Just In Case You Thought You'd Seen Everything....

Take a look at this "organic armour". Paul Hersey crafts these pieces from rubber and adorns them with glass baubles and metallic finishes. He makes a variety of pieces to order and designs custom items as well. So if you have been looking for "fantasy" or medieval breastplates, bras, bracelets, crowns or similar items for yourself, your partner or your dog(!), you have found the right place.

This pooch sure is a head-turner in this regalia!

I'll Have the Crabhat With a Side of Sauciness

When I first saw the crabhat, I thought it was utterly ridiculous-----though part of me wanted one. After all, it is a hat!

But then after seeing this over-the-top, shark-jumping extravaganza of photo-shoot mania, I decided the crabhat was really a rather conservative, restrained statement of style and mood. "Come too close, and I just might pinch you!" it whispers alluringly.



This look, on the other hand boldly proclaims, "I am an idiot, and if you touch me, I'll slap you and get paint all over you! And yes, those are open toe boots! Whoops, I forgot my knickers!" For a better look at her.....ahem...... paint, just left click on the image.)

(Lower image from French Vogue.)

Vintage Treasure

My mom has always said that I am super lucky-----and I'm happiest when I believe her. Here is the latest piece of evidence that she is on to something: a lucky find. At a local vintage shop, I found this terrific lariat necklace, probably from the twenties. It is quite long and in good repair.

Damage to the old pocketbook? $6.00 !!!!!! (Don't confuse my exclamation marks with factorials, all you math enthusiasts.) I've been happy about this goofy find for days. It's silly, but why not be happy?

What a Costume!

(Left click on pics for greater clarity.)


Last year when we were visiting Antwerp, I really liked the sculpture depicting the "ongoing" work of finishing the Cathedral there. When the church was originally built (starting in the late 1400's), they ran out of funds, and one tower remains incomplete. In the 1800's, a sculptor fashioned these figures which stand alongside the church, continuing to "work" on what is now considered a permanently unfinished building.

When I first saw them, it was too late and dark to take pictures, but since it was not far from our hotel, I decided to double back the next morning, and take advantage of better lighting. When I arrived, I saw that a street performer was puttering about amongst the figures, putting on the finishing touches of a costume to make him blend in .

In vain, I struggled to get shots that did not include him. I felt too shy to ask him to get out of the way for a few moments, but now what I like best about these pictures is the fact that he was getting ready. You can also see the mirror (top pic) that he used to apply his make-up, and of course, his tip-jar.


All he needs now are his gloves.

This Fashion Was Not Intended For Halloween!

Reid Peppard is the designer to blame for these atrocities. Truly, fashion has jumped the shark when people start festooning their hair with preserved rodents.


..... or using a rat for a coin purse.


.....or mice for cufflinks.




I know there was a time when people bought brightly dyed rabbit foot keychains, but they were featureless. Fox stoles often used to have the faces and extremities intact, but it's hard to believe that anyone wants that look to come back.

Larval Jewelry?!?

©heatherkh via flickr
I don't know that I would buy one, but this is pretty interesting.


A jewelry maker and former naturalist, Hubert Duprat has made jewelry using the larvae of the caddisfly. The larvae of the caddisfly have evolved to coat themselves with gravel to camouflage themselves (first picture).

Duprat removed their gravel coverings, and placed them in tanks with gold flakes and other precious materials.



Here are a few of the results.



(Photos Jean-Luc Fournier. Courtesy Art:concept, Paris, and Zero Gallery, Milan.)

When will someone surround me with gold flakes and precious gems and let me cover myself with them?

Furbags?

Since I live in an upstate town with limited shopping, I lead a very sheltered existence with respect to fashion. I was really not prepared for the wild and bizarre offerings in the purse department of the TJ Maxx in Boston.



New to me was the idea of a bag made from fur, a furbag if you will. The name alone should have tipped designers off that it was a bad idea. Fur hats, coats, and so on at least have the purpose of keeping someone warm. What do people want to keep warm in their purses? (The one below was also poorly constructed, and all bunched up.)


Even though they were at TJ Maxx, the furbags were expensive, like five or six hundred bucks-----down from initial prices like $900. Given that the purses were even at TJ Maxx, I suppose that people have cast their dollar votes, and the furbags lost.

Green Pumps!

They even go well with my green purse.



Too bad they're just earrings.....

A Couple Halloween Costume Do's and Don'ts

I thought of some things I forgot to mention last year.


Be inventive! (Like this kid's Mom was.) Sushi costume with wasabi and ginger headband!!!! Brilliant....

Reconsider if your costume just simply makes you look horrible. I was astonished once to see a (single!) friend show up at a party wearing what looked like a tarp with some leaves and twigs glued to it. She said she was a pile of raked leaves. When we introduced her to someone hot, I suspect she wished she could be siphoned up by one of those giant leaf collection trucks. Awkward...

If you are making a costume for a child, make sure it is something that almost everyone recognizes so they don't have to explain it to everyone.

Again, if you are making something for a child, and if there is a head portion of the costume, try and make it detachable especially if they are going to wear it to a party, or to school.


When I was five, my mom made me a costume that broke both those two rules. I was a 'Nauga'! A Nauga was the fictitious creature from which Naugahyde brand vinyl was taken--------according to their ad campaign. Nobody knew what a Nauga was back then either, and it was hard for a five year old to explain.

The worst thing was I wore it to kindergarten.


In addition to the fact that there was no way to take off the 'head', she had not made an actual opening for the mouth. She simply appliqued that toothy grimace in felt right onto the face. When it was time for lunch and the Halloween party, I discovered that I could not eat with my costume on! Being very motivated by the treats, I discovered that if I withdrew one arm from its sleeve inside my costume, and brought my hand up to an eye-hole, I could slip jelly beans and the like through the small opening and eat them that way.
Another problem was that I needed help to take it off to go to the bathroom....

Which reminds me, if your young child insists on being a mummy, make sure they go to the bathroom before you wrap them up!


And ladies, remember, it's Halloween, not slutfest! If you want to wear one of these tacky outfits, just keep it in your bedroom and role-play to your heart's content.





If you do buy one anyway, be careful about what is included------in the Warrior Princess one, the shoes are the best part, and yet are not part of the get-up. And the sex kitten costume does not include that bod.

Another Unfinished Project Looming?

I guess I am just too fond of certain shades of green. When looking for handbags just recently, I found one in a green that I just could not resist. But it had unappealing brown handles, and a positively eye-zorching shade of rust for the lining. Rust with that gorgeous fresh green????

I felt I had an obligation to rescue the green suede from it's ignominious coexistence with those poorly chosen materials. I bought it, and grabbed my seam ripper. Here in the pictures it is already partially dismantled. See what I mean about that lining?





I am debating between blue or black for the interior and handles. Navy blue would make it perfect to pair with any of my three favorite scarves, but the green positively sings when paired with black.

Now that I have blogged about it, I have to finish it, right?

Bizarre Fashions

I suppose I should not be surprised. After all, ridiculous haute couture clothing has been around for a long time. But this collection is staggeringly awful, and leaves me wondering, "someone got paid for this?""
I will make one exception and note that with the right lighting and background, this outfit achieves a fun "woman-sawed-in-half" effect, so it might work for a Halloween party.



And I suppose there is some enjoyment to be had from the orange gown that appears to have suffered extensive damage from tunneling rodents------a good laugh, that is.






But really, what the Hell are these designers thinking? Do they actually think some woman wants to venture forth looking like a flounced pillow sham?




















I don't even know where to start enumerating the deficiencies of the lavender outfit, except that I have heard that last year's Elizabethan collars are Way Out now------of course I thought they went out of style over four hundred years ago, but I suppose fashion is cyclical.

Mostly it just seems like they cannot even conceive of a woman coming across as attractive.



















In fairness, it must be said that the designers don't know how to make themselves look good either. The cuffed, too-short, plaid pants, the ill fitting jacket (on the guy on the left) the patterned lapels that clash with his tie, a too formal black jacket with jeans (sport jackets can go with jeans, but this looks more like a suit jacket), and a possible dress-shoes-without-socks violation again on the left all suggest that they are fashion poseurs without originality or vision who feel the need to be merely outrageous (in the currently accepted ways, of course) to establish their cred. But at least they look better than the woman on the right in her pink shoulder tutu!

Spring Fashion Update

Even a super expensive handbag cannot save this look! YIKES! Her face makes clear how painful her shoes are. She's not the only one hurting------MY EYES, MY EYES!

(This picture was in the Dailymail.co.uk, but I can't track down the URL. The woman is the mother of a British football star who has launched his own fashion line------she is wearing a shirt from his line! What advertising! It reminds me somehow of a funny comment about ads that I read recently. "With a name like Smuckers, it's got to smuck.")

'Bucketize' Gets A New Meaning

Some say that being bucketized means that you've had your first encounter guitarist Buckethead's music.

In business and computing, it is a way of lumping certain transactions together. (categorizing basically)

But now because of innovations in fashion, a new dominant meaning is emerging. To be bucketized will be a fashionable new way of dealing with bad hair, or poorly tweezed eyebrows. See below. (Left-click to enlarge the images; I couldn't manage to make them the right size.)











And I thought they'd never make a hat I did not like!
I suspect the feckless designer of this headgear may opt to wear it himself to avoid recognition.

Really Not So Strange

This sure seems like a labor intensive project, but this is, after all, exactly what is done with the wool from sheep goats and, yes, rabbits.

Four hundred bucks (her most expensive) seems like a high price , but it may be a better expenditure than exorbitant veterinary procedures opted for by owners of aged (and suffering) pets who can't bring themselves to let go of the cherished animal. Kidney transplants for cats cost several thousand dollars.

So are you an "ewww-person" or an "ahhh-person"?

The "Shatner", Updated

These garments, mirdles-----man-girdles----are being marketed ostensibly for providing lumbar support. Yeah, right. Seems more like they are for love handle containment. Or perhaps, as the model on the right seems to think, they are meant to provide extra sock storage. You decide.

In any event they help close the gap between men and women in terms of quality of life. Not the jump forward for women we all hope for, but a giant step back for men. Aahhh, progress.

Choose Your Halloween Costumes Wisely

This costume has the distinct disadvantage of being a permanent tattoo. It is too bare for chilly trick-or-treating. And people are likely to say, "gross," instead of running away screaming. Notice how much more effective at producing abject terror a simple banana costume is instead.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Looking For That Perfect Halloween Costume?

This one takes some skill to use effectively, but WOW!

Choose Halloween Costumes Wisely

This costume has the distinct disadvantage of being a permanent tattoo. It is too bare for chilly trick-or-treating. And people are likely to say, "gross," instead of running away screaming. Notice how much more effective at producing abject terror a simple banana costume is instead.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

New Geography Facts

All hail our mighty google overlords for this;
or, things I found when looking for something else.



From the disinformation league

Philosophical question

My favorite store, Flutter, sells awesome vintage slips as outerwear. (I guess I have to thank Madonna for something, other than that embarrassingly bad english accent, always a delight.) I own two. But, does one wear a slip with a slip?