medium rare

Post-graduation blues are the best.

I have a few vague goals in life and very little idea of how to get there, but it’s really alright.  I’m loaded with a fabulous arsenal of family, friends and my dearest companion who has been with me through my darkest times, my private confidant with whom I share every nasty face and secret aspiration, a lover who can only betray me when I betray myself, the means through which I experience creativity, freedom and the world — yes, you’ve got it!  Fashion!

Thank you all for your patience during my hiatus. Between graduation, hospitalization and a trip to California, I could do little more than catch my breath. For the next week I’ll be enjoying the California sun with my true raison d’être.

Be back in June!

.

(Made by Nikki via notcouture.com)

An interest in lingerie shouldn’t be resigned to the trashy, tasteless and tarts.  Though it’s the less disciplined sides of ourselves that tend to enjoy it the most, let’s not forget the waist trainers, performers and even the generations prior that relied on undergarments as a source of strength and support.

Technology freed us from girdles.  Women’s liberation freed us from bras.  Bless them both, but the result is that more restrictive lingerie is no longer a necessity.  And when something is no longer a necessity it becomes a frivolity.  And those who love the frivolous?  Why, tarts of course.

I’m not proposing that we stuff ourselves into corsets and girdles again.  I just like the idea of wearing lingerie to express discipline.  When we think of a girl who loves lingerie, she’s usually not an ascetic.  She may be dark and aggresive á la Helmut Newton, but disciplined?  Could be a fun idea!  It’s also a bit of a the vibe I get from today’s images.

The Made by Nikki piece above has such great seam lines, and that extra bit of flare really goes a long way.  (Thank you, notcouture for the fun lead!)  The cropped shots of Richard Nicoll’s Fall 2009 RTW line below are among my favorite details from the show.  I love how garters are used in two fundamentally different ways.  The first is that they’re found in completely unexpected places, such as on a severe little cropped shirt and an eye mask.  The other is that they are exactly where they belong in terms of placement but still out of place in terms of function, like on the skirt below.  Another bit I like: It’s hard to see, but there is boning on the cropped shirt just above the wearer’s breasts, which — of course — is not where boning normally belongs.  It’s as if he deconstructed (a word I probably use too liberally — yikes) an innerwear ensemble and rearranged it as outerwear.  Not the first time it’s been done as our beloved Jean Paul Gaultier has robbed everybody of the opportunity of doing anything new, but still fantastic.

By the way, the trashy, tasteless and tarts are my favorites among our population.

(images via style.com)

Tags: Made by Nikki, notcouture, Richard Nicoll.

Since we don’t get to celebrate May Day here in the US, today is my self declared Play Day!  Who better to spend the day with than my beautiful Brown Nose Bear, who is not a brown noser.  His brown nose is of natural origins.

I recently had a conversation with a friend about how one benefit of aging is growing into one’s jewelry and accessories.  Age lends a look of worldliness that really legitimizes clusters of baubles, doodads and whatnots.  Unfortunately (or fortunately!?), I’m not there yet, so today I tried to wear a few pieces that are a bit youthful and inane.  I think they sit pretty well together.  The rest of the outfit is built for fun.  The silk-chiffon top is from a great French website that no longer sells to the US, and I got the skirt with suspenders from a market in Beijing last summer.  A simple replacement of the terrible glittery plastic buttons with the simple wooden buttons you see now… and VOILA!  A wearable skirt!

Here’s a closer look… grouse foot kilt pin from eBay, thrifted enamel gold ring, thrifted leaf/stone necklace, thrifted screw necklace (formerly plated in 24k gold).  I got the kilt pin at a steep discount because it’s pretty old and it shows.  I’m really happy with the creepy old vibe it gives off.  Plus, ones in mint condition will run you around $180.

Tags: eBay, grouse foot, kilt pin, night market, thrift.