A Little Bit Classy

There is a very noticeable lack of places to get this kind of dress up for these days. In lieu of waiting for such an occasion- I have decided to throw it on and blog about it anyway.



I have always thought that there is something particularly classic and elegant about an evening gown in black and white. It takes me back to a time where an evening out with a big band and champagne saucers would not have been out of place. It is obviously not the first time that I have wondered if I was born in the wrong era...

This dress came from Princess Nicole's Recycled Wardrobe on Dominion Rd about 7 years ago. Although it was a second hand shop- this dress was brand new and still had the original tag on it. It cost me a ridiculous $60.00- and my only regret is that I haven't had more occasions glamorous enough to wear it to.



The design itself is really simple. Long and strapless in black satin with a contrasting corset ribbon on the back. The floral design on the front is very effective. White embroidered roses with a hint of sequined detailing. It is a case where less really is more.



The pattern is only featured 6 times on the front of the dress- and isn't on the back at all. It is all the more striking for it. (additionally surprising as I have historically always been a more is more kindofa girl)


I have worn it with silver maryjanes for the purpose of this picture.



My mission now is to actively look for a suitable excuse to wear this gown out in the foreseeable future!

80's Turquoise Prom Dress

There is something awesome about an original 80's prom dress. The shiny fabric. The un-necessary ruffles. They come in slightly ahead of the original 80s bridesmaid dresses I think...

The colour of this particular dress is quite common for it's time frame. I have seen quite a few other amazing 80's prom dresses in all but the exact same colour. I have come to the realisation (all by myself I might add) that even I cannot justify having more than 1- ok maybe 2- 80s prom dresses in shiny turquoise.



This dress has everything I love about the style and the era in one great frock. It was a savemart special from the last few years- and has served me well at more than one dress up party now. Last worn at a Nerd Prom Party thrown at my old house a few years back.

It is quite simple in it's design overall- but has a few features that really give it a point of difference. Strapless and slightly ruffled on the bodice has always made me think of old school elaborate theatre curtains. You know the ones.


I also really like that the lower half of the dress has a flower petal quality. The inner layer is a straight down pencil shape that has an outer layer that almost creates a train on the back. It is a fantastic design that I would love to replicate into another outfit someday.

Blue Flamingos

This dress is one of those great ones that will really take you anywhere. It would look as at home on the beach as it does in the office or even at a wedding I have worn it all of these places and haven't felt out of place (no more than usual anyway) at any of them.



It originally came from The Aotea Markets. One of the best things about buying from there was that you were often buying from the designer direct. I personally think that you can feel more of the love in outfits that way. But maybe that's just me.

I bought this dress when I was a bit bigger than I am currently. It is one of those reasonably forgiving ones that can be worn over about 3 dress sizes without looking too out of place.

It is a simple halter neck in a lycra mix fabric. The main point of difference with the style is the asymmetric (from back to front) hemline. I am glad the designer went this way as I think it makes the most of the beautiful print on the fabric.


The colour scheme in the print has always really appealed to me. I love that combo of pale mint green, turquoise and electric blue with a black background. AND it has flamingos! Always been a sucker for them...

Sparkles AND Flowers

I'm not going to lie to you. I have not worn this dress today. Or even in the last few weeks. That's not to say I don't love it though so thought maybe it deserved it's own post here this week. Well. That and everything I have worn in the last few days has already been posted about...



This dress hails from an op shop somewhere in the Tauranga region circa 2003. There is a lot going on in one frock. First up I love that its sparkly. I am relatively sure that I may have been a magpie in a past life. I cannot walk past something shiny or sparkly without getting a little bit excited. I may not be making a nest out these things just yet- but plenty of time to get really weird on it when I'm a crazy old cat lady....


I also love that it combines the twinkling fabric with a 70's floral pattern. Especially given the colour scheme on gold, brown, yellow and orange.



Finally- I really love the floating collar/ sleeves with the 3 buttons down the front. It really is an amazing cut. Sadly it doesn't get a lot of wear time these days. In fact- I can pinpoint the night I stopped wearing it. I have a very tall, very skinny male friend who ended up wearing it one night while drunk- and he looked MUCH better in it than I ever will.

Accidentally on Purpose

I know that I possibly purchase dresses slightly more often than your average girl- but I can say that most of them are usually bought on purpose. This frock however was a complete accident! Let me explain...

I recently purchased a cute little singlet dress off trademe to wear to derby training. The trader I purchased the item off kindly offered to drop it off to me as she was going to be leaving the country a few days later. (I did think was particularly cool of her.. it meant that I would receive the dress much quicker AND save the money on postage!) I got a text from her early on Saturday afternoon to say she was on her way. I excused myself briefly from the derby game plan meeting I was in- explaining that I was just popping downstairs and would be back in a sec. When she arrived it turned out that she had bought the wrong item with her! Luckily she didn't live far away- and suggested that I get in the car with her and we could go and swap the item. So far so good.

We got to chatting in the car on our trek to Grey Lynn and she told me she was not only leaving the country the following day but trying to move house. She was having a bit of a clear out and told me that she had some more clothing she had not yet listed on trademe if I was interested. Like a red rag to a bull really. But hey- I was doing her a favour... right?

She did indeed have a few things I was interested in- hence this accidental dress purchase! It was an absolute bargain at $10.00 and is already a new and solid favourite in the wardroom for its sheer versatility. Today i have teamed it with a crinoline petticoat, cream maryjane's and a string of pearls. It could just as easily be worn without the petticoat and a pair of jandals to dress it down too.

The colour is unusual in that its not really pink but not really orange either. Sort of a tangeriney- coral I would go with. It has a small check print overlaid with flowers that I would liken to proteas (goes so good with my tattoo!) and daisies. The colours are quite muted in the floral pattern in shades of turquoise, charcoal grey and white.

The style is quite 50's with the accessories I have teamed with it today- but the point on the waistband and the overall length is quite 80's. I guess together that would make it 130's.

So it is possible to have an accidental dress purchase. And yes- I got teased by my team mates when I arrived back at my derby meeting after half an hour with 3 new dresses...

Wanna Cookie?

On Saturday night Pirate City Rollers put on an exhibition bout off the back of the release of "Whip It" a few weeks back. We split up our usual teams and played as the teams in the movie. "The Holy Rollers" and "The Hurl Scouts". I had the honor of skating as a Hurl Scout- so needed to put together an outfit suitable.

I actually had a bit of trouble finding the right dress. I already had one that I thought I could use- but it was ever so slightly too brown. I even tried to dye it- and did such a good job that the white label on the inside didn't even change colour. Back to the drawing board...




I eventually found this outfit at the Military Disposal's store on K Rd. It is an army shirt that was then modified to turn a tent sized shirt into a girl scout looking dress.

All I needed to do after that was to get my name and number on the back- and match it with some yellow socks and fishnets. My derby compadre Ruby Disaster even made me a cute little yellow necktie.




I really enjoy our exhibition bouts. It's cool playing with people that you don't normally skate in a team with- and I must say that I do really enjoy putting together themed outfits for our uniforms too. It's also really cool seeing what other people do for their own outfits. Here is a shot of my whole team right before we skated out. (apart from "Lucy In Disguise" who was running a little late...)

Back row L-R

Miss Metalitia, Scheisse Minelli, Wolverina, Medicator, Terror Satanna, Broken Sience, Cupcake Carnage.
In front- Me (Spar Kill) Li'l Miss Envy and Ruby Disaster


The game itself was awesome if not a little one sided. The final score was 222-46 to the Hurl Scouts. I personally skated better than my previous few games- and even managed to stay out the penalty box until the latter part of the second half! Not bad for the holder of the 2009 Dirtiest Pirate award...

Supermarket Skulls

Today's outfit has been in the Wardroom for quite a while now. I have been saving it for the right occasion to bust it out. Ok. I have actually been saving it till I could get the zip done up. Either way- today was the day it got worn for the very first time!

I have always been a fan of the zip up smock dresses. I think this may be because I never had an after school job in a supermarket where I was forced to wear one. I had a job in a fish and chop shop- but that's another story....


The skull motif was sewn on by hand by whoever owned this dress before me- and obviously was quite a big selling point. I like that they aren't all facing the same way and are irregular sizes too. This is worth mentioning as quite often I get a little fixated with symmetry.

3 small skulls on my right shoulder...


And one larger one on my left.



This smock is an unusual colour. Sort of a dark blush with a tinge of coral. Oh yeah. I have all the ridiculous names for slight variations on normal colours.

Whatever colour this is- I had the perfect lipstick to match. It really is the little things that matter...

Green Tuxedo Dress

Tonight was date night. It involved a really average Italian restaurant (that won't be visited again) and an over priced sickly ice cream sundae from the "I Scream Stop". Interesting name choice that one.

At least I had a pretty dress to wear!



I bought this dress a few years ago for a music video shoot. It came from a random Asian store in the Little High Street Arcade. About 2 years after I bought this dress- they started selling a very similar style in Illicit. (but in red and without the sparkles) I like mine better. Just sayin....


The top of the dress is reminiscent to a tuxedo with the black satin collar and front panel. I especially like the diamante button details.


Because you can never have too many sparkles- I like that there is a row of them along the bottom too.

A Step Ahead...

I am firmly in a peep toed heels phase at the moment. I love that they have a 50's feel to them- and they can quite easily go from day to night time wear.

I also seem to be in a little bit of a red thing these days- so this pair of footwear worked quite well with both of these phases.

Red. Shiney. Peeptoed. Bow.

They really have it all.

To top it off-they were an absolute steal at $15.00 from trademe!

A Little Bit Country- A Little Bit Rock 'n' Roll

Today's outfit was completely worked around the shoes. They were a trademe purchase from the last month or so- but had not fit them into an outfit until today! To be perfectly honest- I didn't really think this outfit was working when I left the house this morning. I couldn't quite tie it all together. I went through 3 different top options before I gave up and went for a plain singlet!

The skirt is form the K Rd Op Shop. Not the rainbow one- the other one. Next to Iko Iko. I famously went in there one time while I was waiting for a pizza next door and came home with 2 new dresses.... I swear I shouldn't be let out on my own sometimes.

This skirt was bought to wear with my crinoline petticoats I seem to have accumulated in recent months. I like that it conjures up images of a rockabilly hoedown with lots of hay bales or Ellie May Clampett when she is forced to dress like a girl. (maybe that's just me). That and I'm a sucker for gingham and the colour turquoise. Check and check!


The shoes finally had their turn at being worn out. I bought them under the assumption that they went with a lot of outfits I already own- but I did have a little bit of trouble fitting them in today. I will blame morning brain rather than not enough turquoise in the wardroom I think.

I decided to go for the trusty ol' red hair flower- and as an afterthought matched it with a red cardi.

Even though I didn't think the outfit worked- I had 3 strangers come up to me in the street to say they liked my "look"- and was even stopped to have a photo take for Auckland Street Style. (new fashion blog about town)

What I was REALLY wearing in the 70's

So this is a little out of the scope of the blogs I have been posting so far- but it does fit into the Frock category.

This "little" number was one of the very first frocks I ever owned. It hailed from the Cook St markets circa 1979- and even came with a matching hat reminiscent of Little Miss Muffett. (the hat had the same ducks and also specified what my name was...)


I do see the cute side of this dress- but I don't know how it would fly in this day and age what with stranger danger and all. It's possibly not the best idea to be parading small children around in clothing that clearly stipulates their names.

Guess life was much simpler/ safer back in the 70's...

Blurple

I can honestly say that this was the frock that started my obsession with all vintage Summer frocks. I bought it in 1997 so have now been wearing it for the last 13 years. That's pretty good going for a dress I think!


This dress was bought from a great old second hand store that used to be in New Lynn called "The Wonder Warehouse" That store ruled. It actually became the first Auckland Save Mart a few years after I bought this little number.



The dress itself is an attractive mix of pale blue, purple and a touch of mint green. I really like the geometric pattern- and it is almost reminiscent of stained glass.




The spaghetti straps and button on the front give it a nice shape- and it is great to be wearing a long dress that doesn't completely cover my feet! (Such is life when you're 5 foot 2 and 3/4's....)

After Frock

Big Day Out has now been and gone for another year. Lots of walking, dancing, good music and running into people- topped off with a smidgen of sunburn. Dammit.

The sunburn was actually the main inspiration for this frock. I am sporting a nice pinky red line around the top of my neck where my halter from my dress lay. A nice white stripe in fact. This dress was the perfect "Big Day After Frock" as it sits exactly where my tan lines are.



This is anther frock that has been kicking around for quite a while now. It's exact origins elude me for now- but I can safely say it came into my wardrobe circa 2002.

The fabric always makes me think of lollies for some reason. I am really quite fond of the colour combo of yellow, green and white with a touch of blue.


Sadly, as with so many other frocks from the 70's, the zip is on the way out. I found this out by wearing it for a day. Every time I breathed out or leaned forward the zip down the back would slide open. I will have to do something about that before it's next wear I think....

Bruised Leopard

Today was hot. Damn hot. It was quite deceptive as this morning was all overcast and the weather report told me there would be scattered showers. I chose to believe the sky and radio so wore a wool blend pencil skirt today and have been COOKING.

Corporate office wear during the week forces me to dress a little like a grown up. (with the occasional slip on casual Friday's of course!) Today I even took it a step further with some pearl earrings. I'm not much of an earring person these days but the pearl buttons on my top were in need of some pearl company.

The top was found from one of K Rd's last op shopped priced vintage stores. I'm not even going to tell you where it is so I can keep it a closely guarded secret! Rest assured I was happy to find this top set me back less than a cup of coffee.

I do like a bit of leopard print in my outfits. I especially like the colours in this particular piece. Shades of purple and indigo moving into a blue is a nice change from the usual shades of brown, yellow and orange. (and to a slightly lesser degree- red)

I have already mentioned the pearl button detail- but I like them so much they can get a second paragraph. They get even better as they have that awesome looped fabric button hook thing happening too. (Sorry- I don't know how to explain that any clearer so let the following picture use it's thousand words)

Gotta go and start my "what to wear mare" for tomorrow's Big Day Out! Must be functional for a day in the sun with 40,000 odd people- but must be fantastic too. I am confident I can cover both...

Glad To Be Plaid

Plaid is a weird word. Like any other - it gets weirder the more you think about it being weird. Bath is another one but I digress...

I like this dress a lot. It's quite demure in the scheme of it all. Until I sit down and it gets a great deal shorter!

This frock came from the Paper Bag Princess and cost me a whopping $12.00. SCORE!

I especially like the slight capped sleeves. While the overall colour comes across as pale brown- the plaid has shades of turquoise and red in it for ease of accessorising.

I opted for red in the form of hair flower, skinny belt and peep toed leopard heeled wedges.

I am quite pleased with the overall outfit. Will trade again.

If The Shoe Fits

I have decided to do a special shoe post today. Mainly cause I have again been slack and not kept up with my daily blogging but also as I have such a great collection of footwear that just isn't getting the foot time at the moment. Mostly due to seasonal outfit restrictions but there are a few pairs that just don't have the right ensemble that really showcases them too.

The first pair really demonstrates that not all boots are made for walking. Some are made to sit still and gaze at whilst being very still. This is one of those pairs! Some people might argue that there wasn't much point buying a pair of shoes that can't be walked in. My counter argument would include the following.

• I can walk in them- just not far or for long.


• They are kermit green.

• They have diamantes on them.


• They are pointy


• They have stiletto heels


• They are ruffled.

In my personal opinion they may in fact be the best pair of boots ever made for the above reasons!

The first day I wore them they did cause a few glaze overs when I would get distracted by my own feet... I seem to have mostly gotten past this now.

While I am on the subject of great boots- check out these incredible harajuku-esque (yes that is a new word- thanks for noticing) knitted sock boots with a wooden platform. Oh yes they have it all.

These boots can do more than walking. I can run, jump, dance, skip... the works. They are actually very easy to manoeuvre in as the sole is flat. The only downside is wearing them in a house with multiple flights of wooden stairs. I'm not a soft stepper at the best of times- but I will certainly never be creeping up on anyone wearing these!

The shades of olive and brown are great for winter- and they go with HEAPS of outfits in the Wardroom. They look great with black tights and I have the perfect olive green hand knitted scarf to finish the look off with.
They hailed from tradme- and cost me $25.00 last Winter.

The last pair that will be featured today is my rainbow kitten heels. These are surprisingly hard to match with an outfit. I know that I have the choice of ALL the colours in the shoes to roll with- but I decided that they work much better when the outfit is kept minimalist (as much I physically can do at least) and then the shoes get to be more of a statement within themselves. I do have a great pair of rainbow hair clips and a sparkly rainbow brooch that helps lift an outfit that is predominately black when called for though...

While these shoes aren't strictly seasonally dependent- I like them much better with black tights- thus making them a little more Winter appropriate.

These shoes were originally in Wildpair. A rainbow crazy friend of mine was with me when we saw them- and both of us fell in love! Sadly for her I found a pair on trademe that were too big for her feet- so I had to buy them for myself. In store they were retailing at $150.00- on trademe I scored them for a cool $11.00.

Hello Sailor

Seems like I have a lot of 50's Sailor themed outfits coming out of the closet (Wardroom) these days... I guess it's easy to be nautical with a colour combo of red, white and navy blue with a few stripes in for good measure!

This was the dress that broke my self imposed dress buying ban over Christmas. I purchased 2 new crinoline petticoats thinking that I had a lot that I could wear them under. Sadly when they arrived I realised that this wasn't strictly true so suddenly had a need to find a few more outfits to wear with the petticoats. (It is scarily easy to justify such purchases in my brain I can assure you!)

Swing dresses are a great addition to any wardrobe I think. They can be worn with a huge petticoat underneath to give the shape of something between an wedding cake or an upside down tea cup- but have an equally awesome shape without the flounce.

It is really comfortable to wear. I would liken it to wearing a big glamorous t-shirt! The cotton is really soft and I just love the white lace frill along the bottom of the skirt.

This particular one had it's maiden voyage today with a red petticoat. I have matched that with a red flower and red skinny belt and balances out the stripes and frill on the dress with some white peep toed sandals.

While I didn't wear this ensemble with the short white gloves today-I'm thinking that I will incorporate them next time. (I didnt' want to get them dirty by wearing them to work you see!)

NB- When I first bought the belt I was a lot bigger than I am now. In fact I bought the belt to wear wrapped around as a necklace! Lets hope it doesn't get relegated back to neck wear anytime soon....

Skating in The Limelight

Ok so it's not quite lime. Maybe leaning a little more towards fluoro yellow. But it just didn't have the same ring to it!

This dress came from a derby friend of mine by the name of Ploss-A-Raptor. I really like the

colour green and she really likes the colour pink- so we did a mini clothes swap at training.

This dress is perfect to train in actually. (Apart from being teased every time I wear it about looking like a road cone) So far I have only worn it to skating. It hasn't seen the light of any other day just yet...

There is a lot going on in the design of the dress itself. So much in fact that I get a lot of confused "head tilted to one side" looks from people when I wear it! I really like that its irregular and a little asymmetric and not predictable.

I have been wearing it with black leggings and chuck taylors.

I must admit that this outfit does bring back some post shopping regret I have been harbouring. Most shopping regret is based around buying something that was too expensive or unnecessary. MY post shopping regret is that I didn't buy an amazing pair of fluoro yellow peep toe heels when I saw them in Melbourne about 5 months ago! I swear I actually said out loud "What on earth can I wear fluoro yellow heels with?" Dammit. If only I knew that this dress was just over the horizon...

A Fish Frock- Just For The Halibut

I decided that I had not been on nearly enough outside skating missions this Summer- so went for 2 in 1 week! WOAH.

This sunny Saturday saw my roll take me (and my friend Jammy Skellington) through Auckland city, the viaduct, the marina, up and under the harbour bridge, back up to Jervois Rd and through Ponsonby to get back to K rd. Completed this route in an hour- but still had a quick pause where I used to have a ciggie break back in my smoking days....

The outfit chosen for this particular skate is a light and breezy 70's halterneck in cornflower blue. With bright tropical fish and coral in shades of yellow and orange. This dress hails from "Fast and Loose" on K Rd- and was purchased circa 2006.

The fabric breathes really well- so is ideal for a roll out in the sun. I need to be a little careful standing with the sun behind me though- as I fear you may be able to see through it....

You Stay Here... I'll Go On A Head

I like hats. Quite a lot in fact. I don't often think to wear them- but I have a reasonable collection of caps, trilby's, berets, boaters and beanies. A whole shelf in the wardroom is dedicated to head wear that I don't really wear.

In saying that I have purchased a couple of UH-MAZING hats in the last few months and looking quite hard for outfits to team them with now.

One such amazing hat was purchased from Tradme just before Christmas. (I thought I was awfully clever sticking to my self imposed dress buying ban but also narrowly avoiding breaking it by buying a great hat, a pair of shoes and a couple of crinoline petticoats) So anyway. This hat finally arrived at my desk today. Awesome.


It makes me think of the 20's or 30's in that "black and white trench coat wearing waiting for a train in Paris" mental imagery. I don't know if that's just me- but this hat does make me feel like I should be talking with a French accent. For the record I will not be attempting this however well it may go with the hat.

Grey and black with a patent black bow/ cross over detail. I did get into a reasonably detailed conversation earlier about whether or not I was wearing it the right way around. I am fairly certain that I am. Mainly because the peak is a little bit wider at where I am wearing the front. I guess it could be open to interpretation- but this is the direction I will be choosing to go with. I'm thinking that I could tie this into an outfit featuring my black and white gangster wingtip heels too. Then all I need is the trench coat and the train station.


Hat number 2 hails from the markets of the Grey Lynn Fest 09. Another great find by having a rummage through a big trunk of vintage costume treasures. I was totally fascinated with this stall. Heh.

It screams out "day at the races". Or maybe "gold-digging woman wearing to funeral of much older husband". I haven't decided which yet but I have the perfect shoes to go with it whatever the P.O.F ends up being!


There is a lot going on in the design of this hat- and I found that it was quite hard to really capture the essence in a photo. It has a pill box shaped foundation that's covered in a black fabric with shiney purple polka dots. There is the black mesh veil at the front- and a great looped feature on the back.


The 3rd and final hat of this post is a little more "Mother Of The Bride". I found it in the Red Cross Op Shop in Kingsland and it set me back a grand total of $4.00. I actually bought it to wear my own 30th birthday party. (It was a Funeral theme. Death of my 20's and all...) I had the intention of dying it black but never got around to making it happen. I like it white but I'm also quite taken with the idea of dying it a bright yellow or orange. If you're going to make a statement no point in doing it half arsed. Right?


Again it has a veil on the front. (A slightly wider mesh than the black and purple one) It has a good shape on the hat itself- and an almost flower like ruffle feature on the side. I feel like it needs to be worn with a vintage "Chanel Jackie O Suit". Kinda like THIS perhaps...