What I Actually Wore #0057

Serial #: 0057
Date: 25/01/2011
Weather: forecast 27°, warm
Time Allowed: 2 minutes

I had a lunch date with a friend to go to, and to save time I wore an outfit I used in a photoshoot that morning. It was a story about mercerised cotton. The Kookaï top features cute balloon-puff sleeves, which are complemented by the gathered insert in an old favourite black and white skirt by Obüs.

When it came time to leave, I quickly picked out a pair of colourful shoes: Alice-blue, low-heeled, vintage Eighties courts that I had bought on Etsy last year. As it was sunny outside I decided to take an umbrella and foil the burning sun. This posed an unexpected problem.

I own so many umbrellas, yet few are usable. A red and orange one with a leafy pattern was coming undone along one of the seams. The tasselled lilac was all frayed along the ends; I had not yet got round to trimming it with some braid I’d sourced. (Mending is so dull.) The beige I knew was impossible: its frill had unravelled and I had botched the mending; it had to be redone before I could use it again. (Did I mention mending is dull work?)

I don’t even like to think about the tragedy that occurred to render the quaint white parasol, lined with black lace, utterly unusable. The Lucite handle was snapped off when a speeding tram driver braked suddenly and it fell against the door.

As for the magenta parasol with black pom-pom trim – it was out of the question: pink with my blue shoes would be foul. Neither the Chinese paper parasol, nor Battenberg lace matched; and I cordially disliked the brown umbrella. I’ve never liked the colour brown, and don’t know what possessed me to buy this one in the first place.

That left the blue umbrella. This was annoying, because it was the exact same shade of blue as my shoes. But at least my buffalo bag was not matchy-matchy.

Items:

Top: Kookaï
Skirt: Obüs
Earrings: from Zari
Ring: Autore
Watch: Kenneth Cole
Bag: from Stanley Market in Hong Kong
Shoes: vintage, Together!