Showing posts with label vintage dress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vintage dress. Show all posts

Monday, November 10, 2008

Utilitarian Chic: breaking up the monochrome with pink tights and a cozy hat

The grungier and more dilapidated an area is, the better the chance that G and I want to take photos in it. Such is the case for today's photo set, and it worked out inadvertently brilliantly for us; there's something very post-communist Russia about wearing an expensive fur hat in an abandoned tennis court...
The weekend was entirely wonderful, the pinnacle of which was unearthing two mindblowingly amazing 1970's patterned jersey maxi dresses at the St. Lawrence Market yesterday morning. The first is from Saks Fifth Avenue circa 1974, and I have a nagging suspicion that the second is an actual Ossie Clark...oh, and both were acquired for a cool $35 sum total! The woman selling them obviously didn't recognize their value, but that works for me so I'm not going to complain even for a moment.
I know that it's unbearably geeky to admit to this, but I'm going to anyways so you can make fun of me later in the comments section if you must: the first thing I thought of when I awoke this morning was the aforementioned dresses, and moreover was sickeningly excited to run over to my closet and look at them in all of their glory. They're currently hanging in what I like to refer to as the closet's 'place of honour', which is where all of my new purchases that I'm to-die-for-in-love-with are placed prior to the first time they're worn.
Anyways, more on what I'm actually wearing today, as the dresses are quite obviously too special to be worn on a predictable Monday (I assure you that their coronation into my wardrobe will be far more grand than that). The black and white flats I'm wearing were purchased earlier in the week out of nothing less than complete desperation on my part, as I had been stomping about the city in 4 1/2 inch heels for hours upon hours and had stupidly forgotten to put flats in my bag before I left the apartment. Thankfully for me, Urban Behaviour exists and sells adorable little shoes like these for no more than $9.99 a pop.
The rest of today's outfit is pretty standard for me, but I will admit that I do enjoy breaking up my usual head-to-toe black ensembles with fun coloured stockings like these fuchsia ones. What I enjoy even more, however, is a gigantic mug of coffee early on a Monday morning...
Wearing
I own a million black turtlenecks, but this wool knit DKNY one is by far my favourite of the bunch.
The black skirt is actually American Apparel's high-waisted Interlock skirt/dress/thing pulled up to be a tube dress.
My fuchsia stockings were purchased at Winners, but are the Hue brand.
The ballet flats, which strangely remind me of a delicious chocolate-dipped macaroon were an Urban Behaviour purchase.
The little box handbag is vintage Ralph Lauren, and something I love but definitely don't find the opporunity to carry around often enough.
My fur hat is vintage.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Floral Minidress Friday

vintage floral bubble minidress, Pedro Garcia leather boots, shiny black latex American Apparel leggings
It warmed up enough today in the city for me to not have to wear sixteen billion layers of clothing, meaning I had nice excuse to wear my vintage floral bubble dress, which was shoddily hemmed into a bubble dress by yours truly. Although this piece is more of a summer trend item than a winter fashion, I love it and will try my darnedest to provide it with the versatility that, as a bright floral minidress, it seemingly lacks.

vintage floral bubble minidress, Pedro Garcia leather boots, shiny black latex American Apparel leggingsToday's attempt at such styling versatility brought me to pair my Pedro Garcia leather boots with the American Apparel esque but-really-Urban Outfitters latex leggings that I've recently grown so fond of. Regardless of how saturated the fashion blogs may be with shiny leggings, I've noticed that no one in this city really seems to know that they exist yet (and they therefore gawk at me when I stomp around in them), so for the time being I don't feel too redundant in the sphere of Toronto women's clothing. Plus I felt like the winter-appropriate leather boots combined with the black latex leggings really gave a Victoria Beckham in Antonio Berardi feel to the whole look, which couldn't possibly be a bad thing in my mind.

vintage floral bubble minidress, Pedro Garcia leather boots, shiny black latex American Apparel leggingsI suppose I just could not help myself - ask anyone, I've always been a magpie and thus attracted to shiny things - but I did, of course, cover up with my similarly shiny black pleather Guess coat, which I believe was purchased all the way back when I was in the ninth grade. My fashion immaturity at that young age aside, I still like the coat and find it useful - for example, I feel as though it added a weird, I'm-a-futuristic-goth-who-also-likes-floral-prints vibe to today's ensemble which, I'm not going to deny, thoroughly pleases me.

vintage floral bubble minidress, Pedro Garcia leather boots, shiny black latex American Apparel leggingsAnyways, I'm off for a [hopefully] more relaxing weekend than the last which was, as previously stated, spent generally rushing about town...filming, concert-going, brunching, depleting my bank account at the Bloor Street Holt Renfrew and, in general, being awesome-but-exhausting. Remember that some work performed on the site yesterday did, unfortunately, result in the loss of all of you lovely bloggers on our blog roll, and therefore if you would like to be added or re-added, please leave a comment or give us a shout at modernguiltblog@me.com and we will be more than happy to oblige!

vintage floral bubble minidress, Pedro Garcia leather boots, shiny black latex American Apparel leggingsBest wishes for the most respectively fabulous weekends ever to each and every one of you, and of course catch up with us on Monday morning to see how I managed to spend all of my money Friday through Sunday once again!

Wearing
Franco Sarto boots...a gift from the wonderful G, naturally.
Guess coat, which would probably be more accurately referred to as plastic rather than pleather, but who's counting?
Vintage floral dress, found at one of the many Toronto thrift shops I frequent...
Urban Outfitters leggings.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Head full of tricks and treats, it leads me through the night time streets.

Last night we somehow ended up in Yorkville for the second time within as many days...I promise that I am not turning into a yuppie, it's merely that I was fervently craving a properly delicious cone of ice cream (which I generally don't even like, so that's an oddity to begin with) and, as it so happens, Dessert Lady on Cumberland Street was the ice cream parlour which was the least hassle to get to. G took some pictures for le blog while we were in the area - because as much as I may knock on it, it is quite scenic - but unfortunately for us all of the mid-life crisis sportscars self-importantly circling the block asserting their drivers' wealth and virility kind of ruined that photo op...so we moseyed along to where we're most comfortable: empty parking lots and courtyards of vacant office towers.G refers to this dress which I wore last night as the "Hallowe'en dress with spooky eyes on it", which I suppose makes sense given the colour scheme and pattern. Personally I prefer to think that it's more of a tribal print than it is Hallowe'en eyes, but it's really all mere semantics because, regardless of the what the colours or patterns signify, it is one of my favourite vintage finds ever.

You know those pieces you have in your closet that you can go to any time (provided it's summer in this case), put on and think to yourself 'this is exactly what I want to be wearing right now'? Well that's what this Hallowe'en/tribal print sheath thing is for me. Which is quite the achievement for any article of clothing in my closet because I've been increasingly turning into one of those people who gets changed at minimum thrice per day...I just grow so bored with what I have on after a couple of hours, or feel as though I can outsmart myself in some significant way by coming up with minute and probably inconsequential 'improvements' upon what I am wearing.Lastly, it turns out that I may in fact be on my way to bonafide yuppiedom, because Dessert Lady's Zingy Candied Ginger was more delicious than I can even express in writing, and as such I will probably definitely be going back the next time an out-of-character ice cream craving arises.

Wearing
Dress: vintage
Belt: The Bay (children's clearance section)
Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell
Bag: vintage

Friday, July 4, 2008

I Am The Unknown

Listening to the Aliens and having a beer in a summer frock = the perfect way to spend a Friday post-work. If there's any inspiration to this outfit at all it's merely happiness.

Dress: vintage, unknown label
Shoes: Nine West
Sunnies: Target

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Cheap and Cheerful


Today it was supposed to rain (but ended up extremely sunny) and I like to dress accordingly with the weather, so I went with a basic black outfit. Mind you I also woke up five minutes past when I was supposed to be at work, so that could have something to do with the simplicity of my ensemble. That being said, I've no idea where this skirt came from prior to its tenure on the thrift rack whence I found it, but it is amazing, reminiscent of the FW 07/08 Luella collection in that it is preppy/nautical/mod, and I am going to have a very difficult time parting with it when the auction for it closes...