Thursday 11 December 2008

Chronicles of the easily inspired


Now isn't that pretty? I saw it in a shop window on Lower Marsh (my favourite road in the world -- it has two vintage shops, three bookshops, a knitting shop and cafes galore! You must understand: in my head Heaven's high street is like this). The shop sells various vintagey/kitschy/girly gift things, and lots of Noa Noa clothes and accessories.

I loved the delicacy and whimsical details of this outfit in the window display, so I thought I'd try to recreate it. Noa Noa is of course far beyond my budget, but you know what is within my budget?

H&M!

Dress - H&M; cardigan - H&M, rosette made by me; necklace - weekend market at the Curve; scarf - random London shop; tights - Uniqlo

You will note that really the only thing this has in common with the window display is the vaguely flower-shaped brooch. But I'm especially proud of that brooch because I made it myself! It is the first crochet flower I have ever made. And I think it looks pretty neato!

Since I didn't have any appropriate white yarns to use, I deliberately flipped the colours of the scarf and flower. I don't have any thin white necklaces -- I like my necklaces chunky or quirky, but rarely so delicate -- so I went for my phoenix necklace, 'cos I hardly ever wear it.



I added the cuff also 'cos I never wear it, and because the colours sort of match:



Overall I'm not that pleased with the look I came up with as an imitation, though I am happy with it as an outfit -- it's casual and cosy and warm! I love casual and cosy and warm. And it means the rosette is perpetually in the corner of my eye, reminding me to bask in the lovely warm glow of having made something myself.

I would like to get up an outfit a bit more similar to the window display, though. For that I'd need
- a more interestingly knit long cardigan
- a more interesting scarf
- a floatier dress -- you can't really see it in the picture I took, but the dress is sort of layered and gauzy. I do have a similar black dress I tried on this morning, but since my cardigan is black as well, it ended up looking a bit too eveningwear.

We shall see. I am technically still under a shopping ban ... though I breached it briefly yesterday. But that is a story for another post!

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