What I Actually Wore #0068

Serial #: 0068
Date: 03/06/2012
Weather: 14°
Time Allowed: 10 minutes

It was a cold day in June when my friends and I travelled to the country town Bendigo to view the Grace Kelly exhibition. I wanted to wear something with a retro silhouette, but I also wanted to keep warm. And there were a pair of new shoes that were begging to be worn. These were 40s style cherry red suede platform T-straps, so my outfit was built around those. They have become one of my favourite pairs of shoes (although I have been very remiss and forgot to photograph them for this story).

The wide-legged trousers are wool, as is the red jacket, and both would keep me toasty. Vintage pearl ‘grape’ earrings echoed the shapes of the red pompom scarf. The final touch was the 50s grey wool felt hat trimmed with a jaunty stylised feather shape and bows.

I received numerous compliments from other visitors to the exhibition that day, but oh, how my feet ached in the new shoes! There was too much standing about, edging from display case to display case in the crowded exhibition rooms. But one must suffer for fashion. I’m sure Grace Kelly must have done once or twice.

Items:

Jacket: vintage
Top: Veronika Maine
Pants: Ming
Earrings: vintage
Bangle: souvenir from Barcelona
Watch: Kenneth Cole
Hat: vintage
Shoes: Zoe Wittner

Print Cocktail

I’ve broken the rules. Gasp! No, not the fact that I have mixed my prints – because as we all know, that is so very au fait right now – but rather the fact that I have ignored the scale rule, and I have mixed three different patterns.

The most important thing about mixing patterns is tone. When the patterns belong to a similar colour family, they will harmonise in a much friendlier way: to you figure, and to the eyes of innocent passers-by. After all, we don’t want to make random strangers’ eyes bleed, do we?

Some fashionistas advocate not mixing more than two prints, or teaming them with another solid block colour. I have chosen to flout this rule.

I already mentioned another rule I have broken – that of scale. Usually I would recommend pairing a bolder, large-scale print with a daintier, small-scale print. Here, however, I have brazenly combined three prints all of similar scale. Two of the prints – the cherry tank and the floral 70s silk hat – are so similar that to the passing glance they are the same. The third print in the shorts has the same cream background, with red shapes the same size as the cherries, but the overall pattern has a denser coverage. And somehow they all work together. It’s a fun little summer outfit.

If you’d like to attempt this yourself at home (but are feeling nervous), make it easier on yourself by starting with one key piece and building around it. Either polka dots or stripes are great mixers with other patterns, and they work brilliantly together too. Another, subtler way to mix patterns is to use textured fabrics – perhaps a tweed skirt paired with a printed blouse. See my example above: both items are navy and white. I love this combination!

Use plain-coloured accessories to tie the outfit together: a wide belt or large envelope or clutch bag that will not be overwhelmed by the patterns. Jewellery should be simple – a thin chain necklace, or some chunky wooden beads.

For some more inspiration, click on patterns in the tag cloud at right. Have fun!

Millinery Notions

CELEBRATING THE ROARING TWENTIES IN A SPECIAL SERIES

The Vintage Hat Series: 1920s cotton muslin house capOne of the quaintest millinery notions of the 1920s for me is the cotton house or duster cap – worn simply around the house to protect one’s hair from falling cobwebs and other dangerous household detritus. (I may not be dusting a chandelier high above me, but I do have a mirror ball left over from a long ago Poetry & Absinthe party that seems to gather dust all too quickly.)

Bought from Etsy shop Past Perfect Vintage, this cotton muslin cap features the classic frilled 20s bandeau, and mother-of-pearl buttons at the sides of the head. The floral print is as fresh and crisp as though it was actually printed yesterday, but its vintage quality is immediately apparent in the fine workmanship and lovely detailing.

I took it out of the house recently to wear it to work with a summer dress, and was pleased to accept quite a flattering number of compliments. I wonder if a 20s lass would have giggled at the mere notion of wearing such a cap out?

Anna Karenina

Ever since the first time I read Anna Karenina many years ago, I decided it was my favourite book. Tolstoy’s beautiful, lyrical passages immediately drew me into another world of Russian aristocrats who spoke French – vastly different from the twentieth century middle-class Australia I grew up in (even if I share a Slavic heritage). I couldn’t turn the pages quick enough to find out what would happen to Anna and Vronsky, Kitty and Levin.

Before I knew there was a new film of the novel being made, I had decided one day I would pay a visual homage to Anna. The film has not yet opened in Australia, and I have not paid too much notice to the costuming, although that is one aspect of the film I am very much looking forward to.

I don’t own any nineteenth century clothes, but I do own a vintage Russian-style fur hat, so I’ve taken some poetic licence and cobbled together something to evoke a winter ensemble Anna might have worn.

The black velvet coat is a sumptuous 1950s swing coat, a shape that of course was not in fashion at the time; I’ve cinched it in at the waist with a wide belt. The fur collar is another vintage item picked up somewhere over the years, and the white velvet gloves are trimmed in rabbit fur on the cuffs. Those I purchased in a Melbourne boutique. I think I’d probably need some thermals under there too …

My Anna Karenina is standing before a church in a village called Kukoba, in the Yaroslavl Region, found here.

R&R

I wasn’t quite lazing about in my underwear today, but I have been burning the candle at both ends lately, and exhaustion finally caught up with me. I spent a lot of time simply resting – the cloudy and rainy day encouraged this aberrant behaviour too. So this fashion editorial seems particularly appropriate today. The lingerie is pretty and the gentle light is soothing. Righto, I’m off to bed now. Good night!

Photos by Christian Ketteger for British Vogue. Click on images for larger versions.