The dead will quietly bury the living

It's hot! It's that time of year when offices are actually pleasant places to be - the air conditioning is so cool and dry. 


A small portion of my brain melted today and sadly it was the portion I use to remember my blog photographing obligations. Thus I have no photo of me in a plain black dress that is only marginally different from the other plain black dresses I wear so frequently on a Monday. 


I can, however, tell you what I wore with the plain black dress: 

A Burberry hair clip and English Wedgwood earrings. I bough the hair clip (and in fact another in a rounder, fatter shape) at a sale in David Jones about five years ago. I'm not usually one for this kind of extravagance, but it was my birthday, I had the requisite cash and besides, I'd never had a new really posh hair clip. Also, I had recently acquired a pink silk Burberry scarf; I thought it might be witty to wear the two together. I never have. 


The earrings are part of a range Wedgwood used to release annually. They are Jasper ware, set in sterling silver and stamped with the year they were made (1974). I have lots of Wedgwood jewellery, all from flea markets and eBay. These earrings are my favourite. Vintage earrings for pierced ears are always a find. As you'd know, earrings are the item of jewellery most likely to go missing so it's unusual to find a pair. If you do, and you really like them, they're worth the investment. 

This was my scent for today. It's a very thin, pale scent, quite powdery and flowery like the scent you might catch from an old lady's dressing table. It's perfect for the summer and still smells fresh at the end of the day. 


My melted brain portion is slowly reconstituting so I can let you in on a sneak preview of what I'll be wearing tomorrow: 

Isn't she the prettiest piece of blue glass you've seen a long time? I bought her on Etsy and she arrived today. She's not marked but is polishing like silver, so I'm thinking she's Russian silver (that's 800 as opposed to 925 sterling silver).  She makes her debut tomorrow, possibly with a blue jersey dress, a lot of sunblock and sunglasses as the temperature inches up to around 36 degrees Celsius. 


I might also strap some ice packs to my head. 

Then we'll put our dark glasses on

It's been a very hot weekend. 

I still haven't finished packing. 

Filling in the missing paint-by-numbers colours

Some days are more satisfying than others. Today was a very unsatisfying day. 


No matter. I fixed it up with a plate of Vietnamese noodles tonight, and then tweaked it with a handful of chocolate, a copy of Lucky and two re-runs of Law and Order. ("You have the right to remain silent." That's a very powerful suggestion. Sometimes I'd like to Miranda people on my bus in the morning. But that's a another matter.) 


I'm continuing my therapy this weekend with the application of a favourite handbag and earrings: 

Note: they're both blue. The earrings are cordierite, or water sapphires. In fact they have nothing to do with sapphires and I'm not sure what irresponsible person dubbed them thus. They're pretty stones regardless, a sort of blue-violet colour. When people ask about them I always get confused and say "They're water chestnuts" which might explain why I don't have many friends. 
The bag is by Anya Hindmarch and was an eBay score. I stalked it for weeks until the price came down. It's perfect for the weekend - pleasant colour, lots of room yet not distracting. 


What was distracting today was the humidity.  I dressed in a plain Jigsaw dress and some Aerosoles shoes I forgot I owned - they were hiding up the back of the back of my wardrobe and were only discovered as I hunted for a pair of red shoes I thought I had (turns out I didn't, unless they're hiding too). And yes, the Mulberry bag which is turning out to be one of my most faithful accessories.  My outfit photo shows me at the end of the day , worn down by the heavy moist air and a head full of curls that will take no direction at all.  I intended the photo to be a sort of a redeeming, explanatory epilogue of the rather unpleasant day but the phone rang and ... well, see for yourself: a woman who needs understanding and a plate of Vietnamese noodles if ever there was one. 

I love the colour of the shoes. They don't really go with anything yet work with everything. 

Perhaps that could be my motto. 

True love could have been a contender

Here are some things I thought about today: 


1. I really have to cut back on the black dresses. 


2. Tomorrow I should wear that white dress with the enamel brooch. 

3. It would be wrong to have brown rice sushi for lunch again.


4. I should have bought those shoes with the grosgrain ribbon and glass beads at the Salvation Army last Saturday. 

5. I wish people would send me messages via mental telepathy rather than email. 


6. If not brown rice sushi, what could I have for lunch? 

 7. There'll be times enough for fried potato snacks in America. Salads are my friend. 


8. Actually, America! I'll be there soon. What are the chances I'll find a bag like Nat's Kate Spade beauty? 

9. Oh! I have the gym tonight. Salad and cheese! 


10. Why can't I grow roses? Do you need a rose gene to be able to grow them? Can the young plants sense I'm scared of them and then die from fear of my rose-ineptitude? 

11. This day is going more slowly than it should. It's as if midday got caught on a fence post and can't move forward. 


12. My life would be a whole lot better if they made Sunshine Lemon laundry liquid for front loaders. Who could I petition about that? 

13. I'm scared of crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. It's going to be like Sacre Coeur but perhaps worse, because I won't be able to sit down to cower in fear. 

14. The Rose Bowl flea market is going to be special. What are the chances I will find the matching cast-iron rabbit? 

15. Oh! An invite to the Consultation thingy. I love those guys. Accept!  


16. What should I blog about tonight? 

Everything sold (to me) is blue again

Blue is not really my colour. I can get away with teal occasionally and sometimes look refreshed in pale blue, but for the most part shades of blue do nothing for me. I mean that literally - grey marle makes me look corpse like, red makes me look as if I'm about to combust and take several suburbs with me, black makes me look cranky - but when I wear blue, nothing happens. I just disappear. 
Having said that, I love this dress. 

It's a piece of silk-cotton polka dot loveliness by local designer Anna Thomas. I found it reduced and reduced and reduced at a sale, and bought it despite the fact it was two (count 'em) sizes too big and navy blue. The size problem is evident at my waist where the best intentions of a belt are thwarted. I don't care. It's soft and light and very comfortable for a day in the office. 


In fact, I liked it so much that when I found a matching blouse from the same range at the same sale (also too big) I bought it too. 


What surprises me is how the colour doesn't ignore or despise me. I've had this relationship with blue lately. We seem to be getting on a little better and subsequently it is worming its way into my wardrobe and affections. 

That's the trapeze dress I hauled back from the seventies last week. She made her 21st century debut with a Petit Bateau tank, a Liberty bag and a pair of preposterous Birkenstocks in - you guess it - 

blue. Though to be fair there is a goodly amount of silver mesh in there too. May I also add that I love having lavender toenails. 
Oh, and before I forget, wearing blue does allow some exciting shoe leeway. I wore the Ferragamos with the Anna Thomas dress: 

Both parties were very happy with the arrangement. 
Sydney sagged in the heat today, about 36 degrees Celsius' worth of melting. (For those of you tuning in from the Fahrenheit regions, that's about 98). Amidst oppressive heat and humidity, I packed my bag for the US.  It's difficult to guess exactly what I'll be needing in San Francisco in February. All the books say layers, all the people who've been there say a coat. I'd be grateful for any clues. 
But look: six dresses, four pairs of leggings, eight pairs of opaque tights, three long sleeve t-shirts and some light silk knit vests ...

...all in one standard carry-on case. Moral of the story: The more you travel, the better you pack and the more shopping you can put in your big check-in luggage. 
Seriously though - San Francisco, Nevada, Los Angeles, February: not as cold as New York, no? A scarf and a trench coat should keep me warm - or not? 

It doesn't even have a name

The news is on in the background.

They say a prisoner escaped,

Slipped through a hole in the the

Fence, piteously dressed for winter.

You shouldn’t approach him. Part

Of me fears the felon who held

A blade at a teenager’s throat while

He robbed the till, who threatened

A neighbour with a mallet. His

Eyes change colour when he needs a hit.

But part of me cheers him on.

We’ve all been caged, staked.

We’ve all been imprisoned by our

Own circumstances and relived

Our bad choices all days after. Who

In the field of their errors and spying

The smallest of holes wouldn’t squeeze their

Shoulders through that desperate exit and bolt

Through the frigid frost in bare feet? 

That's not thunder, that's a drum roll

...and it's for my favourite all time fashion book, The Cheap Date Guide To Style (Transworld Publishers, 2007, Kira Jolliffe and Bay Garnett).   You may remember Cheap Date, a clever, anti-fashion magazine that closed down a few years ago.   Cheap Date was (in my opinion) the precursor of the current raft of style-it-yourself manuals and guides, and one of the earliest magazines to feature vintage clothes styles with more expensive new pieces. 

This book is a joy - a great big dressing up trunk full of ideas and suggestions. It's not about buying ten key pieces or a whole raft of new garments in a specific palette.  There's no rules and no strict themes. You'll find a variety of women (Princess Anne, Marianne Faithful, Beth Ditto, Jane Russell, Patty Smith Tracey Emin and  Sophie Dahl to give you an idea) a variety of interviews and a wide cross section of ideas presented in a very low key way. It's like hunting around a flea market, looking for the bits that suit you best. I browse this book often and always close the covers feeling stasified. 


Surprise: Amelia Earhart had great style (I want jodhpurs)
Verdict: Intelligent fashion writing by two intelligent fashion writers. My pick of the bunch. Its out of print but there are lots of copies on Amazon. You won't regret it.  

So that's what I think. 


Tomorrow is a national public holiday which I intend to celebrate by sleeping in, mooching, packing for my upcoming holiday and possibly by taking a late afternoon swim, depending on the weather and my motivation. 


And my blue dress. You should really become acquainted with my blue dress.