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.

PS: After a BREAK-UP, do what most mortals do, and get NAKED…