Well-Behaved Skirts Rarely Make History

Looks like i had some fun with the camera this day. Which is partly just fun. But i also wanted to show you all some of what i like best about this skirt - the way it moves. It's made of a very light cotton fabric which catches just about every passing breeze (wearing a petticoat with this skirt has it's practical aspects). So i'm never certain exactly what shape it will take from one moment to the next....
...and for me that's a lot of the attraction. I do like a certain amount of dependability in my clothing - shoes, socks, bras get a lot points from me for staying in one place and in one piece. Any expensive jewelry, too! But skirts, scarves, hair - the more they're on the move, the better, i say.

Admittedly one of Isadora Duncan's scarves took the 'freedom of accessories to move' too far. (Although that scarf did make history.)

So, which do you prefer in clothing - the well mannered or the unpredictable? Are you like me and divide your preferences according to category?

I'm feeling perkier today, but not completely recovered. Time for a nap!

Top: own design
Belt: Betsey Johnson
Skirt: own design, inspired by The Hidden Seed
Shoes: Clark's Passion
Earrings, Necklace: own design

The Five Minute Post

Eeeegh. Nursing a sore throat. I'm guessing you can figure it out - if not, leave me a question.

I'd always envisioned this skirt with a petticoat underneath to 'match' (meaning cut along the same a-line shape). Not that it's been done a month or so, i find i wear this skirt with petti more often than without.

I guess it's not the best form, but i love the way that chiminea is kind of lurking ominously in the background......hope you all are feeling well and having a great Monday!

Peachey, Limey, Yummy!

Okay, it's more 'rosey' than 'peachey' technically, maybe.......but it depends on what part of the peach, now, doesn't it?

This is one of my favorite color combos to wear. You don't see it a lot, maybe it's too feminine for a lot of people, but it's also extremely flattering to a lot of women. I made this blouse of quilting cottons - which i did partly because fabrics manufactured as quilting materials have a very wide range of colors. Quilters want to express, dahlink! And the manufacturers listen to the quilters and give them the tools they need. I copied the cut of the traditional blouses Frida Kahlo is so well known for wearing. It seemed like a nice, easy but striking kind of top for very hot summer wear, and the layout of the stripes makes a fabulous frame for all types of jewelry and scarves. At first a lot of quilting cottons tend to be a little stiff for my taste, but they loosen up with wear and washing. I'd like to make a couple more blouses in this style - hopefully for next spring/summer.

The great bulk of apparel fabrics come in the season's 'hot' colors and some neutrals/classics. Most of which are fairly 'meh' on me. I always get excited when i run across some wonderful apparel fabric in great colors and patterns - even better in cotton lawn! Like this one i found at Stone Mountain and Daughter recently. For you Bay Area sewist types, they have nice bolts of this pattern in four or five different colorways at $13.60 per 45" yard. Very nice blouse material, it comes in green, blues, also a nice grey with deep purple 'eyes'.

What are some or your favorite color combos? Do you have trouble finding colors you like and that flatter? I'm interested because it's been that hardest part of dressing for me since i was little (like in elementary school).

Blouse: own design, inspired by Frida Kahlo
Skirt: own design, inspired by some girls wander

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

Tiny & Sweet

Hi All! I'm having a busy day (mostly dentist-teeth cleaning) so a short post is in order. I'm taking the opportunity to honor reader Kelly's request (i just love writing that! 'per reader request...') and post pictures of my wedding set and my other ring from Mr. E. Basically you can get a look at my everyday rings, and i can also plug two outstandingly amazing jewelers. I ain't kidding, people - if you love unique and unusual jewelry as much as i do, these two places need to be on your 'bucket list'. I don't care for that term overmuch ('bucket list'), but in this case it applies.

My wedding/engagement ring was custom made at Aura Jewelers. They had the stone loose (it's yellow, older cushion cut) and they copied the Belcher setting from another ring they had in the store that i really liked. The Belcher setting is pretty old, you see it on Victorian period rings a lot. Here are some other rings with Belcher settings.

Aura Jewelers specializes in antique and vintage jewelry, and Victoria LaFond's eye is incredible. Poke around the website to get a feel for the kind of pieces she carries. Call ahead if you want to visit their Berkeley, California store, as their hours vary. The last time i spoke with Victoria the jeweler the store used for years had moved out of the area, so they were unable to do custom work. But that was the better part of a year ago, so the situation may be different now.

I found the four stone ring in the parking lot at the place i worked around twenty years ago (?). My boss and i had just been discussing if we'd rather have a cruise or a diamond ring. Guess which one i chose?

This is my 'right hand', everyday ring which Mr. E bought for me at a Renaissance Faire years ago. It's from Benitez jewelers. Mr. and Mrs. Benitez are the sweetest couple, and they make gorgeous, outlandish Art Nouveau inspired jewelry with all types of unique stones and those wonderful roses. The Benitez's describe their style as 'Old Style, Art Nouveau with Native American influences'. Most of their pieces are on the bigger side, but they never overwhelm - it's rare to find bigger pieces that are so wearable. They also have nice range of daintier styles, and a lot of their work is much more colorful than this piece. That's a sapphire with a six pointed star, with a white topaz on the side. They mostly sell at art shows, Renaissance and Dicken's Faires, and through their website (where you can find their schedule). Truly beautiful, well made, and uniquely flattering jewelry.

I hope you liked a peak at my everyday rings. I may get the heeby-jeebies about having these pictures up on the web and take this down later, but y'all can get a look for now. Any information about great jewelry you have known, fabulous jewelry stores no one should miss, or any jewels-related babblings whatsoever is always welcome in this house!!

p.s. for baby brother - that macro works pretty great, huh? not too shabby!

Out of Martinez

This turned out to be a great 'bombing around town' outfit. Comfy, you can take the jacket on or off, belt or no according to the weather or whim. Hats provide sun protection and you don't have to worry how your hairdo is holding up in the face of wind, etc. - perfect when you're rushing around in the morning trying to get ready while half awake!

I've been feeling a little 'oogy' recently. A bunch of on- and off-line style advice gurus recommend that you identify a number of 'style icons' whom you can call upon for inspiration (if only in your imagination). I've picked my brain for an icon to call my own for years, with no success. But recently, for some reason i was thinking about Isak Dinesen's first collection of short stories when it hit me - Ms. Karen Blixen herself! of course! The love of art and nature, the twenties and thirties styles mixed with practical/safari pieces, the sense of being made for an earlier age, even the love of antique costume (Ms. Blixen had several Victorian/Edwardian style ballgowns custom made for herself before she left to live in Africa. She wore them while entertaining on her plantation in the bush). Here's a couple of links about Isak Dinesen. If you're interested in finding more about Isak Dinesen, Judith Thurmans' Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller is an exquisitely researched and beautifully told biography of Ms. Blixen's life.

So this look reminded me of the costumes created for the movie Out of Africa. But seeing as i've never been to Africa.......

.......Out of Martinez will have to do. And seeing as i've spent the last two and a half hours catching up with S. on the phone - i have to go!!

Jacket: Royal Robbins
Cami-top, Skirt, Denim Camellia: own design
Bandanna: Target
Shoes: Clark's Passion
Belt: vintage Coach
Hat ???

Balance And The Blogger

Wait- i'm not .... oh, for goodness sake - !

Okay, just need to adjust my footing here ....... oh.

Almost there.....
Ta da!

I've worn this outfit, with variations, three or four times this summer but haven't photographed it before now (no reason - i just didn't). It's fun and breezy and i love the shape it makes - kind of a 1920's vibe, maybe.

it's even more fun with a heel and stockings. But i spent most of the day in bed, letting my leg rest up, so these flats and socks were a better choice. I was ticked at having to 'take the day off' so i wore something fun in compensation. The weather is turning around in these parts, and i get the feeling this type of get-up will only be practical a little while longer.......


Dress: April Cornell
Petticoat: own design, inspired by Alisa Burke
Shoes: old Borns
Belt: Betsey Johnson
Ribbon Pin: own design
Hat: gift
Socks: gift (my friend said she thought they were perfect 'reading socks' - you would wear them for lounging around the house and reading on a cool night. it's a new one on me!)