MY RED VALENTINE'S DAY DRESS

Hi everyone, hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day.

Today I would like to share you with something about me that I have never said on the blog before.  My husband and I don't believe in Valentine's Day. We don't buy each gifts, he doesn't bring me flowers nor do we go out for romantic dinner on that day.  

We both have quite strong feelings against the notion of being commercially forced to feel romantic towards each other.  We have other ways to express our feelings towards each other.  If you are my regular reader, you might recall my mentioning our tradition to celebrate our wedding anniversary every month by giving each other small gifts.  

Actually, it is my husband who buys me a gift every month without failing, I am more on the receiving side of it and my gifts are more sporadic.  I struggle to come up with an idea of what to buy for him.  And even though he is an avid reader, since I got him an E-book, buying a new book is not an option any more.  Anyway, he doesn't seem to mind taking pleasure in spoiling me, saving the special gift for actual date of our nuptials.

However, if we do decide to celebrate Valentine's Day and go out for a romantic dinner, this is the outfit I would be wearing, starting with this red vintage dress from Lanvin with deep drapes which create multiple folds softly cascading down the front.  I like the folds to be off centre and to one side so with the help of a brooch I gather the fabric around one shoulder thus making the dress looking slightly asymmetrical.

I wanted to clear away from the expected "red dress, black shoes and handbag combo" and put on white shoes but somehow it didn't work; besides, my black shoes have red soles which is the colour of the Day.  As for accessories, since the brooch is encrusted with tiny white pearls so were my ring and a pair of earrings.

A quilted purse size bag from Chanel completed my look.

I am wearing

A dress - Lanvin

Shoes - Christian Louboutin

Handbag - Chanel

Have a great week

Anna
xoxo

IF YOU LIKE MY LOOK, HERE ARE SOME MORE IDEAS  THAT YOU MIGHT LIKE 

LACE MAXI DRESS

Hi everyone, hope you are all well.

I have been in such a good mood until yesterday when I learnt that Google + is introducing some changes and all the comments that have been posted on my blog over the years have been erased.  Gone forever, and will never be back.  What a disappointment.  The only consolation I can find in this grim situation is the rest of the blog is still there, at least for the time being, and from now on the comments will be powered directly by Blogger.  So please leave your comments on my posts in Blogger, below, if you can, your support will be greatly appreciated.  BTW, has anyone else has encountered a similar problem?  Please let me know how you are dealing with it.

But the show must go on, so back to the post at hand.  The Sydney summer is still on and the heat is quite intense with the more heat is yet to come in February.  It is not that I want the summer to end because then the winter will come and we will complaint about the cold,  I just wish that the weather will be slightly cooler with less humidity so that we don't need to use the air-conditioning that is the main cause of summer colds and flu.

I can't speak for the rest of Australia, but the two fabrics choice which totally dominate this summer fashion scene in Sydney are linen and lace.  In my last post I shared with you my linen pants outfit (read the whole story here) and now is the turn to talk about lace.  Two years ago while on holiday in Sorrento, Italy I bought myself, (not knowing that it will become a fashion fad) a very cute lace dress (seen here) which I casually wear during the day.   However, I have for some time been on the hunt for a new dress which would be suitable to wear to more glorious events, like a concert at the opera house or a gallery exhibition, for example.

I saw this lace maxi dress at Zara during their massive post-Christmas sale.  It looked simple but has a subdued elegance about it.   I like that the colour is off-white neutral colours which looks great against sun-kissed tanned skin and gives a sense of cool calm.  

"...BECAUSE A DRESS IS SUBDUED, 

IT CALLS FOR STRONG BOLD ACCESSORIES..."

The lace is rather subtle and it is semi sheer at the bottom due to the partial lining which is removable, by the way, which gives me the option to wear any colour slip underneath depending on my mood, the occasion or choice of accessories.  The A-silhouette with a V-cut neck is very flattering and the fringe around the hem adds some boho feel to it.  Did I mention that the price tag was heavily reduced?

This images were taken in the garden surrounding  the Art Gallery of NSW where we came to see exhibition of Modern Art from The Hermitage Museum of St Petersburg.  I was very excited to see it because the last time I visited The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg was more then forty years ago while I was still living in Russia.  It was a warm and sunny day, perfect for my new light lace dress.  I wanted to keep the neutral palette and carried a handbag in a similar neutral colour (it is my old Louis Vuitton which is now considered vintage, lol).

Because the dress is rather subdued, it calls for strong bold accessories like my oversized golden tribal earrings that  and multicultural beaded bracelet that I bought many years ago at the Green Market Square in Cape Town.  The black slides with gold trimming around the heel completed my outfit of the day.

We received an invitation to the opening night of 2019 season at Sydney Opera House and I am thinking of wearing this dress again but will probably accessorise it with pearls, take an evening handbag and maybe wear a different pair of shoes.  We will see.  I will keep you posted.

Until then,

Anna

xoxo

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.

BLACK AND WHITE POLKA DOT JUMPSUIT

Hi everyone, hope you are fine and not stressed at all. It is not much to go, a couple of weeks and our lives will return to normal.

Apart from typical Christmas shopping frenzy, I discovered yet another aspect that stresses me out every time I step inside the department store:  the abundance of amazing outfits all hanging waiting to be chosen to be worn during the festive season.  

And although I already have a dress that I am going to wear on New Year Night, I still can't help myself  wandering into a store, having a look around and trying on a dress or two.  Surely,  we all know that window shopping, as therapeutic as it can be, can't last forever and eventually I ended up with a purchase.  I just couldn't resist the urge when I spotted this black and white polka dot jumpsuit (pun not intended).

The last time I bought a jumpsuit was four years ago exactly to the day and believe it or not, it was also in polka dot print but in reverse, the background was white and the dots were black.  Moreover, I posted it in my blog on the 18 of December 2014.  

You can read the whole post here.  Is it a coincidence or not???  Back then the jumpsuit was regarded as a new LBD.  Four years later and they are still going strong.

Here is another interesting tidbit:  I don't mind jumpsuits, I quite like them but I don't actually wear them which proves the frequency with which I buy them and it was the print that attracted me to the garment in the first place back in 2014 and now and made me want to buy it.

The other detail that appeal to me is the cut as I always like tops with a scooped neck and open shoulders and I was happy to find that this jumpsuit has side pockets.  

It didn't require any alterations in terms of leg length, the only thing that I didn't care about was a thin soft belt made from the same fabric and was not doing much for my waist so I replaced it with a leather one. 

I am wearing it with my new Alias Mae sandals and Villa sunglasses.

This is my last post of 2018.  Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

So long everybody, see you all in 2019.

WHITE COCOON HAND PRINTED H.S.J.P. DRESS

Hello everyone,  hope you are doing well and keeping the Christmas fever in check.

Although, according to the calendar we, in Australia,  are in the midst of summer, but the weather has been really jumped around so far that you don't know what to wear from one day to the next.

Luckily for us, the day these pictures were taken was very hot and I was able to wear my new over-sized cotton dress that kept me as cool as a cucumber during the photo shoot.  We were having lunch with friends at one of the hottest restaurants in the neighbourhood, Chiswick, and afterwards, on the way back to our car, we had a short stroll through the grounds of the restaurant where these photos were taken.

As a rule, I am not a big fan of over-sized dresses, especially when it comes to on-line shopping.  Despite their promise that one size fits all, I quite often find that they don't fit as well as I would like hence I prefer to buy them at a real brick and mortar establishment where I can try before I buy.

Having said that, I didn't buy this dress at the clothing store, I bought it at the Collective Market on our recent trip to Brisbane.  Walking from stall to stall, I spotted two young women dressed in quite attractive dresses who were busy unzipping big clothing bags and hanging out their stock on the racks.  We came over to have a closer look.  It was hard not to spot this dress due to its unique print.

I asked if they have it in my size which is medium, the girl explained to me that this is an over-size style of dress where one size fits all.  They didn't have a proper fitting room just a big mirror propped against the wall so I slipped it over the clothes I was wearing that day which happened to be a pair of linen pants and a plain t-shirt to get at least a vague idea of what would I look like in it.

My husband assured me that I looked nice, the price on the tag looked very reasonable and I thought, why not.  Even if the bad comes to worst I wouldn't like it on me, it is not going to be a big deal.

Back in Sydney, I once again tried it on but this time properly and actually liked it.  It has a full cocoon silhouette through the lower body with side pockets and is made of pure cotton and is very light and breathable.  But I think its main feature is its unique print that is haphazardly placed all over the dress thus breaking the monochromatic monotone and thus drawing your eyes back to it wanting for more.

Since the print is quite delicate and my skin looks quite pale against the white colour of the dress, I decided to go for rather bold strong accessories like black onyx beads around my neck, a wide heavy bracelet around my wrist and a red painted handbag and matching lipstick for a dash of colour.

What I wore today:

Dress - H.S.J.P

Clogs - Gorman (old)

Handbag - Louis Vuitton (old)

Cuff - Dinosaur Design

and my brand new sunglasses from Valley

I am aiming for one more post in 2018, fingers crossed I will not fail

Love to you all

Anna

xoxo