Jessica | Frivolous Universe

REDEMPTION

By: Jessica Holmes

02-02-2012

Story Story Night‘s REDEMPTION: Stories of the Comeback, was on Monday, January 30. With an audience of 450+, it was our biggest show ever, again. (Commence: deer in headlights look.)

So guess what’s making a comeback? Sequins. Also liberty.

Both embodied in this fantastical J.M.C. silver sequins with gold and black beading dress ($34, on sale from $42, Antique World Mall).

So what decade is this dress from? The tag looks maybe late 1970s/early 1980s. The concept looks 1920s, with a pinch of 1950s, and a dash of modern art. In the end, it fits. And was on sale. And that’s what really counts.

I hold a core belief on the concept of REDEMPTION in fashion.

All it takes is the downfall of one five letter word to really free up your whole fashion/life experience.

That single word to banish? Don’t say it with me now: “dated” (also see, “out of date”). You control fashion. Fashion does not control you. Even and especially the empty, over-priced garb on photoshopped starlets starring vacuously from the cover of every magazine. Even and especially the trickled-down, tragically mass-produced dross marked-up and racked-up in every soulless chain.

Imagine instead that the last 100 years of fashion are your playground, as interchangeable as a change of outfit. Trust me, some era or three idolized your very body type. In this magical universe, stars align all the time. Tailoring and fit: impeccable. Fabrics: nuanced and rich. Prices: cheap as sh*t.

Perhaps when you say dated, you mean unfashionable or tacky, mainstays that transcend every decade. Or perhaps, you mean reminiscent of another era, which possibly means, winner.

A whole new world exists in redeeming old clothing from the racks of thrift stores. Just turn on your creative eye, and then try everything on that interests you. EVERYTHING. Just try it on. Do it. Rhinestone hair clip ($5, Antique World Mall).

When I wear some clothes, I feel the mojo of the lady who wore it before me. I mean, someone who would buy this dress must have been a total bad ass with some serious cool sh*t going down. This strengthens me, even when forced to stand for hours in these admittedly gorgeous Enzo Angiolini black velvet and gold pumps ($7, thrift store).

And if someone doesn’t like it, respectfully, FU. It’s not an insult, it’s a fashion universe. The journey is the destination. Because what you wear is who you feel like. Enjoy your time here, and everywhere. Be creative. Be cheap yet discerning. Above all, be free.

Thanks Dan Costello (seen riffing adorably behind me) and Anna Demetriades (who also gifted me this lovely art deco rhinestone necklace) for backing me up at Story Story Night no matter what I wear, or sometimes say.

Thanks Anna D. for the photos too!

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Under the Weather

By: Jessica Holmes

26-01-2012

Jessica

I don’t get sick very often (unless I am drinking wine, then it is a morning-time certainty; if only I would remember that lesson about the doom of repeated history), but I’ve realized that when I do fall ill my fashion sense follows under-the-weather guidelines, such as: “What is warm?” and also “What is easy to put on?” and sometimes “What does not make me want to puke?”The answer: this. If I drank less wine last night at the Serious Bad Ass Writing Club I would find each garment on the floor and tell you their brand names. But I can start from rock bottom (as usual) with green wool hiking socks and Frye boots.
The underlayer, a faux animal print in orange and gray, is over a cream Kenzie wool blend knit sweater. (You may remember this from O Holey Night.)

The wool skirt is from a thrift store. I originally thought it was too big for me but it looks pretty great hitting right at the calf, and keeps me warm as poop.
Unintentionally, my slip kept slipping past my hemline, which ended up adding to the whole effect.
See, fashion is also for the sick, and the self-destructive. (Sometimes simultaneously.) To your health!

The carpet bag is a gift from Kim and Thailand that I now take everywhere. I’ll explain the magic of it later.

The pictures are from the future-famous filmmaker/screenwriter Jason Willford, love of Kelly.

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Birthday 32

By: Jessica Holmes

19-01-2012

Jessica

It has not been my week. Monday was my 32nd birthday (also Martin Luther King Jr.’s, though technically he was born on Jan. 15, so I’m not even that cool). Dan and I had a special date night. We planned a staycation at Boise Guest House, and a dinner at Chandler’s, where he is now the music director. Unfortunately, likely due to an ill-timed combination of bodily wearing-down and over-indulgence, by the end of the night I was sick. Red hot and tingly all over.

Luckily, before it all went down in sweats and chills, I was still able to be seen in this Calvin Klein red dress ($20 LUX, new with tags, original MSRP $200). You give me fever. In the morning, fever all through the night.

Anna gave me most of this jewelry, including the turquoise leather and copper/gold necklace. On the night of her last post, we went through a pile of her manfriend’s grandmother’s costume jewelry. I bought these gorgeous silver and turquoise dangly earrings, along with a handful of other beautiful picks. And I stared at this gold grapes bunch clip for a very long time. So, sneaky one, she gave it to me on my special day. Thanks Anna!

On my actual birthday (these pictures are an “I-now-feel-OK-enough-to-take-pictures” last-minute recreation), I used the grape clip to beautifully cinch together an exquisite pashmina, but now I can’t seem to find said irreplaceable Turkish scarf. Not my week. Though the gold grapes look great incorporated onto the dress, too.

Dan is an extraordinary man, and my greatest gift, ever. Just some of the reasons: he gave me these lovely vintage Societe D’Optique Paris opera glasses (Renewal), and a luminous camera mount for improved fashion photo lighting. He actually enjoys thrift store shopping with me, and lets me buy infinite numbers of lamps, like the $5 gold shell score you see behind me.

Also he woke up early to take all these pictures of me, but not before almost burning off his feet with molten metal when finding that I had completely melted a copper-bottomed sauce pot after leaving it on a live burner all night. Whoops. Not my week. Therefore not his week.

Magid from Italy vintage gold clutch ($8, Renewal). Frye Boots “Dorado Short” in sand ($200-after $200 gift donation from parents).