Please excuse the terrible pun above, but today’s outfit is an entirely wrapped affair. The top is New Look 6252 view C, a nice little sleeveless top that wraps and ties at the back (the knot can be a little annoying when you are sitting in a hardback chair, but hey, nothing’s perfect). I know its boring, oh yawn, yet another white top. Actually I’ve realised since my clean-out I have way too many white tops, and its time for some serious updating in the form of dying and/or embellishment projects. However, this was made from the leftovers from another project, which excuses it a little bit.
I wish I could say I made the skirt, but I actually found it in a secondhand shop. It’s silk, with a slight gilding on the leaf print, which appears to be hand painted although I can’t be sure. Its a wrap skirt, with a beautifully flared panel on the front that billows and blows around when you walk.
I love shopping in secondhand shops and op shops, not just because of the cost-saving factor, but of all the invisible stories emanating from the clothes. Everything is jammed in and stuffed in all any-old-how and I love how you have to burrow and delve about through treasure after treasure. Everything is so unexpected and completely unrelated to the items all around it, unlike in a boutique where new items have been carefully chosen by a buyer, arranged in colour and/or type and presented all pristine and ready for you to buy. In an op shop you find yourself speculating on individual items, and why they have been discarded. Something may have obviously been bought in Greece, say, with a label all in Cyrillic, perhaps bought on holiday and now no longer loved. Myself when I buy something on holiday it becomes like a souvenir that I can’t possibly part with, simply because of the memories bound up in its purchase. I rarely go shopping by myself and just buy things; my shopping excursions are usually with a friend, or on holidays or some such, so that my wardrobe is often a reminder of those occasions. For example, today’s skirt was bought when I was out with my friend E and we discovered this secondhand shop. And the top is leftovers from a trench coat (posted about here) I made with a Fabulous Fabrics gift voucher given to me by the Monday morning gals for my birthday last year.
I bought the beads etc for the earrings when my friend J drove us to the Gypsy Bead shop (now sadly no more) and a bunch of us all got madly into beading. Oh, the hours we spent around each others’ dining room tables, stringing beads, chatting…
Other details:
Skirt; da Vida, secondhand
Sandals; Anna, bought in Marie Claire
Earrings; self-made
Went for a walk this morning along the bike path, past a lake that is a bird sanctuary. Accordingly Sienna was leashed, something this spoilt pooch is becoming fast unaccustomed to. She pulled us along like a freight train doing the midnight run!
I made these shorts for this summer, from Burda 7723 out of white linen, with added rear pockets for back view interest. When a woman reaches a “certain age” one’s rear view unfortunately becomes less than exciting… I sewed on scraps of fabric leftover from my dress of two days ago, and a sparkly ribbon sewn down randomly across the whole back, plus a tiny knitted square I had hanging around my sewing basket. No idea what it was doing there, but stuck it on anyway.
