The Lady in Cherry Red
Bedecked in red. Do not actually go out into the street like this.
The colour red follows a close second to robin’s egg blue (aka turquoise, tiffany blue) as my favourite colour.
When I attended TAFE in the year after high school, and prior to college, I used to wear a red tracksuit on painting days. This was in the days before Juicy Couture, but it’s not as horrible as it sounds. The top and pants were loose but not enormous, and the top had satin shirttails. I also carried a bright red folio – no boring black portfolio for me to carry my life-drawings around! One of my fellow students called me the lady in red.
I’ve moved on since then. I don’t wear tracksuits, and I am never completely decked out in monochrome. Fashion magazines advise it as a slimming technique, but I would feel a right fool going about in public like that.
Six shiny new buttons, and one of their predecessorsA little while ago I found this cute cropped wool jacket in a charity shop (for only $8!), but it was missing some buttons. The originals were covered in the same fabric, but I bought six new buttons, as shiny as boiled sweets. They were originally $5 each, but I managed to snaffle them during a sale, and paid only about $7.50 for the lot.
I find mending a tedious chore, and put it off as long as possible…
Now, I find mending a tedious chore, and put it off as long as possible. I had a visit with my family scheduled for last Sunday, and I knew I’d be sitting and chatting for a good couple of hours after lunch. This was a prime opportunity to undertake the boring chore. It was a rather cold day, and deliberately I took only this jacket with me so I knew I would have to sew the buttons back on in time to wear it home in the early evening when it was cooler.
Success! I sewed all the buttons back on in plenty of time. Ah, the lengths I have to go to psyche myself up for mending…
The three-quarter sleeves mean that my forearms get quite chilly, but these vintage leather gloves do the trick. The velvet hat is also vintage, by Otto Lucas Junior, and the leather belt I bought overseas, from Mango.
So, several lessons today: do sew (trick yourself into it if you have to); don’t wear all one colour (lest you feel silly); do wear ¾ gloves with bracelet-length sleeves; and do shop on sale. I probably don’t need to tell you that last one.