Some Girls Wander

A Cardinal Goes to the Supermarket

I do seem to have a secret dream of being a one-legged girl, judging from these poses I keep showing up with.

 
Dress - Vintage
Tights - Sock Dreams
Shoes - Solea
Belt - Vintage
Handbag - Vintage

I bought this dress a few months ago from my favorite vintage store in Portland. Though I still need to procure some mid-century style shaping undergarments to really do it justice (ala the much chatted about Ms. Joan Holloway), I couldn't resist breaking it out.

 

It's a lovely cardinal-red wool, and so perfect for Wintertime.

And the COLLAR.

The collar's really the thing with this dress.

Chie Mihara, You are my Kryptonite

I've been poking around Endless, which I think has supplanted Zappo's as my dream-shoes-searching-out tool. Their search is so good and I think that their inventory skews more Emily-ish than Zappo's does. They also have a very healthy selection of brands I tend to like... Biviel, Frye, Franco Sarto, Pink Studio, and of course...Chie Mihara.

My love affair with her heels began when I lived in Brooklyn, and tried on a pair of suede t-strap heels at Sodafine. Erin, the lovely owner, warned me "You will want a new pair each season if you give Chie Mihara a whirl".

These are the pairs I'm losing it over right now:
 

This is the archetyple Emily-shoe shape. 2-2 1/2" substantial heel, t-strap, the works. The majority of my shoes fall into this category.  I've also been longing for blue shoes (I've got red, yellow, and green covered...).
And they are just damn beautiful objects.

These are fetching because they are quite like little girl's shoes, but in grown-lady sizes. Embarrassingly, I often find myself clicking on a pair of shoes in some online shop, only to realize in that instant that they are intended for a little girl under the age of 10.

These send me because they've got the perfect, aforementioned shape, a nice thick strap, and appear to be the lovely "winter white" that I'm into right now. I'm not sure if it's the transitioning of Winter into Spring, but creamy, warm ivories have been catching my eye quite a lot these days.

*Sigh*
The lady's got my number.

The Bottom-half of Something lovely

All of the photos including the top-half of this outfit were unfortunate in some way or another (blurring, etc), but I really liked this one. The dress is a Tracy Reese dress that I Ebay'ed a few months back, and I am just crazy for all that soft tulle. It's more of a spring dress anyway, so you'll probably be seeing more of it in a few months.

I actually trimmed off the bottom layer because I thought it was too long. Looking at this photo, though, the tea-length is really nice!

 

Oh, well...
C'est la vie.

Girl Chimney-Sweep?

A favorite outfit from last week:

Blouse - Marc by Marc Jacobs 07
Sweater - Anthro 08
Skirt  - Target 07
Underskirt - repurposed lining from an old Anthro skirt
Socks - Forever21
Shoes - Biviel
Bag - Vintage
Beret - H&M

I think it was a favorite mostly because I'm happy whenever I wear my favorite shirt:

It was on supersale from Net-a-Porter last year and I snapped it up. I really love blouse-like tops that are actually jersey. Perfecto fix for the gaping-at-the-bust problem that many of us ladies have.

A detail of the underskirt...it used to be attached to a velvet-burnout number that I dyed to unfortunate results. Happily, the petticoat underneath is what I liked best anyway, and it survives!

An Otherwise Perfect Dress

I got a very sweet email the other day from a reader who inquired if I had ever thought about doing a post on how to build a wardrobe. Even though I'm not sure I'm qualified to do this, I think I'm going to attempt such a post in the next few days!

As I've been more and more sartorially inclined, I've realized the importance of neutral foundation pieces, such as a perfect grey dress.

A dress, oh, like this one from Anthro might have been:

if not for the enormous embroidery!

I love, love this dress, especially the top half. I love the cut, the color, the collar. But by the time we meander down to the base of the skirt, the piping-embroidery is out of control! I think it would be lovely in another context, but here I think it's just too much. My love for the dress is so strong, however, that I've really considered painstakingly removing all of that piping myself.

But then that seems crazy.

Indoors/Out-of-doors

  

Sweater - Tracy Reese
Skirt - Anthro 07
Tights - JCrew
Coat  - H&M  06
Shoes - Ecco
Brooch - Handmade

I know I've posted this brooch before, I just love it so. And it looked so pretty with that blue!

Back to the Regularly Scheduled Dresses...

Tartan style.

Dress - Vintage, thrifted
Cream lace slip - UrbanOutfitters 07
Cardigan - JCrew 08
Knee Socks - Forever21
Shoes - Ecco
Bag - Vintage from Etsy
Necklace - Etsy (Christmas gift from Josiah!)
Beret - H&M

I thrifted this weird/cute jumper/dress with Ashley a few weeks ago. It's one of those things that I wouldn't necessarily expect to love...but do. Maybe it's that it's a little frumpy and a little racy at the same time?

 

EtsyVintage Feature...

I just mentioned it over on the big blog, but in case there are peeps who only follow this blog, I thought you might be interested in the vintage spotlight I did for the Storque (the Etsy blog). There are lots of pretty things to wear included!

Tomboy in the Park

What's this? Dungarees peeking from behind the trees?!

Sweater - Dolan
Jeans - J Brand
Socks - Gap
Shoes - Anthro Summer '08
Scarf - vintage

This isn't any sort of ground-breaking look, I just wanted to surprise all of you with  my jeans-wearing. They're the cigarette leg "Scarlett" jeans from J Brand, and I'm just in love. Not skinny and legging-esque, not flared, just right.

It was really autumnal in the park the other day...we didn't even need coats (just scarves!).

We spent the afternoon doing happy out-of-doors things, like feeding squirrels.

Seriously.

Simpleton

Sometimes there is nothing better than a simple red + white striped shirt (This one hails from Urban, last season).

Aannnd, yesterday I procured some very sassy cigarette-leg jeans that will make an awfully nice companion next time the simple-striped-shirt mood strikes!