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Friday 30 October 2015

Spin The Pin - October '15

This months Spin the Pin challenge has definitely been the most challenging so far! The PIN is from A Dapper Chick's blog. Featuring...well..just that! A very dapper looking chick. 


Jo from iCurvy encouraged more of putting a SPIN on this Dapper chicks outfit rather than recreating it saying:
"Maybe it's statement socks, or the brilliant turquoise colour of the blazer, maybe you'll take inspiration from Men's wear for women - or add some tailoring to your outfit, maybe it's the bright pops of colour, or the flower button hole... The challenge is not to recreate the outfit - but let it inspire you and SPIN it your own way".


Well I struggled. First I started with my turquoise cardi which I really ought to get rid of cause it is clearly too small for me but I just love it too much! I thought I could wear it with a white shirt underneath; the shirt collar adding a little hint of menswear and the turquoise cardi to go with it. These two worked well together but I couldn't, for the life of me, find anything I liked to wear with it on the bottom half.


First I tried a mix with pink. 
I actually didn't mind this combination too much! However I did not like the shoes with the rest of the outfit. I'm quite a matchy matchy person and the denim colour blue of the wedges just didn't sit right with me.


Then denim. Blue and blue go right? 
After the colour of shoes not matching with the previous outfit, I decided to try a denim skirt. I'm not sure if it's the shape of the skirt or not but this didn't sit right with me either.

Yes, I can be quite picky with my outfits. It needs to feel right to me. Whatever "right" is...


Eventually I decided to wear something all together different.
I decided to take the Blazer part of the PIN and use that. This is the only blazer I own and I'm about to put it up for sale because it's a tad too small. Until now I hadn't worn it at all so I thought I may aswell give it a run before I sell it off...
I'm nice to my clothes like that! 



Turquoise & Pink Outfit Details:
• Tight Turquoise cardi || Vigorella || Opshopped for $1
• White shirt || Virtu || Opshopped for $5
• Pink skirt || Hot Options || reduced to $6 from Target
• Pink tassel earrings || Opshopped for $2
• Blue Pom pom wedges || Miz Mooz || Opshopped for $8

Turquoise & Denim Outfit Details:
• Tight Turquoise cardi || Vigorella || Opshopped for $1
• White shirt || Virtu || Opshopped for $5
• Denim skirt || Target || Opshopped BNWT for $8.25 
• Blue hoop earrings || Opshopped years ago
• Round blue stone necklace || Bought overseas over a decade ago
• Blue Pom pom wedges || Miz Mooz || Opshopped for $8

Blue & White Blazer Outfit Details:
• Blazer || Fletcher Jones || Opshopped for $6.25
• White tee || Intimo || Opshopped
• Blue capri pants || Hope And Harvest || Bought online for $79
• Silver belt || Opshopped
• White Chanel studs || Opshopped for $2
• Blue Pom pom wedges || Miz Mooz || Opshopped for $8


Saturday 24 October 2015

NZ Style Curvettes - Monochrome

Monochrome, in fashion terms, is always a thought provoking title for me. 

To make a long story short...  Monochrome, in fashion terms, seems to mean black and white. Even Urban Dictionary, which I have renamed 'The Peoples Dictionary', defines Monochrome as meaning "... black or white or is quite likely to be in grey scale."

However, when I did my Bachelor of Education, I majored in Visual Arts where we briefly studied Monochrome in the art sense, where I believe the term originally came from. Dictionary.com, which I have also renamed to 'The Official Dictionary', defines Monochrome as "...different shades of a single colour."


We studied paintings by Picasso in his Blue Period which are some of the most famous Monochromatic paintings of all time.

I can sort of see where the black and white comes from as I don't think black is technically a colour (it's a shade) so really you only have white, one colour. But then I start to confuse myself and think "well is white even a colour then? Its not on the colour wheel? What about silver and gold? Are they not colours?"


Therefore to save myself the brain hurt I decided to do an outfit for both Monochrome terms, The Fashion Monochrome and The Art Monochrome. Easy fixed!

The Fashion Monochrome Outfit





This dress has some cords that stump me? Purpose? I dunno. I'm gonna go with aesthetic reasons.


The Fashion Monochrome Outfit Details:
• Dress || Taking Shape || Opshopped for $8
• Black lightweight cardigan || Barkins || Opshopped included in a $5 bag sale
• Black sandals || Target || $15 at a half price sale

The Art Monochrome Outfit






The Art Monochrome Outfit Details:
• Beige dress || ASOS Curve || Opshopped for $1
• Tan floppy hat || Rubi || $5 at a half price sale
• Nude wedges || Wittner || Opshopped for 50c
• Wicker bag || Opshopped for $3
• Wooden Birdy earrings || Opshopped for $2



Catch you next week Curvettes!!



Sunday 18 October 2015

Melbourne Curves - Floral


For Bendigo Fashion Festival a week or two ago I went to an Op Shop Fashion Parade. Read more about that HEREBasically we could shop what the models wore and all the other goodies in the store after the parade. 

Whilst I was opshopping during this event (inbetween chatting to other op shop lovers, drinking mocha and eating decadent desserts) I found a pair of floral leggings by Autograph for $3. Usually they would be something I would pass up straight away but knowing I had this Melbourne Curves floral challenge for the month of October, I bought them knowing it would be a challenge for me.


Well I was right, A challenge it was! They sort of remind me of something you would see a little girl wearing! Not my usual style so I had a bit of a struggle styling them into an outfit I would wear.


I have my own personal rule when wearing leggings and that is that I like to have my groin and ass covered by what I wear with it. Whether that is for other peoples comfort, my own peace of mind or because sometimes I wear them so much they get holes in the crutch! 
With that in mind I started my styling efforts and what I thought would work great just didn't sit right with me (I can be super fussy about how I feel wearing something).


A black top was too black and a white top was too white but I eventually paired it with this greyish tunic I opshopped thinking I would probably never wear. It matched perfectly in my opinion and I actually left the house dressed like this!! 


Success! Yay! Well one successful outfit... Finding another way to style these floral leggings may be another challenge I might leave for a another day...


Outfit Details:
• Floral leggings || Autograph || Opshopped for $3
• Tunic || Queen Of Everything || Opshopped in a $5 bag sale
• White tee || Intimo || Opshopped
• Sandals || Corelli || Opshopped most likely for a couple of dollars

How would you style these leggings if you had to wear them?



NZ Style Curvettes - BodyCon


BodyCon dresses are those that cling tightly to your body hugging your figure. The name comes from the contradiction to the phrase Body Conscious (eBay). I'm not really all that into BodyCon dresses instead I personally really love the freedom of skater dresses. Therefore my options for what to wear for this challenge were pretty limited.

I did use to own this SWAK BodyCon Dress that I got from an op shop for about $5 but I never wore it so it got sent back to the op shop.

So now I'm down to owning two BodyCon dresses. 
This Red Peplum BodyCon dress (photo below, on left) from New Look/Inspire that I wore to a friends wedding; And then this Bellecurve BodyCon dress from Target that I used in a previous Double Take Aussie Curves Challenge (below, on right).


I decided to go with the Bellecurve dress for this challenge because I know it has an inner lining and is a bit thicker than the red dress, provided more cover from a vbo (visible belly outline). Some women say f#@k the vbo but I prefer, for my own comfort and confidence issues not to show.


I don't wear this dress that often, I'm not really sure why. My possible reasons are because it might be too busy or business/corporate style for me, I just can't put my finger on it. Don't get me wrong I love this dress, hence why I still own it and haven't shipped it off to an op shop yet.
really ought to wear it more, I love the two way I have styled it in the Double Take photo above. For some reason I'm not completely happy with the outfit that I styled for this challenge, I'm not exactly sure why, it may be the way the top is sitting on me, it doesn't look right but I was short on time to try more options....

Tell me, how would you style this dress?



Outfit Details:
Kalaidascope dress || Bellecurve || $30 from Target
Black lace top || Autograph || Opshopped for $4
Thin black belt || Came with another dress I bought
Black boots || Wittner for City Chic|| $84.95








Sunday 11 October 2015

NZ Style Curvettes - Casual Friday

Casual Fridays... Well I'm going to interpret this as meaning other weekdays aren't casual, therefore implying there is some sort of dress code. The only reason I can think of why there is a dress code on the majority of weekdays would be in regards to the workplace environment, i.e., uniforms, corporate wear.

My point is this challenge [to me] is about casual outfits within the workplace. Now considering I am [unfortunately] unemployed at the moment this will be a hypothetical case. 

...So just imagine I am employed and at my place of employment we have casual Fridays...


Depending on the type of workplace, there could be so many different interpretations of "casual". What might be considered a casual outfit in an accountants office might be completely different to that in a cafe or retail scenario.

To keep the peace I would consider something like this outfit, simple yet classy, dressy but not TOO dressed up and not TOO dressed down.


Black is such an easy cop out I know but by having this wine coloured lace shirt by Harlow worn open it gives the whole outfit more of a laid back vibe and takes away from the big block of black.

I do have some black jeans that I was almost going to wear but I decided on these black pants as they are thinner. The jeans would've  been too heavy for this pre-summer heat we are having on and off!... along with the thunder storms and all! Victoria (Australia) is such a confused state weather wise. Four seasons in a day? Yep just a normal occurrence here!


Outfit details:
• Gothic Glamour lace shirt in Wine || Harlow || $64.50 Half price (used a voucher I won). Just a quick note! There is only 2 of these Gothic Glamour shirts in wine left (a size 16 and a size 20 I think) and on super sale for $30. Get one while you can here!
• Black belt || Opshopped for $1
• Black peplum top || Lily and Lou || $12 from Best'n'Less
• Black pants || Alexia || Opshopped for $1
• Black boots || Autograph || $100


Saturday 10 October 2015

Bendigo Fashion Festival - Recycle Runway Fashion Parade 2015

The last two nights I have been to Fashion parades for the Bendigo Fashion Festival. It was a bit of a challenge for me because I went solo but I am so glad I went because I really had a great time at both events.

Recycle Runway Fashion Parade
On Friday night I attending the Recycle Runway Fashion Parade organised by the Life Essentials Op Shop (see Bendigo Baptist Community Care) in affiliation with the Bendigo Fashion Festival.


This Recycle Runway Fashion Parade was a bit more special than your average runway show.
ONE. This runway was inside of a store and not just any store but an op shop. Right up my alley! 
TWO. After the runway there were amazingly decadent desserts and tea and coffee or you could buy cappachinos (or in my case a mocha) from the instore Mad Cow cafe (which stands for Make A Difference, Change Our World);
THREE. There was in-store shopping after the parade and everything the models showcased during the parade would be for sale! And
FOUR. All proceeds from the fundraising event would go directly to those in need within the community.

But first the parade...

I was curious how they were going to set it out...

I got there on time and still got a front row seat. I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't sold out. It was such a great night for such a great cause but still at least over half full was still a good turn out.

The MC, Gaelle from Life FM Radio was fabulous! Funny, relatable and she really warmed up the audience. My most favourite thing she said was something along the lines of "all the money goes to a great cause so guilt free shopping ladies! Don't worry if something you want is made in China, the person who donated it bought that, you are buying locally!!" Well it sounded better the way she worded it! 

The 9 models were great! They varied in size and age and did a great job of keeping the running flow of the show continuous despite their constant changing of outfits.
The personalities of some of the models really shone through which was great as it really made everyone more comfortable and made it more enjoyable.

My fave bit was when the identical twins came down the runway side by side - genius! And my fave model was definitely this little guy (in the middle of the pic below) especially when he decided that he knew how it was done and no longer needed to hold a models hand! Ha so cute!

There were great door prizes and a brief reminder of all the great things that the Bendigo Baptist Community Care do (majority of which is funded by the Life Essentials Op Shop), and thankyous to all the great people that contributed to the night.

Then desserts. Mmm their food was amazing! Rum balls and yoyos are my all time fave! Mocha and mingling with amazing people! Im really not sure how the night could've been better! 
...
Oh wait! It did get better!! Whilst we were nibbling and chatting away, the shops amazing staff and volunteers removed the runway stage and replaced it with racks of clothing for us to peruse!!
What a night! 


Read about the previous nights Runway show at the Bendigo Town Hall Here 

What I Wore





Outfit Details:

• Dress || Inspyr || Opshopped for $1
• Thin black belt || Came with a dress I bought
• Black Mary Jane heels || Expression || Opshopped for $3
• Black reproduction wicker handbag || Opshopped for $5
• Black tassel earrings || Opshopped for $3
• Black Leather Bracelet || Pandora || eBay for $46
• Black Bohemien Bardot ring || Samantha Wills || eBay $35
• Black oval ring || Apparently Samantha Wills || eBay $45
• Black bangle with natural fibres throughout the insides || Opshopped for 50c

Hair done by: Me, Myself & I

Bendigo Fashion Festival - Runway Show 2015

The last two nights I have been to Fashion parades for the Bendigo Fashion Festival. It was a bit of a challenge for me because I went solo but I am so glad I went because I really had a great time at both events.

Runway Show at Bendigo Town Hall

On the Thursday night I attended a Runway show at the beautiful Bendigo Town Hall. This building alone is spectacular but when it has a red carpet rolled out the front with cameras and lights all set up it is so glamorous! I was quite proud of myself for having the courage at this point to have my photo taken on the red carpet! It is something I regretted not doing at the Curvy Couture Roadshow back in May and the photo actually turned out quite well so I don't know what I was ever worried about!

See the rest of the Red carpet pics Here. Photos by Justin Castles Photography

The inside was just as spectacular with the runway looking magnificent surrounded by flowers by the obviously very talented Libertine Florist. The Runway showcased 170 outfits from 36 local stores and was all about encouraging people to shop local.

Above pics from Bendigo Fashion Festival Facebook page.

The hall was pretty packed so I didn't manage to get a close seat, however even if I had got there early all the front two rows were reserved so where I ended up on an isle was great for me because I wasn't cramped and could see the shoes the models were wearing...I love my shoes!

The show had a variety of clothing on show. The obvious trends such a chambray shirts and dresses, floppy haps, fringing all with a bit of a loose flowing bohemian kind of feel.

But then there were the more unique outfits often from community based programs; such as the Marvel dress and the Wicked Victorias Angel take off by Bendigo Senior Secondary students; the outfits by Bendigo Afghan and Karen Communities which was very enlightening and made people smile (especially considering the issues in Bendigo surrounding diversity that have made world news currently); and the outfits by Morley's Emporium that had a unique punk vibe to them.

I had a few faves from the show especially from The LABoratory and Honeyeater Apparel. I'm loving the dress and Kimono below by these local stores!

After the show finished everyone scattered and that was it. This was a bit of a let down for me. I think it would've been nicer maybe to have some drinks or mingle a bit, it just finished so suddenly, but overall it was still a great night.

Read about Friday night Recycle Runway Event Here 

My Outfit for the night!



Outfit Details:
• Skirt || Serpentine Gallery || Opshopped in a $5 bag sale
• Singlet || Autograph || Opshopped in a $5 bag sale
• Heels (not that you can see them) || Lee Cooper for Big W || $20 on sale
• Black tassel earrings || Opshopped for $3
• Black Leather Bracelet || Pandora || eBay for $46
• Black Bohemien Bardot ring || Samantha Wills || eBay $35
• Black oval ring || Apparently Samantha Wills || eBay $45
• Dark silver circles bracelet || Opshopped for $5
• Hardcase Silver clutch || City Girl || Opshopped for 50c

Hair done by: Me, Myself & I