Little Bow Peep

Little Bow Peep :: Tinto 1848 // C-Type Plate // No flashThe Spring Racing Carnival is an excellent time to go shopping for hats in Melbourne. Whatever your budget, you are sure to find something highly fashionable (witty and cutting-edge millinery), merely serviceable (a wide-brimmed straw bedecked in overblown faux silk blooms), or downright hideous (a despicable piece of sinnamay trimmed in rooster feathers that by rights should be thrown to the floor and stamped out of existence).

And if you search thoroughly and carefully you can discover something in between, a hat that doesn’t scream Spring Racing Carnival, or a headband that will last the distance.

Take a Bow :: Loftus // C-Type Plate // No flashI found this sculpted confection by Max Alexander in the department store David Jones. Made from wide, woven ribbon-like straw edged in grosgrain, it is deftly twisted to form a complicated bow, and attached to a headband, perches on top of the head just so. It is decorative without being fussy; a girlish bow that is strong, not prissy.

I would even wear it if the weather cooperated. 

Forecast: 79% Chance of Umbrella Breakage

Umbrella Carcass I :: Tinto // D-Type Plate // No flashHere is an amusing little set of umbrella carcasses. Poking out forlornly from rubbish bins as they are, these disgraced umbrellas look as though their former owners have deliberately left them on show as an example to umbrellas everywhere. They have failure writ large all over them.

Umbrella Carcass II :: Tejas // Claunch 72 Monochrome // No flashI have often wondered if designer umbrellas that cost hundreds are really better quality than the average $40 umbrella? Are their frames made of sterner stuff? Could they weather a fierce storm? Mind you, I have never seen a Burberry or Hermès umbrella poking out of a common trashcan, so perhaps.

What the meteorologists really need to do is add an umbrella breakage likelihood to their weather forecasts: anything over 30% and you would know to wear a hooded raincoat and leave the umbrella at home. That would be helpful. 

Umbrella Carcass III :: John S // Cano Cafenol // No flashUmbrella Carcass IV :: Tejas // Claunch 72 Monochrome // No flash

Bright Stars

Bright Stars :: Loftus // DC // No flashHere are those starry tights when they were pristine. I went on a bit of a binge in The Sock Shop last winter and bought several pairs of brightly coloured tights. Interesting tights can be hard to find in Australia for some reason (department stores are so conservative), and one must look for them in boutiques or specialty stores.

Sadly, The Sock Shop closed down not long after I bought these tights, but fortunately I discovered there is a tiny outlet (about a quarter the size of the original store) in Southern Cross station of all places, amongst the newsagents and florists. (Note to self: keep an eye on it in case it disappears too.)

And of course there is always online shopping. I’ve bought great over-the-knee socks and tights from Free People and Asos, but here are some specialty sites: Sock Dreams (recommended by my friend Audrey, thank you), Tightology, Sweet Pins, and the UK’s The Sock Shop. Happy stocking shopping!

The Ugly Shoes

About three months ago I hurt my heel very badly in a freak accident. I slipped downstairs, managed to save myself from an undignified landing at the bottom, but in the process gouged a rather large hole in the back of my left heel.

This meant I couldn’t wear shoes for well over a month. It would have been fine if it was summer, but it was right at the start of a wet and cold winter. It was absolutely impossible to get my foot in a shoe with all the bandages to start with, but any foolish attempt to do so caused such excruciating agony I yelped in pain.

What a look. It was hardly more excruciating to my spirit!

I came to the unhappy conclusion that I had to purchase some slides. And wear them with thick socks (since it was so cold). Of course, I refused to spend a great deal of money on ugly shoes that I would never wear again – for I knew after spending several weeks in them I would never want to see them again. These camel dung coloured slides, made from polyurethane, cost $10 at a nearby discount chemist. I had to buy them in a size larger than I normally wear just to get them on.

What a look. It was hardly more excruciating to my spirit! It was also an unhappy event for my work colleagues who enjoy my shoe wardrobe almost as much as I do.

Overjoyed when I returned to the shoe stylishness to which I was accustomed, I celebrated by unceremoniously tossing the offensive slides in the bin. Good riddance! And may I never have to endure such a soul-destroying experience again.

Double Exposures

Louis Vuitton :: Wonder // D-Type Lens // No flashA while back I posted some 1940s photographs of shop windows – many of them were taken from the inside looking out. Even more fascinating that the window displays were the glimpses of the people on the street, ordinary people in their day-to-day clothes juxtaposed against high fashion. So I was inspired to take my Hipstamatic to the streets of Melbourne, experimenting with different combinations of lens and black and white ‘film’. I knew I wanted something that looked both vintage, and captured detail with clarity. 

Although it was a bit hit and miss as far as the reflections were concerned – depending on the time of day, the cloud cover or lack of it, who or what was passing in the street – that is what I enjoyed: the surprise element in the result. I am especially pleased with the Louis Vuitton hot air balloon pictures.

Louis Vuitton :: Wonder // D-Type Lens // No flashLouis Vuitton :: Wonder // D-Type Lens // No flashChanel :: Wonder // D-Type Lens // No flashChanel :: Wonder // D-Type Lens // No flashChanel :: Wonder // D-Type Lens // No flashReading about Eugène Atget recently, I discovered that the Surrealists very much admired and respected his work, especially his shop window photographs for the surreal effect they created. Atget himself did not consider himself an artist however, but a documentarian.  

I love both points of view, the often strange convergence of reflection with consumer goods, like a double exposure, and the documentation of current fashion that one day decades from now I will look back on in fascination. 

Gucci :: Wonder // D-Type Lens // No flashHermès :: Wonder // D-Type Lens // No flashRalph Lauren :: Wonder // D-Type Lens // No flashPrada :: Wonder // D-Type Lens // No flash