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

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. *

My version of sight seeing in the last few weeks has constitued going to some of my favorite hidden gem stores around Melbourne. While I will list them for you a little down the track, today I thought I’d show you where all that pocket money has disappeard to!

No one item was very expensive, (this is how they trick you into draining the wallet, stealth style) but each one has a brilliant style factor for making something everyday that bit more extradordinary. Beautiful and useful? Of course!

Small bird clip that can be worn anywhere – $6.00

Faux pearl and felt snowflake earrings – FREE with purchase! ( Um yes, I bought a jacket on sale for $65 but it still counts as a bargain!)

I spotted this purple plaid beauty case from the far end of the store and immediately fell in love. I figured it would be around $90 but went in for closer inspection anyway.  It is the perfect size for carrying shampoo bottles and hair brushes when travelling, something that I don’t yet have a purpose built bag for, so when I saw it was actually $19.95 I had to have it!

This is actually a blush pot from Missha. I have been looking for a new cool and bright base eye colour but most I liked have been around the $40 mark.

This one however, is twice the size as well as being the perfect shade and was only $8!

I’ve been using it to great effect the last couple of days, so there is a tutorial in the works on how best to use it too.

This was a random find in one of those Chinese bargain stores and at $2 I couldn’t leave it behind.

You may have seen these around before, in fact I’ve been eyeing them off for a while before I finally gave it to the red, shiney, hypnotic surface. Ohhh…

Yes, it is APPLE hand cream from The Face Shop! It is only about $12, but there isn’t a whole lot in there. However this is one package I will use and use when it is empty so I still consider it a good buy. Besides which my hands smell and feel divine!

All that booty and it all came to $48.00 or about a week’s worth of take out coffee.  I know which pick me up I prefer!

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!

It would look something like this.

Insert Self Here for Blissful Time.

Last Saturday in honor of the delightful Violet Le Beaux being in town, a group of like minded bloggers (and a pair of well trained partners) got together to enjoy and afternoon tea in true girly style. In a little known corner of Collingwood, Melbourne, is a lovely store that is bringing girly back. Christina Re is well known for her stunning DIY stationery collection that let’s you create customised pieces of correspondence magic on paper, vellum and quilted card to name but a few.  To make the experience of selection and creation much more enjoyable, they have recently launched a small in store cafe to supply tea and cakes to weary crafters.  After popping in for a much needed lemonade the other week, I was overwhelmed by the serenity and light of it all, promptly making a note to bring back a bunch of appreciative friends.  And so we did.

left to right: Aurora Hime, Violet Le Beaux, Jimmy America

left to right: Esme and the Laneway, Fables in Fashion, Petite Valse

Super Kawaii Mama and Esme and the Laneway, doing what bloggers do best. Photo by Jimmy America.

Also in attendence were Kitty’s Drawings and Circa Vintage to help us improve the vintage lover versus princess contingent.  I met the two styles in the middle by wearing a 1960′s pink square dancing dress and vintage blue petticoat!

It was as fun and fancy as it looked, there is no doubt we’ll be doing it again. In fact, I think I shall declare this weekend;

DIY Tea Party Weekend

So have a little tea and a cake or two with me.