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