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.

New Coffee Table

It was a gorgeous day Saturday, and Mom & I spent it shopping for furniture for her new place. She struck out, but I scored a fabulous new coffee table. By the way, if you click on these photos, they will get bigger.)

cashmere top: Jil Sander
jeans: Citizens of Humanity
high-heeled brogues: Donald J. Pliner
necklace: vintage
black leather cuff: Adrienne Vittadini
red glass ring: Aventurine, Paris

I love this top. The back panel of the top is hot pink, and there are hot pink threads in the weave of the cashmere. It's not quite as flourescent as these pictures would have you believe, but the hot pink in the weave makes the color very bright and glowing.



My $5 Antique Mall necklace that I wear all the time and garnered me a compliment in the Etro outlet Saturday. I love this silly thing.



Doing a little spin here so the top would kick out & you can see the pink underneath.




Merino wool cardigan from Banana Republic. I almost took this back after I bought it because I already have too many black cardis, but I couldn't bring myself to. Glad I didn't. And, notice, still wearing the hell out of those Pliners -- once again they were perfect, and they are comfortable enough to wear while stomping around all day shopping.




Probably a lot of people think this top is pretty strange, but it makes me deeply happy. I love pretty much everything Simons does, and was really excited to find this at (an incredible bargain) at the Neiman's outlet.

October 13

I've been wanting to play around a little bit with the vintage longline bra I modified a few months back. (Click the link for the backstory.) Now that it's finally cooling off a bit the idea of wearing this piece doesn't make me break into a sweat, so I wanted to experiment a bit.

First I got out my little black knit Graham & Spencer dress.






This is a terrific, simple, no-fail LBD made of soft cotton jersey knit but still fully lined. It's got a waist and some seaming in the bodice (which I have cleverly disguised with bad photography) and is easy as pie to wear. Truth be told, though, I'm not much of an LBD gal. I have some, but I always resist wearing a black dress. Pretty much any event you attend, 78% of the women are going to be wearing LBDs, right? No fun there.

But it's slightly more fun with the bustier over it: (Click on the photos to enlarge them, by the way.)

(My hair was also having big fun today. Good googly-moogly, can you tell it's been raining for five days straight?)

This is the dress worn with my beautiful red satin Valentino bow pumps. Here, here's a better picture:




The barely suppressed loony grin on my face is what happens every time I put these shoes on -- they're just too good. Although I wasn't really loving them with this outfit -- maybe a little too prim.

What I was loving was the way the dress looks from the back with the bustier over it.



I thought maybe it would be fun & funky with some boots, like my floral-embroidered Feldmans.


Because as we know, I can't resist adding some color.



But I didn't love it. Now that I'm looking at the picture I think what it needs is some colored tights and a jacket. I'll have to try that again.

I liked it most with the Alaias:


Dayum. There is nothing those shoes don't make better. (Including my legs, which are not as good as they look here, I promise!)

Which is your favorite look?

September 30

Blast from the past, just to cheer myself up on a dreary day...




Inspired by the last Dior couture show, I got & modified a vintage long-line bra.

blouse: Robert Rodriguez
black tulle skirt: vintage
bustier: vintage
shoes: Michael Kors
black feathered hat: vintage
gold pearls: (one of my most dead useful accessories of all time) Carolee
enamel & crystal cuff: Kenneth Jay Lane

Don't know that I'll ever wear this out, because it does border on costume, but it was certainly fun to put on & play around with.