Mom's Night

Miss A's mom is in town visiting, so we had a Moms' Night dinner tonight: 4 pals, 2 moms, 1 mother-in-law, and the most ridiculously expensive appetizer Bess Bistro had to offer. (Note: always ask the price of the daily special before you order it. Because if you don't you might wind up with 2 fist-sized fried balls of risotto stuffed with goat cheese that cost $28.00. Yes. Twenty-eight dollars for cheesy rice balls. The weird thing was, they were an entrée special, although we ordered them as an appetizer. Who eats two big fat cheesy rice balls for dinner, and who wants to pay 28 bucks for that? Jeez, Miss A had pork chops that were less than that!)

But enough kvetching about the dinner -- on to the fashion.




I've had this gorgeous paisley vintage dress for a while, and it winds up tucked back in the corner & I forget about it. So I busted it out today. It's a great dress, in a really unusual fabric for the period -- a bright paisley rayon crepe. (I think it's rayon crepe, there's no fabric tag, of course.)


I think this dress is probably 50's. It's a shirtwaist with an inverted pleat in the front of the skirt, which has a fair amount of fabric in it. Based on the fullness of the skirt and the colors in the fabric, I think it's later than 40's, but I could be wrong. Whenever it's from it's pretty great -- you can just see the little blue rhinestone buttons in the photos above.

But I wasn't feeling the sweet little shirtwaist vibe completely, so I wanted to toughen it up a bit

paisley-print dress: vintage
sequined vest: Golde (via Intermix)
leather belt: Harold's
boots: Stuart Weitzman Goliath
hot pink nets: DKNY
crinoline: vintage
fragrance: Chanel Cuir de Russie

I put the crinoline on for the halibut, even though you can't see it. But it definitely led me to conclude that I should get the dress hemmed. I'm tall enough (especially in these boots!) that the length isn't tragic, but it'd be better and more versatile a few inches shorter.




I love this vest, the cut of the back and the way it hangs. It's especially good with something with a collar, because those sequins can be a wee bit scratchy around the neck.

The cuff is a plastic redwood-brown faux tortoise vintage find that I think I spent five bucks on. Redhead does love a good cuff. This one is particularly small & light and doesn't slide around on my skinny little wrist, so it's become a favorite pretty quickly.




I'm also excited about this ring, which is new-ish.



It's Kenneth Jay Lane. I love it because it's big & statement-y, but it also lays pretty flat against my finger, so I can get gloves on over it. This is important in the cold weather.

I'm saving for my trip to London & Paris this spring, so I'm all about shopping the closet. I had a little burst of shopping last month, but I'm back on the wagon again. It's good for me. And I stay focused on dinner here when I start to waver.

Suppression

Bought a pair of these DKNY Color Block Tights yesterday and decided to play with them by supressing all my instincts toward color. Even in my accessories.




(I am wearing a very brightly colored bra and underwear, however, which makes me feel a little better.)

merino two-tone sweater: Coincidentally, also DKNY
shorts: Gap
tights: DKNY
shoes: Pour la Victoire
pearls: vintage
fragrance: Chanel Gardenia

Originally I put it on with a black pencil skirt, but I thought the shorts pulled it down a little. I dunno -- classically Chanel-y or just gimmicky? What do you think?

These are the shoes -- click photo for link. Kind of amazing how well they match the tights.

Another real conversation-starter, these. I love them, but they rub my big toes a little. Unfortunately, I didn't remember that until I was already kitted out in the whole rig, so I had to peel off all the waist-down bits so I could put some blister band-aids on my little toesies, then climb back in again. But those blister band-aids are genius -- I highly recommend 'em.