End of Week outfit–Wild Eyes

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I wore: Frayed tank from ElectroVintage on www.ebay.com; Skirt from FELT; Lita Python boots by Jeffrey Campbell; Necklace from Colette.

True to someone known to have her head up in the clouds most of the time, I love to put a little fantasy in every aspect of my life. That’s probably one reason people sometimes make comments about my dress sense like ‘you wear things I wouldn’t think of wearing, but you totally pull it off’. While I am conflicted about whether this is actually one of those thinly veiled insults…I completely agree with it! I have no knack for dressing ‘normally’, and while recently I’ve been pushing myself to stock up on more basics in my wardrobe, most of the things I own are what I would describe as ‘themed’. Because for me, fashion is partly about getting in character.

An example of my aesthetics is this amazing frayed tank, hand cut from a printed T by Electro Vintage. It’s the majestic lion painting that caught my attention straight away. It brought to mind the The Lion King, Princes Mononoke and David Attenborough’s documentaries on African wildlife, which so captured my imagination when I was ye high!

By the way, if you’re wondering what I’m doing with my hand up in the air in the forth photo…I’m actually blocking the sun from hitting my camera lens!! Just a hint about self photography: if you want to get that backlit glow but not washout glare from the sun, simply make sure that you are casing a shadow completely over your camera lens!

End of Week Outfit–Stars and Sequins

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I’ve been pushing myself hard with my self-photography sessions recently, taking my time filling up my camera memory card rather than the ‘shoot and run’ job I usually find myself doing! I mean when you don’t have a photographer boyfriend handy, you just have to risk looking like a lunie, posing in front of an unmanned camera in broad daylight!

My favourite spot for photo shoots, and my favourite time to shoot (4:30pm to 5:30pm) just happens to be the neighbourhood’s favourite spot and time for recreation (man are Canberrans fitness obsessed!). I’ve given up taking photos on the walk path due to the crazy high traffic. But now, being a poser in the middle of the field, I can only imagine how I look to passer byers – and in Canberra of all places. Some of the bikers stare so hard it’s a wonder I haven’t caused a bicycle pile up! On the bright side, I’m finding this less distracting these days, and I’m sure the neighbours will get used to it too, soon enough!

I’ve realized that self-photography is a problem solving exercise. There are some big road blocks that some days make you think maybe it’s just not worth the trouble. How do you get yourself in focus and not the big tree behind you? How do you get all of yourself in the frame? How do you make the photos NOT look like you’re a silly git taking pictures of yourself?

Usually when I look back at the photos from the day, I chuck out at leave 80% of them due to various problems, the least of which being bad focus, over/under exposure, undesirable composition, and of course, ugliness! Hens why when I finally come to posting my End of Week Outfit, it’s boiled down to two or three photos. But with this most recent set I feel like I’m finally getting somewhere!

I wore: Sequin cardigan by French Connection; Top from Ally ($5!); Skirt from FELT; Floral wayfarer sunnies from Factorie ($5!); bag from ebay.com; Ankle boots from Rivers.

I think the jury’s out on my new hair cut. I’ve always been told I don’t suit bangs because of my basketball shaped face, but at the last minute at my hair dresser I decided to go for it. I think she did a really good job! Instead of giving me a dead straight fringe, she cut it slightly unevenly and gave it some texture.

End of week outfit–Face flowers

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I wore: Embellished denim vest from ebay.com; Floral Dress by Abercrombie from Frat House; Lita Python by Jeffrey Campbell; Necklace, ring and bracelet, thrifted.

End of Week outfit–*gasp* dots vs floral

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Remember when there used to be rules in fashion like, don’t wear pink with orange, never match your shoes and bag unless you’re 70 years old, and dun dun DUN, don’t wear polka dots or stripes with floral? I kinda liked that because, well, I’m a lawyer, and we’re lost without our rules! But then again, now that the only rule seems to be that rules should be broken, which, I guess, also includes the rule about breaking rules, there’s not much anyone can say to criticize what you wear other than ‘I don’t like it’. But a statement like that just makes you look like a grouch!

 

I wore: Top from FELT, Skirt and socks from Forever New; Shoes by Churches famous English shoes, thrifted; Bag and pendant from ebay.

Shortly after buying this floral skirt it dawned on me how much it resembled a neck scarf. In fact, I was dubious that it wasn’t just a scarf with a zipper attached. I mean it’s got the edging and everything! Luckily I happen to love using things for purposes for which they were not intended-like wearing shoes as hats, perhaps!-and I really like the idea that someone might think I was cheap and converted a scarf into a skirt!

End of Week Outfit–That’s why they call it a ‘dress’

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I wore: Dress by One Teaspoon from Parliament; Necklace from Diva; Bag, Vintage Oroton; Boots from Windsorsmith

Until I was about 21 I didn’t own a single dress. I was a total tomboy back them, and thought dresses were over the top and only for special occasions when you couldn’t avoid it. But if only I knew how well a dress fitted with my personally…specially, my laziness. A good casual dress makes life so easy. All you have to do is think about what shoes to wear with it! It’s said that if you were to buy one piece of expensive quality clothing you should buy a dress, then you’ve already got a complete outfit.

Australian designers have a reputation overseas for doing casual uniquely well. Our home grown brand One Teaspoon is a great example of this. It has an impressive repertoire of dresses that are strictly for the weekend, and I can’t get enough of them! This blue asymmetric unhemmed dress is the perfect mix of cute and grunge, and being a lovely earthy mint green colour, I’d feel equally at home at a music festival and a forest picnic!

Check out some of my fav dresses from the One Teaspoon AW/12 collection.

One Teaspoon is available at Parliament stores in Canberra and General Pants Co online!

End of week outfit-boyish style for my manly hands!

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I was told once that I have man’s hands…

What better reason for me to dress like a man?

Luckily for me and my manly hands, gender-blending has been steadily assimilating into popular fashion aesthetics for the past few years – brogues, boyfriend blazers, boyfriend jeans, short hair cuts… However, I can’t help but feel a little greedy. To begin with, men have a small variation of fashion styles to choose from compared to women, and yet fashion history has it that while men in skirts is a fashion taboo, women are ripping off men’s styles everyday without anyone batting an eye.

On the flip side, in most cultures historically, both genders wore skirts, probably because this just made sense. Just look at the traditional dress of all the South East Asian cultures. Pants, having been developed to make it easier to ride a horse, became uniform for the medieval man, symbolising that he goes out to war and to hunt and other such masculine things. So then the skirt inevitably became the metaphorical ball and chains tying women to menial domestic occupations, and served to perpetuate in the eyes of society the subservient status of the gender. It was in the early 1900s that feminists began to wear pants in defiance of this deeply engrained gender imbalance *deep breath*

Now we’ve somewhat come full circle. Skirts for men have made consistent appearances on the runway and on the street, possibly reflecting that in fashion, no one gives a shit anymore about societal notions of gender segregation.

Wearing: Shirt by Mink Pink; Corduroy pants by ASOS from Asos.com; Tattoo Brogues by Mimico; Belt by Country Road; Bag, thrifted.

So what do you think about gender-blending in fashion?