Rock star pants escape Space Bag!

Note to self: "Stay away from Ziploc's miraculous Space Bags when cleaning in winter in a springtime mood; snow will fall relentlessly as punishment and I'll only have silk, chiffon, and other women's cast-off, strapless prom dresses left in the closet." Thank goodness my rock star pants ran from the Bag and saved the day (I know, I said no more pants. I lied.) along with my freshly "laundered" DIY shirt (see previous post) for some double-whammy DIY action. Hold on to your hats.

Who knew that parking garage lighting could be so flattering? I'm going to hang around here all the time now and only look up.

The first time I wore these rock star pants Paul Stanley (of KISS) was smiling at me, here. Okay, so I didn't know who he was and I didn't actually know it was happening at the time either, but still... The next time I wore them I was inspired to make a video clip. Today is not over yet and who knows what will transpire? I feel the slow churning of DIY magic like the colossal turbines in the engine room of the Titanic (that would be before she sank) - the engine scene is one of my favourites in the James Cameron movie.

Wearing:

• DIY low-rise rock star pants
• DIY "I have nothing to wear" shirt, laundry-free (see previous post)
• wide '70s leather belt
• satin hot-pink blouse, thrifted, Nicole designer-something-or-other blah
• thrifted Sesame Street Massacre coat
• thrifted fuzzy psychedelic top hat
• boots, retail
• magic loupe, made special for me by O

I always jump when I wear these pants. I'm hooking this up to Patti's Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style for sure. I don't have much to say. I. Am. Still. Cleaning...

Why do laundry when you have scissors? EZ DIY

This is a project-ish project - paring down my clothing and focusing more on earrings and suchlike, meaning tights, hair thingies, face paint, maybe shoes. I am looking forward to the challenge but this is mainly an attempt to free up more space in my space-challenger home. In fact, I bought some Ziploc Space Bags (in tropical colours), which are vacuum-resealable bags capable of squishing a huge pile of clothing into one fruity brick. Spacey, baby, spacey.

I am also entering a floaty phase. Ahead I see wispiness, wavering, wandering, willowy floating a la Monet, and NO PANTS (as in trousers, my Gutter Friends). Yet, there is solidity, an uprightness, dare I say character-building fertilizer in minimalism? This outfit looks better in motion. For clarity: wispy equals minimal.

Wearing: 

• premiere of thrifted lined heavy-linen jacket from the '60s (so the tag said...) 
• bluish tights 
• thrifted vintage patent black shoes, 
• thrifted hip-slung oversized, accordion-pleated chiffony skirt
• hand-it-over satiny fuchsia blouse (why don't they spell it fyuusha?) 
• jewels, double vintage (already old when thrifted in the '80s)
• magic loupe, of course

As part of the floaty phase I am foolishly upcycling a cacophony of hand-it-over oversized silk blouses into skirts, tunics, and body casings, a process which requires Skills. On second thought, they would all look stellar as scarves with fraying edges and sleeves...

Speaking of which, this is my slacker alternative to laundry.

Simply cut away the offending parts. Ta da! And then excise a few extra bits for good measure. Be sure to include a fabric tongue (front left). Now the writing really matches the garment. My forethought is astounding, psychic even! Those green parts are not shirt stains (or I would have hacked them off); they are discolourations from the photoshopping I did to make my carpet look like a rare Persian rug - didn't work.

I am also reading a book on etiquette from pre-automobile days. It turns out I am a freakish Vulgarian. I would have been kicked out of the lowest classes of high society. "I visited Vulgaria once but they have ghastly plumbing," Miz Bagg says.  

Thank you very much to Sacramento at Mis Papelicos for the including me in Stylish Friends #5 on Feb. 11. I'm so tardy in my posting. See what I mean? - Vulgarian. And if you haven't seen Skye's incredible styling of the Freakish Yellow Skirt at My Kingdom for a Hat, git on over there!!

Have a great week, everyone.  

Yellow Skirt Freak Show Update!!

footlights glare, the drum rrrrolls

the DIVA in the FREAKISH YELLOW SKIRT SHOW 

the rilly rilly big shew

grinds to gasps 

the awe-fullness of its magical spendour lifts the 

house of gawps, sweaty gulps, glassy-eyed stares

enraptured, captured as

================ 

S K Y E 

"burlesque bizarre"

at My Kingdom for a Hat

================ 

dewy fresh hedonism at its best

each gyration sprinkling fresh orbits

of magic & promise

Look Skyeward, the stars part

G O !   G O   N O W !!

__________________________________________________________________

Thanks so much, Skye, for your absolutely fresh way with the yellow skirt, lots of tart lemon and sparkle. Everyone, you have to see it and her fantastic stitched-on addition!

And many thanks and hugs again to Shelley, Forest City Fashionista, as our skirt's outstanding stage manager. Mwah! FYS has been on the road for over a year now (can you believe it?) and the show continues...she flies across the sea...

Brown-patterned freezie pop with hair in it

Oooh, that red nose, it could guide my friggin' sledge in this -1C weather (just under freezing). Whine, whine, whine, that's all I do...

Of course I had to throw on my growly monster boots with a billion-inch platforms, and a demure wool houndstooth skirt, etc. The freezie pop part of course refers to moi in the cold.

Wearing

• growly monster boots, thrifted (aka woolly mammoth boots)
• wool houndstooth skirt with suede waistband and hem trim, thrifted
• R coat, vintage, thrifted
• jacquard vest, downsized, shades of whine and brown and the colour of rotting swamp vegetation, hand-it-over
• chocolate brown turtleneck, thrifted
• chocolate brown hat weirdness, thrifted
• magic loupe - gawd, I'm glad of the magic. Thank you, O, who made it for me!

All is not lost - I had hand-cut toast, steamy-hot coffee and a lovely journalling session in my cafe. But then, when I got home, imagine my disgust at discovering clusters of sproingy eyeballs tangled in my boot hair. What a mess! You'd think nobody had ever seen growly boots on a semi+-centenarian before.

You know, I feel good when I wear things I adore; however, usually my photos are a foggy reflection of that inner frisson. Except for rare magical times when the light is golden and the shutter syncs with my inner glint, what comes out of my camera is not the icy perfection I feel. Sigh. And that's okay - I love sharing whatever the media can convey. And there's always my turnip head character to show you the true me.

I'm linking up with Patti's Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style. Today I could use a hot toddy. But since Patti is in Florida I'll be sure to bring my swimsuit and sunglasses. Oooh, that would be a treat. Shall we boogie board together perhaps? Excellent thought!

It's all about the legs and man brows

Yesterday I was a giant pastel-nicotine snowball with blue branches for legs. These photos are the best I could manage. Note the huge man brows and my hair parted on the side. You may call me Sir, no, too formal. How about, "Hey, you!" I also wore crimson lipstick, but my nose is still so red after coming in from my walk, you can't see it - or I ingested it (um, my lipstick, not my nose).

Wearing:

• pastel-nicotine faux fur coat, thrifted
• sleeveless purple mini-ish shift with wide ivory stripes on the bottom, thrifted, naturally
• teal tights under pink fishnets under crazy aqua socks, retail
• D&G shoes, thrifted
• turtleneck under dress, thrifted
• magic loupe, of course, made by O

Then on Tuesdays I wore:

• made-in-Hong Kong wild, too-short plaid pants, "100 percent bonded acrylic, dry clean only" 
• shorty linen jacket from a chichi shop, Moule, from the 99% off sale rack (or so it seemed at the time so great was my joy at the bargain), gift coupon - I never shop there otherwise
• huge honking '70s polka-dot tie, hand me over (not "Hand it over!", although that might have worked too)
• magic loupe, always, an ultra-convenient quick substitute for reading glasses
• snowball coat, bird booties, France-made blouse and beret, thrfited but of course (except the booties, oops)

You can see this outfit ->> HERE <<- because I was style-eyed by a very handsome well-dressed young man on my way home from my inspiration walk. I'm slightly dishevelled, I get like that after a particularly invigorating journalling session.

This man's project is called "Faces of Vancouver" and is modelled on the "Humans of New York" concept which focuses on slice-of-life photography rather than street style, which I find even more interesting. I recognized a few of the faces there from my street snapping days. If this young man finds his way to Bag and a Beret, a big thanks to you! (I can't comment on FB) 

It's chilly here it's danged cold for Vancouver, -4C, which is 24.8F. We're too precious, I know. Stay warm or cool, whatever the case may be. 

A Dark Horse

Yesterday I needed to wear something heavy, not warm, just heavy, don't ask me why. And it needed to be black, the more black the better. This is what I found. I threw on the shawl at the last minute.

Clearly I am a moth, I mean a phoenix, I mean a totem pole, I mean Sherlotta Holmes tramping through the woods, looking for toxic plants and clues, speaking of which, I could have saved myself the trouble just bottling a drop of Miz Bagg's drool, but where's the fun in that?

There are abazillion layers here - yes, this was very heavy. I moved silently, wraith-like, down the sidewalk. Turning around, I could see the fabric billowing still in slow motion behind me, life at five frames per second. Maybe that's why I wanted to wear heavy clothes - to crank it down a notch. I avoided traffic lights because, like a super-tanker, I would have needed a block to gear down to a full stop. (Would you like more metaphors and similes?)

NEWS FLASH
I've heard it firsthand that the Sherlotta, cowboy/First Nations, moth, opium den vibe is going to THEE hot trend for spring - you heard it here first.  Special thanks to Valastasia Bugheroff at Muse Fondue for letting me use her den for inspiration - more about that in a future post.

Wearing:

black gauzy maxi dress, thrifted

under the dress

black knee socks and heavy black jeggings

black cami and black long-sleeved top

over the dress

upcycled black wispy tunic with ribbon ties, as vintage as I am, retail

black patterned sleeveless maxi vest, thrifted

vintage black haori (short kimono-type thing), thrifted

silk Orientalesque shawl, $5 thrifted, yay!

Miu Miu boots, thrifted

above the dress

vintage black felt fur fedora, thrifted

I bought the haori in '85 and it was already vintage then. And I looove this black fedora. Usually I would have slapped a beret on my head for this but it felt too, hm, just too predictable, you know what I mean?

I'm linking this up to Judith's Hat Attack #7 at Style Crone.

I'm linking this up to Sacramento's Share-in-Style: Gothic  at Mis Papelicos. The prompt makes me think of secret science labs in castle basements and foggy midnight alleyways in London.  

I'm linking to Anne's 52-Pick-Me-Up: Short Over Long at Spy Girl.

Below is what I wore today, February 1. It is one of the happiest outfits I have worn in a while - I could feel the smiles blooming all around me as I tiptoed past. Happy Year of the Horse. Neigh.

Wearing

• Kimono-style robe, not silk, $8 thrifted, yay!
• long flowy skirt, thrifted
• glitter booties, crapily-made, mega-discount retail
• black sequin top, thifted
• black turtleneck, thrifted
• ...and other assorted layers-on-layers-on layers for warmth.

Finally, regarding my previous Lena Dunham post, I am traumatized that nobody offered me $60,000 to see my original unretouched photos! As part of my recovery process, I am posting them here for free. 

Have a great weekend all. And thanks to Sally at Already Pretty for the shout-out on my Dunham post. My stats are stunned by the exercise.