Expandin' One's Repetoire

Gasp! what's all this then?!?!? No pieces all beige, nor black, nor white or grey.....yep, folks, it's an all-color outfit. My first on the blog, excluding a couple of dresses. This one is entirely made up of separates.

Yet i felt comfortable all day, and got a number of compliments. And this outfit just came together, i wasn't forcing myself to make a big leap (though it kind of looks like i did!). How did i go from this or this to today's outfit?

Thursday TDE got a visit from reader kellyroy68. She documents her classic-with-an-artsy-edge, mom-on-the-go style at her blog, Fashion Me Blog. She asks, 'By the way ,do you know http://magnoliapearlblog.blogspot.com
I love this stuff although I can't pull this look.What do you think?' To begin, thank you kellyroy for pointing me to Magnolia Pearl! I'd never heard of them before. Magnolia Pearl offers wonderfully artful, exquisitely feminine vintage feel pieces dripping with ruffles, ribbons and all types of lace. And kellyroy asks a great question - you have a style that works for you and your lifestyle. But personal style is about creativity as well, and you feel a pull to take your style in another, totally new direction......how to do this while feeling true to yourself and not making expensive mistakes?

Well, my answer is typical Taurus - bit by bit. We all have outfits that we like and fit our style but that are pretty basic. A tee and jeans or a jean skirt, a sheath dress or shirtwaist, simple sweater and a-line skirt......the real beauty of these simple ensembles is how well they play with others. In other words, you can use these simple outfits as backdrops for the most outlandish of accessories and look like you know what you're doing. You obviously wore a plain background to show off your great, unusual piece!

So take this simple sweater shell and skirt in pale pinks on Fashion Me Blog. The easiest first step would be to add a lacy Magnolia Pearl scarf at the neck. If you like that look and want to take it further, pop on this medium pink Magnolia Pearl vest (on the lower left of the collage). The simple lines of your background pieces offer the eye a place to rest, and 'tone down' the outfit the way vanilla ice cream tones down the intensity of hot fudge in a sundae. To take it even further, try both scarf and vest together in the same outfit. You can even buy a whole outfit at once, if you love it to pieces and it's a great deal, then wear all the pieces separately with calmer outfits to 'work up' to wearing the whole outfit. This is also a nice way to get more use out of special occasion or fancier pieces.

That's how i ended up in all this color. About thirteen years ago, i bought a bright coral floral scarf. I like it a lot, so i made the Donna Karan jacket in a similar color (but only wore it with whites and beiges, maybe denims). The J. Peterman tee was too adorable and on sale three or four years ago.......by this time i was getting a lot more familiar with the range and types of color that i enjoyed wearing, so when i spotted the umbrella fabric i didn't take long to decide to snap it up for a skirt.

These pics are of the outfit i wore Thursday. Wednesday i wore the tee with khaki cargo pants, a usual way of styling them. It was okay, nothing fabulous. By late afternoon my leg was killing me, i couldn't stand to have anything touching it, so i ripped off the pants and put on my most 'non-leg-touching' skirt......hey! whaddaya know! I got such of a kick out of the combo i couldn't wait to wear it again, and put it on again Thursday with the jacket.

Prints can help you identify colors you might want to use more of on their own. The J. Peterman tee has a great dusky rose, a kind of burnt-feeling green, glowing deep coral, medium violet - any of these colors would be great on their own. And apparently they look great together, witness that tee....

Obviously, it's not necessary to take THIRTEEN YEARS to ease into a new look (what can i say. We Taureans are know for being slow and stubborn!). But by taking it a little slower, and going step by step, you can be more sure of your choices, and save money and aggravation.

I had the idea for this post before i received kellyroy's question, so there's a bit of kismet for you! And to top that, Magnolia Pearl has an outlandishly decorated airstream coach documented in Selvedge magazine. They live and work in it while on the road. The Mr. and i have been dreaming and scheming of living in our own tiny home for years.......

Jacket: Donna Karan for Vogue Patterns #2862, made by me
Tee: J. Peterman
Skirt: own design
Petticoat: own design
Clogs: Dansko Marcelle
Mary Janes: Clark's Passion
Jewelry: own design

How I Got The Hat Habit

Anyone reading this blog for any length of time should have tumbled to my reliance on the hat. Hats shield you from sun, protect from wind, keep you warm.......give your face a great frame on even the worst of bad hair days, add color, design detail, an antique or vintage flavor to your outfit......and, given the waning popularity of hat-wearing over the past decades, donning a chapeau is the easiest way to stand out in a crowd.

Hats have become one of my style 'trademarks'. People i don't even know, who i just see regularly on my walks, know me as 'the hat lady'. But for my formative years, all through elementary, junior high, and high school i never really wore hats. The truth is, not many hats are that flattering to me - i have to try on dozens to find 'the one' that works. Of course, if you only wear 'the one', people will think you automatically look great in hats (or high heels, belts, dresses, etc.). And truth to tell, many are uncomfortable or scratchy. And we all have heard of the dreaded 'hat hair'. So, given all these drawbacks, what drew my attention to hats and eventually turned hats into an integral part of my personal style?


Well, i got in a car accident at age twenty one or two* (stoner kid turned in front of my VW bug) and split open my forehead. The ER called a plastic surgeon in to stitch me up (he stopped counting at 150 stitches). In order to get the least-noticeable scar, i had to keep the sun off of my forehead for a year. That meant sunscreen (in the early days of sunscreen, with SPF 15 and a mucous-like consistency) and wide-brimmed hats every day. My family felt bad for me, and i was able to shop for some great hats. Two extra-nice ones were a dove-grey felt fedora style, and a dark teal felt 'boater-shaped' hat with black grosgrain ribbon.

I've always been fair and had sensitive skin. The first thing i noticed on the 'sunscreeen and hat' regime was that my skin calmed down a lot when shielded from the sun, and sunblock and sun protection in general became my best friend. I also found that great hats that fit me and expressed my style WERE out there, and that i loved wearing them. Other people liked them on me, too - i got a lot of compliments and smiles. A habit i'd been forced into by unlucky circumstance turned out to be something i really loved and have stuck with for decades since.

So many 'fashion/style advice' resources focus on how you can achieve the most flattering or up-to-date look, or how to make 'the' style (that's all the rage) work on you (even though it's a color you hate and the cut is designed for someone twenty pounds lighter in a completely different climate and life circumstance). There's a lot of advice on how you can fit in and look decent in the styles and colors that 'everyone fashionable' is wearing, how you can look like everybody else, in a lot of cases......and i suppose it sells magazines and clothes.

But what about YOU? What about YOUR body, hair, face, skin, likes and dislikes, history, interests, lifestyle, hobbies, background? What if lime green is the 'IT' color this season and you can't stand that color to begin with, and that bitchy high school popular girl had a lime green key chain and you just fume inside thinking about it? Being in fashion is fine. But if you want to develop your own personal style, it's going to be as much about what you DON'T do as what you DO do. What you don't like, what you can't stand, your fallen arches or mohair allergy or dowager's hump or.......these limitations are crucial to editing and developing your own personal style.

My love of neutrals? 95% of mass produced 'colors' are completely unflattering on me and i don't like to look at them either. My love of vintage/old-fashioned clothes? I could afford the (then) cheap vintage clothes during college and as a result found that those styles actually fit and flattered much more than up-to-date clothing. My dependence on natural fibers? Polyester and nylon make me sweat and itch. Plus i'm one of those 'electric' girls who gives everyone shocks - plastic clothes make it even worse. All those wonderful skirts and dresses i wear? It's because of incurable nerve damage to my legs that makes most pants painful or worse. Why do i design/make so many of my own clothes? I can spend days shopping and never find anything that flatters or fits properly. Hats? see above.

Personal style is defined as much by what you don't choose to wear as what you do. Think of any two people known for their strong sense of style and try switching their wardrobes on them to see what i mean. Katherine Hepburn dressed as Coco Chanel, with turban and cigarette holder? Or Audrey Hepburn in casual Kate Moss style (flip flops no less)? Or Kate Moss pulling off Princess Diana's diamond tiara and beaded white bolero? This is a fun game to play, and there are people who would come across believable and relaxed in someone else's style - usually because of an overlap or similarity of said style. But i hope you get my gist.

So next time you come across some limitation in what you can or want to wear, look in the opposite direction. Over there, can you see it? It's the refined essence of your personal style, trying to catch your attention..........


* yep, i'm also REALLY BAD at remembering dates.

p.s. and yet no hat in this outfit! i just liked my hair that day, and it was cool enough to go without. i'm glad i did - we were in Berkeley and i saw about twenty college-age kids rockin' the hat thing. don't want to blend in with the crowd and all that! : )

Jacket: Donna Karan for Vogue Patterns #2862, made by me
Capris: Royal Robbins
Blouse: own design, inspired by some girls wander
Shoes: Clark's Passion
Scarf, Ribbon Flower: own design
Necklace, Earrings: Tail of the Yak, Berkeley, CA

Getting A Grip On This Blogging Thing

So i've been blogging for a bit over a month now - this should be my 31st post so around a month of blog posts. It's the kind of milestone that puts a gal in a reflective type of mood. What have i garnered so far?

1. I have more clothing flexibility than i thought. I figured i'd be scrambling for new outfits by the end of the month, but there's a few summer thing that i haven't even worn yet. There are a few more items i would like, and that would be useful, but i'm closer to where i'd like to be than i realized.

2. I'd like more color in my outfits. Not TOO much more - say, a colorful necklace and scarf in an outfit will do me (no one panic, i'm not giving up my life-long allegiance to beige). I've been seriously scarf shopping, but i can't find what i want out there. So after i make a couple more skirts and tops, i plan to focus on scarves, ribbon pins, necklaces in colors.

3. I like the idea of 'sets' of accessories that i can rely on to 'pump up' an outfit. Hey! A blog would be a great place to keep track of those sets!

4. I plan to 'focus' (ouch!) on taking clearer pictures of the clothes. So i'm paying more attention to conducive lighting, distance from camera, etc. At least i can post a clear detail pic when the outfit pic isn't so clear. I am sans tripod, so the camera is always set up in landscape format when i take my timer pix. But i think i can come up with a cradle to keep it on end so i can get closer to the camera and still get a full-length shot.

5. One or two more pair of pants would be nice. I've found some on blue collar catwalk that look like a promising idea - lightweight, fuller leg but flat-front pants made of patterned fabric. They should go with my general style and be comfortable enough that i'd wear them.

6. I think i have enough of a feel for what i'm up to that i can start usefully labeling blog posts soon.

So, opinions anyone?
(That includes you, Mr. Eccentric - i know you read this when i'm not looking.)


Now the important stuff - that's our family's newest member, Sophie the Swedish Vallhund! I puppy-sit her occasionally when her parents will be away all day, since she is still only a few months old. She is just a sweetie. They are herding dogs, everything from cows to sheep to ducks.

I wore this Donna Karan for Vogue Patterns jacket unbuttoned here. The pockets are perfect for leashes, extra treats, plastic bags, and so on. The E's really need to get up to eccentric's north and get some pictures of the other four-footed family members in residence there.

Jacket: Donna Karan for Vogue Patterns 2862, made by me
Capris: Royal Robbins
Shoes: old Borns

Does This Chiminea Make Me Look Fat?

When i set up this photo, i planned to crop out the black chiminea - it was a 'strictly outfit' pic. But when i looked at the snaps, the way the pot bellied stove echoed my own little pot belly tickled my fancy, so i left it in.

But 'that's not flattering' many would say. And it doesn't make me look skinny, which sadly seems to be mostly what 'flattering' means these days. But outfits can flatter in so many other ways. They can bring out a glowing complexion, sparkling eyes, slender hands, a swaying walk. An outfit can reflect a person's take on color, shape, texture, or their interest in a certain historical era or life passion.

For me, this outfit was more about curving lines, in the roses, the collar, the lace, my hair, the hem of the skirt. also having pockets for my grocery list, keys, and bank card for grocery shopping.

i realize many would find this outfit more appealing if i looked slimmer. And i don't rule out wearing these clothes with that end in mind at some future time. But this day, to me, the sweating, pain, and limping caused by the addition of Spanx and high heels would detract from the flattery of this ensemble.

Jacket: Donna Karan for Vogue Patterns 2862, made by me
Earrings: gift
Necklace: gift
Belt: thrifted
Tank: Jockey
Skirt: own design
Shoes: old Borns