How to wear a pink vintage gown as daywear in the winter

I read a blog article recently on how to wear a dress in the winter. You take a dress, you put it on, and then you put on a coat. OMG!! Why hadn't I thought of that?! I was freezing cold wearing this sparkling dream gown the other day. Had I seen that article, I would have known to put on a coat. Heh.

I bought this exquisite vintage gown in late 2015 to wear to the gala of a fashion show I styled. Stupidly, I didn't apply due care when I washed it and the delicate chiffon bodice partially shredded and patches of hand-sewn rhinestones, beading, and sequins came unstitched. I truly thought the dress was a goner...

Until this past week - Project Resuscitation! I had two options: 1) scrawl MALFUNCTION somehow across the front and shred the skirt; 2) attempt a mend. I chose mend. I'm glad I did. It was delicate work with missing beads and fouled threads, but the results exceeded my expectations. The rhinestone star now looks like it's exploding, which I like - a supernova on my chest.

When I bought the gown, several areas near the hem were also yellowed and ripped, but I'm leaving these imperfections as is, partly because I have no choice, but mostly as living traces of the past, like wrinkles on a face. (The dark area in the photo is my shadow.)

When I move in this dress, the chiffon swirls languidly behind me in its own time zone of dimly-lit nightclubs and champagne bubbles. What a shock it must have been for it to wake up after decades of slumber to freezing temperatures in a bamboo garden at a Keg restaurant on the back of a middle-aged tween with Troll hair and pointy black boots. Under a big blue beast!

Where the wild things are

Yes, of course I wore a coat. Not just any coat - it was Sandra's Big Blue. We swapped for a while, my glowing orange traffic-cone coat for her animal. You can see that the beast has already made friends with a few of the other jackets and coats in my closet. I hope they procreate. See Sandra's IG here.

For a while now I have noticed that wearing bright red makes me feel fantastic, and wearing this gown and doing this shoot, I realized that bubblegum pink has the same effect. PINK?!! Gaaa!! Never, EVER would I say I am partial to either of these colours, especially pink.

Look, LOOK! Evidence of creeping sublimal pink mind-takeover -

Shelley, Forest City Fashionista, took this photo of me last spring

Dress with fake pesticide from my post Most Joyful Nature Woman in a Hot Pink Gown

There is a video based on this in the right sidebar as well.

Why not just buy me a PINK PONY and get it over with?!! Sedate me with candy floss, heart-shaped candies, unicorns, and My Little Princess tiaras? Put me in a frigging tutu, why not? (Oops, I already do that.) At least red is a colour with bite - fire, passion, tempests, romance, sirens. But pink?! O woe, I surrender to its power.

I wore tights, socks, a slip, a camisole, weird lycra shorts, and a white long-sleeved top under this dress because I suspected I'd be leaping about with Sandra outside during our afternoon shoot. She took these grove photos.

So yes, you can wear a dress in the winter without a coat, but you have to jump around a lot to stay warm, be super-focused on something to take your mind off the fact you're freezing your ass off, wear layers UNDER the dress, and not stray too far from a cozy coffee shop you can flee to when your sweat starts to freeze over. That's sound advice.

I've worn a few other outfits I've loooved this week, including a manly suit. But I think there are enough photos on this post already. Well done if you've made it this far. If you want a peek at the suit, it's on my IG, here. It's mostly black and grey, the opposite end of bubblegum pink - 'cause that's how I roll. I look like a politican, a real one.

I shall link this outfit up to Patti at Visible Monday, Not Dead Yet Style, and Catherine at #iwillwearwhatilike, Not Dressed as Lamb, when the time comes.

Has pink seduced you too? How did you recover? Thank you so much for stopping by. I mean it!

PS: In case you don't know, Sherry of Petite Over 40 is hosting a blogger meetup in Phoenix, Arizona, called Winter in the Desert, February 10-12. She is planning all kinds of fun things to do and I so wish I could be there. You must go and give me all the details.