something skirtastic at gojane

Wow, I haven’t been over to my old friend Go Jane’s in a while, and something must have happened while I was gone because the skirts have gone crazy – in a good way -

Here are my 5 faves -

Striped maxi skirt $31.10

Hankie hem chiffon skirt $22.50

Paneled asymmetrical skirt $20.70

Solid color hi-lo skirt $22.50

Striped Maxi Skirt $17.90

Personally, I’d wear all but the last with a plain black tank – the last I’d wear with a navy or baby blue tank, the whole point in summer being to stay unfussy and cool.

Do yourself a favor and don’t even go over to the shoes…like gummy bears they are.

friday blast from the past–crystal gayle

Haute hippie tie neck blouse $245 Nordstrom

Italian 14K gold hoop earrings $75 Ross Simons

14K gold locket necklace $146.25 Ross Simons

Vintage Jordache high waist slim jeans $95.03 Ebay

Pointy stiletto pumps $450 Ssense

Vintage hard shell clutch $34.99 Ebay

 

And if you would like to see a mind blowing authentic 70’s ad for Long and Silky Conditioner, check out this on flicker – and she’s got tons more great vintage 70’s ads, too.

wearing flowers in your hair

Lest my lover should think

My face not as lovely as the flowers

I pin it slanting in my cloud like hair

And ask him to make a comparison

Li Ch’ing-chao

(1084-1151)

Beautiful Tahitian Woman in Traditional Headdress photo from Mail Online

If I have lived there long enough, one of the things I remember about a place after I have forgotten people’s names are the regional wildflowers.  As a stranger in a strange land, they are one of the first things that offer me the comfort of familiarity once I see them for the second time. 

Cyprus is full of yellow wildflower fields right now that feel very familiar to me now that I have been here 5 years.  I know well the place in the sidewalk where I can expect more because that is the exact place they came up last year.

Today I woke up with many worries and missing home, but as I went to walk our youngest dog down between the fields something possessed me and I pinched off a flower and put it in my hair.  I have left it there all day because it made me feel completely different immediately.  I was light and happy and no longer worried.  I wore it to do the shopping and my work and people smiled at me.  I feel just fine now.

Maybe we should wear flowers in our hair more often just to lighten up a bit.   I think we could learn a little something from women of yore -  

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite painters who never failed to notice or delight in the flower in a woman’s hair -

Tahitian Women on Beach,  1891  by Paul Gauguin

Three Tahitian Women, 1896  by Paul Gauguin

And with that beautiful Tahitian woman again -

(No wonder Paul went to Tahiti.)

PS  Tradition says if the flower is worn on your left it means you are taken, if on the right then you are single

last chance for 20% off

If you are on their mailing list you know that Ascension, (my personal favorite eco and fair trade online fashion store in the UK; I have a ton of their stuff – from undies to tees to athletic wear to home goods - all bought on sale), is having a Mother’s Day inspired sale - 20% off Everything Until Midnight Thursday 31st March.  That’s tomorrow.  Just enter the Secret Coupon Code 'MOTHER' at the checkout.  This isn’t a company that is emailing all the time, clamoring on about sales – hey, their stuff is not cheap - so when they advertise one I take them seriously.

Plus, even if you don’t want to shop, please just check out their amazing homepage message.  You’re not the only one with problems.  This is not something you see too often these days, unfortunately, certainly not in this part of the world.  Since we are quoting Shakespeare this week…, Integrity, wherefore art thou?

outfit of the week–and my tribute to liz

A lot of people didn’t think Elizabeth Taylor was that great an actress, but I did, simply because I love how passionate she was (something I was known for in my heyday).  She could play a temperamental romantic woman in love like none other of her time.  Plus she was in some of my favorite movies including Life with Father, The Sandpiper, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Lassie Come Home, Father of the Bride and others.

She also wore some of my favorite outfits in film including the casual chic nautical look below - playing a beautiful and fashionable expat in The Last Time I Saw Paris-

and if you have seen The Sandpiper where she played a free spirited artist and single mother living in Big Sur, than you will most likely remember the red poncho that we see more than once – a sensible detail that made this fiery character all the more real -

(Photo by Everett Collection / Rex Features)

(photo been-seen.com)

You won’t find that poncho appreciation here in this New York Times movie review or any other appreciation of the film The Sandpiper for that matter.  I find the review to be particularly surprising because it is so judgmental, and yet it comes from the notoriously humanistic and liberal American newspaper, The NYT.  Go figure! But I guess all tides have to turn and The NYT is no more immune to the swing of the political fashion pendulum than the American sitcom. And I also don’t suppose the NYT like their (treasured)' ‘intrusive, cheap, indelicate implications’ straight up any more than the thinking man does his thinking girl pin-up.  And certainly they must uphold their right to stand behind the precepts of faith when it suits them, whether they believe in them and understand them or not. (No liberal shades of gray here – No,  no better or worse, only bad and good, a highly inhuman, unorthodox and ultimately inapplicable set of morals they suddenly choose to defend.)

ANYWAY.  Some of the worst sculpture and paintings I have ever seen form the backdrop of this story, but I love the story itself, and the set design of this movie is perfect…a Vincente Minnelli specialty.

Passion didn’t really work out for me.  But it seemed to suit Liz just fine.  She certainly stayed committed to it throughout her life.  And it is her passionate female characters I will always remember. 

inspired by red and gold vintage shoes

Vintage red suede shoes with gold trim $120 Etsy

Lela Rose wrap-effect cotton-crepe dress $995 Net-a-Porter

Vintage 50’s carved Lucite purse w/ rhinestones $157 Etsy

Red Begonia earrings $6 Etsy

quote of the week

                    Painting believed to be of William Shakespeare by Gerard Soest 1610

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.  William Shakespeare

sunday night sadness–charlotte’s web