Spring 2013 Wardrobe: Black Lace

And now for my 100th post!
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I know most people are down with all the exciting colour combos that work for spring, this year, but for this post I want to focus on classic, black lace. While researching floral prints, pastels and monochromatic dresses, I came across way too many lovely pieces featuring black lace to not share a few of them with you! Bonus? These can all be worn in the summer, too!

1.  LOST Bossanova black lace shorts. $40 USD at tillys.com.

2. The ASOS lace dress with cape. $79.80 US.

3. Bloomingdale's has the aqua lace dress that is currently on sale for $78.40 USD.

4. How cute is the Parisian black lace cutout playsuit from New Look?

5. Last but certainly not least, I'm really digging the Isla lace ponte dress at Monsoon for $120 USD.

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Etsy Fashion: Key Pieces For your Spring Wardrobe

Every time I purchase fast fashions or suggest doing so to others, I feel the need to balance things out. I sew a few pieces for myself or buy at a thrift store. Another way I can even the score, so to speak, is by taking the time to create shopping guides that support small businesses. 

Here is a list of eight etsy shops where you'll be sure to find a few key pieces for your spring wardrobe:

1. Our Little Daisy:

$70.30 CAD

$79.74 CAD

$51.71 CAD

2. Three Little Ducks:

$115 USD

$180 USD

$120 USD

3. Dresstore 2000 (I must admit that I am dubious regarding just how "small business" this one is, due to the price of the cape and other garments they offer but, given that they have listed less than 150 items, I decided to go through with this.)

$58.00 USD

$65.89 USD

$49.99 USD

4. Laura Galic (Etsy is a big, big place now and this shop definitely makes my top 50 list!)

$179.90 USD

$229.90 USD

$120.00 USD (While I do think this dress should probably have been lined, due to how transparent the fabric is, one can easily wear it with a slip)

P.S. I fully intend to buy the above coat and jacket.

5. Raluca Martinescu (Also from Romania, like Laura Galic, this shop is very small but has so much potential):

$24.00 USD (top)

$24.00 USD (skirt)

$23.00 USD (blouse):

6. Daria Karaseva:

$130.00 USD (blazer)

$210.oo USD (I have seen this type of overlapping sketched out before-- I have sketched some myself-- but this is the first time I see that someone has gone through the trouble of making pants like these and I think they're fantastic!)

Classic, side-draped pants $110.00 USD

7. Ella Lai:

$99.00 USD

$119.00 USD

$99.00 USD (pants):

8. Jekyll und Kleid

$165.00 USD

$154.00 USD

$159.00 USD

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Spring 2013 Wardrobe Design. Part One: Orange and Blue.

anyone who knows me at all knows that for years, i have worn black. two years ago, i shocked some of my friends by sometimes wearing purple, navy blue or grey and, for the last four or five years, i'd been whining about how i wished i could wear colour but that every time i tried to incorporate some into my wardrobe, it just didn't work out for me. the colours i did wear were solids or, on occasion, plaids. i also wore coloured tights with completely black outfits or, when out at punk or psychobilly shows, sported bright animal print accents. i also love my pale pink, vintage ben sherman shirt but that was the only pink item in my closet. two years ago i even challenged myself publicly, on another blog, to add colour to my wardrobe and failed. no matter how much i could appreciate colours and prints on other people, i just couldn't do it for myself. 

then, last year, i began falling in love with english countryside looks with an edwardian feel to them. i sought out tweeds and plaids and suddenly found myself owning brown and oxblood fabrics and clothing. i'm not sure at what point the door to my batcave was blown open and the sunlight spilled in but i remember thinking, green and blue are my favourite colours so why don't i ever wear them? i also remember buying a dark yellow sweater (bad choice, given my arabic blood but, hey, it wasn't black) and a bright purple skirt and then, the next thing i knew, i was wearing colour and loving it. 

i think part of the problem is that whenever i did try to wear colour, friends who have been trapped in a time warp and believe me to be alongside them on that particular journey would scoff. "no. that's not you," and so on. spending time away from these people and hanging out with old friends in toronto was part of what helped the transformation along. hell, spending time in toronto at all, and out of my bubble, did it, too. i felt disconnected from everyone i knew here and free to discover other sides of myself. i wandered through streets that were new to me, soaked up kensington market, perused the thrift shops on king west. a friend i met here last year, jessie, also helped with this, given that she wears what she wants and has encouraged me to wear different things, too. either way, once i took the plunge, there was no going back! and, seeing that, as a kid, i was more punky brewster than wednesday addams, this made some sense. 

contemplating a spring wardrobe for myself is not something i'd ever given much thought to because, when all you wear is black, you're somewhat limited. i had warm clothing and clothing for warmer weather. again, i could appreciate what was happening in the fashion world and what others were designing and wearing but all without adhering to any of it, myself. this year is different and i'm so very excited about it!

last week-end i headed out to the fabricville in lasalle for inspiration and found it in one meter of discounted wool suiting fabric. i immediately imagined what i would make and what i would wear it with and, running with this idea, toured the shop and picked up a few other pieces that will look amazing in my personal, spring wardrobe. somehow, the end result is a blue, orange and neutral shade pallet. while this only represents what will be a third of this season's warbrobe makeover, who would have thought that i would have fallen for these colours and prints? certainly not i, had you asked me a couple of years ago!

the top piece was what made the rest come together:

i'm absolutely in love with it! what i'm thinking is that i need a pencil skirt out of it, to wear with a blouse made out of the second fabric in the pile, one-and-half-meters or cream-coloured poplin that was on sale for a whopping $2.00.

i'm liking vogue 8119 for this.

i can see these shoes from zappos.com working well with the outfit, too. the hunt for the perfect handbag as also begun.

next up, we have this lovely, orange, crepe. 

which i intend to use with vogue pattern 8825:

the next two fabrics are chiffon, for blouses. the orange  twill will be for another skirt and i would very much like to make myself a dress out of the blue fabric on the bottom but i have yet to figure out what design i would like to go with. the first four fabrics were bought at fabricville, last week-end, and the other three i already owned. the dark blue is leftover from the grade six grad dress i made for my daughter, last june:

to add to the blue and orange pallet, i found this be-bop dress on sale at winners for $13:

i'm not usually a fan of the short skirt on curvy women, like myself, but i'm a sucker for houndstooth and i think i can rock this with a pair of black, opaque tights and a cropped, black blazer.

last but not least, i will pull out a dress i bought last summer (it's in storage now, seeing as i don't have room for all of my clothing and must alternate between fall/winter and spring/summer wardrobes. you can't see the dress but the print is really cute so i'll share it with you:

the dress came from winners, the clutch from a clothing exchange and the shades are vintage, from the 1960's, and came as part of a lot of items i won on ebay, a few years back.

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Merci à Mme Arthur Bélair et à Saint-Phil! (Or, alternatively: "Vintage Pattern Score!")

when i had a car, i tried to visit the montreal mega reuse center as often as possible. over the course of one year, i found so many beautiful treasures and i'll be sharing images of them as they relate to my different posts. in a few months, i'll be purchasing another vehicle and the mmrc is pretty much the first place i'm going to drive to. one of my best girls, annie and i have taken to calling the gentleman who works there "saint phil" because of how he clearly guards a subdivision of heaven and because of how helpful and nice he is.

on one of my last visits, i acquired a clear, plastic bag containing several brown envelopes addressed to a mrs. arthur bélair, in laval, québec, in 1959, and three vintage patterns. the envelopes had been sent from pattern companies so i thought, yay! a bag of vintage patterns! and then promptly set them aside with all of the other patterns i wanted to "one day" sort through. at the time, i was working as a relocation consultant and the job occupied my mind from the time i woke up to the time i finally lay my head down and, even though a i often daydreamed about all of the wonderful things i wanted to sew, i rarely got the time to actually do so. when i did have free time, i threw an overnight bag, some water bottles and my kids (if it wasn't their fathers' week-end) in my car and left town in order to properly clear my head. 

in the last few months, i've had more time to dedicate to, well, everything and so i've been organizing my work space, sketching up a storm and finally starting put together a few plans of action. the plastic bag from the mmrc ended up in my hands for the first time in over a year. now, i'm not one to squeal but i must admit that such a sound did escape my lips upon opening the first envelope. 

what surprised me the most was the sizing. i'm a size 10 to 12 so, as far as pattern sizes go, this is something i can work with without having to spend too much time grading. 

behold the contents of pattern number two:

and:

all three of them will be used when i start putting my spring wardrobe together, next week.

i was also quite happy to discover this lovely apron pattern:

in what i presume is mrs. bélair's handwriting, the contents of the next envelope were described to me, "pattern for little girls coat":

and here it is, in need of much love but still relatively in tact:

and how cute is this?? it's from 1957:

for women (or, rather, for me), there was also this one:

this one was also in the bag but i have a feeling it came from elsewhere because i remember bringing it home alone, at one point:

so yes, all of this was discovered right in time for the creation/revamping of my spring wardrobe and i absolutely had to share it with you!

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Today's Thrift Score: A Top and Purse for Spring 2013

today, at the fripe prix renaissance on st-jacques west, i picked up this adorable combo for a mere $9.98 CAD. the top is ralph lauren and the purse is a veneto so not a big deal, label-wise, but really cute.

while i do prefer the one in verdun, i was surprised at what i managed to find today. nine west, zara, jones new york, alexander mcqueen (wtf), morbid threads, etc. i've created an album for such finds on my facebook page so check it out. 

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Wardrobe Challenge Update: The Navy Blue Skirt

as previously mentioned, i've challenged myself to upgrade my fall/winter professional wardrobe and i've given myself until the holidays. (i know this may seem like it's late but i live in canada; it stays cold for a long time, over here!). the point is to either find clothing in thrift stores, score them in clothing exchanges or make them myself.  i've been sewing every chance i get and will post an update on that when i feel that i have enough to show. 

in the meantime, i will share one key piece with you. for a long time, i've been seeking the perfect navy blue skirt. i have this great, jones new york top i found at a thrift store, over a year ago and, last week, i finally found its partner. check out the lovely, denver hayes skirt i bought at the friperie renaissance, in verdun, for $5, here with the aforementioned jones new york top.

fitting betsy, this mannequin, is a bit of pain, given how much smaller than me she is and given that she has such a bizarre shape but you can nonetheless see how great this skirt's silhouette is:

bonus number one: this outfit, as you see it here, without a cardigan or blazer, will be perfect in the spring, with a pair of red heels and a matching clutch or with tall, brown boots and a matching handbag. 

bonus number two: it is replacing the only other navy blue skirt i had. i hate having to squeeeeze my size 12 frame into anything, let alone something with a slit in it and a sheen to it. (i'll soon be posting about how i've become a fabric snob without breaking the bank). this guy is going in the pile for the clothing exchange i'm hosting next week-end:

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