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! 

Impode/Explode

As a tribute to all the fantastic Fluevogs I've been seeing these days, I drew the following cartoon last night. I had the idea for it last year and finally got around to drawing it up:

That's not me in the final frame, but those are certainly my shoes, the Fluevog Munster in lilac suede! (That's a startled cat in the first frame.)

Some of you were asking, so here are some shots of the magic pendants O has made for me. He machines them on a watchmaker's lathe in his studio from blocks of metal such as aircraft-grade aluminum or stainless steel, and he adds bits of gold or emeralds or rubies or other little stones. He doesn't sell them; if he did they would be too expensive because they are so time-consuming to make. Each one is an original and I cherish them.

O's work is usually super-duper small, like this:

He machined those screws and the other metal pieces, shown above with grains of Japanese rice. So you can imagine when I look at his work I get a huuuuge headache (in a good way) and I must rush to my studio and make something like this:

Implode - Explode.

That particular painting is 5 feet high and 11 feet long and is called Sunny Noon Downtown Saturday. (Note the framing or capping on the ends to keep the chaos from exploding off the ends of the paper!) You can see more of O's work here if you're interested.

That's all for today, something a little different. The forecast is for rain all week. I better arm myself with more colour!

It's Hitchcock in 3D!

If you stare at the coat and skirt together long enough, kind of cross your eyes a little bit, you will see a 3D image of Alfred Hitchcock! It's uncanny!

It's a good thing I don't have a bejeweller because I think I would go wild on this little outfit, it makes my hair go all sproingy with excitement. I bought the red Oriental top about a week ago and had been saving it for a nice day, which was Saturday (sorry, this outfit is stale but I really wanted to share it with you!).

I have realized that you can throw almost ANYTHING on your body and make it work if you frame your hands/arms, legs/shoes, and head in the same stable colour, in this case black. It's like framing abstract art, which is how I stumbled across this miraculous discovery. The dark tips contain or cap all the exploding stuff on the central canvas. Who knew art could be so practical?

Details of the outfit:

• bias cut wool skirt with wide suede waistband and suede along the hem, thrifted for almost nothing (I forget how much). The main body of the skirt is vanilla with a houndstooth pattern in black, brown and white.
• red silk Oriental top-jacket thing, thrifted $6
• patterned coat, thrifted, repeat item
• shoes were new from The Bay department store about 8 years ago

My camera captured that vivid red so well above. And below, a little weirdness, trying to keep it real but for the ghoulish-stare face.

I am happy to include this in Patti's Visible Monday. Yay, Patti!