Gloom and Zoom

 

Shortly after my shipment of sleeveless printed tops arrived, I realized my folly: on video calls, not only is your lower half invisible, but most of your upper half is, too! When I'm in a call, the only thing people could see of my outfit is, maybe, the top inch of my shoulders. Sometimes even only my face! So a lot of the shirts that I thought would be interesting on camera actually were just...not.

So I was feeling pretty low about my prospects for ever getting a compliment on my fashion sense again. Was there any point in getting dressed at all? Was there even any point in living? Call me vain, but the only thing that keeps me from retreating entirely from the world and adopting 17 cats is the occasional favorable unsolicited opinion on my outfit, and with out that boost, my strength to go on is severely depleted.

Fortunately, one of the shirts I ordered – just one – was able to lift me out of my funk, having all of its most interesting details at its highest point. Just check out the lacy yellow yoke (in my current favorite clothing color!), and...are those...stars on the collar? Yes, they are! The fun details continue just out of webcam range with more metallic accents and a pleasingly hued series of vertical stripes. It is a loose stretchy knit in a tailored fit, perfect for work-from-home comfort! Of all the shirts in my shipment, this is the one I was most excited about receiving, and it definitely stood up to expectations.

Even if just a smidgen of this shirt shows up on camera, it should give viewers an eyeful! Surely in this shirt, I would receive at least one unsolicited compliment!

I wore it to my weekly staff meeting last Friday and...nothing happened. Alas. At least I enjoyed wearing the shirt. At least I can blog about it. Who needs external validation, anyway?

A cold day in June

 
Normally, by this time in June, I would have been wearing summer outfits for several weeks, but the air conditioning temperature at work, combined with some unseasonably cold weather, has had me wearing nothing but pants and cardigans. I blame that for why I haven't posted an OOTD in two whole weeks (am I going to have to start calling them OOTTW's?).

Friday was no exception to the unrelenting cold (by cold, I mean lows in the high 50's and highs in the low-mid 70's—in other words, perfectly acceptable to most people, but not optimal weather for my preferred wardrobe of sleeveless tops and sandals), but it turns out that the chilly weather actually worked in my favor for once, because it enabled me to wear these thigh-high boots embroidered with stars.

 

 

These tricky shoes have proven almost unwearable since I got them late last summer, since peep toes are usually incompatible with the kind of weather that suits thigh-high boots. But I figured for an night that would start out in the low 70's and drop into the upper 50's, I could probably get away with covered legs and bare toes.

Over the boots, I wore an old standby: my halter-neck LBD that I've been occasionally throwing on for nights out since 2014.

Since a celestial theme was practically mandatory with boots like those, I also wore a pair of star dangle earrings and some star barrettes in my (unusually voluminous thanks to an overnight updo) hair. 

 

 

This is one of my my more painful outfits in recent memory—half of my toes now have a blister on top from where the opening of the shoe rubbed them. I got enough compliments on the boots to make them worth the suffering, but I still stand by my opinion that peep toes are not for me! I'll be selling these shoes at the first opportunity!

These Boots

 

Boots with stars are quite overrepresented in my wardrobe, but my newest pair is special, because they're last year's second pair of birthday shoes! Yes, last year. Somehow I managed to wait a year and a couple months between buying these shoes and wearing them, because that perfect occasion I'm always dreaming of took so long to come.

Speaking of taking a long time, I'd been coveting these shoes without taking action for so long that when I finally decided to make my purchase, they were no longer for sale anywhere! After a brief period of mourning, I bought the Mojitos as a consolation prize. Shortly thereafter, I found a used pair on Poshmark, which I explains why I bought myself two birthday presents in 2018. I got these for 85 dollars (plus shipping), making them my cheapest pair of birthday shoes yet!

So anyway, cut to this past Wednesday, the day I finally decided to take these shoes out of hiding. Earlier in the day, I had made a theme out of "darkness," so in the evening, it was a total about-face when I returned to my much more typical M.O. of colors and sparkles galore. The reason for the reversal was karaoke.

I bet you didn't know this, but it's basically an unwritten rule in my book: if you're planning to sing karaoke, you should always plan to wear boots with stars on them!

The last time I blogged an outfit I planned for karaoke, it featured the star boots that I hand-painted.  Of course, that night, I never did sing karaoke, and the boots met their demise very shortly afterwards (lesson learned over the course of many crafting projects, including my Mothra wings: paint on a flexible nonporous surface does not last very long!).

But Friday night was a chance to try again. I was going to a pre-Thanksgiving live karaoke show, and the moment was finally right for glitter-coated boots with metallic shimmering pink stars all over them!

I matched the one non-pink star on the boots with an equally sparkly aqua tank top, donned a pair of white jeans, and topped everything off with some huge star earrings as well. I poofed out my hair like I only do for special occasions, and hit the road!

With all these stars all over me, it was time to act like a star as well as wearing them. It was time for karaoke!

And can you guess what song I sang?

"These Boots Are Made for Walkin'," of course!

The big bang

I found this star-spangled dress at my last thrift store run. It was around 3 dollars after a 50% discount, and it was right up my star-loving alley! Unfortunately, when I tried it on in the store, I tried it over my pants, and thus did not get an adequate picture of just how tight and revealing it would be in real life.

When I went to wear it for the first time, I was dismayed to find that it clung to my butt and thighs with a level of tenacity entirely unbecoming to a professional woman on the job.

The good thing about this dress was that it was a wrap dress, which meant it had an entire layer of fabric hidden from view, which I could use to expand the tight parts.

I cut into the inner layer, repositioned the outer layer, and added about 1.5 inches to the total girth where it was clinging the most. Pictures, unfortunately, completely fail to convey the steps I took to fix the fit of this dress, so you'll just have to trust me that it looked worse before, and I fixed it!

 

It's still very thin, and I have to wear a slip underneath to keep my undies from showing, but I no longer feel indecent wearing it to work!

I saved the dress for a Friday Funday—when you want the week to go out with a bang, what's a bigger bang than The Big One? (i.e. the birth of the universe, i.e. the origin of stars, in case the connection wasn't clear!) To make the biggest bang possible, I wore mirrored boots. I have acquired loads of star-themed jewelry over the past few months, so I had my pick of necklaces and earrings. I decided to mix metals and wear a gold necklace to contrast with all the silver in the rest of the outfit.

Gold Stars

This winter has dragged on for far too long with far too few warm spells to break it up. Despite several mid-season shopping trips, I've worn through every garment I have that's suited for cold weather.

The one and only thing that continues to add new life to my wardrobe is boots. The fruits of my boot-shopping spree of last fall were finally running out when I went on another one last week. I purchased 3 pairs of over-the-knee boots in a variety of colors, 2 pairs of knee high boots, and one pair of mid-calf boots, which I sincerely hope will last me until spring arrives. Oh, and there was this one pair of denim booties with gold stars that I'd found on eBay a while back.

Denim's basically a neutral, I thought when I bought them, and gold is a neutral too, so surely I won't have any trouble coordinating with these nifty boots! Sometimes my thought processes mystify even me. Unsurprisingly, my so-called "neutral" boots proved way too distinctive for most purposes, until I finally decided to make them the focal point of my outfit.

I would really like to work on my ability to do something other than matchy-matchy, but today was not the day for such experimentation. To go with the indigo denim on the shoes, I wore a darker pair of blue skinny jeans. To go with the gold of the stars, I wore a gold top. My first attempt at this outfit saw me wearing my good old gold tunic sweater, but that wasn't quite good enough. I figured what this outfit really needed was a second layer, so I traded the sweater for a sleeveless blouse and added a long navy cardigan. The flowy cardigan adds interest to the silhouette (as do the dangling waist ties of the top), and the excess of navy made the gold seem that much more precious.

The Unfashionista's Official 2017 trend report

Ahhh, dear readers! It's that time of year when the one person who declares herself entirely unqualified to talk about fashion spends an entire post telling you what's been fashionable for the past year!

This year, I'll divide my list into three classifications: Shoe trends, Clothing trends, and Ornamentation trends.

Shoe trends

I noticed my observations were pretty heavy on the shoes this time around (related, perhaps, to the excess of shoe shopping I did this year which resulted in 1/5 of my shoe collection being acquired in the last six months, and causing it to spill over out of its dedicated closet and into two other areas of my bedroom).

Slides and more slides

From chunky pool slides in the early months to pointy-toed flat mules come fall, the slip-on shoe was big this year. While I had my good fun with furry slides, I restrained myself from purchasing more than one pair because it seemed like they were already on the outs by the time I got them. Flat mules, while still mostly the province of fashion bloggers rather than "regular people," seem to be growing in popularity. But I myself just don't feel like getting any. I always found backless shoes to be a hassle, and the silhouette doesn't really do anything for me.

Ankle straps and lacing

While open-faced lace-up shoes graced my list of 2015 shoe trends, this year I found that around-the-ankle ballerina-style lacing took a front seat. In a similar vein, I've seen a lot of ankle straps. I appreciate how ankle detailing can make or break a trouser length, but straps and laces are hard to work with. After acquiring a couple shoes of this ilk and learning how difficult they are to get on and off (imagine re-lacing your shoes once every hour, as I do to keep myself fit at the office!), my enthusiasm for the lace-up trend is waning quickly.

Sock boots

Boots that are so soft and tight-fitting that they might as well be socks, that's what sock boots are! I'm still kicking myself for finding an overknee sock boot in the thrift store two years ago, and letting a lady talk me out of getting it because it basically looked like a shoe with a sock attached. If I'd gotten it, I could have very cheaply preceded the wave of sock boots that are now the coolest thing since snow. I've gotten a few sock boots this year, most of which I haven't worn yet, but I adore them compared to the alternative, which is the rapidly encroaching oversized slouchy boot.

Clothing trends

There wasn't a lot that really caught my eye in terms of clothing this year. Much of it is basically an extension of trends I mentioned in the past, but I'll briefly summarize a few I noticed.

Statement sleeves

Statement sleeves, which includes the bell sleeves I first noted at the beginning of last year, and expanding to lots of upper-arm bulk and ruffles as well, are still getting bigger—figuratively again, but I wouldn't mind if they did it literally too. I would get a huge (figurative) kick out of a resurgence of floor-length sleeves as seen in the Middle Ages, regardless of their impracticality!

Holey jeans nouveau

While holey jeans were pictured in my fashion review of 2014, I have, unbelievably, never actually featured the trend on its own! Perhaps it's because it has been at least somewhat popular for just basically ever. This year, however, holey jeans were worn in a way that I've never before seen: the enormous gaping holes were decorated from beneath with fishnet tights (again, mostly by fashion bloggers, not the general public). While it's not really my cup of tea, I have to admit that this might be the one way of wearing trashed pants (with something cool underneath!) that I would consider trying.

Shirts with attached chokers

Not too surprisingly, the choker trend of last year made it into clothing this year, with shirts that had built-in chokers at the neckline. This was far from a huge trend, but it's something I've never seen done before, so I felt it was at least worth mentioning.

Ornamentation trends

Ornamentation was where it was at for 2017. While silhouettes didn't vary much from last year to this one, I noticed a lot of commonality in terms of how things were decorated.

Themes

One interesting motif this year is the cactus. I didn't see it a ton, but just often enough to notice it. Stars, a more common embellishment in general, seem to have appeared much more often. To some extent, this may be my penchant for stars that calls me to admire them whenever I see them, but I feel like they were more popular globally in 2017. This was also, definitively, the year of the unicorn. While I am proud to say I loved unicorns before they were cool (for proof, see my Halloween costume from 2012, or the unicorn socks I was wearing in 2010), 2017 was the year unicorns reached market saturation ("unicorn hair" and the "Unicorn Frappuccino" are just a few of the relics of this year's unicorn frenzy). A number of unicorn-themed garments and accessories made their way into my ultra-low price range the past few months, which must mean the bubble is about to burst.

Embellishments

As far as 3-dimensional decorations go, it was small fluffy things all the way. I saw a preponderance of tassels and fur pom poms, especially on shoes and jewelry. I can take them or leave them, and have so far managed to leave them.

Definitely the number-one trend that defined 2017 for me was embroidery, mostly of the floral sort. While it started with a couple of shirts and bras with embroidery patches popping up frequently in my eBay searches, it grew to appear just about everywhere! In addition to being the defining trend for 2017, it's also my favorite, although, being my thrifty and crafty self, I have refrained from buying anything embroidered, in favor of making my own. This has caused me to be a little late to the party, but I'll get there! I promise!

Future trends

Every year, I usually express a couple wishes/predictions for the year ahead. This year, I'm putting my money on flip flops—not beach sandals, which will always have their place (at the beach!), but thong-style sandals (preferably with a platform) to be worn for more everyday and semi-dressy occasions. Dress flip flops are currently totally passé. I was buying heavily discounted pairs in 2011 (sure sign of a decline in their popularity), and had completely eliminated them from my collection by 2016...so that means it's surely time for them to come back! Shower slides were really popular in the late 90's, and flip flops came a few years after. And guess what's pretty popular now? Shower slides! Guess what's coming next! This is not to say I think flip flops will actually rise to ascendancy by the end of 2018, but that it's a good time to stock up if we find a bargain, so our future selves can be ahead of the curve!

Masquerade

New Year, 2014, when I donned my first
(self-decorated, naturally!) masquerade mask.

The Unfashionista loves a good masquerade ball. 

I've only been to one, but liked the idea so much that I started accumulating a collection of masks, "just in case."

The opportunity to bring one into the spotlight finally occurred last weekend, at a friend's recreation of Truman Capote's (I would say "famous," but I'd never heard of it until I got my invitation) Black and White Ball. We were required to wear black and white, and encouraged to bring a mask if the spirit moved us. Of course, I needed no further encouragement, so I set about decorating the fanciest of my masquerade masks, which conveniently at this point was nothing more than a white base.

I had an ostrich feather I'd been hoarding (incidentally, I'm pretty sure I acquired it at the same New Year's party as in the picture), so I hot-glued it to the mask, also wrapping it with fishing line for good measure. The mask had ties to attach it to one's head, but I didn't like what that did to my hairstyle, so I removed those and replaced them with a stick, which is a much more classy way to wear a masquerade mask anyway.

When all was said and done, my mask was one of only two at the party, and no one was actually wearing the other one, so mine stayed in my purse for the duration of the fête. But here's a picture of me peacocking around in it at home after the event was over.

Alas, my handiwork doomed ever to languish in the darkest reaches of the internet, known only to the elite readers of fashion's best-kept secret—my blog!

Unlike my very secret mask, the outfit I wore got a lot more positive attention. At least 3 people commented that they loved my dress, and at least one of them took enough interest to learn that it wasn't actually a dress, but an amalgamation of three different garments: my FabKids tutu, an old camisole that I cropped and hemmed specifically for this occasion, and a new sheer top with stars that I recently acquired from China/eBay.

Weird neckline, cool design.

Getting the top was quite an ordeal—I ordered one last year, but it got turned back at customs, and the seller declined to send me a replacement (they refunded me). Later on, I decided I wasn't ready to roll over and quit just yet, so I ordered another one in August. This time it arrived, and I have to say it wasn't a bad deal for $1.99. The original neckline was hideous, but I was able to fix that with a few snips of my scissors.

Since it was a black-and-white party, and so far I was wearing only black, I simply had to don my white knee-high boots. Had I been wearing the mask, I would have had a nice sandwich of black and white color (like an inverted Oreo), but I had to settle for some much less noticeable white dangle earrings.

What to wear to an eclipse

I've had these earrings for around 2 years and worn them many a time, but somehow they've escaped ever being pictured in this blog! Odd, because I really adore them!

Well, today was the perfect day to finally put these sun and moon earrings front and center, because today was the day of a solar eclipse! I hadn't originally been planning to dress for an eclipse, but a few weeks ago, I stumbled across an article with suggestions for things to wear (er, spend your life savings on!) to celebrate the occasion. I needed no further prodding. The Unfashionista likes to dress thematically for every holiday, and she might as well do it for every notable natural phenomenon as well!

So when it came time to plan the outfit I would wear on the day of the eclipse, I scoured my closet for anything with a celestial theme. I have no shortage of stars, but even though the sun is technically a star, I wanted something that's more instantly recognizable as the sun. That left me only one thing—these aforementioned sun and moon earrings—which were indeed perfect for the occasion, as a solar eclipse would be nothing without the moon.

Usually when I wear these earrings, I take advantage of the aqua stones and wear them with clothing of a similar hue. But it occurred to me that, for a sun-centric event, I should be wearing warm colors. So I worked with the other color of stone, the pastel peachy one, and wore my salmon-striped sheath for the second time. 

We have reached the part of summer when I've mostly run out of new things to wear and I have to start repeating major outfit elements. I don't prefer to wear the same dress twice in 3 months without doing something drastically different with the rest of the outfit, but since this dress is so hard to coordinate, there wasn't a whole lot I could do, sartorially, to add interest. I would just have to work with what I had, which was basically some pretty cool jewelry and a penchant for puns.

First step: make the earrings the stars of the show. Not only would this allow me to work a feeble astronomy pun into my blog, but it would also serve to strengthen the theme of the outfit. So, instead of allowing my hair to fall in front of the earrings, I pulled it back behind my ears with a couple of barrettes. 

Second step: figure out just one more way to represent the theme. I briefly thought about disassembling some of my many moon necklaces and attaching them to the barrettes, but I decided that would be too hard, not to mention, might look like I was trying too hard!

In the end, I realized my outfit had all the eclipse references it needed, thanks to the barrettes. Now, you might not think that these two ordinary accessories have much to do with astronomical phenomena, but they totally do! They're totally clips of the hair!

Thank you, and good night.

Salmon again

 

Lately, my favorite thing to shop for is festive shorts. Since last summer, I've collected 5 pairs of new shorts in varying styles of ornamentation (this influx of discounted decorative shorts must mean that they were popular 3 or 4 seasons ago, but apparently I didn't catch that trend), from frilly lace ones to ones with stars to neon embroidered ones (wait til I get a chance to show you those!) to these white ones with a bold floral print.

There are so many colors on these shorts, I could wear them with a multitude of tops, but I decided, as always, that the best top was a new top.

This spring, I made a concerted effort to fill out my wardrobe with solid-colored tops in every color. Originally the goal was just to get some T-shirts, but then summer happened and I realized that tank tops were a necessary addition to this endeavor. I almost met my goal in one single thrift store run, during which I acquired sleeveless tops in teal, purple, and even the elusive orange! Of course, no one was surprised when I got home and found that the orange top had a bit of a salmon hue to it. Orange has always been the red-headed stepchild of my closet, and part of the reason for that may be that whenever I try to buy something orange, it often actually isn't—and vice versa.

In any case, despite being slightly more pinkish than I'd expected, this shirt still worked with the florals in my aforementioned shorts.

What didn't work was the fit. This shirt was ruched. I once mentioned, long ago, that while they say ruching can produce a flattering and slimming effect, that only works if the ruched item fits very tightly. If it does not, the ruching just serves to add bulk. In this case, I found that all the ripples in the shirt were piling up around my waist, making me look a bit chunky up top.

A few minutes before I was going to wear this outfit out the door, I decided to take my chances on an alteration, adding a couple of seams to the back of the shirt to reduce some of the volume. 

 

 

Fortunately my last-minute gamble paid off. The seams ended up fairly smooth and evenly placed (on the first try!) and did a bit to improve the fit. The change wasn't as drastic as I would have preferred (the casual observer might not even notice the difference!) but it was just enough to make me feel better about my overall look.

 

I know the blurry mirror-selfie isn't the best basis for comparison, but
I think we can all agree I look thinner in the picture on the right (after I altered it).

 

To finish off the outfit, I wore lace-up brown sandals and orange lips that perfectly matched my shirt!

 

Daffodils

 
I wasn't planning on blogging this (extremely simple, quintessentially corporate) outfit until, near the end of the day, it occurred to me that it would look undeniably charming on a backdrop of bright spring flowers.

Although the weather threw the plant kingdom a curveball this spring (warming up to summery levels and tempting the spring flowers to peep from their winter sanctuaries a little early, then blasting them with snow and ice) at least a few daffodils have managed to retain their regal aspect.

I found a garden in the back of a church that was just perfect for a vernal photo shoot, where I posed with my brilliant yellow dress and matching high heels, sporting a classy but flashy necklace.

That's about all I have to say about today's look. It's the flowers that are the real stars of the show!

I say the flowers are the stars of the show, but....

S is for Stars & Stripes

Fashion Dog never misses an opportunity to be seen in pictures.

S-Day came just in time for me to finish a small alteration on the new black-and-white striped tunic I picked up at a rummage sale over the summer. So S-Day had to be stripes day!

Unlike argyle or lightning, stripes are common enough that I'd feel a little pitiful only wearing one item to represent them, but oddly, I didn't have anything else in my wardrobe stripey enough (Well, I did have these knee socks, but they were just a bit too crazy for an everyday non-quirky outfit)!

To make up for the weak presentation of stripes, I picked another S-word to round out the day, and, logically, since I have a lot of stars in my clothes, (not to mention "stars & stripes" are a pretty common pairing thanks to the American flag), that pick was stars. 

So it was no struggle to find a pair of star earrings (pictured in selfie below) and a pair of star boots.

If you haven't figured it out by now, my photographer is,
frequently, the same friend who's obsessed with the Miami Dolphins,
and today he quite coincidentally wore a striped shirt
to match both his his team's colors and my theme!

You can't see them in the complete outfit, but when I first got dressed, expecting a relaxing day at home (but turning out to be a crazy day of brunching and drinking and excessive photographing), I wore a pair of Christmas socks, expecting them to be my sole (get it?) footwear option of the day. They are, in fact, the crowning glory of this outfit, featuring both stars and stripes at once!

Red, White, and Blue

 

Monday was the 4th of July, and that means that last Friday was the beginning of IndepenDANCE weekend, and that means it was time to party! A bunch of friends and I were going to an Above & Beyond concert, and I wanted to wear something patriotic.

Normally for an occasion like this, I'd plan a spectacular outfit days in advance, but I was still settling into my new house and just ran out of time. So the evening of the concert, I got off work, rushed home, and scoured my closet. I had various items with stars, others with stripes, and many that were red, white, and blue, but nothing that cohesively produced an Americana vibe.

So I decided to let my makeup be the patriotic focus of this look—once again choosing to wear complicated eye makeup for a dark concert! The last time I made this mistake, I promised myself I'd add blacklight body paint to the mix, and this time I did, drawing hearts and stars and messages all over myself in invisible ink. I don't think it ever showed up at the concert, but if it did, I hope someone appreciated it!

 

 

I also wore the same sequined shoes as that time (and for the last time, because I just sold them yesterday) and then decked the rest of myself out in various white and blue items (and star earrings, of course!). The necklace lights up—a required touch for any EDM concert.

 

The red-rimmed glasses were an especially fortunate accessory, as my boyfriend bought them for me the last time we went to a concert (they make everything you look at sparkly and rainbow-y) and they just happened to coordinate perfectly with this concert's ensemble. Unfortunately, I won't be wearing them again either, as I lost them at the show, along with my credit card, 40 dollars, one of my invisible-ink pens, and most of my dignity. 

At least I looked put-together when I stepped out.

Future fallen stars

Yet another eBay shopping failure, I bought this dress for $5.86 because I loved the star pattern, even though I wasn't sure I liked the silhouette.

Sure enough, when I got it in the mail, I confirmed that I still hate blousey waists, and the skirt with the longer front and the shorter sides was weird and unflattering. I have plans to convert this dress into something that looks better on me...but there is a good chance that I'll ruin it in the process.

So I thought I would at least wear it just once, as-is, so that the spectacular stars get to shine for a moment before they meet their potential demise.

I did my best to define the waistline by belting it (I actually bought this belt for a dollar to wear with a trench coat, but found that the colors did not match. I thought about getting rid of it but decided I'd keep it only to use as a yoga strap. I'm glad I did, because it was just what I needed to improve this outfit!), but I still feel pretty dowdy in this dress.

And what's the point of trying hard when you're already feeling dowdy? So... flip flops on the feet, my best I-don't-care hair, and...well...I couldn't resist wearing my star earrings.

Two straight days of rave

Some people go to music festivals and camp out there for days on end, getting sunburned all day and sleeping in mud. Unsurprisingly that's not The Unfashionista's jam (I prefer to primp, preen, and prepare in the comfort of my own home), but I do love me some EDM. So for the past two nights, I went to two separate concerts and wore some fun clothes each time.

One of the many wonderful things about electronic dance music is that the people at the concerts wear some crazy stuff! Neon colors, lights as apparel, stockings galore, tutus, and tiny bra tops are standard attire. I always love going to an EDM concert, because it gives me the opportunity to don some of my more out-there clothing.

On Thursday, I went to see Flux Pavilion, and I took the opportunity to wear my galaxy cat crop top (working my way up to tiny bra tops incrementally) for the first time. For the rest of the outfit, I went very conservative and covered-up (it was a freakishly cold and rainy day, and I was not in the mood to get cold or wet on the way there, even though once you're at a concert, you're dancing so much and there are so many people around you, you are guaranteed to feel hot) with black leggings and black combat boots.

I got glittered by a fellow concert-goer, which you can kind of see plastered all over my chest.

This shirt is just slightly DIYed by Yours Truly. I ordered it large, so I had to take in the sides slightly. And then to give it a little glimmer, I glued rhinestones onto some of the stars. None of them came off during the concert or during the wash, so I guess I finally found the right use for my fabric & plastic glue!

The second concert was Eric Prydz last night. At my very persistent urging, I got my boyfriend to come out for another night when he would have preferred to sleep. But it was worth it. We made it to the front row near the end of the show, I got to hold part of someone's flag, and I generally had a blast!

All while wearing my much more heavily DIYed sea creatures hoodie! I wore a pink tank top under it, white shorts (the better to glow in), and my old concert standby, the sequined boat shoes (this time in aqua). In some later post, I will share the process of refashioning the aforementioned hoodie, but that will be a bit too long to share today.

If you look closely, you can see that I'm also carrying my sea creatures purse that I only bring out for costumey occasions.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll be getting ready for bed. Two nights of wild partying is too much for this Unfashionista!

Frog Legs

After the resounding success of my tights with stars on them, I was ready to venture out into even more daring territory—tights with animal faces on them! I've seen cat face tights here and there, and I like them, but I feel like they're too common (at least, common among the limited set of people who would dare to wear tights with animal faces on them). Frogs, now, well, they're a little more unique, and they would go swimmingly (get it?) with my favorite color, green.

My sea-green skater dress made its first appearance since this summer, and I wore kitten heel shoes in a different shade of green. I worried about clashing, then I told myself to stop worrying so much. I topped it with a black blazer, because it was cold, and also because I rather enjoyed the corporate-meets-kindergarten incongruity of it all. In case anyone missed the whole frog theme, I also made sure to don my frog earrings.

I wore this outfit for a birthday party on Saturday. I was probably a little overdressed for the living-room family affair, but better overdressed than under!

Stars of the East

Even my eyes are red and green!

Riding home from errands yesterday, I had just one thought on my mind: what to wear to the party that night. It was a housewarming/holiday party, so I knew my kelly green dress would be a great choice, but what would I wear with it?

The dress is pretty short, and I wanted to have something on my legs, because even if we were going to be inside, it was a cold day, and I didn't want to risk getting a chill. When I remembered the pair of tattoo-style star pantyhose waiting unworn in my dresser, I knew I was on the right track—they would be just perfect for a festive holiday theme.

Stars, in my mind, often go hand-in-hand with a punk vibe, but today I wanted to hover at the other end of the spectrum—cultivating a cutesy, innocent look inspired by the Japanese kawaii aesthetic.

So I put on a pair of pastel lacy shoes, curled my bangs, gathered my hair in a soft half-ponytail (I would have curled the ends of that, too, but I ran out of time), and did my makeup in gentle shades of shimmering pink. I finished it all off with eye makeup intended to make my eyes look huge, and it worked! When he saw me, a friend commented that I looked like an "anime girl."

Star boots

I never much cared for the taupe patent leather booties. They had the liquid murky look of a mud puddle, and they never seemed to go with any of my outfits. For about a year, I stored them at my boyfriend's sister's house as backup shoes in case of an overnight visit, but when she asked him to move all his stuff out so she could have a usable guestroom, suddenly they were back in my possession. I still loved the shape, and I still hated the color. I also had an idea for what to do with them.

Not too long before the Great Eviction, I had found a pair of boots I absolutely loved on a shopping site. They were in one of my favorite colors (fuchsia) and one of my favorite styles (lace-up) and one of my favorite motifs (stars). I would have bought them on the spot, except for the price, and the fact that they'd be pretty hard to find things to wear with. It's a good thing I waited, because they provided the inspiration for one of the most epic craft projects I ever undertook.

It started in September, when I pulled a can of house paint out of the shed. I was going to cover the taupe booties in a beautiful snow white coating. I thought about painting the zippers white too, but decided that after a couple of zips, most of the paint would be scraped off, and they'd look better in an enduring taupe than a flaking white. So I covered the zippers with duct tape and began.

This phase of the project was long. So long. I usually only had time to paint after I got home from work, and I needed to give the shoes two hours of drying time between coats, which meant that most days, I only got around to adding one coat. And it took a lot of coats to completely obscure the glossy base layer. I actually did not finish painting the boots white until late October. Then the project got derailed by the arrival of Halloween and the necessity of making the most awesome costumes imaginable.

And then after that, I had to delay for another week or so while I got around to finding pink paint for the stars. Then, once I had the paint, I had to make my own stencils.

This was an intimidating task, but eventually I found a star graphic online and printed out a bunch of copies of it in various sizes. Then I traced heavily over the printouts onto some heat-inking labels that I'd acquired from my previous job. Then I cut out the stars with an X-acto knife and waited for yet another week—we were hosting a Thanksgiving party, and I couldn't have shoe-painting detritus all over the house with guests around.


 
Finally, art time came. I deliberately did not look at the picture of the boots that had inspired me, because I wanted these shoes to be an original work. But I did remember that they had had a sort of airbrushed look, which I liked, so I decided to bust out my airbrush (haven't used it since I painted my car 5 years ago) and give it a go.

The strategically random placement of stars took me a couple of days, and when I decided there were enough, I stopped. The airbrushed effect was pretty subtle. I experimented with splatter painting with a brush, but I didn't like the effect, so I let well enough alone.

I finished up the paint job by painting the soles white (I considered pink but decided that would detract from the stars, and I wanted all eyes on them), and then set in on the laces. I had removed the laces before I even started painting the shoes and wrapped them around a lamppost to help smooth out their wrinkles. Now I unwrapped them.

I tossed them in a bowl of bleach mixed with water and let them sit for around a half-hour.

They emerged a pale yellow color that would be much more conducive to dyeing.

When they were dry the next day, I dumped them in another bowl of pink hair dye and a tiny bit of water to thin the dye, mashed them around in it so they would get saturated, and let them sit there (covered with plastic wrap so the dye wouldn't dry out) for several hours. They came out of the dye bath the perfect shade of deep magenta. I was really pleased with the results.

These shoes made their inaugural journey last Saturday, when I wore them to a dark bar where no one saw them. I had intended to go to karaoke, where they would be sure to get the attention that is their due on stage, but unfortunately, karaoke was not in the stars (hahaha) that night.

These boots aren't really made for walking (I know what karaoke song I won't be singing!). As I had feared, the paint is already starting to crack, and the color is smudging, so these delightful shoes won't ever become a wardrobe staple, but I hope I'll get another chance to wear them before they fall apart.