There’s great footage of The Rolling Stones performing ‘Lady Jane’ on the Ed Sullivan show back in 1966. What’s great about it? Brian Jones playing the electric dulcimer in a black, white and red striped suit with a contrasting polka dot pocket square and tie. A total peacock legend.
I can’t begin to tell you just how cold it was the day we did this shoot; even the brass monkeys fecked off inside for a hot chocolate. After #TheBeastFromTheEast took its leave, I prematurely jumped at the chance to shake off the cabin fever and bask in the snowless sky. Rookie mistake. After Mother Nature took an unseasonal dump on our small island, she left us a parting gift of Baltic winds – the kind that slap you across the face, laugh and point when wearing anything besides YakTrax and a full-length Polar fleece-lined puffer coat.
Pleats are elitist. Fact. Their geometric rigour is designed to highlight and shame anything that doesn’t comply with their rigorous lines. As our girl Shakira put it, ‘The hips don’t lie,’ especially in the presence of a sharp knife fold. Ouch.
Maybe it’s the 70s child in me, always looking to her older sisters with their Dorothy Hamill centre-parted hair flicks and andro-hippie cool. Perhaps it’s a more ingrained rebellion against the prescriptive levity of the season. In any case, I prefer to channel ice-cream shades in a tailored suit and turtleneck – with an ice-cream and some shades. (See what I did there?)
The beauty of winter is its unwavering reliability. Each year, fads find their way onto the fashion radar but fall off just as quickly. Not so much when it comes to stalwart prints like the humble check. Whether heritage-inspired houndstooth, rebellious tartan or geometrically-clean box checks, their continued presence is reassuring in on an otherwise […]
There’s something deliciously deviant about stealing time for a swift half on a weekday afternoon. This made my Artful Dodger homage feel all the more appropriate. Granted, sitting outside in a bright rust ensemble doesn’t exactly lend itself to playing truant but it’s worth getting caught rapid. Putting an outfit like this indoors would be like putting Baby in a corner – totally uncool and punishable by the ghost of Johnny Castle. So, what exactly makes this outfit worthy of wardrobe hero status? Easy – corduroy.
If there was ever a good reason to twirl around the streets of Stoneybatter like a whirling dervish, it’s got to be this dress. Kindly gifted to me from the folks at Kahlo & Apfel boutique, this vintage lurex beauty has all the hallmarks of a solid gúna – cap sleeves, empire line silhouette and a killer colourway that makes the florals look more modern than mincing.
Now here’s another floral pattern I can get down with. This kimono jacket is from my pal Joanne Hynes’ most recent Dunnes Stores collection. Victorian gothic roses marching single file in electric yellow and blue across a satin landscape is my cup of semantically irreverent tea. Unabashed yet oh-so- pretty. What’s more, ‘it’s got legs’ as we say in the industry. In other words, there are multiple ways to wear it. I could harp on about how to do day in jeans and a t-shirt but where would the craic be in that? You know I’m a sucker for a polo neck and head-to- toe colour so it only seemed fair that we combine the two for this here look.
I’m not a floral kind of gal unless, of course, it’s winter. Being a hardy perennial more so than a darling bud, I feel aligned to the mercurial temperament of the darker months. That’s why this nocturnal 70s dress gives me all the feels. Purchased from a Canadian frockbroker on Etsy.co.uk, it’s the rare day that I’m not seen wearing it. It goes without saying that I’ve been trying to find new ways to pull the old switcheroo, if only to offset those ‘really, again?’ stares. Fun fact: it was real feel -3 degrees on the day of this shoot which made it the perfect opportunity for…you guessed it…layering! Remember my basic layering 101 in the culottes blog post? Well, consider this the intermediate course where I bend the rules – just a tad.
The older I get, the less choice I require – or want for that matter. Too many options create anxiety and, in turn, weaken my ability to make sound decisions. It also gives me an awful case of brain freeze. Not pretty.