Oh dahlings, meet my little wittle Pucci jumpsuit

Oh dahlings, why, oh why, did I buy this $2,000 Pucci jumpsuit? Am I, as they say, fou?

But is my jumpsuit not jolie? Especially with my Miu Miu boots? In the above photo I am Puccicking in my foyer. And below I am Puccicking again at my back door. As you can see, I simply cannot let you inside - the mess is, as they say at my chateau in France, horrible.

Yes, jolly frigging right this piece is jolie. I paid 19 bucks for it at House of Vintage Fashion. Bwa-ha-ha! And it's not Pucci. Frankly, lacking a label I have no idea WHAT it is, and I don't caaaare. But I can tell you this: this polyester jumpsuit madness made me feel like far more than a paltry $2,000, especially on a rainy day.

Details of the outfit:

• vintage floral polyester jumpsuit, thrifted, House of Vintage Fashion, $19
• brown crackle leather Miu Miu boots, thrifted, Wildlife Thrift Store, $9
• quilted cotton biker jacket, sample sale, Metallicus, $20?
• indigo beret, thrifted, Community Thrift Store, $10?
• magic loupe pendant, O made it for me
• black wool turtleneck, thrifted, Value Village
• fingerless knit gloves, retail ($5?), Canadian Tire automotive store

The room above is in fact dark grey, but as soon as I walked in it turned white and multicoloured tongues unfurled from the walls to blow happy raspberries at me. I swear it's true. I was drenched in fruity wall spit! 

The couple on the balcony, overwhelmed by delirious contentment gazing at my Pucciesque explosion of floral goodness as I leapt past, immediately turned to stone. Even distracted birds were flying into the walls. That's the power of style, my friends. Yup, the power of style.

Sandra, bandmate and blogger of Lens is More, and I were at it again, combing downtown for photo ops and behaving rather badly. But we have no shame... 

Pay no attention to my moustache. Whatever you do, don't look at my moustache. That black thing, don't look at it - it's not there, the black moustache thing. Kidding aside, the bronze arm under my nose makes me feel like a true artiste like Dali and ready for a sneeze at a moment's notice. See Sandra's blog for a photo of her with a moustache - if she posted it... It was her idea.

Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck. 

So much architecture to climb, so little time today. We really ought to bring a step ladder on our next outing. 

I shall be linking this post to Patti's fantastic Visible Monday at her blog Not Dead Yet Style. I missed last week - bu hao. I look forward to seeing everyone there. I hope you've all had shameless weekends. 

Have you ever had someone mistake your vintage finds for designer label apparel? I'm sure many of you have, and I admit getting a laugh when the two are confused. If I really HAD paid $2,000 for this "Pucci" jumpsuit, most of you would think I'm mad. I considered trying to fool you but in the context of this blog, that would be almost impossible! But what if all my blog's "thrifted" finds were really new designer labels in disguise? Would you think less of me?

Finally, I have been LOOOVING everyone's twee-free tulle photos! Huge hugs to Sarah at Misfits Vintage for setting off this tulletarianism! See her Tutu and a Teacup Challenge if you want to join. Liberate your inner bitch ballerina. You'll feel better. Really.

Twirl-o-rama dress action

I saw this dress. It saw me. BAM!! True love. I carried it home with a silly grin on my face, laundered it, then tried it on. A perfect fit.

Mis Papelicos in full bloom comes to mind when I wear this diaphanous dress with its brilliant bold plumage - the flowers, the stripes, the frills - and it twirls most excellently. 

The dress has spaghetti straps so I had to wear a long-sleeved shirt underneath. The top part is shirred and dark brown, not black, which is difficult to see in the photo. Also, the dress is fully lined with black satiny fabric. I love everything about this frock, including the fact that the yellow stripe is not near my face. 

The wind was whispery cool today and my hand flirtatiously brushed up against the fabric making it breathe and sigh all around me as I willowed down the sidewalk. Why the Earth did not stand still in my sartorial euphoria is beyond my ken.

Details

• dress, thrifted, $8, Wildlife Thrift Store (WTS)
• little-nothing fishnet tights over pink leggings, sample sales
• Miu Miu boots, thrifted, WTS
• denim jacket, thrifted, Value Village
• fingerless gloves, retail, Canadian Tire automotive store

Ironically, this colourful dress lends itself to black and white photography. The painting on the wall was previously on the floor. I think it's finished.

I broke my rule: I told myself not to post again so soon, but how could I not? Does that happen to you? You tell yourself not to post and then you put on something that feels so overwhelmingly satisfying that you just can't help yourself?

We're sailing into the weekend. I hope your week has been grand so far.

I woke up this morning with white hair!!

...that's because I had it "done" yesterday (as if it were somehow unfinished before). I had forgotten the pleasures and discomforts of sitting in a salon for 2.5 hours. This platinum is actually a primer coat for bright red, then shades of brown on my way to dark brown. I may get sidetracked along the way, but that's perfectly fine too because there are NO RULES!! in Style Universe.

A few weeks ago I ran across some (old)?! photos of me wearing my hair like this in Tokyo about 25 years ago and was obviously hitnotized. At the outset of my inspiration walk yesterday morning I suddenly found myself making a detour into the salon. Thankfully, Angel received me with open arms. (He's my colourist.)

The artworks engulfing me are all fairly recent.

For a change I belted my tunic and wore high knee socks over my jeggings. From a distance it looks like I'm wearing tall boots. I call this look "irritating chic." When I walk down the street in this, swinging my flirty little candy heart, I think, "Ohayou, genki desu-ka? (Mornin' y'all, how are ya? in Japanese) Mwah, mwah, mwah (Kiss, kiss, kiss, in Vapidese, I'm fluent.)"  Let's all send Miss Simmonds some good vibes so she can go to Japan too!

Details of this outfit:

• stretchy wool-blend black tunic, Metallicus sample sale
• riding-pant jeggings, retail (suedine inset runs down inner leg)
• knee socks, retail
• brown crackle-leather Miu Miu boots, laces with side zips, thrifted, Wildlife Thrift Store
• belt, purchased in Kunming, China, mid-80s

This weekend bandmate Sandra and I will be working on visuals for our "travesty-of-music" video. We call ourselves Just Bad Enough. Listening to the latest mix, I think we should be called Smut Mouth. If I'm brave I'll post the clip. Trust me, we're more than just bad enough!

I hope you'll all be doing something fabulous this weekend, and looking good doing it!! Three cheers for NO RULES.

Floral pants to summon summer

When a man passing me on the sidewalk said, "Wild pants!" I should have said, "Yeah, baby, they match my wild heart," and winked. Instead I shyly laughed, "Yeah." When another guy yelled, "Great pants!" I SHOULD have shot my imaginary finger pistol and twirled it around before reholstering it with a grin and a wink and a couple of clucks like the sound you use for horses to giddy-up. Instead I quietly said, "Oh, thanks." Why, oh why, do these saucy come-backs materialize AFTER the fact?

I thrifted these gems (pants) the day I was coming home from taking photos at orchestra rehearsal in late April. I was still recovering from my cold at the time and I thought they would be good medicine. Indeed. The saleswoman in the shop assured me that they were REAL Versace - but it wasn't until she raised the point that I questioned their authenticity. Frankly, I didn't care who made them - I was in love.

This fantastic Cirque du Soleil tank has all the colours in it and my satin blouse provides a perfect neon pink ground. I tried to look like a punk in some of my photos but my expressions looked angry and bewildered. My friend also gave me a little sample jar of Product for my hair the other day which helped me achieve this case of bed head. It's an amazing substance, powder blue and stringy like candy. Instead of my hair feeling like soft grass blowing in the wind, my hair felt like gyrating stalks of broccoli. 

Details of the outfit

• floral pants by Versace (or not), $29, a new thrift shop, forget the name
• Cirque du Soleil tank, hand-me-over
• pink satin blouse by Jacqueline Conoir, Wildlife Thrift Store
• crackle brown Miu Miu boots, Wildlife Thrift Store

My main inspiration for buying these pants came from Debbi over at She Accessorizes Well. I had seen her in floral pants a while ago and they were great! I'd never worn floral pants before, so when I saw these I thought of her and bought them. Thanks, Debbi!

I am wearing this visible outfit over to Patti's Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style. See you all there.

Sequined maxi gown worn as day wear

Again, it was dark and dreary outside today, time for some serious sparkle therapy. I thrifted this sequined maxi dress a couple of weeks ago with the challenge of transforming it into nonchalant day wear.

The dress is comprised of a lacy sheath with filigree-like embroidery and sequin embellishments, and a matching maxi white polyester slip, both with back slits. The effect is very pretty and feminine, and in fact the dress could have been worn at one time as a wedding dress, but I needed something slightly more grounded for my inspiration walk.... Here's what I came up with, a la Mary Pickford.

To fill in the white-out and urbanize the delicacy of this dress, I decided to wear a black satin slip over the white slip. I also wore a white half-slip further down the layering hierarchy for additional coverage. And I wore a black long-sleeved boat-neck top under the slips to add more solidity and provide warmth. To finish off my outfit I wore my crackle brown Miu Miu boots. They lace up the front but cleverly have side zips. And then a denim jacket on top. The boots with the lace and black added a pinch of Goth to my look, which exactly mirrored by mood today. Grrr. I brought my wrap on my walk too in case I got too cold.

In the above photo maybe you can make out some of the sequins.

Details of the outfit:

• stretch white sequined maxi dress with matching slip, thrifted, Wildlife Thrift Store, $15
• black satin slip, a shop in Korea, new a long time ago
• black tights
• crackle brown Miu Miu boots, Wildlife Thrift Store, $10
• black long-sleeved boat-neck top, thrifted, Value Village
• denim jacket with glitter bits, thrifted, Value Village

The back slit above, and worn with my jacket below.

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In other news...

My First ART GALLERY TALK 

I have been very busy these past two weeks preparing for an artist talk at Baron Gallery, where my work is being exhibited in a group show. I didn't post it before because the reserved seating was fully booked soon after the event was publicized. I would like to think it's because I'm talking that the session filled up so quickly, but the other speaker at the event is Dr. Paul Swingle, a world-renowned psychologist, former professor at Harvard and University of Ottawa, and former psychology expert at McLean Hospital in Boston. He specializes in in biofeedback and neurotherapy at his Vancouver clinic.

There will be a repeat talk on Sunday, July 8, if you will be in the Vancouver area. Again, it's by reservation only and I'm afraid it will fill quickly. 

The name of my talk is: "Unlearning How to Paint: Matters of the Heart and Mind." Dr. Swingle's talk is called "Art and the Brain." I think I'm going to wear my opera gown and my Munster shoes. I already have a magic wand; her name is Grushenka.

I'm going to speak first so I wonder what all the brains in the room will think of my work...?! I'm looking forward to it. Wish me luck. 

I am also giving a workshop called "My Big Action Painting" Workshop on June 23 at the gallery if any of you are around. You can check out the details at Baron Gallery. 

I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Maxi flower power recovery wear

Happy Earth Day! Three cheers for thrifting for reducing our earth-load! And many, many thanks to everyone for your comments while I have been recovering from this cold!

To aid in my recovery I wore this outfit today - maxi impact maxi with tropical flowers, a gen-u-ine Hawaiian-made muumuu that I discovered at a thrift shop about a week ago. The colours are so intense they threw off my white balance (on the camera) which made my face look a bit green in celebration of Earth Day.

You'll notice no beret, which is in part testament to my feel-good state. An ultra positive energy wave sloshed all over the sidewalk on my way downtown today, drenching innocent passersby in spring-fresh fuchsia goodness. (Gulp! That's me taking more meds...)

Here is the outfit. This dress longed for a photo out-of-doors but my studio had to do. Notice how I cleverly directed the lighting at my torso.

I wore my denim jacket because it was still slightly chilly, and my fingerless gloves. Under the dress I wore a long-sleeved blouse, a vintage baby-blue one-piece slip, and bright pink tights. I think the dark boots and the gloves in particular made this summery frock suitable for a sunny spring day.

Details of the outfit:

• muumuu, thrifted, $19 at Community Thrift Store, it has only one tag that says "Made in Hawaii"
• oversized silk shirt, hand-me-over
• Miu Miu boots, Wildlife Thrift Store
• fingerless gloves, Canadian Tire, purchased as regular gloves
• denim jacket with glittery bits, Value Village

I like that pic up there. It looks like I'm putting my right foot in doing the Hokey Pokey. The back of the dress has a full skirt created by a deep box pleat. I think that's called a princess back. Do you know? The train effect certainly made me feel like royalty.

Oh, chic alors! Too bad I can't just hover down the sidewalk so I can maintain this pose, I like it so much! I suppose I could mount myself on a skateboard and employ a dog or wayward child to pull me with a rope.

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Today's walk was my second outing in a week - the first was yesterday when I was hired to shoot photos of concert pianist Corey Hamm during rehearsal of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere performance of Idee Fixe (sorry, I can't do the accent on the first "e"), composed by Jordan Nobles and conducted by Bramwell Tovey. Below are two of my favourite shots, although I also captured some good ones of Maestro Tovey and the full complement of musicians. I love photographing artists at work.

Meditations of the Artist. Pianist Corey Hamm   (c) Melanie Kobayashi 2012

Lost in the Moment. Pianist Corey Hamm with Composer Jordan Nobles    (c) Melanie Kobayashi 2012

I felt privileged to have had the chance to hear the fine-tuning of this piece with the full orchestra.

The fact that this was "work" was a huge bonus.

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I am of course including this outfit in Patti's Visible Monday. Poor Miz Bagg is bed-bound in the Arctic Circle after her pyjama party shenanigans. Thanks, Terri, that was fun! Tee hee. Do you think my facial worked?

Here I am in a little energy ball. Again, thanks, everyone, for your positive input! I could feel it coming my way and it DEFINITELY helped in my recovery. 

Taming the blood-thirsty boucle

I've decided to be friends with my pink boucle jacket - it's time - and really, let's put the blame for the original "Blood-thirsty Boucle" moniker where it rightly belongs - with the evil seamripper! (see post here) There's also a reason for the adage "You catch more flies with honey than vinegar." Um, that's not really the intent of this jacket though...

I wore this fluorescent pink blouse a mere week ago, here, but then days later I thrifted this fluorescent ruffly orange number and I thought they would look traffic-stopping together! Ariane of Style Montreal Sud-Est said in a recent comment something along the lines of, Why not go all the way? Indeed! Why not? There is a point of no return and I am there; my closet may not be there, but I am. 

I thrifted this skirt, also in boucle fabric, at the same time as the acid orange blouse. I like the high belting I did with the jacket. I'm slightly short-waisted so it's always a good policy to emphasize my weakest feature by making myself even more short-waisted. I did that here too. I love how the blouses stick out at the bottom of the jacket; I call it slovenly chic. And then I added the dirty-dove-blue tights and thrifted Miu Miu boots.

Okay now, put on your sunglasses!!

BAM!! Did I scare you? (I'm always scaring you - Munsters, bright colours...) Also, I did not retouch this photo - they were THAT bright.

Details of this outfit

• Le Chateau fitted skirt and neon orange blouse, thrifted at the Wildlife Thrift Store, $8 and $6 I think. The boots and pink blouse are from there as well.
• pink boucle jacket from a random thrift sale on Commercial Drive, couple bucks
• soft black leather belt, men's department, Value Village. I bought a leather punch to put in the extra holes I needed - this is a great tool!

I had a jaunty kick to my step wearing this, flaunting all these fabulous lip-smacking brights around like a loaded flower gun during my inspiration walk. Many bystanders were struck - which means I had several very wonderful chats with strangers who were not asking for money or in altered states. It's that indefinable bubble of positivity that comes from a perfect storm of style, sun, and happy sass. 

Here's a closeup of the skirt fabric. You can see better the wonderful little lines of brilliant tangerine and blue and pink and aqua running through the checks.

Revelation:

I did not wear my beret. In fact, in several outfits that I've worn lately I have not worn my beret. It is becoming glaringly obvious to me that the more confident I become with my style, the more I feel grounded in myself independent of whatever clothes happen to be on my body. 

Since I have decided to make nice with my jacket it's only appropriate that I try to do it with my seamripper. Perhaps I carry a teensy bit of the blame? Here is "Romancing the Evil Seamripper."

And here's my impression of the day's outfit here. This time I am an onion head not a turnip head.

Hope you all had a great weekend and have many new positive adventures in the coming week.

And it's that time again - time for Patti's most awesome Monday style party, Visible Monday, over at Not Dead Yet Style. I shall surely see you there.

Canned spaghetti in the jungle

This outfit reminds me of canned spaghetti. I don't know why.

Maybe it's the long vertical stripes like noodles. Or it could be the shirt's "o" print in dirty orange which reminds me of the American canned spaghetti called Spaghetti-O's (wretched). This 100 percent genuine polyester shirt is so vintage that the synthetic pleasure is ramped up exponentially (it almost crunches). 

The skirt is a couple of sizes too big but I like how it hangs on the hip. I tucked the top in and I was going to wear a belt at my natural waistline, which had the excellent effect of making the ensemble look like a one-piece dress (who knew?), but opted for the tie at the last minute because I couldn't resist those polka dots, and why waste a perfectly tie-worthy shirt collar? I employed the ever-handy gargantuan Quintuple Windsor knot, otherwise known as the King's Throat knot. (see this site for a how-to)

Details of the outfit:

• black cord jacket by Current, a local label I think, thrifted at Value Village
• thrifted 100% polyester button shirt, almost free from vintage shop close-out sale
• Pierre Cardin polyester tie, hand-me-over
• thrifted skirt shaped like an upside-down tulip (there must be a proper name for this), purchased last week and highly twirl-worthy, made from very silky fabric that flutters when I walk 
• Miu Miu thrifted boots, $6 I think
• Tissot mechanical wristwatch, new old stock from the '70s, eBay
• beetle stick pin handcrafted by a friend who has a shop on Etsy, Little Lamp

Finally, here is my impression of the outfit which I sketched during my inspiration outing.

It's called "the Unspeakable joy of communing with my Jungle companions." That's a polar bear/hippo I'm riding on. I like the fish on my toe.

Have a great weekend everyone! 

Has anyone seen my yurt?

I love this dress so much it deserves its own clothing category, and when I wear it I vibrate, which leads to all kinds of wonderful conversations with interesting people. This look brings to mind several misty images: 1) Isadora Duncan dancing, 2) standing in the wind on a vast grassy plain with an endless blue sky overhead - with straw and shaggy horses somewhere too, 3) Dior (?!).

Details:

• thrifted non-dress magnificence
• Miu Miu thrifted boots
• oversized black T over the non-dress
• faux fur collar I bought for $1.99 and added really, really long red fabric ties that took FOREVER to turn right-side out again
• brown wool cape and long-sleeved T under my dress

Of course I'm feeling visible on this Monday, and, thank you again, Patti, for your wonderful forum, Visible Monday, so I can share my happiness in this dress.

Such as drama queen!!

This pose is an homage to all the women (probably safe to say not men) who embroidered this piece.

The wool cape was necessary for toastiness.

Colour on Warp Factor 4

I love when colours clash (sometimes) - and today was one of those days!

Details of what I'm wearing:
gifted Cirque du Soleil sleeveless T
Fiorucci patterned jeans bought in Tokyo over 20 years ago
Miu Miu boots thrifted for $10 (and the next day I saw them in Vanity Fair, score!)
maxi cardigan with very useful pockets by Metallicus
ultra lucky life pendant hand-made by O for me, stainless steel

Apart from the pendant, my favourite thing here is my matryoshka teacup holder, which I made with the help of O who custom-made the brass fittings, as you can see in the photo below. Nothing like drinking my favourite coffee at my favourite coffee shop from my favourite teacup from my great great great grandmother, which my mother sent to me. Mmm. I have a couple other teacup holders that you'll see sometime here.

I'm excited to take part in Visibility Monday for the first time, although I've been following Patti's blog, Not Dead Yet Style, for quite a while. In fact, her blog was the first style blog I ever stumbled across. Thank you, Patti!

Sorry, I've had to photoshop here because I have yet to fix my lighting problem, but the colours are pretty accurate.

You can see the brass fittings in the far right photo, and O made the slits in the top for the strap to go through.