Style rules, and mending vintage leather pants the easy way

Bad ass. Elegant. Bad ass. Elegant. Elegass. Badegant?  Whatever. 

Wearing my vintage leathers - leather pants, leather jacket, leather booties - with denim jacket and tuxedo shirt. And of course my magic loupe that my partner O made me. You can buy one HERE. And a ring he made me too, which you can also buy there, unless he's sold out. Plus I'm carrying my swell, elegant, swellegant clutch. 

The word swellegant reminds me of the movie High Society with Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Louis Armstrong (remake of Philadelphia Story) and this song, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," although the word itself is in "Well, Did You Evah" by Sinatra and Crosby. I love watching this movie on a cold rainy day, with hot chocolate and popcorn or tea and chocolate digestive biscuits.

Back to the outfit. These leather pants are snug, and you know the rule about that, don't you?

Rule 573.2 (REV 22.1a): 

One must never wear one's snug leather trousers without one's jacket covering one's posterior in case one's trousers explode when one is downtown.

I know, I know I said I don't believe in style rules, but this case is a definite exception. Thankfully, my trousers did not explode. But I had reason to believe they might.

They are snug, as I said, but there are also little rips in the inner and outer seams at the knees on the left leg, suggesting there may be more seam weaknesses elsewhere. I am quite pleased with my leather repair work: I slapped two-inch long pieces of clear packing tape onto the outside of the pant legs.

When I was downtown I went shopping in all the high-end designer stores - Prada, Gucci, Dior - and I can only hope everyone in the shops was familiar with this rule:

Rule 93.115 (REV 39-81):

When one has wardrobe malfunctions, one must patch one's clothing with what one has at hand whilst heading out the door and then proceed to wear one's repair like one is a super-stellar trendsetter and rock star.

And that's what I did. Perhaps next time I go downtown I'll see more people with packing tape on their pants. Or tape on the clothing on the racks. [Don't forget, I'm Canadian and we believe that duct tape and WD-40 (oil) can fix anything.]

Wearing my leathers it seemed fitting that I would unexpectedly encounter KISS playing in the Vancouver Art Gallery plaza for the Hallowe'en Parade and Expo - well, they were in fact called Alive 'n' Kissin', I think. For a couple of songs I whooped in homage to my sustained youth, heh. There was a gaggle of kids at the foot of the stage who scrambled for candies when the band threw them into the crowd.

I admired the band's outfits, makeup, and stamina. The man on the left lifted his arms once in a while to reveal amazing bat wings! I regret not staying to catch a photo, but it was raining and umbrellas were jostling for space.

Love those boots!!

But my destination was Canada Place down by the waterfront for this:

Hahaha! The first time I saw this sign I was with Sherry of Petite Over 40. I said to her, "Sherry, there I am. Oh my god, THERE I AM! I NEED A PICTURE. I NEED A PICTURE!!" She fumbled in her bag for her phone. Of course I didn't have anything at hand. The ads were scrolling and I knew I'd come around again, so I became more level-headed:

HURRY, SHERRY! HURRY!! 

IT'S GOING TO DISAPPEAR!! QUICK!!!

Sherry scrambled and fumbled frantically in her bag as I waved my arms and jumped around her. I'm pretty sure my hair stood even higher than usual too. No pressure. Hahaha. A tourist walking by said, "Don't worry, it will come back." Sherry and I laughed.

Eventually we both got a picture, but the bright sign was almost whited out in our photos against the dark night sky, and neither of us wanted to stick around to adjust our devices for the next scroll-around.

So today I went down in daylight, rainy-day daylight. Great conditions.

I'm huuuuge, literally. I confess, this was a big rush. I stood there for a while waiting for me to scroll around, my camera pointed up at the building. Of course when you look up at something with a camera, people around you start taking photos of what you're looking at too, along the lines of, if she thinks it's good, I better get a shot too.

And a photo of me on the stairs, jackets off.

Also, Margaret Manning of Sixty and Me has posted articles based on a couple of YouTube interviews I did with her. Thanks, Margaret!

1. FASHION OVER 50 – 5 INSIDER TIPS TO BOOST YOUR CONFIDENCE (MOST PEOPLE TOTALLY MISS #4!)
2. 5 WAYS MAKING VIBRANT FASHION CHOICES AFTER 60 WILL EMPOWER YOU!

They might be fun to check out. If you found my blog through Margaret, thank you, too, for joining me!

AND, a FREAKY FACT:
Your age plus your birth year equals 2018. Every time. This only happens once every 1,000 years.
Think about it. Heh.

Finally, I'm going to link with Patti's Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style and Catherine's #iwillwearwhatilike at Not Dressed as Lamb.

Whew. Congratulations! You've made it this far. Keep on bein' the stellar creatures you all are. Live! Live! Live! Be strong! I'm so happy you stopped by. Although I'm sorry I ate all the powder sugar doughnuts before you got here, and the chips too. But I still have some Twizzlers left (twisty red licorice ropes).

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends, well, ALL friends for that matter.