Machine Gun Bikini

Ah, memories... these pictures were obviously taken when it was still really hot here. It's actually pretty nice today, but it rained like hell all weekend long, so our little summer is definitely over. It was a good weekend for getting things done though, and a GREAT weekend for sports -- I can't believe it, but our San Francisco Giants are going to the World Series! I can't even yet dare to hope for the outcome of the series itself, but the fact that they made it is wonderful.

Also, sorry Yankees fans (if indeed there are any -- everyone I know just loves to hate them), but holy hell am I glad they got defeated! I'm not sure I could stomach seeing them in the World Series again. Take a few years off, okay guys? It's nice to see other teams make it to the finals once in awhile, and the Texas Rangers have more than waited their turn.

Much of the weekend was spent inside working on creative projects, so if you check the Etsy shop you'll see lots of new stuff there. I've got several new hats up, and Mark created a listing for an elaborate custom piece that he did for a customer's Halloween costume; it's the machine gun bikini harness from Lady Gaga's Alejandro video. Originally it was going to be a one-off sort of creation, but it turned out so well that Mark decided to list it in case anyone else is looking for one. Hey, in this town you never know -- it might be too late for Halloween, but in San Francisco I'll bet you could find dozens of events during the whole year where you could wear a little number like this.

 The harness is hot for sure, but this Dorothy Hamill 

hairdo is not Gaga's best look.

Shirt: All Saints
Skirt: Anthropologie
Jewelry: Betsy Johnson
Shoes: Cydwoq

Softly Sculpted

This is one of my only pairs of shoes that is truly comfortable to wear without socks or tights. The ones I showed yesterday are adorable but make the balls of my feet burn by the end of the day. The Bobbi Blu's I showed the day before rub the sides of my toes and scrape the backs of my ankles. But these softly sculpted little flats make me feel like I'm padding along in slippers, even when it's scorching hot outside and my feet are sticky from sweating. They don't get a ton of wear at work, but they're certainly one of my go-to weekend pairs.

This top is strapless, which means it pretty much always gets worn with something else over it. For our sizzling weather I kept it light and cool with the thin jersey vest. The top is a great way to bridge brown and black together, since it contains a little of both. The light brown vest kept the look summery and soft, while the black skirt and belt punched up the contrast and helped define my figure.

Top: Mica
Vest: F21
Belt: Red Dress Shoppe
Skirt: thrifted
Shoes: Cydwoq

I Cut Down Trees, I Wear High Heels

OK, here it is: the fourth installment in the Wear-These-Shorts-To-Death series. Making their debut is this wonderful pair of vintage suspenders that I bought 2 years ago for a Burning Man outfit and haven't worn since, mainly because I don't have too many (ok, zero) pairs of pants with the extra buttons for suspenders. So for this outfit I grabbed some black buttons, sewed them onto the shorts, and voila! My outfit idea became a reality. I fussed with the suspenders both up and down, and finally decided that for this outfit they looked better down.

This top looks really cute tied at the neck, but for this outfit I preferred the relaxed look of leaving the ties hanging loose. I also tried this outfit with a number of different pairs of boots, but they all pushed the ensemble much too far into lumberjack-land for my liking. However, for the rest of the day I was humming Monty Python's Lumberjack Song to myself.

Shirt: a gift from Sal
Shorts: White House Black Market
Suspenders: thrifted
Socks: Sock Dreams
Boots: Cydwoq

Dressed Up

Here are Mark and I all dressed up to go out for Mark's birthday, which was last weekend. We met up with our friends Tom and Jen, and headed over to the Mission district for dinner. As it turned out it was also the weekend of the Pride Parade, and we chose a restaurant that was right on the path of one of the events, so we got to watch all the festivities going on outside. Afterwards we walked over to the SoMa district for a cocktail before wandering over to the Hotel Utah to see a fantastic and very entertaining local band called the Super Adventure Club.

On the way home we had the most surreal cab drive ever. We had unwittingly stepped into the Kabaret Kab, with its singing driver Buzz Brooks and Vegas-style lights strung around the interior. Click here to watch Buzz in action!

My outfit:
Dress, cardigan: All Saints
Skirt: Urban Outfitters
Tights: Noa Noa
Boots: Cydwoq

Mark's outfit:
Hat: Goorin Bros.
Shirt: All Saints
Vest: Steam Trunk
Jeans: Heathen
Boots: All Saints

Anything With Everything

Here's the last of the pre-vacation outfits. This one felt very saucy; between the short dress length and the knee high socks, it was like a cross between a swingin' 60's chick and a junior high school volleyball player. The purple tights helped to minimize the visual impact of the purple knee high socks, but still this outfit felt rather age-inappropriate to me, and therefore deeply satisfying.

Looking back now on why I selected this outfit, I remember thinking that I needed to give these Cydwoq boots another break-in run before I relied on them day after day to serve me for hours at a stretch in Argentina. Having a lot of shoes can be a blessing and a curse: on the one hand, if you make an effort to rotate the shoes, each pair will be preserved for many years; on the other, it takes a hell of a long time to break a pair in, during which time you may lose interest in them or give up entirely on their ever being comfortable (see this post for more on this topic). Thankfully, what this outfit did was to convince me that the Cydwoqs were the right travel choice, as indeed they proved to be for both Jess and I.

I adore this blazer, though for some reason it has proven difficult to wear. Therefore I was surprised to find that it worked with this dress; I pulled it out as a far-fetched notion and found that the subtle purple stripes woven through the plaid are actually picked up quite well by the dress. This is a perfect example of why you should try anything with everything when you're trying to get more out of your wardrobe; many amazing combinations are lurking right there in your closet if you only give them a chance.

Dress: Red Dress Shoppe
Blazer: Promod
Socks: Cronert
Shoes: Cydwoq

Capsule Wardrobe Challenge, Day 3

I didn't realize how much I'd gotten used to not blogging every day until I started doing this challenge. For many months now, I've been photographing a bunch of outfits when I put them together and then writing a few posts at once and scheduling them for several days out. And then I've gotten 'ahead' of the posts and stockpiled several days' worth of photos, so that now each post typically appears about a week after I actually wore the outfit. While it is certainly more convenient and allows me a lot more flexibility in my schedule, I have to admit that there's something satisfying about posting in real time, when I can compare the way the outfit feels with the way it comes across in the photos. For those of you with blogs, which approach do you prefer -- devoting a large chunk of time to several posts, or blogging every day?

For Day 3 of Jane's challenge, I added one clothing item and one accessory: the skirt and the earrings. Because I wore this dress as a bottom layer yesterday and it was mainly the collar and sleeves that were showing, it looks completely different here, where the skirt of the dress is now the only part showing. As you can see I used the new blazer again, but this time I buttoned it up to give it a different vibe. Here's what the back looks like; I apologize for the wrinkles! I guess I should've ironed everything before I turned it into another outfit. Not that my coworkers would ever notice!

The lighting isn't quite optimal in these shots; if I'd angled my flash a little better you'd be able to see that my tights are a rich eggplant purple, a darker and more intense shade than the tulle skirt. I thought this was a great way to brighten up an outfit that is otherwise comprised solely of neutrals. I'm really loving the combination of grays and browns lately; I think this is going to be a staple for me this fall and winter. It's still a neutral combination, but it's so much softer than black, and an easier backdrop on which to hang a few brighter colors even during the darkest winter months. I could see the gray/brown combination working well with a splash of yellow, orange, red, or even blue or green if it was the right shade.

Blazer: Victoria M. Ortiz
Dress: Red Dress Shoppe
Skirt: Noa Noa
Tights: Foot Traffic
Shoes: Cydwoq

Capsule Wardrobe Challenge, Day 1

This week I'm participating in Jane's Capsule Wardrobe Challenge, aided in part by the fact that my shoe selection has already been limited by my still swollen broken toe. I'd love to say I've got the whole week's worth of outfits all carefully planned out, but the fact is that between the post-vacation jetlag and the toe situation, I haven't been as motivated as usual, so I'm just making it up as I go. At the end of the week I'll show you all the components of my capsule wardrobe.

I for sure had to select this velvet blazer as one of my items, having just brought it back from Uruguay and being excited to wear it. The designer is Victoria M. Ortiz, and let me tell you, her shop in Colonia del Sacramento is filled with all sorts of beautiful things. This blazer caught my eye because of the lace edging, brass buttons, and puff shoulders, which give it a Victorian feel. The Victorian styling is more apparent when the jacket is buttoned all the way up, but for this outfit I left it open so that more of the dress pattern would show.

These Cydwoqs are one of 3 pairs of shoes in my entire collection that are tolerable to wear right now. Being completely unwilling to wear flip flops to work, I scoured the 70 or so pairs in my closet and finally came up with the Cydwoqs, my pink sneakers, and my gray cowboy boots. This pair and the cowboy boots are what I'll be using this week for my capsule wardrobe. Interestingly, neither pair is likely what I would've chosen for the challenge had it not been for the broken toe, but I think they'll both be versatile enough to get me through the week.

Blazer: Victoria M. Ortiz
Necklace: Rhapsodia (Argentina)
Dress: 90's vintage, shortened
Tights: Foot Traffic
Shoes: Cydwoq

Elfin

I always feel very elfin when I wear this dress, but never more so than when I put it on with these little boots. The flippy hairstyle accentuated the effect, I think.

The boots were purchased a couple of weeks ago after a several-months' quest for Cydwoq boots. After I bought my gold flats, I knew I wanted a more enclosed style, but I really wanted to wait until just the right pair came along. I'd looked at several styles online but wanted to see them in person and maybe try on a few pairs. As luck would have it, a recent Girls' Night Out found me standing in front of Bulo shoe store with 15 minutes to spare before I was due to meet my friend Laura. The newest arrivals had just come in that week, and these boots immediately called out to me. They look black in these photos but are in fact a rich purple that is more intense around the edges of the seams. They look great with both skirts and pants, and will be just perfect for traveling.

Interestingly, my other pair of Cydwoqs made their debut on the blog when paired with this very same dress. It could be coincidence, or perhaps it's a little bit of elfin magic.

Shirt: H&M
Dress: vintage
Scarf: local import store
Belt: Audra Jean
Tights: Foot Traffic
Shoes: Cydwoq

A Case for Keeping Seldom-Worn Items

For this outfit I wanted to take this ruffled skirt in a different and less steampunk direction. As you can see I also wore my new Cydwoqs for the second day in a row, apparently in an attempt to rapidly drive down the price-per-wear. The gold finish of the shoes was just perfect for picking up the orange tones in the cropped cardigan, and the multitude of other colors in the cardigan made it possible to throw a teal tank top into the mix.

There's something about the proportions of this cardigan that make it tricky to wear, which is why I don't wear it very often. I've thought about altering in in some way, but I could never quite work out exactly what I would change. Eventually I decided to just let it be one of those seldom-worn items in my wardrobe that is nevertheless valuable to have on hand because of its ability to bring several different colors together. I don't like to have too many seldom-worn items in my closet, but the ones that I hang onto tend to have at least one of the following characteristics:

1. An unusual color mix. Just like with this cardigan, there are a few items I own that have such a unique blend of colors that I'll keep them around even though I don't wear them very often. When I do make use of one of my oddly-colored items, you can bet it'll be the one thing in the outfit on which everything else hinges. My long, zig-zag patterned top is another such item, and I also have some scarves that fall into this category.

2. A one-of-a-kind quality. There are a few things I own that are so distinctive that I don't need to wear them very often in order for them to have a big impact. Things like my patchwork boots or my vintage 60's dress come to mind. These are items that are fairly self-limiting because everyone remembers when you wear them, but if they're truly one-of-a-kind then they'll endure for years to come.

3. Filling a very specific niche. There are a couple of times when I thought, "I need something that's (specific color) and (specific length) and (specific other property). And man, that's a tall order when you've only got your own closet to browse through, isn't it? Any item I own that has ever fit the bill in that situation gets a free pass to stay around as long as it likes, even if it might only be those specific situations in which I wear it. A notable example is my brown tunic, which turned out to be exactly what I was looking for when I knew I wanted something brown, minidress-length, and drop-waist.

Do you have any other criteria for keeping those seldom-worn items?

Cardigan:
Tank: Old Navy
Skirt: Skin Graft
Shoes: Cydwoq

Cydwoq Shoes

I'm back from a fantastic weekend in Austin, Texas. Despite the fact that we were wholly unprepared for how hot, and particularly how humid it was, Laura and I had a great time. Austin is a fun city with tons of live music, and unbeknownst to us we also happened to plan our visit the same weekend as a huge biker rally, which was quite a spectacle to behold. We stayed right in the heart of downtown and walked everywhere, and though it was draining because of the heat, my feet were at least well taken care of thanks to this new pair of Cydwoq shoes.
Coincidentally, the awesome Husband Mike did a post recently about Cydwoq shoes over on Sal's blog, and here they are getting featured on my blog as well. You may remember that Sal and Mike came to San Francisco a few months ago, and while they were here they told Mark and I about these fantastic shoes. Mark recently bought this pair, and has gone on about their comfort so many times that I finally resolved to get some for myself.

You might not guess, given the frequency with which I wear heels, that I actually suffer from a lot of problems with my feet (no doubt from wearing all those heels). For years now I've been searching for the perfect pair of super-comfy walking shoes, particularly ones that I can easily take with me when I travel, which is when my foot woes tend to afflict me the most. I wanted flat or low-heeled shoes that could be worn with jeans or skirts. Oh, and I also wanted them to be small and lightweight for easy packing. Miraculously, these Cydwoqs meet all my requirements. After wearing them several times now, I still can't get my head around the fact that I have no foot pain even after hours of walking.

I like how the crackle texture of the shoes accents the snakeskin pattern of the minidress. Though the shoes are quite a casual cut, I think the gold finish gives them just the right amount of dressiness to wear with skirts. Cheap they are most definitely not, but I have a feeling these shoes are going to be well worth the investment.





Hat: Noa Noa
Black drape-neck shirt: Sunhee Moon
Dress: thrifted
Belt: Sunhee Moon
Leggings: Sock Dreams
Shoes: Cydwoq
Jewelery: Betsey Johnson