Hat Attack with a twist!

  I think I've figured out layering knits! At least, for San Francisco's comparatively mild winters. I am linking to Style Crone's Hat Attack #5 because Judith is glorious and, of course, hats. Who needs more reason?

Dark red floral sweater: Nordstrom (thrifted)

Brown corduroy skirt: H&M (eBay)

Tights: UNIQLO (Japan)

Boots: Two Lips (thrifted)

Long cloak hoodie: Prairie Underground (old)

Hat: milsa (ARTH, defunct ): )

  This lovely sweater is made in Italy! Another one of those lucky wonderful thrift finds. Clearly you should come here on vacation and go thrifting with me.

  The twist part comes in because the gorgeous off the shoulder/cowl neck is really wide. Normally I have difficulty getting things over my broad shoulders. This one was in danger of slipping over them entirely! So I twisted one side inside-out to give it stability and an asymmetrical look, and put my DIY collar clips on for security:

  Then I twisted my bangs before pinning them up. Then I twisted my (made in Japan) hat! I thought it looked less like a beanie and more like a cloche that way. I am enjoying my Axis powers clothing today.

  The sweater is more tunic-length and the skirt is detailed and natural-waisted, so next time I might try wide leg trousers or something more fitted and low-slung on the bottom half, because it's a bit bulky looking here. Learning!

  What are some off-the-cuff adjustments you make to your clothing? Do you like wearing things a little differently than intended?

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  Speaking of garments' countries of origin, I've had this article by Mother Jones on my mind. It's about sumangali girls in India -young girls who go to work in garment factories to try to earn money for their dowries. It's well-written and as sad and horrifying as you would imagine.

  It also touches briefly on a topic that's not often mentioned when talking about these: it's really hard to monitor everything along a supply chain. In an ideal world I want large fashion companies to take initiative in securing living wages, safe conditions, and all sorts of protections for garment workers. In reality, there's a soup of emergent behavior, long supply chains and lack of individual accountability, subcontracting, and of course manufacturers working very hard to hide their human rights abuses. It's one of those puzzles that involves finding out how to reward the right behaviors so all can benefit, and it sucks me into a dissonant navel-gazing void every time I walk through a mall, which is why I avoid them now. (And I'm not claiming I am not part of the chain, here. I thrift a heck of a lot of my things, but I do own many things made in China. It is really damn hard to find things that aren't.)

  I'd love to hear your thoughts. I am curious where the trend of the next generation will turn, fashion-wise. It feels like things went mass-produced around the 1950s and 1960s, and we're hitting an apex of that. I wonder if the pendulum is due to start swinging another way.

Sunday Best

  Obvious things first: I have a ♪ parasooooool ♫!

  It was a gift from my friend Mo. Unused, from Korea, gorgeous.

Parasol: Korea (gift!)

Vest: Free People (eBay, size S available)

Pink overskirt: Fei (thrifted)

White petticoat skirt: LUX (thrifted)

Boots: Naya Lightning (old, gift)

Gloves: Japan

Locket: vintage (Etsy store feltinmyheart)
Hair clip: Taiwan
Skirt clips: DIY (my tutorial)

Earrings and watch: CostPlus World Market (watch link, earrings not online)

  I do not know why I'm not smiling more. Sorry! I think I didn't sleep well last night.

  Have you ever built an outfit around an unusual item?

  I wore a lot of accessories today. The parasol had me excited so I just started piling them on. Here are some close ups.

  I'd never worn these gloves before. My mother bought them for me several years ago in Japan. I had no idea what to wear them with, but I knew I loved them so I waited. :D I wanted a lacy petticoat look to go with the parasol, so I layered two skirts and hiked up the pink one a bit (oh la la!)

  It took sewmuch2learn to point this out, but I have a considerable number of vests. I've added the new label 'vests' to sort them out. I have not decided what to do with the ties on the back of this one, because they're super long. They brush the tops of my boots!

  Lastly, I've been thinking about something odd this last week. I laughed about "rage shopping" on the Twitter and mentioned it on this blog, yet I've been really shy to talk about my rage donating. So um, here are some very good causes where I gave my funds:

  Lynne of The Good Will Hunting Paralegal has a brave and lovely teenage daughter who has severe sickle cell disease. She is receiving a bone marrow transplant, and the medical costs are very high. The donation page is here.

  Nancy Le (a friend of a friend) received a successful bone marrow transplant and is currently starting chemotherapy for myeloid leukemia. Medical costs are also very high. The donation page is here.

  My friend Brenda Hatley made the US Wushu Team (again!) but there is no financial support for team travel or expenses. She is raising funds to travel to Malaysia for the World Wushu Championships. The donation page is here.

  The UN Refugee Agency helps refugees who have been displaced from their homes by war. Right now there is more exposure for the cause because of the human tragedies along the Syrian border. The donation page is here.

  Thank you, as always, for reading. (: 

Fine and Edwardian Dandy

  I figured out something valuable today. If ever you find yourself falling out of your beloved wardrobe, just start adding more layers until something fits and holds everything under it in. Bay Area fashion is all about layering, right?

  I see a lot of style blogger ladies cuffing trousers/jeans over heels. Then they don blazers and smile down and to the side. I never understood this style choice*, but now I do! All sorts of style lessons for me today! I love my Naya Lightning boots and didn't want them covered up. I don't know if anybody cuffs bootcut pinstripe trousers, but if not, it is a thing now.

* I think it's to show delicate ankles. Totally cool. For my personal taste, ankles of steel that can kick through anything up to and including submarine doors. Boots will help with this. Your taste of course may vary.

  I wore the shirt tips/collar tips I featured in a tutorial here. I'm enjoying them a lot. The hardest part about wearing them is figuring out which two flaps of clothing I want to attach them to. I'm also digging this zara basic pinstripe shirt. I last wore it in another Steampunk-ish outfit. It's versatile, so far as Ye Olde outfits go.

  Have you figured out what this outfit has in common with yesterday's outfit yet? ... it's the ribbon from the box of chocolates again! I took it off the dress and made it a skinny tie.

  This reminds me of button bracelets from that time. Maybe I just have a thing for button bracelets in general.
  I hope you all have a fine week. I am linking up to Patti's Visible Monday because if you can't be seen in a Fitzgerald-era Steampunk inventor outfit (my roommate's description) what can you be seen in?
  I also took a picture of myself squatting in a most unladylike fashion so I could mentally hear my long-suffering mother's resigned sigh. It's good to start the week off with a smile. :D

Shirt: zara basic (thrifted)

Vest: FANG (thrifted, size L online)

Collar clips: DIY (tutorial here)

Skinny tie: Recchiuti chocolates box

Hat: Nine West (DSW, old)

Pinstripe trousers: Banana Republic (thrifted)

Boots: Naya Lightning (zappos, old)

Bracelet: CostPlus Word Market (old)

Shirt or Collar Clips Tutorial

  Hey everyone! Some of you expressed interest in how I made the shirt clips, pictured holding the front of my jacket in this post, so I put together some photos. Click on any picture to get a close-up.

  This was an idea of mine ever since I used a small orange binder clip to hold together an open-faced shirt in one of my first blog posts. I poked around online to see if such a thing existed, and found this photo of collar clips:

  This is essentially what I wanted to make, I just wanted to use them on shirt halves. You can of course use them for whatever you like. (:  Here are the materials I used:

round nosed pliers, two headpins, thrifted clip-on earrings, length of chain

  You can use flat pliers instead. For the connecting pieces you can use wire, or even jump rings instead of head pins if they are large enough. (You can also make your own headpins with wire and round-nosed pliers.)
  Use a type of chain that has links or round rings at each end so you can thread the jump rings/head pins through them to hold them in place. Pick the length of chain you want for holding two ends of a piece of clothing together, and cut the chain if necessary.

   Look at where the hinge is on the earrings. You want a hole where the hinge articulates, and you want that hole not to close up when the earrings open and shut. This is where the headpin to hold the chain will thread through. If there is no hole, you can also wrap the wire around the bottom of the clip part that curves toward the hinge.

  Insert the headpin through the hinge opening, thread it through the chain, and wrap the wire around itself to hold it in place.

  You are done! Enjoy your new clips on whatever you'd like.

Please let me know in comments if you have any questions or if anything is unclear.

  Two notes: 1) Because clip-ons are meant to clasp earlobes, they don't grip very hard, so you can't use them to hold say, a skirt of heavy material up. Sudden expansive movement like stretching (to which I am given) may cause one of the ends to slip off the cloth. You can reduce this some by adding clip-on pads. These will add friction and narrow the clip opening.

  2) Experiment with other materials! For example, instead of plain chain, you can try other things. I have this broken bit of bracelet or necklace I found on the street years ago. I think it will make a snazzy chain between a set of clips, once I find some suitable clip-on earrings.

Edited to add: There is such a thing as this! Gracey at Fashion for Giants posted about vintage sweater clips. She went in the reverse direction- she took something to hold clothes edges together and put them on her collar. :D

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)