What I actually wore #0028

Serial #: 0028
Date: 15/03/2009
Weather: a crisp autumn day, 19°
Time Allowed: 10 minutes

It was a beautiful autumn day, and I had a date to see the Rosalie Gascoigne exhibition at Federation Square.

Detail of the skirt fabricThe outfit was based around the gorgeous panelled velvet skirt that I found last summer at a Salvos shop. I believe it is hand-made as there is no label inside, but it is beautifully constructed and finished. Made from high quality fabric, it drapes so elegantly, and has a lovely swing when I walk. The caramel shaded print is a cross between Art Deco and Japanese floral style on a midnight blue background. How appropriate for an art gallery!

I wore a plain black knit top as the skirt was such a standout. The leather boots with cutouts were also found at a Salvos store for $25 a couple of years ago; they’d never been worn. At the time I surmised that the original owner had bought them on a whim and then perhaps found them too daring. And now gladiator sandals and boots are all the rage! The blue bag has a crocodile-stamp pattern and was found in a vintage boutique.

It was the second time I viewed the exhibition, and I enjoyed it just as much. It was my boots, though – my date told me, amused – that captured the envy of a passing girl. She rubber-necked me like a tourist.

Items:

Top: John Smedley
Skirt: hand-made
Bag: vintage
Shoes: Donna Velenia
Earrings: Moyou
Watch: Kenneth Cole
Postcard: Rosalie Gascoigne, Medusa, 1998

What I actually wore #0027

Serial #: 0027
Date: 06/03/2009
Weather: 20°
Time Allowed: 10 minutes

I picked up this cute little tweed dress at the Salvos the previous year, enamoured of it despite its brevity. There’s nothing left to the imagination come a strong wind to puff up the two little splits at front and back. So not only did I deem black opaque stockings a necessity, but also my frilled ‘modesty shorts’.

These precious shorts were bought some time before in an op-shop in my childhood stomping-ground. The elderly lady who sold them to me informed me that all the young lasses who played tennis in the Fifties wore them.

The wintry fabric of the dress indicates it is meant for cooler seasons, despite the lack of sleeves, so to contrast with the nubbly tweed, I wore a very delicate silk blouse underneath. This is so pretty and soft; little ties flutter flirtatiously on the elbows, and the blouse is intricately sewn with a multitude of pleated ruffles on sleeves and one half of the neckline. I am not sure if the deconstructed look is still in, but I do like their frayed edges.

Such a short dress demands knee-high boots. I grew up in the Seventies, with very fashionable older sisters; I knew back then that one day I would own black lace-up boots with eyelets, just like these. I still think they are an essential component – an imperative, even! – of any woman’s shoe closet, regardless of the decade. Thank goodness they do up with zips these days.

Items:

Dress: Johnny Dexter
Blouse: secondhand
Shorts: vintage
Earrings: jade and Venetian glass, handmade by me
Rings: Roun
Watch: Kenneth Cole
Boots: Nine West

What I actually wore #0026

Serial #: 0026
Date: 11/02/2009
Weather: forecast 20°
Time Allowed: 5 minutes

This outfit is all about the dress. I fell in love with that particular shade of blue – a dusky cornflower blue – and I have always had a sneaking liking for silk dupioni, as much as it reminds me of the Eighties. I love the complicated ‘double’ bodice created by a plunging V-neckline and a halterneck, and the inverted pleats at the waist. It’s always the unusual cuts that grab my attention. Some people might call that ‘arty’ dressing. 

In the label’s advertising campaign, the model wore the crimson version of this dress with nothing but an enormous chest-sized necklace; in reality I’d be risking a wardrobe malfunction if I did that. I’ve worn it with a silk camisole and a necklace of thickly woven black thread strung with seed pearls and moonstones. I always thought it looked like the product of some remarkably patient indigenous jeweller somewhere, as the weaving is reminiscent of a fishing net. The tiny teardrop pearls I found many years ago at a stall in Camberwell’s Sunday market.

And just in case I felt too dainty parading about in blue silk, I wore my clomping black heels to bring me back to earth.

Items:

Dress: Ammo
Camisole: Diesel
Necklace: a long-gone boutique that was next to City Hatters in Melbourne’s Flinders Street.
Earrings: Camberwell Market
Rings: (sterling silver) Roun, (grey shell, sterling silver) NGV Shop
Watch: Kenneth Cole
Shoes: Zoe Wittner

What I actually wore #0025

Serial #: 0025
Date: 09/02/2009
Weather: a cool 21°
Time Allowed: 5 minutes

Monday morning blues… what better way to treat them than with Schiaparelli pink? Especially in the form of brand new patent heels bought the day before from Myer!

I wanted the shoes to stand out, so I chose a grey skirt bought from Staff in Dubai, teamed with what I call my meringue puff top from Veronika Maine. Its asymmetrical, standing collar necessitates an updo, however. Little pintucks gathered together with rosettes create a quilted look on the front and rear panels of the skirt. Both garments utilise fabric with a slight stiffness and pleasing rustle, which enables them to hold their shape.

Monday morning blues… what better way to treat them than with Schiaparelli pink?

I really love the sculptural aspects of both items, and the girly pink heels (matched with bright pink lipstick) offset them just enough.

Items:

Top: Veronika Maine
Skirt: Staff
Jewellery: Roun
Watch: Kenneth Cole
Lipstick: ‘Cherries in the Snow’, by Revlon
Shoes: ‘Devotion’, by Jane Debster

What I actually wore #0024

Serial #: 0024
Date: 08/02/2009
Weather: 22.5°
Time Allowed: 5 minutes

I was making the trek out to the eastern suburbs to spend the afternoon with my family to celebrate my birthday. The special occasion warranted a new outfit, which meant my new summer dress. I was in love with its ethnic embroidery and black tassels, (and cream or white with black is always a favourite combination), but it was an unseasonably cool day for the cotton voile. I decided to wear the loose pants I’d bought in Dubai. Going for a Cossack look, I wore my hair in one long plait.

The black wedges have a dramatic cut, and feature red piping on the edges, a colour picked up by the red jade in my earrings.

I was quite gratified when one of my sisters actually exclaimed on the day that I looked like a Russian peasant coming in from the fields, in my smock and baggy trousers. Close enough!  

Items:

Dress: Country Road
Pants: Staff
Earrings: red jade and Murano glass
Rings: Roun
Watch: Kenneth Cole
Shoes: Unique