Why Les Miserables? Well I think it is the ragged skirt that I love so much.  Something about this combo as I was putting it together, made me think of a Parisian Courtesan on her day off or a well dressed revolutionary marching the streets of Paris. This skirt has had so many appearances over the last autumn winter season and I don’t see it stopping anytime soon.  Depending on how I wear it I can end up feeling like The Little Match Girl, Eliza Dolittle or like today, a Can Can dancer on her way to the shops! All that fantasy in one skirt? What a great buy!

(Some of you have asked for more detail of this skirt and this cardigan before, so prepare yourself for a gratuitous amount of photos)

The hair was done using my “Chic and Simple Updo” tutorial and takes no more than 5 minutes to achieve.

The makeup look has a tutorial on the way too.  I’m a little behind on the editing but hope to get it ready for you in the next week.  It is simple and soft, but can be amped up quite easily for an evening look.

Phew.. that was a lot of photos!  Now for the details..

Outfit Details

Skirt – Boo Radley

Cardigan – Friends of Couture “Daughters of Pleasure”

Teal slip – Anthropologie

Boots – Novo “Mali”

Hair Bows – My Little Rockabilly

Bow Earrings – Equip

Purple sequin bow clip – $2 shop

The first thing that occurs to me as I started getting these photos ready to post, is that I really need to allow more time before events to take some proper outfit shots! I always end up running out of time and then taking a few hasty shots during the evening that doesn’t really capture the detail of what I wore. Oh well, at least you’ll get the gist if it.

Saturday night was Circa Nocturna, the annual catwalk showcase of alternative fashion, and a place where so many of my loves can all be found at the same time in the same room!  I had planned to wear a particular vintage Gautier dress this evening, but the weather had other ideas with very high humidity and a storm that had cars floating down the roads and roofs collapsing!  So I had to do a bit of improvisation last minute.

I’d picked up these amazing boots (yes, a post on just these by themselves is coming) earlier in the week and was dying for an opportunity to take them out on the town.  Bit in the abcense of the previously planned dress, I had no idea just what I would wear them with.  So with an hour to go before heading out the door, I grabbed a pair of neglected black pants, chopped the legs off, whipped them through the machine and knocked up a pair of shorts!

It ended up being the perfect combination to keep cool in a very hot and humid evening, as well as dance the night away at the afterparty!

It wasn’t until I saw photos of myself with the lovely Hexotica, (who makes some stunning fascinators and accessories) that we realised how much we matched. In a sea of black, black and more black, a little white goes a long way.

Outfit Details

Black satin and chiffon shirt – Cue

Black buttoned cincher – CMK

Shorts- a quick creation from an old pair of trousers!

Thigh high boots – Novo Shoes

Faux fur collar – Target children’s wear! ( yes, the secret is out)

Silver clutch – Thomas Wylde

Earrings – Diva

Fingerless gloves – Forever New

Mini Tiara – borrowed from Miss 5

I’ve been diligently working on improving my casual wardrobe, using what I have and trying to keep this quest in mind when window shopping too.  Today’s outfit is based on a new find, this lovely,  almost nightgown like top from Angel Sissi. Well actually it is sold as a dress but I prefer not to have quite that much on show, so I’ve paired it with those old staple wide leg pants.

I love the sequin and lace detailing as well as the pleated chiffon sleeves.  It is cool enough for a summer’s day, and comfortable enough that you could sleep in it too. I also particularly like that they gave me the earrings free with the dress as well.

Because this outfit was intended as a stay at home, casual type of affair, I’ve gone light on the makeup and kept to soft pink tones with a light gloss lip. I’ve also used a light version of a smokey eye technique to blend with the tone of the top.  Yes, there is a tutorial currently coming together for that too.

I’m really loving this tunic top, which is odd as I don’t usually go in for them, reminding me too much of what I had to live with for 9 months of my life twice over!  Surprisingly, since I took these photos, I’ve actually worn the top again another three times styling it differently on each occasion. What that means is that it has fallen into that very hard to manage fashion category – the Safe Go To Item!  The piece that you pull on when you slept through 45 minutes of your alarm and have ten whole minutes to be out the door.  I don’t have many pieces that fit that bill well, but when I find them I’m likely to hang onto them for dear life.

Outfit Details:

Tunic Top – Angel Sissi

Pants – Made By Me

Shoes – Keds

Earrings – Angel Sissi

Remember that fancy tea party the other week?  Well here are the outfit photos of what I wore.

It is super, super girly and was particularly appropriate for that kind of event; but it was also almost all vintage! Well at least half.

The dress itself I picked up at the last Way We Wear vintage fair here in Melbourne.  I was told at the time that it is an early 1960’s square dancing dress and it was one of a set of three all in different colours.  The seller even had the matching men’s waist coats and ties that would have been worn to dance with their beau. Awww.

It is made of some sort of metallic threaded, synthetic eyelet lace type material with no give at all so I don’t know what it would have been like for dancing!  Underneath is a baby blue tulle petticoat that has its origins in the early 1980’s and is a bit of a rough homemade job. Not to worry though, cause it did the trick and I love the colour – it was also free!

The stockings I found at Myer on sale and are from the Pins collection by Leona Edmiston There are a little too cheer for my liking but the spot pattern was irresistible.

Shoes – well what can I say? These are incredibly awesome “Japan” shoes from Wittner.  They are incredibly comfortable and you can even run in them with no difficulty should the occassion call for it.

*Please note – I am not attempting to do a pidgeon-toed, ingenue blogger stance here; I was just sliding down the hill!!*

Given that the scarf is all scrunched up tied to my bag, I thought I’d spread her out for a proper appreciation shot.

When I saw this hanging on the rack at Circa Vintage, I leapt for it like a rabid scarf hound! I’ve never seen anything like the print before and new it would be the perfect foil to a collection of many plain coloured scarves.  The bag was a bit of a sneaky sale rack find ($10!) at Equip, that cheap little accessory shop, and while I don’t tend towards small bags there are times that they are really the only chic option. That and it was ROSE print!

The right accessories really make or break this dress as I found out a few times when I just couldn’t make it work. Here’s a round up of the rest-

Headband – pinched from Miss Two

Earrings – pearl bows from Equip

Necklace – ‘Love’ on faux pearls from Equip also

Bow Bangle – Friends of Couture

.. and I think that’s everything!

*P.S: You’ll notice a few changes happening around here.  Please bare with me as I get everything finished and the kinks sorted out. *

Okay, so clearly I have no idea what kind of vibe I was aiming for with this outfit, but I still love the end result!

I found this skirt in a recycle boutique over a year ago and have never found anything that worked with it, that is until I found this great new top in this months sponsors store!

This is one of those ‘organic’ outfits that just kind of happens as you get dressed. Well that happens to me anyway.  It was about trying to find a balance for the volume of the skirt, find a way to keep it up (it is a little big) andground it with the right shoes.  I did have the best pair of black and red Melissa style flats on to begin with, but they just weren’t comfortable enough for a whole days walking around, so the Le Pommier shoes filled the gap instead.

I had stayed up with a friend the night before, crafting and hot gluing new hair thingys until 1am and the result was this hair bow.  A little red velvet ribbon, some faux pearls and  a golden anchor. It turned out to be the perfect thing the outft needed.

Outfit Details from head to toe:

Hair bow – made by me  Earrings – a few seasons ago from Diva

Top - Matelot top A/W’10 Friends of Couture

Skirt – unlabeled and found at a recycle store. Made of cotton scarves and broderie anglise.

Belt – elastic with enamel bow from Angel Sissi in Bourke Street Melbourne (they don’t have a website yet)

Flesh tone fishnets – Leg Avenue

Shoes – Le Pommier (these guys don’t have a site either!)

I guess you could say this is a classic SKM look – pulled together from a variety of inspirations, breaking lots of rules and inherantly me.

P.S: For those of you in Melbourne looking for some great recycled, new and vintage bargains, Episode is having their Once A Year Garage Sale this weekend!  There will be stuff from $5 – $50 but mostly $5- $20.  They have samples, last seasons stock, vintage and recycled.  It runs from Friday till Sunday and the first 20 people to arrive on Friday will be able to fill an entire bag for only $20!