The '20s dress

Don't speak to me. I'm from another era. I'm cra-cra.*

Yup.

Uh-huh.

Time-warping between past and present. 3D-style. Close then far.

But time stands still for these shoes.

*Cra-cra, pronounced cray-cray, is an abbreviated form of the word crazy, popular among hip urban youth in the early 21st century.

Details

• swingy polka-dot blue dress with tie at the neck, thrifted, purchased the day I was stranded with only my stiff nylon car blanket covered in leaves as a coat in the rain and that guy said he liked my style
• black tights, remains from an Egyptian tomb but mysteriously made with kryptonotic elastic
• patent black leather shoes with strap, thrifted
• R coat, thrifted
• felt cloche with flower, retail, from the shop at the archeological site mentioned above
• magic loupe, handmade gift of love 
• ghost-on-a-swing pendant, friend

Unexpected deadlines means no Visible Monday for me, but I must still SEND YOU to Patti's place at Not Dead Yet Style for if you haven't been already to ogle all the other specimens of early 21st century beauty. Go, GO NOW! Quickly!

Caterpillar brows experiment

As soon as I clamped eyes on the December 2012 British Vogue with its feature "Vogue goes POP: An explosion of fashion and fun" I knew I'd be going shopping for cosmetics for the first time in ages, perhaps years. Not having read a proper fashion magazine in as long, I clearly had a lot of catching up to do on my face. It was the eyebrows, you see, lovely caterpillars of seafoam green and papaya on a couple of the models. I HAD TO HAVE THEM, and have them I did.

I have always been interested in image and its impact on how others perceive us and how we perceive ourselves. As some of you may know, I admire American artist Cindy Sherman, whose photographic works of herself in guises of every description are an exploration of these same questions.

For me, dressing is a dance of masking and revealing. Now that I have loaded up with new cosmetics, makeup is also part of my little life polka.

I call this high-brow exploration CATERPILLAR BROWS.

Top left: Neutral; Top right: Look, I'm Cindy Sherman!

Middle left: Super-silly-us; Middle right: I'll pray for you, dahlings.

Bottom left: "???"; Bottom right: "Oh, Poirot, I've lost my poodle in the Nile. Can you find it?"

None of the characters/looks above were thought out - they grew as my shoot progressed. I chose to work with my big groovy hat, sequin tube top, colourful scarf, and peach peignoir (the former all thrifted), and a red wool hat, gift. The white knit top, very tattered but comfy, and grey T-shirt underneath are fine examples of my home schlep-wear (say that five times very fast).

It was hard not to do faces with this look.

Second row left: Ms. Bean-Bagg or Ms. Bagg o' Beans

Mr. Bean and Ms. Bagg tie the knot. Won't our children look gawjus?

The eyebrows are MAC chromacake, blue and yellow mixed. The eyeshadow is yellow cake with a sprinkling of glitter, which I completely love, then a little, rather, a lot of dusting of blush on the cheeks. Finally, MAC Yum-Yum matte pink lipstick with liner and lots and lots of mascara on my upper lashes.

I wore this exact cosmetic look on my inspiration walk downtown a couple of times last week, minus the bright red cheeks. Then on another day I did my brows in papaya. I also wore the big hat downtown, stuffed with the scarf to keep it from falling over my eyes.

Oddly, this look in public did not make me feel clownish in the least. Sometimes I even forgot that I had green eyebrows and glitter yellow eyelids. But there was no escaping how swell I was feeling. I'm surprised those little brow worms didn't turn into butterflies and fly straight away.

Have you been thinking of mixing up your cosmetic palette? Would you try this in your free time?

Am I just a reflection?

Do I exist?

I see my reflection.

I feel the wind on my cheek.

I hear my heels clack on the sidewalk.

But how do I know it's real?

How do I know any of this is real?



I caught this image in the mirrored window of a local business. It's Sunday so I hope they were closed.

The white letters in the photo are a poem that someone has stuck to the window - and someone else has unstuck. My sweater has the word "Wi" (why) on it.

Sometimes when I come out of my coffee shop after journaling, my mind stays behind at my little table, still ruminating over those pages which are now safely stowed at my side in my toolbox handbag.

This dress has headed to the donation pile more than once, but this morning I found a rescue and it's now one of my favourite pieces. I put mitten clips on the sides to shorten it which created this interesting pear shape. The knit sweater was also destined for redonation until I chopped it off, hemmed it, and embroidered that kitty head with the sticking-out-tongue on it yesterday. I didn't use a pattern, I just started, and I'm glad I left everything to chance because being raw it feels alive. I started to stitch "Why?" but decided it would be too long and stopped abruptly before I had finished the "H," only to realize that the H arm could transform conveniently into an "i" with the addition of a dot - same word, different spelling. "Wi."

The mitten clips were only 50 cents a pair at my favourite local fabric shop, Dressew. From them I also bought yarn, a bag of 3 balls of odd eyelash black yarn with metallic silver threads, for $3.99, and a pair of metal darning needles for 25 cents.

Those are my cool stripey socks over my cool plaid leggings in dark brown with blue and rust-coloured lines. I had to play with the photo contrast and colour to get that pattern to show even faintly. I brought along my brown wool shawl but didn't need it; my knit top was perfect for this cool sunny day.

Details

• dark brown dress with squiggles, rescued, sample sale
• mitten clips, Dressew, 50 cents, new old stock I presume
• plaid leggings and stripey socks, retail
• black knit skirt worn under dress for warmth and dress-flying-up protection, sample sale
• buttery-soft brown leather ankle boots, thrifted, Value Village, $7 I think (1/2 price day)
• knit top, thrifted, Value Village, upcycled with scissors and yarn

I'd never embroidered with yarn before but the idea of stitching big yarn into loose knits appealed to the slacker sewist in me - you can accomplish a lot in a very short period of time. I'm on a roll now...

My hair has finally taken root in the sense that the white colour feels Right now. Since I had my hair done, the transformation was not sitting well on my head. I think I feel better because I've been experimenting with cosmetics, which has been very exciting. I'll post some photos soon. If only these products would come off my face with as much fun as they go on.

I'm heading to Patti's Visible Monday to see all of you in pixelated reflections. How odd is that? How interesting and great that we can slip into this netherworld of hardware and dots of light.

PS. VOGOFF magazine has put out a call for submissions. Check my previous post for details if you're interested.