Outfit: Uptown Top Rankin'

Hello dearies!

I haven't posted in what might be a year in Internet time... but I have been doing what we all do, studying, working, sleeping and 'being tired'. All at the same time.
Some of the highlights since my last post were... a man in a fur hat walking down the road with a brief case in one hand and a mouth harmonica in the other; a shifty man in a military-style hoodie with a huge rubbish bag and an equally huge TV inside; Old pictures of Venice by Canaletto and his rivals; Stories about antique spectacles; a vintage 'salad' green lamb fur coat by Prada that I have mentally already bought... but physically it might not even fit me. Opening a glass door of a cafe and having wind blow all the delicate snowflakes inside... A very magical moment, but unfortunately I couldn't see anything, as I was holding the door... so my imagination constructed the rest of the 'picture'.
Last but not least imprint that I still have in my mind was left by two chocolate labrador puppies being clumsy, silly and playful on a curb. (how little do they need to be happy and give happiness!) It was like watching a faulty tape, they jump back up on the curb, fall off, bite each other, jump back up again... Fall off, bite each other. And people were stopping by in astonishment. Magic :)

Outfit: Same.

Recently I have been very lazy and ill.
I fear that I might have only been ill for the first couple of days though. Then, I presume, laziness took over and led to boredom... Which allowed my hypochondriacal tendencies to thrive and provide an excuse not to do much.
My laziness covered a vast number of areas from not doing homework to glum outfit choices.
So here's what I wore on Saturday and Sunday.
Yes, I did wear this bag, shoes and jeans all weekend. But isn't a good blogger supposed to demonstrate how the same pieces of clothing can be matched to produce different results? (all nod please :) )

Hoarding: My goodies

Here are some knick-knacks I found at the market and in what used to be my 'favourite charity shop' in the area, during the past week.

Victorian gold-plated silver spectacles. 

I admire them for the conservative design, scarcity and the use of traditional products that aren't used nowadays (lens are actually glass and the 'nose pads' are actually cork).

Opinion: Elsa Schiaparelli

Among my outfit and purchases posts I would like to share with you the things I find interesting and inspiring. I'll start with a woman I came across quite a while ago thinking- how come I've never heard of her before?! (so do not read any further if you are familiar with her already!)
Her name is Elsa Schiaparelli, an innovator and an outstanding contributor to the fashion world of the early 20th century. She was Italian, and her biggest rival was Coco Chanel. Unfortunately Schiaparelli couldn't adapt to the changes of the world after WW2 and thus had to close her business. But while I bow to the elegance and chic of Chanel trademark pieces, I admire Schiaparelli designs all the more, because they're a relic of the past. An important relic of the past, boundary-less and imaginative.

To give you an idea of what exactly is so memorable about her, here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:

''Her career began with her introduction of graphic knitwear to the world of fashion with knit patterns and emblems. These led to her fanciful prints of body parts, food, and many more unusual themes. She was the first to use brightly colored zippers, appearing first on her sportswear in 1930 and again five years later on her evening dresses. Not only was she the first to use brightly colored zippers, but she was also the first to have them dyed to match the material used in her garments. She was the first to create and use fanciful buttons that looked more like brooches. They came in the shapes of peanuts, bees, and even ram’s heads. In Parisian fashion, she invented culottes, introduced Arab breeches, embroidered shirts, wrapped turbans, pompom-rimmed hats, barbaric belts, the “wedge,” a soled shoe that would trend through the 20th century and into the next, and mix-and-match sportswear, the concept of which would not be fully recognized for another forty to fifty years. While her innovations in fashion design were numerous, it was her creation of the runway show as we know it today that was most influential. Her modern idea of a fashion show included a runway with music and art, and the use of elongated, shapeless women as models. She believed that this boyish figure would best display the clothing. Many people do not realize the true sum of her impact on fashion and the fashion industry.''

The most fascinating thing for me at the moment is her shoe hat!
Which I suddenly felt inspired to write about when I saw this photo on The Sartorialist blog.