Spring has Sprung!

This is it! Spring is here, at last. How glorious! Just the thought makes me want to leap into the air and click my heels together, to break into song. The days are getting longer, blossom is blooming everywhere, the sun is shining, and the breezes are balmy.

It’s time to throw off the woollens and embrace vintage printed pleats instead. I don’t demand they be florals by any means, although this pinky-mauve 1940s skirt is printed with a black floral pattern. The off-pink and black are a less sweet alternative to traditional pink pastels, especially when worn with a sassy black backless halter and high suede peeptoes.

I actually have an array of 70s printed dresses that I am looking forward to wearing in this inbetween weather – most of them are polyester so they won’t do for really warm weather. Many of the prints are geometric rather than floral, but there is something so cheerful about graphic prints they suit this uplifting time of year.

Of course, Melbourne is traditionally quite rainy in the springtime too, so one must carry a brolly under the arm and be prepared for four seasons in one day – that’s why we love this town.

Photo: March 2014

End of Winter Celebration

Red wool, cashmere and rabbit fur trim cape, bought comparatively expensively for $300 from a vintage boutique in Melbourne to celebrate winning a new client.Today is officially the last day of winter – hurrah, hurrah! It was in fact gloriously sunny enough to be the first day of spring, and I certainly did not need a coat to go outside today. In truth, we Melburnians know we won’t be shedding the woollen coats just yet, but the promise of spring makes a huge impact on one’s joie de vivre.

I have said before that I have many coats, and a while back when I was culling a few because they were worn out, I decided I had to photograph the entire collection for posterity. It took me a whole day, and even then I forgot a couple, and I have since added a couple more. But I was shocked to learn the total: more than 60! Even I find it hard to believe I have space to store them all.

Camel wool coat – a holy grail find in an op shop that set me back $30.Nearly every single one is second hand, I am proud to say. One is a genuine antique from 1850, and the next oldest is from the 1930s. A few more (including ones I forgot to photograph) are from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s and then quite an armload of them are from the 1970s.

I do try to wear as many of them as I can, but some of course are only for special occasions, such as the 1850s striped velvet skating coat – I don’t wear that when know I am going to indulge in risk-taking behaviour such as drinking red wine, or consuming melting ice creams in the dark.

This navy cashmere French-made coat was bizarrely inexpensively priced at $12 in a Melbourne op shop (I think the staff member was suffering from concussion when they priced this) – and then I found $2 in one of the very deep pockets!This last Melbourne winter has been so cold that I mainly wore only the big guns: my longest wool and cashmere coats, along with a few short ones that I broke out when I was going out and about only during mild days. I have a couple of long leather trench coats, but I didn’t feel they were warm enough for days under 10°C – it does not get cold enough in the city to actually snow, but those Antarctic winds sure do blow!

Many of these capes, coats, and jackets were purchased in Melbourne op shops (thrift stores) and a handful of vintage boutiques, but a few I bought online from mostly America.

Vintage 60s pure wool short jacket, found in an op shop for $6! This has such a great shape, and I love the bracelet-length sleeves.I really love tweed, and was pleased to find this wool jacket for around $10 in a small op shop on the fringes of Melbourne, when one of my sisters took me on a tour of all the op shops in her area. It is missing its belt, but I have found quite a few stand-ins. I had always wanted a baseball jacket, and what better than a vintage 50s one? This wool Dodgers jacket does up with buttons, not a zip. I bought this at a Unique Vintage warehouse sale for about $45. These six coats and jackets I have showcased here are the ones I have worn most often this winter, but there are other ones I adore, such as the 70s Dr Zhivago suede and fur coat, the leather of which has become quite fragile in parts. I am a bit scared to wear it for fear of irreparable tears forming. I have already repaired some of them myself.

As the weather becomes a little less icy, I hope to start taking a few more lighter-weight coats on outings. Meanwhile, the first week of spring is due to return to winter weather, although Melbourne is honouring the occasion with some sunshine forecast for tomorrow.

You can see the entire collection in my new autumn/winter gallery, in A Glory of Coats.

Photos: January 2017

C’est La Vie!

Bonjour! Look what Facebook Memories threw up at me a few days ago! I had forgotten about this t-shirt that I wore for a little while. It lasted for so short a time in my closet I am surprised and pleased that I actually managed to capture it on ‘film’.

C’est la vie is one of my favourite sayings – except I like to whimsically destroy the French and pronounce it as ‘sest la vye’ (much to the mutual bemusement and amusement of French and French-speaking friends over the years). So when I spotted this in a window display of the chain store Rivers, I very excitedly rushed in to purchase one.

It was quite inexpensive, and the main reason I eventually culled it from my wardrobe was because it was polyester/cotton, and it was a slogan – I had segued into a minimalist style at the time. But after I shared the memory on Facebook, mourning its loss, my sister Star popped on to comment that she had inherited it!

I was glad it had gone to a good home, but if ever it should find itself unwelcome … hint hint. I feel no shame in casting such hints at my sister, the one who baldly states, “When you die, can I have that buffalo hide handbag that you bought in Hong Kong years ago?” She has coveted it for many years, and every time she sees me carrying that bag she feels impelled to remind me that she would like a mention on my will.

The day these photos were taken I was lunching with some male friends at a Vietnamese restaurant after our karate class. An extremely dubious shot of my chest was also taken by one of them. Or I guess it might have been me trying to take a selfie back in the days when the Hipstamatic app had no front-facing camera – I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt!

Photos: August 2014

Twin Leopards

Just when you thought I couldn’t possibly have anything more to say on animal prints (as did I!), I came across this little trifle in my collection of unpublished stories: a leopard print hat made from sinnamay. I’m not quite sure what to call this shape, except perhaps a modified trilby, with the narrow brim folded up on one side and down on the other.

I bought this in a thrift store for around $4, and what delighted me was that it is like the fraternal twin of a hat I bought many years ago (at a much higher retail cost, I may add), only in a more refined shape. In the shop I also thought the print was exactly the same, but when I pulled the other out I saw they were quite different. They still do look like they came from the same milliner, don’t they? The trilby is by Italian label Caterina Lucchi.

I’ve pulled a picture out of the archives of the other hat, which is in fact by Jendi, an Australian brand. This one is quite definitely a fedora as it has a broader brim (you can see other angles here). Now that I have both to compare, I’m not sure which I prefer after all – I’ll keep both!

Photos: March 2017, January 2010

The Scary Shoes

A few weeks ago I bought a pair of Dalmatian print pony-hair loafers in a thrift store for a song. I don’t recall how much, but they were under $10.  They are actually a size smaller than my usual (but only a little tight), so I have been wearing them at home with a pair of thick socks to stretch them out a little.

That is, until, the day my cat noticed them and was terrified, especially when she saw their ghostly reflections in a glass door. She was persistently jumping up onto the kitchen bench in fear, and trying to cower under the wooden dish rack! She had me completely mystified until I realised what was going on, and as soon as I took the shoes off, she calmed down. She is quite disinterested in them as long as they’re not on my feet.

Photo: July 2017