YYZ: Don't You Forget About Me

Today's post is about the shoot some colleagues and I were asked to do for the "clubs" page of this year's yearbook, the theme of which was Hollywood. One of the things the girls did was to re-create iconic movie posters (some from as far back as the 80s--talk about ANTIQUE!) using teachers as the subjects.  This is the one for which BMad, our pal T and I were tapped.

Initially, the girls had wanted to do a different pose, one involving leaning on lockers, but the four of us who are of Breakfast Club vintage convinced them that THIS

is the iconic pose and should be the one we recreated.

Talk about Simple Minds:

What is odd is that we were each chosen either for our persona (as perceived by teenaged girls) or for (as in my case and that of the Ally Sheedy stand-in, L) our hair colour/style. But the photo is in black and white, so you cannot see our hair colour or appreciate all the work we  put in to getting our costumes right. I was all worried because Molly Ringwald's skirt was actually a paisely wrap and I was in a brown suede A-line. I must say, the rest of  my outfit was PERFECT, as was everyone's.  When we all caught sight of each other in full costume, we burst out laughing because we were such total geeks about the whole procedure and had made sure to recreate our character's looks as closely as possible.

The girls were WILDLY impressed. 

Anyway, it is too bad that we are not in colour, because the only thing Molly and I share (other than our birth year) is hair colour; in the yearbook photo, I just look like an angry convict, rather than like someone pretending to be Ms. Ringwald.

Viewer discretion is advised: the following is a gratuitous youtube video, totally unnecessary for the content of this post, but included here for LHR's viewing pleasure.

YYZ: A Dress So Nice I made It TWICE!

My friend S turned 30 on Saturday. 

She planned and organized a fun party, complete with live band. 

I planned and organized 

(not very well, as it turns out) 

a new/old dress.

This is the second dress I have made from one of my vintage patterns; 

this time I made it with the circle skirt, in some lovely oldey-timey fabric my wonderful mum bought for me.

I forgot, however, that the first time I made the dress, I altered the bodice because those 50s girls were wearing armour-style underwear that gave them 

TEENY waists 

and 

ENORMOUS boobs, 

proportions that are completely reversed on me.

The dress turned out great. 

The zipper, if I say so myself, looked completely professional, 

as did the lining in the bodice 

(the fabric is very fine and sheer, so I had to line the bodice-- essentially, that meant sewing the bodice twice).

I tried it on.

The boob section was ENORMOUS. 

I had to do it all over again. 

Luckily, my clever mum pointed out that I had plenty of fabric, so rather than taking apart the bodice, I could just make  new one. 

Which I did.

But not before I very very very carefully removed the first one from the skirt-- delicate fabric made for dicey work!

I reattached the new bodice, but the zipper doesn't look 1/100th as good as the first version did. 

Of course.

Now all I need is a fabulous crinoline to really make this dress work! 

(and to make my waist look smaller!)

Here I am, on my way out to S's Birthday Bash:

Dress: Vintage Butterick Pattern

Belt: Grama

Earrings: Meg

Cuff: H&M

 Shoes: (surprise!) 9 West

Clutch: Danier

Thanks, Mum!

LHR: Flouncy Skirt Friday

It wasn't my last day of classes, but we did have an exciting day as it finally felt like the first day of summer. Yay!

Here's the back story of my cute flouncy skirt day.

Last night I started to unpack my summer clothes and what did I find but a skirt with green polka-dots that would PERFECTLY match the green shoes. I had forgotten about this skirt because it has been tucked away all winter. Now I had a perfect match. Oh dear, what to wear up top.

This morning's play by play:

1. White shirt. Pulls on white shirt and realizes the skirt is oh-so-off white. Definitely can not get away with it.
   
2. Looks for navy stretchy tee. Remembers she threw it out last season due to over-wearing
3. Starts to panic. Decides to iron skirt and contemplate about what to do about the lack of top
   
4. Ironing takes an aweful long time as she realizes beaded bits are a bitch to iron
   
5. Tries to iron from the inside. Nothing works -- should have steamed skirt.
6. Time running out.
7. Hmmm. shirt? Finds another blue shirt. [commentator: Is this colour called Cerulean or teal or what?] She decides to go with it. It isn't exactly the same blue as in the skirt, but feels it works.
8. Finds a big bobble green necklace (thinks she nabbed it from her Mother's jewellery box years ago) and throws it on.
9. The outfit seems to work but she remembers that in typical LHR style she has yet to alter the skirt. Used a safety pin instead.
10. She runs out the door without a coat and realizes that when the sun goes down she'll regret it. So she grabs a wool (yes wool) kelly green cardigan from the 50s. Similar to the skirt the cardigan had lots of embellishments - beads, sequins and pearls. Talk about matchy, but figures it'll work for warmth.
11. Ta-Dah!
    

Back to the first person... Later that day, when it was getting cool on the terrace at work, I threw on the crazily vintage cardie. The reaction (at least by one) was -- "oh i like the outfit so much better with the cardigan." Hmmm.

Anyway, I think the skirt is a perfect match for the shoes and the bounciness of the skirt makes me feel rather cute. Take a look for yourself.

Artie shot where all the imperfections disappear.

This was the outfit I wore all day. Realizing I need to do some crunches immediately.

With cardigan

End of day relax.

The details again:
Shoes: KG - way more details in this post, Liberty's
Skirt: Eucalyptus, Some shop in London (I think)
Shirt: Smart Set :)
Necklace: Green Bobble Necklace -Mom's jewellery box (30years ago or so)
Cardigan: Huppert, 64 Regent Street London (that's what the label says) - Vintage. I can not remember where and when I bought it