Spring fashion | Frivolous Universe

A Fleeting April…..

By: Anna D.

24-04-2012

Sometimes, life just sucks the life out of you…up…down…advance…retreat – it’s all part of that glorious game called sink or swim.

This balmy month of April has been fraught with personal growth-inducing turbulence – I sank to the bottom of an endless body of brine called the sea of responsibility, sputtered back to life and swam gleefully to the shore of that same weighty sea to dance a jig upon its pebbly shores, and cautiously splashed around in its beckoning tide only to be swept out to sea again.

Here it is April 25, already the dregs of this fleeting month, and I’ve been swept out to sea and back again more times than a free-range buoy.

It’s times like these, when I feel stretched in more directions than taffy on a pull, that I wonder why I persist with this blog. It is, after all, one hefty weekly commitment. But FU offers something to my life that I don’t currently get with any other obligation – it requires me to write for myself, no matter how brief or inconsequential some entries may be. It also insists that I take a little time to think creatively about my dress, even if all that means for the time being is throwing a cheerful jacket over an otherwise humdrum outfit. And lastly, this blog insures that I will, at least once during the week, go for a walk along Payette Lake’s recently ice-free shores with Ma and doggie Ethyl, or any number of other photo-op adventures with the fine women of this virtual establishment.

Who knows what’s in store for next week, but for now you get plain, unfiltered and unpolished me – glasses, zits and all. Here’s to the week to come…..let’s hope for more shore and less tide.

A “jacket and loafers saved it” Look (all but the jewelry is thrifted):
Cropped embroidered jacket – Nygard Collection / Black tank top – Mossimo /
Skinny jeans – Abercrombie / White leather loafers – Cole Haan / Earrings – Hazel Cox /
Gold bangles & rings – gifts from Grandma

Thanks to my Ma for the photos.

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YOU WILL FLOURISH LIKE GRASS: Mixing Thrifted, Vintage and New

By: Kelly Lynae Robinson

16-04-2012

This time last year, Nicole and I had only been on a handful of thrifting trips. But we were so inspired by the clothes we found, we were already styling outfits and taking pictures. These outfits are mixed and matched, our new vintage and thrifted clothes with our existing department store and boutique clothes (which cost many times more).

I often talk to people who are new to thrifting and have a hard time working in vintage aesthetics with their existing wardrobes. It is tricky. Getting dressed from all decades and styles takes more creativity than stripping an Anthropologie mannequin, but for style and financial sense, it is worth it. Hopefully these pictures will illustrate how some pieces, like a bright pink Banana Republic silk top, can bridge the gap between modern and vintage silhouettes.

Out of curiosity… Can you guess which clothes are secondhand and which ones are new? Hover over the photos to find out what’s what. Share how you did in the comments!

Nicole’s Greatest Hits:

Never wear it the same way twice.

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BREAK-UP

By: Jessica Holmes

01-03-2012

Jessica

Put on my blue suede shoes and I boarded a plane.

Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues, in the middle of the pouring rain.

-Walkin’ in Memphis, Marc Cohn (version embedded in my soul by Dan Costello)

Story Story Night‘s BREAK-UP: Stories of the End of the Affair was on Monday. As you may know by now, I am the driving force behind this ever-blooming live storytelling phenomenon. I do what I can to keep up, but on this night in question, with endless lines around the block confronting our sheepish and over-long will-call lists, facing my doom (erm…hosting duties) in the Rose Room was like touching down in the middle of the pouring rain.

After some heartburn, we somehow packed 500+ people into the Rose Room to hear stories of Splitsville, with fantastic featured storytellers and random intervals of Braveheart bag-pipe music inexplicably wailing in from the restaurant below.

Luckily I had on my Jeffery Cambell blue suede shoes ($60, half off $120 MSRP-Piece Unique & Shoez), as I boarded that rocket plane. No clothing item better connects with the blues, and how to rock the sh*t out of the blues, than these edgy shoes. My Tibetan turquoise, coral and beaded breastplate ($140, Armor Bijoux) also puts up a good frontal defense.

The above photo represents how I feel on Story Story Nights. Blurry with continual motion, and tired around the eyes. Or maybe I’m just trying to look like a fashion model. OK, you got me, for BREAK-UP, I was actually trying to look like a fashion model.

This model, actually, from Sophie Theallet’s fall 2012 Ready to Wear line. I always try to dress for the theme, but I just wasn’t feeling anything BREAK-UP worthy in my closet. Then a few weeks ago, I spied this look. The top reminds me of the 70’s couch you awkwardly had your first kiss (or groping) on. Worn with all the sweatervest and turtlenecked geekdom of your adolescence. Then, on the bottom: drapey drama, drama, drama; broken up by a slit that never quits…rawr. All bottomed out by those awesome, quirky, laced-up shoes. I star-cross love this look, as I can never, ever possess it.

So instead, I sent up my wish into the Universe…

And this is what came back to me. Vintage Liz Clairborne rose print red dress ($5-Good Samaritan).

And by the Universe I mean I posted this look to our FU Facebook group, with the noted desire to find something “similar.” On a thrift run, Kelly Lynae texted me a photo of this dress. She knows vintage Liz Clairborne has a thing for my body. A love affair over the decades.

I know, I know, this dress sort of looks nothing like the Sophie Theallet. But squint. It does everything I wanted that look to do. Bold color in an old-school update print. A bit innocent with the boxy shape and pleated bottom. A tad naughty with the bare legs and shoe laces. A pinch bad ass with the breastplate and the blue suede shoes.

Photos taken at Red Feather, site of the Story Story Night Afterparty, by Bethany Walter. Cheers to the rose period.