The Delights of Spring

    Spring

O spring! what happiness you bring!
Cherry blossom is in bloom
The skies are clear blue forever,
Sunshine warms my lifted cheek
And o, my thrilling heart will sing.
Balmy nights are stirred by breezes soft
Stars, it seems, twinkle brighter,
Early birds waking, chirp as though
Their hearts with joy are breaking
And o—! my spirit soars aloft.

Is there any more thrilling turn of the seasons than spring? Just when everyone has had enough of winter, spring comes along to save the day. Who could fail to be happy when miserable, dripping grey skies are swept away by clear blue?

I have always had a sneaking liking for Fragonard’s Rococo painting The Swing. As an art student you’re not supposed to like it because it’s pretty and frivolous and all that, but I did anyway. It is the perfect expression of such a delightful season, don’t you think?

The Swing, Jean Honoré Fragonard, 1767I had always wanted to create a picture in homage, but was flummoxed by the mad pink dress Fragonard’s model is sporting. Of course, I do work at a theatre, but it feels like cheating to borrow from the wardrobe department.

Then some 1940s lingerie swept into my life. This peachy-pink floor length nightgown and matching ruffled robe (six tiers of ruffles, count ‘em!) printed with posies of roses all over are so extravagant, so grand, they are jaw-dropping. Irresistible. Stupendous. You get the picture … Where and when on earth am I going to wear them? Pffffft. That’s not the point!

time constraints precluded my coaxing a hapless lover to look up my skirts …

Nor do I have access to a swing in a rural and idyllic setting, and time constraints precluded my coaxing a hapless lover to look up my skirts and minion to push the swing, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me either. A large specimen of a ficus macrophylla (Moreton bay fig) tree in the Royal Botanic Gardens (my backyard) would do for a setting. A statue of Diana from the Parc de La Tamarita in Barcelona, and a cupid from my sister Star’s garden add the picturesque.

And the pièce de résistance, the dainty slipper flying provocatively in the air? A little beaded souvenir from Vietnam. (And oh, the poem is by me.)

Enjoy the sunshine! 

My Dad’s the Good-Looking One‏

I stole this photo out of the family album. It was taken in 1952 when my dad was 23, and is my favourite photo of him; it’s hanging on my wall in a nice little frame made from reclaimed timber. I suppose it was a little cheeky of me to appropriate the photo, as I do have three older sisters who might be supposed to also have a claim to it. (In my defense, I did have three copies made for them.)

My dad’s the good-looking one with the smiling eyes and cheeky smile. My mum once told me she fell in love with him at first sight, and really, who could blame her? He’s in his eighties now and still has that irrepressible twinkle in his eyes. I wonder why he and his friend are wearing matching shirts though?

It was lovely to spend Father’s Day with the family today, celebrating with four awesome dads. Even Melbourne got into the spirit of things, with a beautiful day for the first of spring. 

I love you dad, and happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there!

The Ugly Shoes

About three months ago I hurt my heel very badly in a freak accident. I slipped downstairs, managed to save myself from an undignified landing at the bottom, but in the process gouged a rather large hole in the back of my left heel.

This meant I couldn’t wear shoes for well over a month. It would have been fine if it was summer, but it was right at the start of a wet and cold winter. It was absolutely impossible to get my foot in a shoe with all the bandages to start with, but any foolish attempt to do so caused such excruciating agony I yelped in pain.

What a look. It was hardly more excruciating to my spirit!

I came to the unhappy conclusion that I had to purchase some slides. And wear them with thick socks (since it was so cold). Of course, I refused to spend a great deal of money on ugly shoes that I would never wear again – for I knew after spending several weeks in them I would never want to see them again. These camel dung coloured slides, made from polyurethane, cost $10 at a nearby discount chemist. I had to buy them in a size larger than I normally wear just to get them on.

What a look. It was hardly more excruciating to my spirit! It was also an unhappy event for my work colleagues who enjoy my shoe wardrobe almost as much as I do.

Overjoyed when I returned to the shoe stylishness to which I was accustomed, I celebrated by unceremoniously tossing the offensive slides in the bin. Good riddance! And may I never have to endure such a soul-destroying experience again.

What I Actually Wore #0086

Serial #: 0086
Date: 18/08/2012
Weather: 13°
Time Allowed: 15 minutes

It was a rainy Saturday afternoon and I was going to see the MTC play Queen Lear (based on Shakespeare’s King Lear with females in the roles of the King and his three sons). The outfit was built around new accessories – a piratical Betty Jackson necklace, and bright pink suede boots.

The necklace (I vaguely recall it was called ‘Key to Your Heart’) is pretty demanding and needs to be worn with something plain, so I wore a black knit and a stone coloured linen skirt. (That skirt, deemed dowdily past its best years, has since been passed to the charity store.) The black knit is a very old favourite I bought in Hong Kong.

The little wool felt calot is vintage 1940s, and I have had it for years – it was one of my very earliest vintage hat purchases. I have always liked it because the little flowers remind me of Mickey Mouse ears. I very rarely wear yellow gold coloured jewellery, preferring silver, and have little to choose from. The gold coin earrings – my very first purchase on Etsy years ago – seemed to match the treasure-chest themed necklace. One of the heart cabochons has flipped around – it has little glittery pink lips on it! (You can see a better pic here.) I do heart it, I must say.

Items:

Knit: Max & Co
Skirt: Country Road
Stockings: Columbine
Hat: vintage
Necklace: Betty Jackson
Earrings: vintage
Ring: vintage
Shoes: Solestruck

The Ugly Fashion Editorial‏

The smock! The colours! The hair! The horror!I spotted this fashion story in the August 1975 issue of Australian Vogue a couple years ago, and while I found it very amusing, I seemed it unworthy of SNAP’s pages. That is, until today, in this week of celebrating dowdiness.

It hits every note on my list of Seven Ugly Sins, and yet Vogue is touting it as an elegant look: ‘One of the simplest, most becoming dresses you can wear is the one with full smock … Proportion has much to do with its charm, the length of the skirt above a pretty shoe, your head wrapped small.’  

It would be easy to protest, ‘Oh it wouldn’t be too bad if only it was belted,’ but Vogue is expressly advocating loose and voluminous smocks.

‘One of the simplest, most becoming dresses you can wear is the one with full smock …’

Even the shoes they call pretty are very dowdy, and the open-toed sandals are worn with beige pantyhose, a look that has quite rightly been banished from fashion horizon for decades. The overall apricot and terra cotta colour palette is repellent too. And the hair! Those fluffy curls are overwhelming, and as a friend observed, we are more used to seeing headscarves worn like that by cancer sufferers, so it just seems strange. 

Though a coverline declares Spring/Summer 1975 the best fashion season for years, I can’t find a single redeeming feature – except perhaps that this dress shape would be a comfortable style for a heavily pregnant lady at the height of a stinking hot summer. While I like the atmospheric grainy black and white photographs by Dieter Muller, I cannot imagine these garments featuring in a current issue. We’ve seen plenty of challenging volume in recent years certainly, but styled in quite a different and more appealing way. 

I wonder what Anna Wintour would say? 

Click images for larger versions.

Here’s an extra spread from a different shoot in the same magazine as a bonus. Still on the billowing theme but with added extras: some hideous patterns, brighter colours, tacky accessories and the OTT 70s makeup we all know and love: baby blue eyeshadow and frosty lips.