marvellous wine-coloured shoes

Today was a more than usually victorious Goodwill day. I've barely been since I got home from Alaska, but Mum wanted to go today, and clearly it was Fate, for I've a number of new treasures that are sure to be cropping up here by and by. (Also a pair of boots I won't be wearing much for a while as they are fur-lined -- but they are powder-blue and lace up and are perfectly mori-girl; I couldn't help myself.) Even with the cape, the brand new J. Crew sweater, and the boots, the absolutely most delightful find was a pair of wine-coloured Newport News pumps, which I had somehow missed on my first go-round (maybe someone was trying them on?) -- fortunately my mother found them and called me over excitedly. They are EXQUISITE and you know I've the massivest weakness for coloured shoes. Also: ribbons. I am so excited to wear these regularly and only wish I had a proper party or event to which to take them. 

 

dress, skirt, jacket, shoes: thrifted
necklace: pendant from Michael's on an old chain
feather clip: boutique
earrings: Kyra, from Claire's

rainy saturday adventures

 I spent today -- a rainy, windy Saturday -- with my four-year-old sister reading all of the books at the library and then dashing through the downpour across the street to the library for muffins (she: wildberry; me: chocolate). So: cosy, quirky, and bookish was the order of the day!

 

blouse, skirt, (probably) stockings: thrifted
belt, boots: Rue 21
necklace, earrings, gloves: Claire's
hat: my marvellous friend Charis made it for me!

 I do own other shoes! I'm just madly in love with these, especially after having watched them patiently for three months till they went down to seven dollars. Plus they're green and buckley and pull on easily and add a nice bit of quirk to any outfit. (They look lovely tucked under my jeans, too.)

  

I managed to snag both necklace and earrings (on different occasions) for a dollar apiece -- Claire's has the best clearance racks, especially if you're super vigilant. I've got earrings that are a miniature version of the necklace (also a dollar!), but felt like wearing these great trinkety ones today.

 

My friend Charis makes a lot of wonderful hats, and as she is making crafts for people every month this year, she sent me this amazing hat for February (also a drawing of a tentacle lady with pull-away skirts, because she is the coolest). It's a skeleton key pattern, which is perfectly me, and I adore it.

this is my winter song to you

Lost pictures taken just before Christmas (!!!), or Jo wears mori-girl to fetch Christmas trees.

 Note ALL OF THE LAYERS. Winter is cold!

These were my grandfather's combat boots when he was in the Korean War. Apparently he kept them as snow boots for decades. A few years ago my grandparents were moving out of the house they'd lived in since my father was a kid and we spent a few days helping them clean things out of attics and closets that had barely been visited for a very long time. The boots were going to get thrown out until I, to everyone's puzzlement, claimed them. My grandfather has very small feet, so they're actually a lot less huge on me than one might expect.

I fell in love with this coat (real leather, originally from Maurice's; found at Goodwill, of course), but wasn't going to get it, because... I do have a coat. I have more than one coat. But my mother fell in love with it, too, and insisted on buying it. Guilt abated!

 Honestly I don't remember what I was wearing under the coat that day. But look, delightfully silly furry hat! (Curse you, mori-girl fashion; I never would have been drawn to a furry hat were it not for you!)

 

Fantastic military vest I found on clearance at Rue 21 -- I have a lot of black and dark brown vests, but I really wanted something lighter. Ta-da! 

 

The hat: also a December Rue 21 purchase, and since then a wardrobe staple. It has a cheery striped bow!

 Best Walmart shoes ever!

I BET YOU CANNOT DISCERN HOW COLD I AM IN THIS PICTURE. I BET YOU CAN'T.

trying mori-girl fashion on for size

I have a massive file of fashion inspiration on my computer, filled with everything from Buffy, Veronica Mars, and Legend of the Seeker screencaps to gothwear to rockabilly to 1940s high fashion to my favourite fashion bloggers to pictures of Amanda Palmer and Joanna Newsom. One fashion subculture that keeps turning up is mori-girl, a somewhat recent style out of Japan. The name means "forest girl", and the style is largely comprised of layers of soft, comfortable, loose-fitting clothes in naturalistic, rich colours, with a lot of quirky details and natural materials. A lot of mori-girl outfits are very folklore-y in aesthetic, which definitely appeals to me, and I also see a lot of asymmetrical layers and uneven hems, yay! (For a nice visual overview, check out this mori-girl Tumblr -- lots of gorgeous photographs.) I've fallen quite in love, and finally decided to have my first go at putting together a mori-girl inspired outfit. I'm sure I haven't got it exactly right, but I like the result.

These are largely things that have been in my closet for some time, though I'd bought the skirt at Goodwill when we had family visiting and apparently forgot about it because I don't think I've worn it more than once, which is shameful, because look how gorgeous!

 

Leaf earrings from a Rue 21 clearance rack; they were just a little too neat, so I bent them up a bit and like them ever so much better now. Hat from Rue 21, several years ago. And my Hot Topic fur collar, which is probably the best three dollars I've ever spent on myself, the amount of use it's getting.

I bought myself two warm pairs of knitted fingerless gloves at Ross Dress For Less recently (three dollars each for gloves that originally retailed for eighteen; not bad, I say!), as while I have lots of fingerless gloves, my only really warm ones are orange, and clash with a lot of things. So I've these lovely long purple ones (I may sew some buttons onto them later), and a grey pair with bows which will undoubtedly be seen later. The ring was twenty-five cents at a yard sale.

 

The first ring is from Rue 21, and the other, which I wear all the time, is my great-grandmother's engagement ring, from the 1920s. It's extremely beautiful and intricate with a tiny chip of diamond; I'll have to take some proper pictures of it someday.

My owl necklace from Kyra, and a lovely jumble-of-keys necklace from Rue 21. 

 Cosy purple socks! And yes, I do wear these boots almost every other day.

As I type this, my hair is up in a shower cap and full of dye, so I'll be a new(ish) me tomorrow, good heavens.