What I Wore: SIA wears her hospital colour, brown

Do you know your best colours?

Whilst most people can wear most colours, generally, they can only wear certain shades of those colours. 

Stay within these certain shades & you will always look brighter, healthier, more relaxed & less stressed than if you were are wearing something outside those shades. 

It follows that for the colours that a person generally CANT wear, it will be hard for them to find ANY shade that will work in the colour. Not impossible, but hard.

I call the colours that you cant wear, "hospital colours" because they make me look like I should be taken to hospital. For me, they include cream, browns & yellows. 

Under no circumstance do I wear these colours & any shade variation of them. Its just too hard. Why keep trying with my hospital colours when I have so much choice with the colours that do flatter me?

STYLE TIP: If you love a colour but cant wear it near your face, then wear it as pants or a skirt, in an accessory (that isnt near your face - such as a belt or a shoe or a bracelet). You'll still get the hit without the hospital effect. 

But today I wore brown. Near my face. Yikes!

The jacket

Despite the colour in the photo, the jacket is a dogtooth camel & black fully lined wool. Its Dries Van Noten & I bought it on ebay for around $80.

I have to admit I didnt expect it to be as camel/brown as it is, however the cut won me over so overall I was happy & I  didnt try to re-sell it. 

The jacket was originally double breasted. However as I grew horizontally over time, it became too small. So I removed the top button to make it single breasted. But I was still stuck with 2 buttonholes where there should only have been one. So I sewed two buttons on a thread so they were joined 2 cm apart and linked that contraption through both the buttonholes. Instant single breasted jacket. The jacket fits me again!

The other buttons stayed as they were since by virtue of the angle at which they were placed, whilst they were real button holes, the buttons were not functional.

STYLE TIP: The jacket doesnt have buttons on the cuffs - making it easy to alter the sleeve length. If you are small & tend to need sleeves shortened, this is a good thing to look for in a jacket. 

The top

That good ol' Coles Mix black tee for $6. Or one of the four of them I purchased last week. 

The jeans

Not Your Daughters Jeans in an indigo wash.

The necklace

A tan leather & sterling combo from La Loop. This is actually a glasses holder (you slip the glasses arm into the loop). I have a few of them including a pearl version (in a previous What I Wore) and a neon elastic version, all from Belinda, from many years ago.

I found the lighter tan popped well against the more sedate shades in the jacket.

The cuff

You may want to kill me, but this Hermes cuff was $95 from The Frock Exchange when it first opened in Balmain.  No box, but pristine. A fabulous find. Jealous?

The scarf

STYLE TIP: When I have a jacket that I dont wear much, I like to wear a scarf with it, so the jacket collar is protected from secretions and grime from my neck. Its alot easier (& cheaper) to clean a scarf than it is to dry clean the jacket.

So I grabbed a black linen rectangle which I got from a Kid's Direct Warehouse sale. Its a Petit Bateau and KDW is the agent for that brand in Australia. The scarf is very simple with overlocked edges. 

STYLE TIP: I also like the lengthening effect that 2 scarf ends have on the torso when they just hang vertically from my neck. The easiest scarf tie.

The shoes

These are brown too!

In a satin weave of bronze and black, lined in leather, I have had them for almost 20 years. I bought them from the Bally warehouse when it was in Camperdown for $99, reduced from $199, reduced from $499.

Granted the heels & the style is a bit granny, but I like that they are solid yet smart. Notice the leather piping around the vamp? Lovely detailed fine work.

SHOP TIP: The Bally warehouse is now in St Peters and since Bally now has quite a few more stores Australia wide, its a good place to visit for bargains.

See you tomorrow (when I wear shoes with pom poms....)

What I Wore: One colourful piece can work with everything

Another easy dressing day where the bling & the shoes amped up the look.

The sweater

From Sussan for $50, purchased in 2003. 
100% cotton & a beautiful quality knit (they dont make 'em like that these days...)

Its got a good weight, so you cant see lumps & bumps from the outside.

STYLE TIP: Select a colourful top & you make it easy to "match" a bottom in any colour which is in the top.

The pants

Wide 3/4 lime pants by Verge.
100% cotton
I wore this yesterday & obviously I didnt hange them overnight - they were resting on a chair (not folded obviously).

I dont even know if the sweater has lime on it - but it has s o many colours, that the pants work.

The necklace

This necklace is from Lovisa.
Its a Dries Van Noten copy from SS 2009.
Notice the similarity, not in the balls, but in the rest of the rings?

The bracelet version

The necklace is a multi colour metal - it is silver toned on one side & gold toned on the other.

STYLE TIP: Having gold & silver in a single piece of  jewellery increases its versatility. You will generally only suit EITHER gold or silver near your face, however having a two tone piece increases your change of wearing the wrong metal successfully. 
Two tone jewellery also helps you to wear the often forgotten pieces like belt buckles or shoe ornaments. 

If you look closely at my photo you may also notice that the black cord on my necklace has knots. I have done these so I could shorten the cord and wear it at the Dries length. If I had cut the cord, re-attaching the metal clasps would have been very messy.

Bracelets

The usual bunch of related colours. 

The rings

The light is terrible, but the bottom ring you have seen before - ManiaMania from the Corner Shop - a massive quartz stone.

The top ring is a $7 one from Sportsgirl with a purple flower on an aqua background. I keep waiting for it to tarnish & it hasnt. 

The shoes

A camel flat pump by Escada with a black stacked low heel.

There were from the David Jones warehouse from Summer 2001 - the label on the box has the details. Original was $650, reduced to $399, but I would have paid around 70% off that price - around $120.  

This type of closed flat shoe is my bead & butter. Smart but comfy. And sturdier than ballet flats.

See you tomorrow. 

The Sussan open weave scarf - turning 2 scarves into 1

I love scarves, always have. Square, rectangle, bobbled, textures, coloured, neutral, whatever. I love scarves. 

In this post I want to show you how I took a Sussan scarf, actually I took two Sussan scarves & joined them into one giant scarf. So much cosier for winter.

The scarf in question is the current Sussan open weave for $60. 

I bought the grey version - a mid grey.

It also comes in a "poppy" which I think is more coral. 

Photo looks orange, in actual fact it's coral.

It is a rectangle & has mitred ends.

It has a very open weave & that's what drew me to it, as well as the fact that its 100% wool.

Lets go back a few years - the obsession for this particular style of knit started a few years ago when I saw the Dries Van Noten runway for AW 2010.

Love the open weave in navy wool.

& just for completeness, here is the open weave sweater - I dont like this so much...

I tried the scarf on at Belinda in the MLC & I let it go even though it was quite cheap (for Dries) - $350 and of course it was wool. The reason I let it go was because it was so soft I seemed to be catching everything in the weave. Not practical, so I let it go.

But I couldnt stop thinking about it, even though I had decided not to buy it. I called them about 3 weeks later & they had all sold. I called Poepke in Paddington & they too had sold all of theirs. I looked around on line & I found the top but not the scarf.

Alas, no Dries scarf for me.

Then many of the high street stores started doing it - I recall seeing something similar at Country Road and at Sussan.

But as far as I recall, I wasnt tempted because they were largely acrylic or their colours were not right. I would have wanted a neutral, black, navy, grey etc.

But this popped up a few weeks ago at Sussan.

How to wear it?

Since it is wool & wide, it is heavy - if I lay it around my neck and let the ends drop down, it would just flop down with no body. 

When I rolled it around my neck once & let the ends hang down, it looked bulky around the neck (good) but then thinned to nothing only a short distance further down. 

Something just wasnt working for me - but looking at the Dries version, it occurred to me how I would prefer it longer - alot longer. As a tall person, this could work well.

So I bought another then went to Lincraft to get wool.

TIP: When matching colours, always take the original with you - its impossible for the ye to agree a colour without looking at a side by side comparison. 

The other requirement was the appropriate ply & a natural fibre. I found a wool/bamboo mix. 

I cant really knit or crochet and I had no inclination to learn, so I wove the wool inbetween the two short sides of the scarves, to bring them together. Easy.

It too me an hour in front of the TV - the main time waster was getting the tension right so I could start & end with the edges aligned. 

bird's eye view of my weaving.....

So now she is super long & super dramatic. Which I like. Very much.

With the Lincraft wool/bamboo which I used to join the scarves.

A thank you to the Sussan store at Castle Towers, for allowing me to photograph in the store.

Today's Style Choice: Which style is more YOU?

Warning: This post contains images from the AW 2013 collections. For you southern hemisphere girls, that NEXT winter. The fast fashion retailers like Zara & Topshop are already manufacturing "inspired" versions based on these collections. In the mean time, shop your closet & see if you have anything similar. Whatever you do, hang onto it - now is not the time to sell it on ebay.


Back to the post.....


I have been posting a daily style choice on my Facebook page, for over a month now and I am thrilled with the comments and reader interaction I am receiving from it.


My intentions with the daily style choice were originally three fold.


Intention #1. To make you aware of the different styles (or looks) that clothing and accessories can invoke. Eg: Boho, dramatic, romantic, natural, ecclectic etc.


Intention #2. To make you more aware of your own preferred style. In fact, in most cases, women have a mixture of two preferred styles.


Intention #3. By being more aware of what is your style preference & what ISN'T your style preference, you will make wiser shopping decisions. 


Wiser shopping decisions mean your purchases will sit within your preferred style preference and will co-ordinate with each other and save you money in the long term.


If there is anything else you want from the daily style choice, please let me know.


However, as per usual though, I am still thinking of ways to make the daily style choice better, or more useful for you!

What I have noticed sometimes is that alot of readers love to notice the detail of the photos and reject photos which dont have every element to their liking even though the overall style projection of the photo may in fact be "their thing". 


So for example, if I compare a green boho maxi with a more tailored red dress, someone who hates red but is tailored & structured will pick the green boho dress over the red structured dress. In reality though, their wardrobe isnt boho at all. So in that case, I failed in my intention #2 and I may well have confused the reader with respect to intention #3. Fail, Val, fail!

So - I have a new plan going forward.


Instead of comparing one photo with another, I will try to show you a number of garments in each style choice. That way the emphasis will be on the overall style of the photos, rather than small details in any one garment.


Here is the first comparison under the new plan.

Autumn Winter 2013

This is Autumn Winter 2013 for French design house Nina Ricci (top) and Belgium designer Dries Van Noten (bottom).


Nina Ricci's collection has a romantic nostalgic slant, almost like something from granny's attic.


Dries Van Noten has a dramatic and exotic collection with large prints & strong contrasting colours.

Which of these styles would be closer to the contents of your wardrobe?

Dip dye jeans: Overseas designers being inspired by each other

If you have been following my posts (you HAVE been following my posts, haven't you?), you would remember how much I dislike copying (or the "inspired by" concept). 

I have grown to accept it at the "fast fashion" level - but when a designer is inspired by another designer, it get to me. 

I am not talking about how every season trends emerge and many designers show similar themes. After all, everything starts with the fabric mills & most designers are using similar mills, so there have to be some similarities (aka: trends). 

Nor am I talking about a designer looking though their archives and being inspired by the house's earlier work.

What I am talking about is when a designer does something unique in their collection and that unique aspect is copied by another designer a few seasons later.

Witness:

Dries Van Noten - Womens SS 2011

The ombre jean - a white jean that is dip dyed a blue denim color at the hips & above.

Now this trend didnt take off in a huge way on the high street - a bit, but not much.

I saw it more frequently at the various fashion weeks.....

and again.....

Dries also did it in sleeves of jackets .....

at fashion week with an Hermes agenda....TDF....

So all is fine with the world, until now, when I saw a Saks 5th Avenue promotion for:

3.1 Phillip Lim mens pants for SS 2012.

Witness:

Yes, different, but same & produced with sufficient time after Dries so that we know whose design came first.

Phillip Lim's provided the following information about the pants:

"They start out as simple ivory cotton trousers with a tab waist, but Lim dip-dyes them to create an ombré effect that begins blow the knees and gradations to solid black. Lim took inspiration for the collection from California’s skateboarding culture. It’s not a far cry from his Huntington Beach upbringing." 

They are AU228 on the Saks site.

He even has a matching ombre shirt....
This is AU228 on the Saks site.

This annoys me and so this post was to vent some stream.  ggggrrrr.

Val not a happy camper.

Cue inspired by Dries Van Noten

Cue inspired by Dries Van Noten

Look!

Cue AW 2012

These Cue clutches are designed by Peter Lang for Cue, $210 & $215 respectively,



Now, see anything familiar with.......

Dries Van Noten SS 2009







The Dries bags would have had a price point close to $1K.
I guess its a matter of weighing up quality/originality v price.

Getting back to the comparison, sure the materials differ (leather v cloth), even the actual embellishments differ (leather v sequins), but the idea and the concept is the same.

Enjoy!

Country Road inspired by Dries Van Noten

Designer fakes

We all know about designer fakes.
Often sold on the streets, in closeted apartments next to foreign airports or on line - always at a fraction of the real cost of the IT bag or the IT shoe or the latest look.
Prado, Hermas, Louis Vuiton, Channel...the list goes on.

Basically, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.


Inspired by.......

But lets go to something more subtle.....stores know that the laws against copying are getting tougher and tougher. Also that since times are tougher, these laws are being enforced successfully more and more often that ever before.

So the solution from the retailer's perspective is to be "inspired" by a designer look.
Its not copying. Its inspiration. Just like a recent Facebook post about being inspired by the recent 2012 Golden Globes gowns worn by the likes of Angelina, Jessica etc.


Country Road


Today I was walking past the Country Road store in Sydney's QVB - the window looked at me & this is what I saw....


Its the spliced dress and its new stock.

Also the spliced top.......


.............inspired by..............Dries Van Noten...........


It was then that some Dries Van Noten memories came back to me.......this is AW 2011




and another - similar concept.....AW 2011......




And if thats not exciting enough, here are some other pieces from the same collection......I am sure we will see more high street retailers be inspired by Dries over the coming winter.....




& again......




Interestingly, Dries did this spliced concept a few years ago too - AW 2009....see this....



& this....


also this...




Spliced with neutrals


& look at how a spliced top works well with neutrals.....



Here's the beauty of this.......



Strictly the Southern Hemisphere follows the looks from the New York, London, Milan & Paris Fashion Weeks.

But due to the internet, we can see the looks from the northern hemisphere immediately. That means the copy/inspired artists can get the copied looks into the stores within weeks. In fact, the Zaras/Topshops of this world can have it on the floor within a couple of weeks of seeing it on the runway at fashion week.


This means that in the southern hemisphere the item can be on the floor of the high street store before the actual season has started. Sounds amazing, eh?

Hence how I saw the Country Road spliced stuff in the store in January 2012 when the Dries collection from which it was inspired AW 2012 (southern hemisphere) (which was available to viewing from northern hemisphere AW 2011)....make sense? Yep!

A couple of other notes.....


Paprika

& the last photo I have included is also Dries AW 2009 - not to show splicing, but to show what looks to me to be the most popular colour on the Australian high street ATM.....the colour of the below model's pants.......that deep cinnamon, aka spice, aka paprika, aka ginger, well, you get the idea......get something in that colour NOW. If the colour doesnt suit your complexion, then get a skirt or pants or shoes etc




Enjoy, til next time.

PS: A photo of the lovely Dries Van Noten (at the end of the AW2012 show) - one of the most amazing designers ever to come out of Melbourne.....