New Year's Eve bash!

Laughter! Music! Dancing! Drinks and canapes! A swirl of glitterati! 

There was a huge New Year's Eve bash last night. A glamorous one. Somewhere. Not here. 

That didn't stop me from having my own mini gala in the concrete atelier. And I swanned around home for a little while speaking with drawn-out fake British/French/Russian/Spanish/Marlon-Brando accents, with a few Japanese words thrown in, wearing my Morticia Addams-on-Skittles dress.

In the above photo I think I look like the hood ornament of a big classic car, striking a pose front and centre above the grill, obstructing the driver's view, hair blowing wildly as I speed down a highway on the outskirts of Vegas perhaps. 

Yeah, it's a look I'd like to duplicate more often with or without the gown. To boldly go. If I were living in California in the 1920s, I think I would have enjoyed wing-walking.

Above I am doing Julia Roberts-as-Pretty-Woman opening the jewellery box from Richard Gere before flying off to the opera, scene is here. That movie HORRIFIED me!! The message was wrong, Wrong, WRONG!!! So I am doubly vexed when I find myself referencing it, like I am now.

I don't need expensive gems or clothes to make me happy. My magic loupe, custom-made by O, is priceless. He sells them in his Etsy store, here. And cool rings too. Those ones have a price but they are still priceless.

The dress is thrifted, purchased at Talize a couple of years ago on an expedition with Suzanne and Sue. When I posted on it before, here, I was concerned about the puddling hem, but, pffft, with these new platform shoes (posted here) there is less drag. Plus, this gown is machine-washable. Looking back, I don't know what the fuss was about. And my carpet is clean if you're not wearing reading glasses.

That's my index finger there, not my third finger, a "come thither" not a "feck off" gesture - although, now I look at it, my facial expression could be interpreted either way. Gaaa!!! Mixed signals like this could lead to disaster.

What this shot should be saying is, "Hey, 2018, c'mon, c'mon! I'm ready." In fact, for this photo, in my head I was asking the server to bring me another martini.

The vintage baby-pink ruched gloves were a gift from an estate. I made the purse from a wood matryoshka. O custom-made the hardware. I designed it as a teacup carrier, but it works just as well as a hand bag and it's perfect for this gown.

At the concrete-box party, they ran out of martinis, so when I got home I headed straight for the strong stuff. You got it: coffee with caffeine. Oo-wee, now we're living! With butter-pecan-flavoured creamer!!!

The dress features an off-the-shoulder design, but on me, for some reason, it kept slipping into off-off-the shoulder territory. I should have used my suspenders. There was no real danger of a wardrobe malfunction because I was wearing an undergarment contraption, although that kept slipping too.

And that last shot shows you the tulip skirt at the bottom, the Morticia Addams pose. It's really quite a divine dress. I have a sequin mini dress that I had intended to wear to the party, but decided to save it for another special occasion.

So 2018. Hmm. Not sure what to make of it yet. So far, so good. I hope you all have a stellar new year ahead. It can't be worse than 2017, right? RIGHT!?!!! 

Cheers. Hugs all around. Thank you for reading.

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

Kiss of the drunken spider woman

I'm not in space any more but the retro rocket is still firing - thanks to this gift from the fabulous PAO from Project Minima: vintage maxi knit dress with an enormous brown velvet bow, once worn by her mother. Clearly we know that PAO is exploding with style and artistic talent, but now we also know that she inherited some pretty awesome get-your-groove-on genes from her mum.

It's too bad I didn't have a champagne glass as an accessory when I went out today, as surely the elevationary effervescence from a raised glass of bubbly would have flown me and this magical dress to my coffee shop in very good time and in much better style than Mary Poppins with her priggish umbrella; I would just have to hang on to the stem of the glass very tightly and watch out for spills. This dress made me feel very '60s martini/champagne party and bewitching at the same time. 

After my photo session I remembered a photo I had seen of Sonia Braga in her Spider Woman role from the movie Kiss of the Spider Woman. Our poses are similar but I think for my own good I'll end all comparisons there! Her web is very Alexander McQueen, don't you think?

My walk home was challenging: Step step step POSE. Step step step POSE. Sometimes you've just got to flaunt it; I'm glad I didn't pull a muscle from the exertion. "Here she comes, A-walkin' down the street, She gets the funniest looks from, Everyone she meets..." (Lyrics from the Monkees)

Details of the outfit:

• knit maxi dress, by Paul Stanley, New York, gift from the magnificent PAO
• maxi white nylon slip, thrifted (it came with my maxi sequin dress here)
• animal print shoes, Dolce and Gabbana, thrifted
• pantyhose(!), retail
• wooden matryoshka*, retail, Lee Valley Tools, refashioned by me, hardware by O

Accessory-wise I made do with the all-knowing-eye teacup carrier that I made from a wooden matryoshka - colour on one side (above), black and white on the other (below). The following photo also gives you a better idea of the fabric. The geometric pattern is a dark chocolate brown on ivory and there are textural horizontal lines throughout the fabric as well. I really needed the slip. (*edit: I learnt the correct word is matryoshka or matrushka, not babushka as originally posted)

So a huge thanks and hugs to PAO for making my magical journey possible today!! I couldn't have done it without you. This is my new absolute favourite dress!! 

My outfits often remind me of animals, plants, and even, in this case, a female spider. Do you make comparisons like that about your outfits? Curious. I hope you are enjoying your magical journeys in your fabulous frocks and slacks and what have you's. Breathe, breathe, breathe, aaaah.

(When I say today in this post, I mean yesterday; I wrote this up last night.)