Y'all know Liz Claiborne; proto-feminist purveyor of American sportswear. My own personal anecdote regarding Liz is throwing up in my mom's Liz purse at the DMV when I was 3 or 4 years old-she refused to get out of line. Now Isaac Mizrahi, after having left Target (and my one reliable source for cheap, comfortable high heels) is debuting his first collection for Liz, and there is no way these clothes will ever fit me, because I'm not allowed to have nice things.


Tiny sheer 3/4 sleeve gray sweater be mine


This outfit is so American it kills. Can't you see Michelle "I Can Benchpress 400" Obama in this outfit? And the flag watch! Oh!


Windowpane check jacket with contrast lining, this reminds me of Down With Love when Renee Zellweger and friend remove their coats to reveal contrasting dresses.

And if I remember this month's Vogue article correctly, everything is going to be at or below $100. Too good to be true!

I've been thinking lately that maybe the reason I don't dress up as much as I could or should is because I don't have The Right Shoes. It's hard to get excited about an outfit when your footwear choices are limited to crappy fake-leather flats from the mall or flip flops. On the other hand, buying vintage shoes is always dicey; I once had a pair of sandals literally crumble off my feet. And buying deadstock is even dicier-while you can be fairly sure that in the case of buying clothes and shoes from little old ladies, their things were kept somewhere temperature controlled. Deadstock things might have languished in a warehouse in Louisiana for 40 years, subject to heat, humidity, rain, and God knows what else. Then you have the other problem of looking like you've dressed in costume, which is great for some people, but I already look like a kid playing in mom's closet 99% of the time. What's a girl to do?


"victorian" 40s shoes


Pretty lizard shoes


Sickest Victorian (real Victorian) pointy boots. This is why I love vintage; you can go to Urban and spend $70 on some joe schmo boots or spend $70 and get some weird, one of a kind shoes that have gone through all of time to land in your hot little hands. And isn't that a lovely feeling?

And I would be remiss if I didn't show you the terrifying detail on a 30s blouse I'm bidding on:


WHERE ARE THEIR FACES? Oh, their faces are BUTTONS!!!!

I have no money, and American Apparel is trying to kill me with their $90 disco pants (would rather have a pair of Le Gambi's but are no where to be found). One of the perks though of living at home is you can spend your food budget on ebay goodies, and bring pb&j's to work!


The seller claims this is a 60s dress, but there's just something about it that makes it seem older than that. Not complaining, of course.

Actually I'm going to complain, cos I'm crap at bringing my stuff to the dry cleaners, and I am terrified to wash my vintage (sometimes antique) clothes for fear that they will bleed and shrink and I will not be the cool person I have created in my mind. How the hell do you wash vintage clothes?


These I will probably regret, but they were only $10 and I've been looking for a super high waist pair of skinny pants; these might require some reconstructive surgery.

I barely rarely post on the weekends but I thought I'd share with you this flickr album I found of 'Risques', "naughty" pictures from the turn of the century. Not safe for work, obviously, but cute and charming nonetheless.

The thing you notice about women in days of old is how much...thicker they were, but not fat. Womanly. Women don't have that shape anymore, I attribute it to our highly industrialized diet that turns us into calves, not people. But this is a fashion/sexy nude French women blog, not a soapbox.

Wishlist

It is Cold here in usually not-cold Florida. And this isn't just me being a wimp cos I'm from Florida; it was warmer in Boston yesterday than it was here. To paraphrase J.M. Barrie, God gave us the internet so we might have bathing suits in January. To wit, my spring wishlist:


1. Do you see these Martin Margiela boots with a nail for a heel? Are you seeing them? I am dying. I'm already dead.
2. I like this Urban bathing suit top though it is decidedly unsexy; good though for layering under things.
3. You could wear it with these high waisted twill pants, also from Urban. The problem with (most) contemporary high waisted items is that they only rise to the belly button. I have a pair of shorts from Target whose waist goes to the true waist; e.g., up around the ribcage. Get with the program, people!
4 & 5. These wannabe 30s items (imagine the dress below the knee in seafoam crepe? Now we're talkin) are from F21 and are just charming enough to consider.
6. Finally these SICK winklepickers from Topshop; when I was a wee and tender lass, all of 13, absolutely besotted with Duran Duran (somewhat acceptable behavior in 1988, questionable in 1998), I made it my mission to try and own as many Duranish items as possible. The ruffled shirts, the spiked belts, even the pink leopard print trousers! These shoes are totes John Taylor, to be worn with holey old band shirt and second-skin leather pants.

Oh and by the way, I don't know how interested you are in cute pictures and timely news/how bored you are at work, but I'm updating my tumblr constantly with uh cute pictures and timely news, check it out if you are so inclined:

http://earnenoughforus.tumblr.com/

Gettin' Statistical

I just installed Google Analytics, which means I'm spying on you now. I now have access to the things that people search to come to my little corner of the internet. Here are my favorites:

"if your gothic is going preppy the right thing to do": wisht I had seen this earlier! Stay goth, little one!

"'obscure alternatives'" blogspot" This is the dilemma of liking obscure music, you think you've stumbled onto a Japan blog you've never seen but no, it's just me being an ass.

"'carine roitfeld''dark circles'" Clearly I'm not the only one who's obsessed with C-Roit's orbitals

"crotch boots" "crotch high boots" "preppy boots" I get a lot of boot-related queries. And I didn't know there was a market for preppy boots; would they have pink and green flannel lining? The mind swims with possibilities!

Fred Flair Lolitaish sunglasses, Blue Waltz perfume, MSI Wind limited Valentines edition netbook, Le Creuset cookware, 40s dress from ebay (may actually buy but I need more 40s dresses like I need a hole in the head)

I love hearts. I love love, but my love for love is tangential to my love for hearts.



That being said, I bought these hair products from Davines because they're called Love. Also, because I'm a sucker. If I were you though, I would buy them from here, cos they're cheaper for the set. Instead of from Barneys, like I did. Because I'm a sucker.

It is no secret that I have a jealous nature; some things I am jealous of include professional athletes, movie stars, people in bands (especially if I deem myself to have more talent than they do, which is often), rich people, girls with bigger boobs than mine, people with nice hair, people with vintage Chanel bags, tall people, and short people (they can wear stripper heels, you see). But now I get to be jealous of myself, because these are mine.





They are like the perfect storm of the Chloe winklepicker boots and the Jeremy Scott x Adidas sneaks, and they were $5 at Goodwill, and they are mine.

Now to stretch them out an eighth of an inch so they will actually fit!...

Smilin' Through

blouse: ebay
skirt: Target
socks: Wal-Mart
heels: thrifted

Here's what I wore to my sushi birthday dinner; the hostess laughed at me, but she was wearing a sweater vest, so what does she know? I just wanted to look like a 40s teen on a date; is that so much to ask?

In other news, I got one of those bendy tripods at the Circuit City closing sale, so no more asking people to take my picture!

The Year of Living Thriftily just had a birthday, and listed 27 things that she loves. And since my birthday is today, I thought I would steal the idea. But my cake has only 24 candles. Lucky for me, cos this is hard!

1. Duran Duran: my life, my heart, my favorite band, always and forever. And their fashion sense was clearly ahead of their time.


2. Jane Fonda as Barbarella, the most beautiful woman there ever was and ever will be. And hair so big they couldn't fit it all in the picture.


3. Elsa Schiaparelli's shoe hat. No more need be said.


4. J Brand 10" skinny jeans: there will come a time in my life when I am too old and too fluffy to wear these. Until then.


5. Louis Wain and his sublimely strange kittens


6. Helmut Newton's goddess women. My life's only regret is that I didn't get famous sooner, or that he would have died later, so I could have had a portrait by him.


7.Howard Devoto and his funny haircut


8. Gobstopper Heartbreakers candy. I am currently working my way through my second bag, and there will be more bags to follow. And the colors are so pretty, especially the pink ones.


9. Milani nail polish; you can find it at Walgreens, it costs $1.99 or less, and comes in sick colors like fluoro yellow and coral.


10. Cute, creepy old antique stores where everything smells like old newspaper, and there are a stack of depression glass plates teetering precariously on the corner of an ancient sideboard, and the proprietor is gruff yet wise and throws in an old pinback of Howdy Doody or something


11. Soft, warm, vintage cashmere sweaters. And they only get better with age.


12. Pucci's out of control classic, elegant, flattering prints


13. Dresses with 3/4 sleeves


14. rude boys and rude girls


15. My favorite movie of all time, Brazil


16. the fabulous ladies (and their fabulous clothes!) of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill


17. Lip Smackers, the only cosmetic I've used religiously since elementary school


18. Aveda tea


19. Sailor Moon; I'm always trying to hunt down pleated miniskirts and the appropriate hair bobbles for the meatball head look


20. Ferragamo flats


21. World's End


22. Cetaphil


23. gingham

24. Gothic

25. and of course, Preppy.

Recessionista Blues

I am using the word recessionista unabashedly, because I think it's funny how people have to give a name to everything, no matter how stupid or pointless. Shop Bop and Net-A-Porter are both having 20% off of previously reduced items, here's what I found poking around:



WANT these Alexander Wang pants, $90-some-odd dollars. But I would have to sell some of my own clothes first. Maybe I should have a Gothic Preppy garage sale.



I would wear them with this Marc by Marc top.

Then over to Net-a-Porter, where everything in my size is nearly sold out. Maybe you'll find something good, though.

Ugh Marc Jacobs dress from the future, ugh ugh ugh

Pretty printed Marc dress

Diane Von Furstenburg

But for those of us without birthday money to spend, I found the perfect pair of completely opaque black tights at Wal Mart (and I know, because I have every pair of supposedly opaque black tights known to man, from Hue to Nordstrom) for only $5. Later I decided I want to wear bobby socks with my ankle strap heels, and ended up at Wal Mart, where they had a 5 pack for, you guessed it, $5.

The nice part about having a birthday in January is that it is just far enough after Christmas that everyone forgets about Christmas and you get double presents. The bad part is that it is inevitably dark, cold, and gray, and you can't wear any of the cute clothes you got.



Like this shirt I won last night; I am embarrassed about how much I spent, but 1) it's my birthday, and 2) it has an embroidered zeppelin! (no comments from the peanut gallery about how I could just embroider a zeppelin on my own shirt)


I am trying to amass vintage tops of late; it's so hard to find novelty shirts that aren't long sleeved, pointy collared, and shiny, unbreathable polyester. But I am on the case.






dolphins!