Where have your clothes taken you?

I can't believe it - I'm in Europe! Or is it Asia? I can't even remember. Everything is such a whirlwind.

Texas?!

No, no, no. It's France, maybe Italy, both of which are in Europe.

Val of @muse.fondue and @constancesnow on Instagram mused that this is an Italian beatnik look, Daddy O, and that I should be riding my scooter backwards behind a ciggie-smoking boyfriend, then taking a dip in Trevi Fountain. I think I should drive the scooter backwards myself. I'd definitely end up in Trevi Fountain.

Others saw hints of Agent 99, @suzannecarillo, and Jean Seberg, @fcfashionista. Sigh. What would I do without my friends?!

And check it out: I'm so good at posing now that I look almost identical in those two previous photos. It's uncanny.

Now, just so you don't get the wrong impression - I'd never go scootering all over Europe (Asia and the US) with just this one outfit. And my life is not all fun. As you'll see in the next snapshots, there were games involved as well. Who needs yoga!?

Healthy Body - Healthy Mind

I'm not sure if I'm playing rugby or soccer.  Does it matter? The point is to chase a ball, kick, tackle, and run for your life. And throw in some happy dances when you do good, preferably facing the camera. It's almost like social media.

I like the huddles most though (maybe that's in football, details) because while we're all bent over in that loving circle of friendship, I whip out my porta tea set and lace tablecloth for a hot cuppa on the field - so welcome during this cold weather, isn't it? Sometimes I bring cookies too, or Pop Tarts (TM).

I have to thank the brilliant photographers at unsplash.com for sharing these great background shots. Top to bottom: tao-xanh kim, sapan patel, jeremy bishop, marian trizuliak, and quino al.

And Margaret Manning of Sixty and Me fame has opened two articles based on previous interviews I had with her. They are HERE and HERE.

Finally, there I am for realsie below, in the stairwell dressed in used clothing - but damned fine used clothing. "Secondhand" always sounds better than used, but it is what it is.

This turtleneck and these sailor pants are from Talize Thrift in Delta, BC. Talize has a mind-boggling array of unique clothing appropriate for any style adventure. And shopping thrift is one small way I can help ease the burden on our distressed planet.

I've been wearing my hair down a bit more recently. Why not? And doing winged eyes. There are so many unexplored possibilities.

Happy travels, friends! Words of the week are hope and optimism - yeah! Or maybe you'd like to join my football team, the Mel Destroyers, for a huddle and a cuppa?

When it's time, I'll be linking up with Patti at Not Dead Yet Style, Visible Monday, and Catherine at Not Dressed as Lamb, #iwillwearwhatilike. A big thanks to Catherine for including me in her post "Celebrating 9 Fabulous Women Who Wear What They Like."

Stark in black and white, and me with shades of grey

I'm laughing.

I'm laughing and running. 

Oh, what fun!

Had I not removed the background from that photo you would see that I'm running smack into the wall of my concrete box studio. Yesh. Tra-la-la. A grand escape from reality. But why?

Please refer to Exhibit A, below. Woman with Cart and Fan. It's come to this. No matter how fast my trot, there is no avoiding the cart and the fan ⇽ Read that like a narrator in a horror flick and insert scream HERE.

I had been putting off the cart for some time now, lugging home my groceries every day with only frigging enviro-friendly bags with handles that keep frigging falling off. It's what happens when you turn into a cheap beast of burden with a conscience and pretty, ill-made enviro-friendly bags.

Then, last week, I saw a woman around my age at the library with a gosh-darn swell cart. I approached her and said, "Oh, I love your cart. Where'd you get it?" She looked up surprised and laughed. She said her mother had given it to her as a gift and she wasn't sure at the time whether to be happy or cry. "I'm too young for a cart!" was her thought. We both had a good laugh about that one.

Now that she had a nice cart, with brilliant images of fruits and vegetables all over it (she likes to cook), her daughter in her 20s is always swiping it. Soon we'll all be [scary music] dum dum dum CART PEOPLE!

Which reminds me, there's a great Japanese horror flick from 1963 called Attack of the MUSHROOM PEOPLE. Matango is the Japanese title. Great movie. A claaassic. You can watch it here, English version, at least for now.

My sailor-style Sanchez pants, so-named because it is embroidered on the waistband.

Emboldened by my encounter and facing a big food expedition, the next day I went into two discount stores to check out their cart selection. It was now or never. In the end I decided on this cart with white-dotted black vinyl, one of only three or so designs to choose from. And white wobblish wheels. As consolation, I got the best deal.

AND I grabbed a fan while I was in there too. Puh, I thought when I got home, you call this a fan!? Looks like I'll need to add extensions about, say, a foot long now that my summers come from within, which is the most poetic way of putting it.

Woman with Cart and Fan. Dress from TALIZE thrift store in Delta, BC. Converse runners.

I was mighty pleased with my new cart and fan, thinking how relaxed my stroll home from shopping would be this time. I started mentally listing all the heavy things I could buy to celebrate - pickles, water balloons, paving stones.

Passersby were smiling at me. Yes, I believe they wanted carts too! Only a cart could create such a joyful expression on my face. Or maybe they wanted to dress up like nursies in oversized white dresses like mine.  This dress is identical to my traffic cone dress I posted on recently, both from TALIZE in Delta. Score!!

This last photo is a psychological portrait. CART. FAN. mel. But not in a bad way.

I was worried that my cart may affect my bad assery. Au contraire, friends. Now I can head over the hill with a Mona Lisa smile and nobody will know what hit them - my cart of course, careening wildly behind me. And the fan, it will keep me oh so cool, baybee.

Clearly, I'll need to fark this cart and I have some ideas. And the fan too. Sheila of Ephemera has decorated several fans with wonderful Zentangle drawings using felt pens and watercolour pencils, here. My fan is a plasticy blue fabric purchased in an emergency, but I know I can find a plain one. I'm excited.

And the final piece because I can't go without a big PS. THE BIG PS:



LOVE IT, my awesome T-shirt by Suzanne Carillo. The best! Worn with my men's Calvin Klein flowy robe, Dolce & Gabbana shoes, and vintage sunglasses. And of course my loupe by O - you can get one now too on his Etsy shop HERE.

There have also been some stellar meetups this week - Deb, Barb, Judith, and hi! to Sandra, whom I met at Vancouver Art Gallery yesterday.

I'll link up to Patti at Not Dead Yet Style for her ever-popular Visible Monday, and Catherine at Not Dressed as Lamb for her wonderful #iwillwearwhatilike, in this case, I will wheel what I like.

How about you? Are you a cart person? I had one when I was in uni for my massive laundry hauls; I never envisioned the day would come I need it for groceries!

Have a stellar week, all!! xo

Room for change, change room, presto chango

The change room - not so unlike Superman's phone booth. You go in, make a quick change, then emerge with superpowers, at least in the ideal scenario, including the uncanny ability to see bulges as muscle. Heh. 

Faster than a woman swiping the last chocolate croissant, more powerful than matte lipstick, able to leap scummy puddles in a single bound in skyhigh platforms. Look! Up ahead (photo below) -  It's a mutant orange! It's a giant cheese! No, it's Melanie! 

Below is my latest superpower dress, Le Traffic Cone (sister to my traffic cone coat), which I picked up during a blogger shopping spree at Talize Thrift in Delta, BC, with Suzanne (SuzanneCarillo.com), Sue (A Colourful Canvas), and Sherry (Petite Over 40), post on it here.

Photo by Sue, A Colourful Canvas. l to r: Sherry, my back, Suzanne

I spotted this piece in the size 20 dresses. It ticked all the right boxes.

• Audaciously big? Check. 
• Pockets? Check. 
• Nuclear orange? Check. 

I wore it for the first time yesterday, which happened to coincide with the downtown kickoff of Vancouver International Jazz Festival. Imagine my delight at being able to bring traffic cone safety to all the lovely people attending this musical street party. 

Sadly, weakling pixels can't possibly capture the neon-ness of this piece, nor the heavenly swish, but it's all I got. An exciting bit of news is that the Vancouver Art Gallery plaza, closed for renovations for ages, had finally opened for the festivities. Hurray!

Those red sandals are from Talize too and are now a wardrobe staple. They are by Liz Claiborne, not to be confused with the movie Dolores Claiborne, which has one of my favourite lines, "Sometimes being a b*tch is all a woman has to hold onto." Scene here. Brilliant. The blue sunnies came from a vintage shop downtown a year or two ago.

The next photo was also taken at Talize. I challenged myself to wear kyrptonite, I mean beige. I made friends with beige in a previous post, "Clothes the colour of porridge," but decided to test the endurance of our detente, and, yes, our peace treaty endures. Except I didn't like this outfit enough to buy it. Maybe if I had to jet suddenly to England to solve a murder at a village fete, I would wear this.

Photo by Sue, A Colourful Canvas

Below is another change room, this one at Nordstrom. This is like Superman visiting his idyllic home planet, Krypton, before it exploded.

I know, I know, I only go to Nordstrom SPACE for eye candy but during a mega-sale it doesn't hurt to have a taste test, right? Or does it? This top didn't exactly hurt, but it was super prickly and clingy and cloying, and the skirt's lace and tulle were prickly with an expensive falling-apart quality. 

For modesty, I photo-edited-out my underwear under the lace skirt, which also features huge gaps in the front and sides by design (the skirt, not my underwear).

Although this ensemble is sweet, it's too much treacle for me, even with its propensity for scandalous wardrobe malfunctions. This outfit makes me proud of my farked boob cooler t-shirt here - scandal without the prickles, price, and tangle. But I know this piece will look fabulous on somebody else, which was why I was drawn to it in the first place.

Below, now we're talkin'! Comme des Garçons or a variation thereof [Junya Watanabe], the top of course. It was an ordeal to put this on too: a leather harness contraption with origami-ed filmy fabric bits forming an ethereal cage. Did I love it? Yes, I did. It was $3,100 Cdn marked down to $1,100 Cdn., but I balked, like a chicken, balk balk-balk-baaaalk. Nunh.

And I tried on a Simone Rocha dress, just a sliver of it showing on the left; again, too prickly for my comfort level but a very sweet dress. 

I don't fully comprehend why I was drawn to these sweet prickly pieces that day, and a feminine blouse on the left above as well. Maybe it's because they are as out of form for my style as the whole trying-on-new-things experience.

What did I find out by visiting Krypton?: 1) designer pieces can be dreadfully complicated and prickly; 2) I still don't have a strong desire to possess these things. I like farking my own looks; plus, I have a penchant for electricity and food and shelter at the moment. But the deals were certainly there if I change my mind with a brain transplant.

And finally, to round out this post, a photo of me and Sue called Running With the Bulls from when Suzanne and Sherry came to town. Heh. Why isn't Sue more afraid? I had a brief meetup with Sue this week too. I got to see her latest dress (here) in person. Awesome!

Photo by SuzanneCarillo

That's all for now. You know what's next, don't you...?

I'll link up with Patti's Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style and Catherine's #iwillwearwhatilike at Not Dressed as Lamb.

Stay cool or bundled as the case may be. I'm heading out for a little jazz fest enlightenment in a fruital jumpsuit and then it's time for work work work. See you next time. Thanks for stopping by!!

mwah

PS - I must pass along a big thank you to Lisa of Amid Privilege for her reference to me and our brief meeting in Vancouver in her thoughtful post, "The Salubrious Effect Of Someone Else’s Friendly Eyes And Someone Else’s Stories," here. Much appreciated.

Dots and shoe weirdness with Sheila

First up, another photo from the AARP article (HERE), which I posted about last time. I love this combo - my Emporio Armani suit jacket, vintage pants formerly owned by Mr. Sanchez according to the monogram on the inner waistband, vintage Pierre Cardin tie from our former building manager, polka-dot blouse from Talize Delta thrift store, and brown tie boots. NEXT!

The shrubbery behind me spells out NOSH. It's a restaurant patio.

Last weekend I met up with Sheila of sheilaephemera and her partner L when they came to town to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. L better watch out - that's some embrace Sheila and I are locked in. Hahaha!

And when they come to town that can mean only one thing, well, two: booze for breakfast (lunch for them) and a pilgrimage to Fluevog's flagship shoe store. I had a tiny beer for the first time in decades, a dark one. It tasted, hm, woodsy, like mulch and moss in a dark green forest, like a musky critter in a cozy burrow, in a good way. These two are corrupting me. Thank you. Sacriligiously, they ventured into this Brown's shoe store. I can almost hear Sheila whimper with desire for those booties, but she made up for it later at Fluevog.

And we filmed a little video. When I think of these two, I can't help but think of shoes, which inspired me to think of this story. An expert and enthusiastic cast and crew cut months off our shooting schedule. L took on camera duties, at which he excelled, and method acting and props took care of the rest.

Despite the depiction of shoenivores, no shoes were harmed during the making of this video. I was harmed when I had to take home all the leftover licorice. Heh.

After we finished filming, we stumbled across a mini shoe gallery in the middle of the sidewalk. What are the odds? Nobody was watching over them. There was no signage, e.g., Scratch & Sniff, Rate My Treads or Shoe Jenga Challenge. Nothing. It wasn't like stuff had been heaved from a condo window after an angry break-up - these were artfully arranged. Weird, right? 

Also weird are those two people on the sidewalk wearing bee-keeper masks. Where's David Lynch?!

We also veered into Used House of Vintage. The 50% off sale that was on two weekends ago is mostly off now, so that put a damper on my enthusiasm. Of course we had to try on sunglasses. I try on these same sunglasses every time I go. When am I finally going to BUY them?! I love this photo of me and Sheila - Insects from Planet 9.

We had a great time together, as usual: filming, then brunch at Forage (where we had our big blogger meetup brunch), then more filming and some shopping before I had to get home. Sheila did an amazing writeup of their Vancouver adventure on her blog, HERE, with lots more photos. I always love her weekend roundups. I also posted their photo on my street style blog, HERE.

Don't forget, L has a blog too - Creative Maestrom, CD and concert reviews for the musically attuned and a Cole's Notes for the rest of us. He's a gifted writer to be sure.

I wore my drop-crotch jeans, made in Italy, with my purple Mozart jacket for our meetup and again a couple of days later. They are undeniably my new favourite pants, purchased for a bargain at My Sister's Closet. Several sizes too large, they are record-breakingly hipslung without showing rear cleavage, and I can still achieve mobility without waddling. Score!

Below, without the coat and positioned vertically. I absolutely wanted to dress like I had just rolled out of bed; I think I got an A+ on that. These pants, I can hike them belted, like I did during the meetup, or wear them hipslung slouchy, which demonstrates the style versatility thrift shopping opens up for me. In a retail store, I would never consider three sizes too big - I'd head straight for my size on the racks, when in fact the hugeness of these pants gives me far more creative freedom.

I can see from the photo above that I need some black riding boots, a helmet, crop, and an estate in England, or, black riding boots, a newsboy cap, megaphone, director's chair, and Hollywood mansion to take this look to the next level. But nunh, rumpled in the concrete studio is a look unto itself.

And below, the polka-dot blouse and Sanchez pants close up. The dots are a vivid baby blue on a brown background, but the inner collar is lime green with blue dots.

That's all for this week. I'll link to Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style when the time comes. And I've also linked up to Catherine, #iwillwearwhatilike, at Not Dressed as Lamb.

I hope you are all keeping your cool, no matter what your weather is. Finally, some sunshine is here - I can't believe it. Hugs to all.

What do you think those shoes were doing there?!

What to wear for gardening, and AARP!

Oh yeeeeah, baybee, we're raking it in now! We're talkin' the green stuff, all righty. Heh-heh-heh. And I don't mean vegetation - because it's pretty much just mulch. Sigh. Now that I mention it, I'm not really raking at all. Props. They're the best. I'll call this photo "The Rake's Progress - In a Good Way" (The Rake's Progress is the title of paintings by Hogarth and an opera, both with a wretched ending for the rake).

My Vegas Pantsuit, although it's really a jumpsuit, vintage crepe wool (fully lined) and sleeveless, with palazzo pant legs. The slits up the sides are edged with rhinestones diamonds and topped by a sparkly silver embellishment. DIVINE. When I first laid eyes on this beauty, I immediately sensed that the previous owner wore it to Vegas in the day, and WON. I'm still placing my bets hoping the vibes will carry over.

The flutter sleeves are another vintage piece, a top with a stretchy low-cut, nude-coloured body and lovely angel wings, designed to be worn under other pieces, like this Vegas jumpsuit.

And another outfit. This is the most HUUUUGE construction trailer and stairs ever, it's downright Brobdingnagian. (Love that word! Brobdingnag is the name of the island in Gulliver's Travels, where Gulliver is very small.)

That's some good-assery there. (Why must my ass always be bad? - even if it is.) My T-shirt is a DIY that says "I am my own brand." I would revise the statement to "I am NOT a brand" but it's too late now and I like the T-shirt. It's hard to see anything clearly when the photo is this small. Good.

And the pièce de résistance for this post - the video I put together when Suzanne and Sue and I met up recently. Suzanne came up with the story, Sue did all the camerawork, and I did the editing. We filmed this at Talize Delta, that humongous thrift store that we make a special point of hitting together when Suzanne comes to town.

I'll link something up with Patti at Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style, here too. I'm feeling more perky this week so I'll need a sassy little drink and Cheesies. See you there!! And I've also linked up to Catherine, #iwillwearwhatilike, at Not Dressed as Lamb.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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THRIFT SHOP FIGHT CLUB

SUZANNE VS MEL

Who will take home the bowling trophy?!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I have experienced the aisle block, hanger crush, grab 'n' dash, and rack attack many times while thrifting, but I usually don't take my opponent down - I wouldn't want to hurt anyone. But I give a mean side-eye. Heh.

The uncensored hardcore version of this video is playing in the rec room of an anonymous middle-aged woman in the suburbs in Altoona, Pennsylvania. You have to know the secret password to get in and must bring a bottle of Paul Masson wine and Cheesies.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Aaaand, I was in a piece in AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons) in their section called Disrupt Aging. Hahaha. The snappy writing makes me so happy. The full story is HERE with new photos. Thank you AARP!

Others in there are Dorrie Jacobson of Senior Style Bible, Anita Irlen of Look for the Woman, Lyn Slater of Accidental Icon, Alyson Walsh of That's Not My Age, Sara Jane Adams from her Instagram, Elisa and Lily of Stylelikeu, Judith Boyd of Style Crone, Debra Rapoport of her self-named blog. I'm a fan of all these women. It's a huge honor to be among them.

I had another meetup a couple of days ago. I'll have to put that in my next post! And there is a video to go with it. Heh.

I hope you are all feeling DAZZLING no matter what you're wearing. SPRING SPRING SPRING!!! (at least in this hemisphere). Vancouver is still in rehearsal but I'm sure it will eventually get here. Hugs to all!!!