Lo & behold...an outfit post!

Yes, it's been about 100 years, but here I am doing an outfit post; basically born from my deep love of this teal silk skirt I recently thrifted & perhaps the fact that today is the best, sunniest, most summery day yet. I woke up and it was warmer outside the house than inside & that my friends, is cause for celebration. Therefore, right after I photograph some pretty dresses, I'm gonna camp out somewhere and drink a few mojitos. 

cropped jean jacket - thrifted

floral tank top - thrifted

teal silk skirt - thrifted

t-strap platforms - Madewell

not an outfit post

Not an outfit post because this is no outfit to brag about, it's an outfit for thrifting & then going straight to the salon (i.e. comfy)  - which is just what I did in it because yesterday I got 4 more inches cut off my hair after cutting 6 inches off about 2 months ago. It was a master plan, I promised myself once it got cold I would cut it into a shorter bob, and by some miracle I have kept that promise. Ironically, it's the exact same hair I had 15 years ago, like exactly.  I am way not into hair or doing my hair, so this is a pretty great hairstyle for that, but now all I can think about it all the cut wavy style or even '30s finger wave styles I can do with this length. And well, let's just say I am now dreaming of all the great cloche hats I can shop for - which is what I am going to do right...about...now!

Outfit details, if I must...it's embarrassing to even do so...

Sigrid Olson cardigan ◊ thrifted

t-shirt & tank top ◊ thrifted

1920s beaded necklace  ◊ antique mall

maroon jeans ◊ H&M

leather boots ◊ Madewell

Hey, its me again!

Hold the phone - it's an outfit post! It has been so long since I have done one that my tripod was enrobed in cobwebs. But the spirit moved me, or rather the polka dots moved me. I've never been into polka dots, I think the last time I wore them is over a year ago (HERE) but suddenly, this autumn I am sort of loving them, especially when they are done in a preppy way. And I think the beret is going to be my chapeau of choice this fall/winter, so classic, easy to wear & warm!

vintage black beret ◊ thrifted

cotton polka dot blouse ◊ The Gap

black cardigan ◊ thrifted

1950s camel wool pencil skirt ◊ thrifted

Harris tweed saddle bag ◊ eBay

vintage leather riding boots ◊ i can't seem to remember!

a wedding by the river

This past weekend, one of my oldest and very best friends got married in a intimate ceremony in northern Michigan. The wedding took place at a riverside inn that she and her (now) husband own -  a pretty idlyllic setting to say the least. However, it was about 90+ degrees on the wedding day, of course the wedding & reception were outside, and I was out of my dress and into my swimsuit taking dunks in the river more than once throughout the night. 

1930s dress • ebay and has it's flaws but I love it just the same

1930s hat • antique mall

flaxin' & relaxin'

Ok, I wasn't relaxin', I was working at the shop, but I could not resist the cheesy title, it was too easy. There isn't any air conditioning in the shop so basically I've been wearing either very comfortable clothing or very little clothing. I have always had a soft spot for Flax clothing, it's like more affordable Eileen Fisher clothing (do I go on about Eileen Fisher too much? Perhaps. There IS a hip 60 year old woman with a long gray braid stuck inside me after all...). When I thrift something Flax I get pretty dang excited, when I found this skirt it came with a giant tunic. I love how Flax pieces are all sort of giant sized, this skirt (& the accompanying tunic) are size small, but pretty much the biggest size smalls ever. Just slouchy, comfy, linen clothing - great for a day mending, photographing & measuring garments. 

gray t-shirt - American Apparel

Flax skirt - thrifted

braided leather sandals - thrifted

modernist necklace - thrifted

there's always room for change

It's official, I'm going to stop saying I don't like red. Because the entire day that I wore this dress I felt sort of great, and I think it's the red, it really does sort of put an extra zip in ones step! This dress has also spawned a new mini-obsession with finding dresses that have matching little cropped jackets. I've never been into the sets because it feels so matchy-matchy, but I'm over that and am now on the hunt for cute 1950s dress & cropped jacket getups.

Hot-cha-cha

Yup. My favorite color right now is coral. Coral in various shades, and yes I think coral comes in various shades. The weather has been straight up blissful and even summery which is so great because I can look like I took more time to get dressed, but all I really did was slip on a super great dress. 

1950s cotton halter dress - I can't remember!

coral scarf - thrifted

coral leather & cork platforms - Franco Sarto via DSW

Channeling Rhoda

It can get real quiet working alone at the shop for hours on end and although I mostly listen to music while I am there I often want to hear something that isn't music, but isn't silence (ok, I know I can't hear silence, but whatever). So I usually watch The Mary Tyler Moore show because it isn't something you have to give your full attention to but it's just nice to have on and hear people talking. If you ask me, the best part of the show, by far, is Rhoda. It's no wonder Valerie Harper landed her own spin-off show, Rhoda,  (they are real clever with those show titles, eh?). Yesterday I felt like I was channeling Rhoda with my hair in a scarf and 70s' plaid wrap skirt. I spent the morning (5 hours of it) ironing things for the shop and this skirt was one of those things. Needless to say the skirt is not going to make it into the shop, at least not without my body in it. 

Head to toe:

1970s floral cotton scarf - thrifted

1940s brass & lucite necklace - antique mall

cream tissue cardigan - thrifted

tank top - thrifted

1970s cotton wrap skirt - thrifted

t-strap platforms - Nicole 'Relish' via Zappos (note: these are CRAZY comfortable & I'll be wearing the tar out of them)

for the Bird

Well it was going to be for the Bird at least, Andrew Bird that is.  This was last Thursday & we had tickets to see Andrew Bird in Detroit (happy for shows going to Detroit now as opposed to Ann Arbor, yay!), but I worked in this during the day and didn't much feel like wearing it out at night. Also, it's that time of year when you are cold in the morning but boiling by late afternoon so the tights were overkill as the day wore on. I got the dress on eBay and am always real happy when I can get a little 1960s dress that doesn't need to be shortened. 

breaking rules & having brunch

Sunday was gorgeous, really damn gorgeous and I had plans to meet my equally gorgeous friend, Claudette for brunch. All I knew was that I wasn't washing my hair so I was going to have to wear a hat (sometimes outfits are built around the most charming of circumstances, I know). I also knew I wanted to match the perfect spring morning and wear something floral and this dress was just the ticket. So of course I had to wear these shoes which meant breaking my rule of "no heels on Sundays", an odd and totally personal rule.

I'd like to give you a rundown of where all the pieces and parts of this outfit came from, but the truth is I can only remember where I got the hat - at an antique mall in Indiana; aside from that I have guess I have had the dress, bag and shoes so long I don't have a hope of remembering their progeny.

a little rosie

It's been a while since I have done an outfit post, not because I don't get dressed, I do, I even dress cute! But I think I am too lazy (busy? lazy.) to take photos of myself. I also get to the shop and just start working not even wanting to stop to eat or pee so taking photos gets pretty buried in the to-do list. I didn't even plan on doing one today but I thought this getup was decent enough to make it on the blog, you be the judge. 

cotton headscarf - thrifted

raglan t-shirt - JCrew
peachy cotton cardigan - thrifted

jeans - thrifted

navy deck shoes - thrifted

trying something new...and failing!

So since I have this nice shop that is this nice brick I thought I would take some nice photos outside. Not so nice. The camera hated it, the shadows weren't enough to make me not squint and look evil and the wind did unattractive things to my hair. On top of it, this dress just came out of storage in my basement and I was too lazy to iron it so it looks like I was too lazy to iron it. Then I moved inside and tried to take photos only to have them be even worse, really dark and fuzzy - what the heck!? But I was pretty intent on showing you this sweet 1930s cotton dress so here it is. Thankfully the dress has enough charm to overshadow my potpourri of failures. 

bright young (-ish) things

A sort of outfit post - Amy & I at the Max Raabe & Palast Orchester show this past Saturday night. 

I should have taken my sweater off, I know! It was pretty fantastic to see such music in real life, I tell ya.

and...
there is also a SALE SECTION in the shop, check it out HERE.

black cherried

First of all, a confession: I tried to do my hair in Victory rolls but after too many attempts I just got frustrated and put my hair up in some bastardized version of them, it's not even close, but it is it's own deal and I like it anyway. More confessing: I had zero desire to come to the shop today, at 7:30am this morning I started a pork shoulder in the crock pot, made homemade cole slaw and then made a chocolate, sea salt & hazelnut tart. I just wanted to stay home and continue to cook things. Whenever I am not feeling like working I usually feel like cooking. 

The outfit is inspired by THIS POST & I actually did find the lipstick shade I was after, MAC of course, the shade is Hang Up.  It's a little lighter than the ones on the Lena Hoschek runway, but I am pretty bad at wearing lipstick all around so I went a little lighter. I also tried to venture away from MAC, but it's just such nice lipstick, every lipstick I have is MAC, it's also awesome that is smells like chocolate or something like chocolate.

Betsey Johnson dress ◊ thrifted

black cardigan ◊ thrifted

patterned tights ◊ Macys (?)

black platforms ◊ Loeffler Randall

Victorian locket ◊ eBay

just a dress

It's super cold. Gotta wear a lot of clothes. This isn't a "oh look at my super cool outfit", but I really like this dress, it makes me think of my art class teachers in elementary school, awesome huge pockets. I also like it because it's a Christmas gift from my husband many years ago and don't you just love it when a dude can pick out a piece of clothing for you & you actually like it? You can also see how dour I look when I don't smile. Pretty morose. 

Corey Lynn Calter dress ◊ gift 

black cotton henley ◊ American Apparel

black tights ◊ ?

black boots ◊ Storm by Cougar (BEST winter boots ever BTW)

girlie hair & manly clothes

A very Annie Hall inspired outfit for this bleak and cold day. The bleak and the cold mitigated by a fun hair appoint here with my little spitfire of a friend Deb. It was just a trim, but Deb got product happy (in the very best way) and then styled my hair in this sort of deconstructed 1960s sex kitten thing. I really liked it paired with my menswear outfit. 

white cotton oxford - thrifted

gray wool vest - adelaide's homesewn

Pendleton plaid wool tie - thrifted

Giorgio Sant Angelo high waisted wool trousers - thrifted

wool zip up jacket - Althleta

charcoal wool car coat - thrifted

black leather boots - Blunnies

daily dressing

This is daily in winter. Some giant sweater, lately it's this ultra floppy, ultra soft cashmere one I recently thrifted. Top knotted hair (getting boring) and my Yokoo knit cowl (what can be warmer or cozier?). I got new glasses too and they are this fantastic shade of blushy-peach which warms up the complexion so nicely, so much so that I am not even wearing makeup. Glasses as makeup! I got them in New York at Fabulous Fannys. They sell glasses in sizes so if you like a pair that is too large for your face you can get a size or two smaller - brilliant. 

faves : roos atkins dress

1960s Roos Atkins advertisement 

Roos Atkins was a chain of upscale men's and women's clothing stores based in San Francisco, from the 1960s through the 1980s.  Maybe something like Macy's? I have had this dress for about 2 years now and am finally wearing it. It is soft wool knit that is just the right weight under a medium weight winter coat. The belt loops are really wide suggesting it should be worn with a wide belt but I always feel like a wide belt makes me look shorter, plus I wanted to wear my favorite belt. The coat is divine, no, seriously. My friend Amy bought it on Etsy last year and I was crazy jealous. Patience is key because a year later the coat is mine through some coat trading between her and I. I then had the coat shortened by about 2 inches. I'm telling you, tailoring coats is the way to go. 

vintage 1960s Roos Atkins knit dress ◊ estate sale (?)

black tights ◊ target

bright leather belt ◊ thrifted

vintage 1950s black wool swing coat ◊  friendly trade

black waterproof boots ◊ Cougar-Storm via Macy's

black suede heeled booties ◊ Madewell