Yellow Skirt Freak Show Update!! and Visible Monday

Great balls of 

sunshine, grapefruit, and rainbow salad

The Freakish Yellow Skirt has landed on

Anne M. Bray of 

Spy Girl

for an "Indian jingle jangle" of salubrious

juicy-fruity frolicking.

See Anne's mesmerizing skirt contortions

With floral sprays and sunny shawl

G o !   G O   N O W !!!

____________________________________________________________________

Thank you, Anne for your brilliant styling!

And other news: VISIBLE MONDAY, Feeling Like Fungus

The rain, oh sweet autumn rain. Yesterday and today I was feeling rather fungal or like a root vegetable to be at one with the leaf rot under foot. This is what I wore.

It was an outfit of nothing. Nothing.

Oversized jeans, top, maxi cardigan, stretch boots, no makeup whatsoever. Fungus does not wear lipstick. I was stripped bare, plain, root runners sprouting from my soles trying to take hold in the soggy earth in an attempt at reabsorption.

Sometimes I just want to disappear into the air, be invisible, even though I do believe that a day not dressing up is a day wasted, Vix's mantra. But this WAS my dressing up, okay, perhaps sideways. I was just melancholy. But then yesterday, as I left my building, this happened...

I encountered three Beautiful People, two men and one woman (expensive or genetically-gifted teeth, early 30s, clean, dressed well), hovering outside the door. As I swept past one of the men called out: "Do you mind if I tell you something?" I stopped and turned. He said, "You're so beautiful." They all nodded awe-fully in agreement. "I love your hair. It's the hair." "No, it's everything." "No, it's just something." "Someone should sculpt you." I thought, oh, fungus becomes me. Clearly they were in a good mood. Quite a good mood. Oh, and to be fair did I mention that they also said, "We're so drunk!" "Yes, we are!" "Oh, yes!"[laughter] And they were, despite it being only 11 a.m.  Just the same, I walked to the coffee shop with a smile on my face.

The lesson here? You'll probably get compliments if you head to the nearest hardcore bar no matter what you're wearing.

Seriously, this was a case of being reminded that invisible and visible are tricky things. Timing, weather, emotional place, a butterfly fluttering its wings in Thailand... Classic chaos theory.  Were there angels dancing beacon-like on my head or were the drunkards some kind of twisted angels themselves? Does it matter?

I still felt fungal at the coffee shop, and that's what I liked, cocooned in my journal-writing and comforted by the patter of rain outside.  

This one's for Patti over at Visible Monday, Not Dead Yet Style, my version of invisibly visible. Thanks for the party but please make sure I don't get too rooted in the garden. 

PS. A wee haircut, no recolouring but the platinum in the front is blending with my natural hair. It's magic to be sure.

The Shar Pei sweater

I'm linking up to Patti's Not Dead Yet Style Visible Monday today - barely. I am glad that I am NOT so visible today because my head feels like a balloon, the usual hot hair of course, but lots of cold too - the dreaded head cold. The best remedy for this malady has been unexpected...

Jean at Dross into Gold!

Thank you so much, Sweet Jean, for your lovely Ode!!

You've given me a real pick-me-up!

So a big, warm hug to you (with my face mask on)

I haven't been out or online for the past couple of days, so I'm happy I had these shots from late last week squirrelled away to share.

Details of the outfit:

• thrifted wool walking shorts, two sizes too big, cost almost nothing 
• thrifted polyester graphic sleeveless mini dress, worn as a top, Value Village
• thrifted black wool sweater that I resized using my Shar Pei technique, described below
• maxi cardigan, sample sale, Metallicus
• fingerless gloves and beret - these two are inseparable
• dirty dove-blue tights, with D&G thrifted heels from Value Village

This was another positive bubble outfit. I love to jam my fists into the pockets of these low-slung shorts, which makes them sit even lower - marvellous. And until I tried the mini dress as a top, I never cared much for either the dress or these wool-prickly shorts. Now I think I'll hang on to them both for a while longer.

Above I have my thumbs hooked into the pockets.

And here's a close-up of the sweater.

I pinched up the wool in vertical worm-lines at the front and back of the sweater and around the sleeve, and hand-stitched them so the gathers remain on the outside. I love that Shar Pei (wrinkle dog) effect. One sleeve has a tuck and the other doesn't; there is no symmetry. This was a quick way to add detail and bring a large piece down to size. 

Happy week everyone! (Achoo!!) Excuse me.

The Munsters' escape

A moment of silence, if you please, for the unveiling of the Munsters...
Whoosh!!
[sound of angels singing, people weeping, cries of joy, cries of horror]

Some of the weeping and cries of horror are from me on the way home from my inspiration walk! These shoes by Fluevog are aptly called the Munsters. The first half of my trip was completely fine, but things deteriorated quickly on my homeward journey. Luckily I brought my flats with me, but, oh no, I was determined to make it back without succumbing to a shoe-stop. Grin, step, grin, step, grin, step... The shoe heel is not that big, considering the platform, but the square toe on a shoe 1/8 size too small is unforgiving on a decidedly wedge-shaped foot-end.

I threw together this outfit rather quickly. I wanted to wear these suede shoes to celebrate the rare appearance of our sky-shy sun, and to wear my honeycombed tights over my black tights, a first-time combo - I loved the effect, kind of like boom, aaack! (I scared myself! My legs looked like reptiles on psychogenic drugs!) Then I wanted slightly more sedate tonal coverage on my upper half, so shades of blue with a turtleneck, shrouded in my super-long cardi with handy pockets at calf level.

Details of the outfit:

• those shoes, bought new less than a year ago as a life marker
• salmon-coloured honeycomb tights over black tights
• stretch muted-ultramarine skirt with groovy belt buckle attached, sample sale, Metallicus
• black wool turtleneck, thrifted, Value Village
• blue, blue, blue cardigan, Community Thrift Store
• maxi cardigan, sample sale, Metallicus
• magic pendant O made me, teardrop shape
• NO BERET TODAY - oh, my naked head, but if my hair were alive it would be breathing joyously

Now a closeup of the tights and shoes below. I like how my feet look teeny tiny because the camera is angled way down, but I'm not too keen on the big head.

And then a weird photo. Caption: You wanna buy a watch?!

I shall always love my Munsters, but in a sick way, for special occasions only. (These are the shoes from my cartoon in the Implode/Explode post.) Isn't it odd how the mind can erase bad shoe memories? I know I should have changed my shoes and normally I would have, but I just couldn't help myself today. Do you ever do that?!

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.