Wishful Wardrobe
I wonder if Tom Ford would like to dress me for my trip to Milan in January???
Tom Ford AW12
Images courtesy of Style.com, with thanks.
Showing posts with label dress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dress. Show all posts
Monday, July 23, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
Recently Acquired ~ Blush Dress
I go through phases, Fashionable Reader, where I don't shop and then suddenly gorge myself. I've been trying very hard to be more conservative in my choices, partly because I feel my vintage collection is quite sufficient to my needs, party because I am trying to be fiscally responsible.
That said, I had a major lapse recently due to immanent ComicCon. (Or that's my excuse.) You see, when I went to New Orleans for ALA I realized my existing wardrobe does not handle hot weather very well, and ComicCon is rumored to be on the warm end of things. So I needed to add some lighter weight dresses to my wardrobe. What's that mean?
I've been craving day dresses.
Normally, you know me, I love the pencil dress, but for some reason the swingy skirt is calling to me. I blame the prevalence of the adorable cream (and white and blush) dresses in the fashion blog-o-sphere.
I've discussed the little white dress before. I even tried to make one last year. But I wasn't really happy with the result and ended up giving it away. It's taken me a while to come around to trying to find another one.
First I hunted for vintage or retro day versions, but cream is difficult to find retro and unstained.
I found cocktail or pencil versions, but that just wasn't what I was looking for. I wanted the day dress.
So, since blush was all over the place I broadened my options out of cream and white to include some pinker shades.
I started to think about not just pure vintage but other ways to wear such a dress, funky ways.
And I found myself edging away from the vintage day dress into alien 1960s mod territory.
Which led me, in the end, to fall deeply in love with the most unexpected dress. Found at Wasteland on Haight street shopping with the lovely Anne of Pornokitsch for a cool $28.
I know it doesn't look like much but even with a drop waist and my chest once it's on, it is possessively adorable. It's lined but I still wear a slip with it. It minimizes the Rack. It's short but not too short. It has a 1920s feel. It has a peter pan collar. I want to wear it like this:
It's deceptively elegant with cream or brown accessorizes, slightly more formal with black ones, or utterly chic with tough studded leather. It has sleeves. It has a kind of French feel. I love it!
However, it wasn't my only recent purchase, because I did go to Haight Street, plus new vintage shop opened near my writing cafe, and Alameda had a vintage fair. So there is much more to come.
Speaking of Haight: Decades of Fashion, one of the best (if most expensive) sources of vintage in the Bay Area has moved locations. It's now across from Wasteland in what used to be the Villains building. The place is a former bank, or something like, and is an amazing space with marble vaulted ceilings. Decades has gone pleasingly overboard decorating and putting together displays of Edwardian and Victorian gowns and accessorizes way up high. If you visit San Francisco it's worth a pilgrimage to Haight just to take in this store. It's like an interactive museum now. Amazing.
Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.
That said, I had a major lapse recently due to immanent ComicCon. (Or that's my excuse.) You see, when I went to New Orleans for ALA I realized my existing wardrobe does not handle hot weather very well, and ComicCon is rumored to be on the warm end of things. So I needed to add some lighter weight dresses to my wardrobe. What's that mean?
I've been craving day dresses.
Normally, you know me, I love the pencil dress, but for some reason the swingy skirt is calling to me. I blame the prevalence of the adorable cream (and white and blush) dresses in the fashion blog-o-sphere.
I've discussed the little white dress before. I even tried to make one last year. But I wasn't really happy with the result and ended up giving it away. It's taken me a while to come around to trying to find another one.
Fashion shoot; 1951 Partie Fine Christian Dior The Metropolitan Museum of Art
First I hunted for vintage or retro day versions, but cream is difficult to find retro and unstained.
I found cocktail or pencil versions, but that just wasn't what I was looking for. I wanted the day dress.
So, since blush was all over the place I broadened my options out of cream and white to include some pinker shades.
Marion-Cotillard-In-Christian-Dior-De-Rouille-et-Dos-Cannes-Film-Festival-Photocall; Catherine-Duchess-of-Cambridge-In-Emilia-Wickstead-Waterloo-Chamber-Reception; Coco Chanel, 1930 The Metropolitan Museum of Art
I started to think about not just pure vintage but other ways to wear such a dress, funky ways.
Chanel Resort 2013
And I found myself edging away from the vintage day dress into alien 1960s mod territory.
Which led me, in the end, to fall deeply in love with the most unexpected dress. Found at Wasteland on Haight street shopping with the lovely Anne of Pornokitsch for a cool $28.
I know it doesn't look like much but even with a drop waist and my chest once it's on, it is possessively adorable. It's lined but I still wear a slip with it. It minimizes the Rack. It's short but not too short. It has a 1920s feel. It has a peter pan collar. I want to wear it like this:
It's deceptively elegant with cream or brown accessorizes, slightly more formal with black ones, or utterly chic with tough studded leather. It has sleeves. It has a kind of French feel. I love it!
However, it wasn't my only recent purchase, because I did go to Haight Street, plus new vintage shop opened near my writing cafe, and Alameda had a vintage fair. So there is much more to come.
Speaking of Haight: Decades of Fashion, one of the best (if most expensive) sources of vintage in the Bay Area has moved locations. It's now across from Wasteland in what used to be the Villains building. The place is a former bank, or something like, and is an amazing space with marble vaulted ceilings. Decades has gone pleasingly overboard decorating and putting together displays of Edwardian and Victorian gowns and accessorizes way up high. If you visit San Francisco it's worth a pilgrimage to Haight just to take in this store. It's like an interactive museum now. Amazing.
1869 Wedding Dress The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Then & Now ~ Blue Brocade
Then
1842 The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Now
Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
A Moment of Then & Now
Then
1880-1883 The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Sooner then
1930s The Indianapolis Museum of Art
Now
Thursday, September 16, 2010
29 Dresses (And Counting)
As you know already, I'm a huge fan of Dia Boutique, and the gorgeous limited edition dresses by Karen Karam are to die for. My favourites are the Ink Blue Sweetheart Dress (£170.66) and the Ruffle Back Dress (£175.87). The Sweetheart dress is so girly and feminine, but the dark, inky blue gives it a modern edge, while the Ruffle Back dress is simple and chic at first glance, with a surprise waterfall of ruffles down the back. I think I have 29 dresses in my wardrobe already...what's another couple?
From top: Sweetheart Dress and Ruffle Back Dress, both by Karen Karam at Dia Boutique.
Images courtesy of Obsession PR.
Friday, July 2, 2010
On Your Marks, Get Set...Go Pringle!
I don't know about you, but I'm struggling to embrace the trend for luxury sportswear. It's my curves again: my hips get in the way of a pair of clingy, jersey harem pants; my ample rack takes an oversize, silk racer-back vest, effortlessly thrown over a very visible black lace bra, from athletic chic to nasty-put-some-clothes-on; and my butt makes a mockery of a cute, white tennis skirt because the fabric won't stretch so far as to protect my modesty. Luxury sportswear on me? The fashion pack might as well airbrush me onto page 3 and be done with it.Then I saw this dress by Pringle of Scotland from their SS10 collection. It's loose, but not so much that my curves drown and disappear. It's short enough to show off tanned (and therefore slimmer?!) legs, but not so short that my rear end hogs the length. The racer-front design adds that so-hot-for-now element of sportswear while revealing shoulders instead of cleavage, and the colour is bright like reflective safety gear, but it's subtle and therefore très chic for summer. And those nude sandals with elastic straps? The very sweet icing on a very healthy looking cake.
image: Pringle of Scotland Spring / Summer 2010, courtesy of Pringle of Scotland
