It' still summer in New Zealand

well in my head it is anyway. Or rather 'was'...until this week.

I've been thinking bright, & I've been thinking colour - last week I was even shopping for new flip flops. Last week I was still wearing flip flops.

I don't call myself De'borah de Queen of de Nile for nothing !! However, one can only deny so much.

That was last week. That was before it decided to rain. Now I know winter is on it's way. Along with the rain (which has been heavy & persistent) came the drop in temperature that meant some wardrobe readjustments just had to be made.

Now don't get me wrong - I love winter clothing! I adore boots & absolutely think the best of all fashions trends (whether it is in or not) is layering. I love seeing short worn over long, layers of colour, jeans with longer tops & topped with short jackets, waistcoats or vests & many combinations in between. I also like wearing some of it ( I'm kind anal about age appropriate), although I do tend to not get too carried away by what is classed as 'in fashion' - but likely to go right back out of fashion PDQ'!

Two of my favorite ranges are from New Zealand fashion houses that have been around for years (more than I care to remember). Vamp & VSSP, not cheap but certainly worth every cent you pay for the items.
Nice fabrics, quality workmanship & they will last for years. A lot of the items when analysed individually will also remain in fashion for years.

Love this look (& of course it has orange in there!)

My first experience with an item of clothing from the Vamp range was a pair of trendy black fashion jeans back in the early 80's. Those darn jeans just wouldn't wear out. Seven or eight years later when I finally put them in a Mission bin - they still looked like new apart from the styling. It certainly taught me a lesson in you get what you pay for.

These days I can't justify buying much from these ranges - working just one day per week doesn't allow a person the excuse to buy clothes the way it did when I spent more time at a Gallery & had exhibition openings to attend. But it doesn't stop me from looking (& thinking of the clothes from these ranges in my wardrobe that I need to shrink a couple of sizes to fit again!)

And if anyone asked me 'How to dress like an artist?' I would simply reply 'layers'.
I can easily imagine either of these ensembles with either skirts or 3/4 pants or a pair of gaucho's & boots .

Love this too!

And I can imagine the top layers in the image above teamed with this as well.

I would also say that black cotton/spandex leggings & short, short denim mini skirts don't count as layers - well not in anyone over 25 anyway!

What was I thinking?

Now I am not, most emphatically NOT, a frou frou type of girl. Period.

To me lace belongs on underwear & lingerie, flowers in the garden or a vase. I don't do frills, crystals, sparkles, sequins or any super shiny, reflective types of bling. I couldn't even do it in the 80's. Well maybe I did have a pair of lace tights......

Oh I've had clothes with flowers on them & tops with a bit of lace - but do I wear them more than once or twice? These days the answer is most emphatically "No"!
In part that is a generalization, as there always seems to be a rare exception to most of my 'rules' - I've had a couple of nice pieces of clothing in the past that had flowers on them & I loved them.
For the most part I am just not comfortable in frou frou stuff, & if it doesn't feel right - I don't feel confidant & therefore I don't carry it off well. Quite simple really.

I love jeans & trousers or well designed assymetrical dresses & skirts. Well cut & nicely tailored.
The same goes with shoes & boots, nice sleek simple cut & design with nicely detailed finishes!
Oh & just to show how fussy/picky/obsessive I am - I refuse to even try on footwear that has a seam up the front of the toe.
I don't know why I dislike it so much but perhaps it is because, to me, they look like there wasn't enough leather to make them so they had to join two pieces together. Of course, once again, there are exceptions.

So, here's the crunch - why, three or four summers ago, did I buy these??


What was I thinking? Oh yes, right away I thought of a modern day version of Arabian Nights - but really! Did I honestly think that the sale price tag of $10.00 would make me wear them ? Especially given that nothing I owned would go with them.

So there they sat admired but unworn - lonely & isolated in their box in the murky depths of my wardrobe.
Until I decided that I needed something to play with in the studio yesterday.....




The Result - eeeek!
But hey - I was just playing & it was an excuse to use some Gaffer glass as I seemed to have the right colours in that COE.



Oh.... & the irony was that I noticed what shoes I was wearing today as I took the photographs. These happily break every rule in my book - yet I wear them.



I wonder if it's because they are comfortable, or perhaps it's the slight difference in the price tags ;o)