Cowls and other creatures

My BFF Max has requested that we post clearer pictures of our clothes. My sucky photography skills and the appalling lighting in my room don't really allow for that, but Max's reproof did remind me that I've got something of a backlog of clothes photos that I was meaning to post here.

Not-terribly-exciting outfit photos posted at Wardrobe Remix:

Scarf - from my mom; T-shirt - Seed; necklace - somewhere in Malaysia; sleeveless top - H&M; skirt - Nicole; tights - Boots; stockings - random shop in Tokyo; boots - DUO; elephants - Bali

I really like this outfit just because it's a new way of putting old clothes together. The black top actually has a white bib on the front; it is very charming, but is too big for me and gapes at the chest shockingly, so I always have to layer it on top of something else. Usually I put it on top of a tank, but the T-shirt look is quite cute as well, I think.

Dress - Zara; long cardigan - H&M; tights - Dorothy Perkins

Reading Fruchtzwerg's Island made me realise that the one thing missing from my life is a long cardigan, so I rushed out and got one from H&M. Again, a really simple outfit, but it delights me because it's a new way of wearing the dress. The dress is very cute, but when I wear it by itself, there's something about its fit that I don't like. Really I shouldn't have bought it, but I was too charmed by the gorgeous print (my friend called it a "juicy blue", and it really is!). It's spent most of this term mouldering in the back of my closet.

But then I put the new cardigan on top of it and suddenly I love the look -- it's comfortable enough to wear while slouching around at home; it's casual enough to wear to school without feeling awkwardly overdressed; it adds a pop of colour to my day but isn't too loud because the cardigan quiets it down. It still needs more -- an oversized scarf, maybe, or a belt, or a necklace -- but it will do for now. I foresee myself wearing this dress a LOT.

Anyway, I have decided that the cardigan is going to be my absolute last clothes purchase for myself this term. I've been spending far too much money! My resolution is a bit cheating really, since there's only two weeks left to the term, and I will be shopping when I go home, if only because my brother's getting married and I haven't yet acquired an appropriate dress. But it's a very necessary resolution in these sale-ridden times.

What I'd like to do more of is combine what I've got in new ways -- I initially typed 'interesting new ways', but they don't have even have to be particularly interesting, really, just novel. I've been thinking especially about this:

It's an Alexander McQueen dress I saw in the Bath Fashion Museum. (Not awfully worth going, btw; one might as well visit the V&A -- at least that's free.) Ever since I saw it I've been pondering how I might recreate it with my lace dress -- for I have a lace dress! It is not the same colour or shape, but it is lacey. The general idea is there.

But I do not know how I am to obtain the top bit.


I don't know if you can tell, but it is some sort of leather yoke/collar thing. I was thinking I could recreate something similar by crochet, perhaps -- perhaps by trying to imitate one of Yokoo's marvellous creations --

-- though of course it would be a poor imitation at best -- but it is called the Pembroke cowl! It is as if it was meant to be!

But the thing about the McQueen dress is that it is a play on the textures and the associations of leather vs. lace, so it wouldn't work if it was crochet.

Unless I tried to crochet a cowl in leather ...