A WRAP DRESS FOR A HOT SUMMER DAY

Hello, everyone.  Hope you are all well.

We are in the middle of the Australian summer and the days are extremely hot and awfully humid which is not good for my hair.  Regardless of  how much time have I spent blow drying it to add some volume, the moment I step outside, it becomes flat and lumpy.  

Anyhow, while we cannot control the weather, we are certainly able to choose the clothing that is most suitable for the season and, in my opinion, nothing works better during the hot summer days than a light and breezy wrap around dress.  Its V-shaped cut allows the wind to cool your neck and chest while the skirt freely floats around your legs.  And to fully embrace the summer spirit, it must be of bright and vibrant colours and prints.

Case in point, the dress I am wearing today which has been in my wardrobe for a couple of years but somehow I haven't grown tired of it.  The peacock print, of course, was the major drawcard when I saw it in a window of a small shop in Paddington in Sydney, that is.  Besides, I've always loved a wrap dress and every time I put one on, I always thank Diane von Furstenberg for reinventing its design and giving the wrap dress a second life.  

The other reason that I am wearing such a bright dress, apart from the weather, is that lately a few good things happened in my household that elevated my mood a lot:  this year my youngest daughter graduated from high school (hooray!!! no more school fees), and last week we celebrated her 18th birthday and she was admitted to one of Sydney's university's where she will obtain, upon completion, a degree of Bachelor of Science, majoring in math.  I can't tell you how relieved and happy I felt.  

Going back to my outfit, as for accessories, instead of trying to tone down the bright hues of the dress, I intentionally chose the most vibrant colours of all.  I guess I can partially blame my high spirits for it.  My bracelet is of sunny yellow, the hand bag is a deep aquamarine and my shoes are sky blue but somehow it works because that is what summer is about.

"...every time I put one on, I always thank Diane von Furstenberg for reinventing its design and giving the wrap dress a second life"

HOW TO TRANSFORM LINEN SLACKS FROM DAY TO NIGHT

Hi everyone,

Hope you had a wonderful time over the holidays season and ready to take 2019 by the horns, so to speak.  It is not easy to shift your mind back into the grind but I am slowly getting there.

It was one of those days when you planned to do one thing but then something else came up and you had to think quickly on how to make do.  Except for having pre-arranged dinner with friends of ours in the evening, our morning and afternoon were wide open and we were thinking of going to the beach during the day when my daughter called me early in the morning asking if I could babysit my granddaughter, Edie, for a couple of hours.  She promised to be back well before our dinner time and I agreed, of course.

As they live about 20 minutes away from us by car, I figured that the best way to do both without wasting too much time of driving backward and forward would be for me to get dressed at home for something that I can equally wear while playing with Edie and be comfortable and yet good enough to look nice for our dinner date later on.

As the day promised to be quite warm, I settled for a sleeveless top and light linen slacks that I recently purchased from Uniqlo, a gian Japanese designer, manufacture and retailer of the casual wear.  The beauty of wearing linen is not only that it is a natural fibre and is light and breezy but also no matter how wrinkled your clothes might have become, the better it looks.  That is the nature of linen.  Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't probably have chosen linen slacks for a dinner at a restaurant but I figured that if I wear nice shoes and carry a decent hand bag, I could kill two birds with one stone, figuratively speaking.

Edie and I had a wonderful time together and when the time came to say goodbye, I kicked off my sandals and put on high heel strappy sandals that I smartly brought with me together with my evening handbag and some jewellery and voila, I was ready to go.