Inspired by Advanced Style

Ari Seth Cohen, advancedstyle.blogspot.com, is the indisputable champion of older women everywhere - their beauty, style, individuality, and creativity.  They (we) are not invisible anymore and deserve to be noticed and acknowledged.  Following his lead, I photographed a woman in my local post office who had on a beautiful white fur hat and black fur coat (both faux), accented by a bright purple scarf.  When I told her that I liked her style and thought she looked beautiful, she was thrilled and said, "You made my day!"  So here she is - Catherine Hartman of North Cape May, NJ.  She made my day too! 

Putting An Outfit Together

I like the way things go together when they don't go together but you put them together anyway.  Striped bike shorts, a white lace skirt, red polka dot belt, multicolored sports bra, a lacy translucent top, and sports adventure sandals to finish it all off.  I think of dressing in the morning as my first creative act everyday.  Its a good way to exercise my imagination and express myself.  And when I am out and about throughout the day, strangers often talk to me.  It is like an invitation to a 10 second party.  We exchange smiles, feel a momentary connection, and then go our separate ways.  

Fruit #3

Here is another "Fruit" outfit.  I reconstructed the dress from a 1960's shirt by cutting off the collar and sleeves, reshaping the neck and adding pink tulle to the bottom.  The belt is made out of grass turf and fake flowers [I didn't make it].  Green cowboy boots, white satin gloves, a green button bracelet [that I did make] and green dangling earrings finish off the outfit.  All I need is a place to go!  Maybe I should start my own "Fruits" gathering - anyone want to join me?   How about on Sunday afternoons at the High Line in NYC?

Fruit #2

Fruit #1

"Fruits" is a beautiful Phaidon book with vibrant photographs of Japanese teenagers in fantastic, outrageous, colorful and playful outfits.  The author and photographer, Shoichi Aoki, states that his interest in fashion "comes from the way people express themselves through the clothes they wear."  During the 1990's, teenagers congregated every weekend in the Harajuku district of Tokyo to display their creative attire, socialize, and inspire each other.  Street fashion became personalized artwork, moving sculpture and a performance event all at the same time.  This is my homage to that movement.  For the next few days, I will be experimenting with my own "fruity" outfits and posting them here.

Alice in Wonderland

     Dressed for the movie in a set of teapot and teacup earrings, lots of frills and pink and black striped tights!

Buttons

Buttons are an essential part of my creative experiments.  I put them on  everything - from shoes to dog collars. Over the years I have amassed quite a collection.  I find them at thrift stores, yard sales and junk stores.  But the best way to get buttons is to have people give them to you.  When my acquaintances see how many things I do with them they often remember an old tin full of buttons buried in a cabinet somewhere and offer it to me.  They are happy to have them used for something and I often make a bracelet or pair of earrings in return.  If you let people know that you need them, the buttons will come...

For the shoes, I glued all the buttons on with Amazing Goop and for the dog collars, I hand sewed them on with a heavy duty needle and thread.

Sunday Brunch

 

Dressed for Sunday brunch at Pecan in Tribeca.  I made the skirt and the earrings.

Rick Rack

I collect rick rack.  It makes me smile.  It comes in all different sizes and colors and is easy to sew or glue onto anything - it even goes around in circles with ease.  Traditionally it is used as an edging, but the best thing that I ever did with it was decorate this acrylic cardigan.  I used two colors of the same size and sewed it on in a swirling meandering pattern all over the front and back of the sweater.  It reminds me of those diagrams for ballroom dancing, but without the footprints.  Whenever I wear it,  people comment on it.  I take that opportunity to ask them if they know what it is.  The over 40 crowd usually does, but the younger crowd needs to be educated.  I consider it my cause to enlighten them on its delightful moniker.  Rick rack.  Its also a good name for a cat!

This is my collection of rick rack that I glued onto a table runner and a pillar candle.


                     

Egg wrapper shoulder shawl

Our grocery order from Fresh Direct arrived this morning.  The eggs are always wrapped in this cool corrugated cardboard accordion thing.  A creative challenge for the day: create an outfit wearing it!

Denim Key Skirt

To my dismay, metal keys are quickly becoming a relic of the past.  And not just the antique skeleton keys of centuries ago but even car keys are becoming superfluous. In this age of electronic scanners and plastic keycards we probably won’t hear the familiar jingle of keys quite so often anymore –our children won’t know what they are and they will go the way of the rotary phone and the typewriter.  Luckily, I have always saved any key that came my way and have a box full of them.

Which brings us to today’s creation.  I recently bought an Old Navy denim skirt at the Salvation Army on 8^th Avenue and 21^st St.  Denim is like a blank canvas to me – it just begs to be made into  art.  I went through my key box and found six that could hang right underneath the zippers on the front pockets and tried using small gold safety pins to attach them instead of sewing them on.  It worked!  The pins actually add to the industrial look and were much easier to use for attachment than sewing.  Then I found a smaller key and used a short piece of ball and chain to hang it from the front zipper.  Using Aleene’s OK To Wash-It glue, I added some brown flowered trim to the bottom edge of the skirt and was finished in less than a ½ hour!


Does anyone want the denim key skirt?  It is an Old Navy size 8 and I would love to give to someone who would wear it and enjoy it!

One of the keys on the denim skirt came from an old hotel -  I  used the vintage tag and made it into a necklace.