S by Sanctuary (thrifted, sz 8 in denim on eBay)

Boots: Two Lips (thrifted)

Necklace: defunct etsy shop

  This is not a unified theme! The pants are detailed like cowgirl chaps -brass snaps at the bottom of bootcut legs and decorative seams curving up the sides to the back- and the shirt is detailed like a princess gown, with slightly puffed sleeves and a twisty collar. I love them both very much.

  These fake chaps pants are the most complicated trousers I have had to shorten yet. They have a series of brass snaps at the bottom that I fell in love with, but the legs were the usual 5" too long. What to do? I ended up measuring the angle of the decorative line across the thigh in the back, tracing out the same angle with a protractor, and cutting the inches out partway up the leg and doing a diagonal pseudo-top stitch to imitate the style of the pants, then reinforcing the edges so they wouldn't fray. It took two evenings and I made a Facebook life event in commemoration after I was done fixing these and a pair of Cop Copine pants with a convoluted cuff/invisible hem.

  I never want to sew pants on a diagonal again. You can't just turn them inside out and sew two edges together unless you cut open the seams on the side, because the two pieces are set at an angle to one another so they can't lie flat at the ends. And they are different widths because the legs are bootcut. These had better last a while, because I'm burnt out on alterations for now. They are mega-sweet, though.

  I wish I could find out more about the brand, but they appear to have zero 'net presence. I *think* the brand is "s by Sanctuary" (the tags are just leather strips with 's' embroidered on them, so this took some digging!) the same company that makes my beloved thrifted hoodie. Isn't it a bummer when you can't track brands down?  Maybe rich people don't shop online. :D

Style Imitating Art: Lighthouse

  This wasn't consciously designed as a Style Imitating Art outfit, but this happy coincidence saves you from  another one of my terrible titles for outfit posts. This morning I ended up pulling these items out without consciously planning it, and realized later that with the red piping and style in back, this is the closest garment I have to the painting, and I was even wearing the correct color trousers.

  Today's pick from the "special occasion" box is a cut and sew velvet tank top from a Renaissance Faire of many years ago. Part of why I bought it was it also fit neatly into a running Princess-Leia-gold-bikini joke between an old friend and me.

  The drapey double vest has buttons on both layers so it can be worn in a number of ways.

  My not-so-secret ambition is to be the quirky old lady with the fabulous outfits in another 40-50 years.

  I realized I last wore this shirt at a party eight years ago. Geez. Fun fact: beloved reader and commenter Michelle was at that party, too:

  Sometimes the trouble with unique items is you have no idea what to wear them with, because you have not seen any precedent. Also they might be low cut with a big transparent mesh panel over the midriff.

  I used Carrie of Petal by Petal's tip about lengthening a necklace with a bracelet, lengthening a long necklace I folded in half.

  This weekend went by far too quickly. I studied a lot though, and I had a blast making outfits and blogging about it. Thanks to all of you so much for reading- writing this blog is a lot of fun and a big stress reliever for me. I can't wait for next weekend already. :D

Velvet tank top: NorCal Renaissance Faire (v.old)

Double layer vest: MOUTHvalley (thrifted, Japan)

Pants: unknown (clothing swap)

Necklace: crystals- unknown (Mom) sunburst bracelet- Jeanne by CJ (Paris, old)

Faux leather bracelet: Foreign Exchange (old)

Edeen wide calf boots: Fitzwell (6pm.com)