For the first time in many years, I’m attempting to introduce a vaguely autumnal color palette to my wardrobe! Crimsons, browns, creams, and olives – sure, you might surmise that this reflects my growing desire to blend into the natural landscape like a quietly rooted tree, but let’s not be too hasty. I could not, of course, pass up the opportunity to match my favorite antique book!
Unicorns! How curiously you’ve evolved in the popular consciousness over the past thousand years or so. I’m not one to consume sugary beverages named after these beguiling creatures, nor particularly a fan of the stylized neon unicorn that seem to permeate our visual culture these days – but man, do I love medieval and early modern unicorns.
This dress satisfies my fantasy need in a subtle way: spotting the unicorn amidst this pastel castle landscape is a true challenge, and from afar, the print looks like a simple blend of Fauvist colors. No one needs to know that a fairy tale is taking place on my very skirt!
(By the way, that handsome fellow above is from a sixteenth-century Swiss woodcut, back in the days when unicorns still had teeth!)
Continue reading “be yourself, unless you can be a medieval unicorn”
There’s absolutely nothing nineteenth-century about this dress–the vintage reproduction company from which I purchased it touted the style as 1940s-inspired, I believe, and collar dresses are sufficiently popular at the moment for my look to pass as something simply romantically contemporary.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been spending an unprecedented amount of time in a house inhabited by a nineteenth-century poet, but for whatever reason, I feel like this simple dress captures some of the Victorian aesthetic nonetheless. At any rate, I’m thinking it will be most suitable for leading historic house tours in the future, assuming I won’t have access to authentic Victorian period dress!
Continue reading “outfit of the [yester]day: not-really nineteenth-century”
Hey, remember last summer when I felt an undeniable urge to re-curate my outfit photo wall? I loved that marine-themed wall art, but like any museum professional, I also know that you can’t display works on paper for too long without risking damage from the sun and other elements. Consequently, those free printables–I mean, works of art–have returned to my obviously high-security storage facility, and I’ve reinstalled a selection of early modern natural history illustrations of cephalopods, odd deep-sea fish, and phytoplankton.
Then I happened to find this vintage dropped-waist dress in a quaint secondhand store in Pennsylvania, and its cheerful pastel tones nearly perfectly match the faded hues of my new squid-themed mini exhibition. I–alas!–do not currently own a squid pin, but my second (!) mousemoth pin by Minnow & Moss, this version in green and yellow, complements this dress excellently.
Continue reading “outfit of the [yester]day: cute + cephalopoda”
You’d be forgiven if your first reaction upon reading this post was something along the lines of “Wow, Keely, was your trip to Scotland last week secretly a dragon egg acquisition mission?”
Well, no, on two counts — first of all, I think there are probably some serious customs restrictions on the importation of magical dragons-to-be, and, more importantly, these eggs were actually waiting for me upon my return! Their provenance is Irish, not Scottish: the beautiful work of my crafting-genius pen pal Emma.
Can you guess how she made them? It’s genius, but I’ll let you discover it on your own. In the meantime, enjoy the fruits of the silly fifteen minutes I spent photographing myself cradling these eggs as though they were my own draconic brood.
(“Two posts in a row?!?” you might say upon reading this outfit recap. Well, yes: if all goes well, I hope to spend tomorrow traveling, so enjoy this Friday post a little early!)
Lately, I’ve really done my best to cut down on my clothing purchases. I have so many lovely dresses already, and I am trying to save as much as I can! Still, I have had my eye on this Hell Bunny seahorse slip dress for about five months now, and when it went on sale, finally, I considered it a self-Christmas present.
Thanks to the imminent arrival of the most recent “polar vortex” weather conditions, there’s no way I could wear this on the East Coast any time soon. I guess it’s lucky that I will be near the tropics within a few days: provided this weekend’s winter storm lets me escape New England without too much delay!
Continue reading “Outfit of the [Yester]day: Ceaseless Seahorses”
The only thing better than a well-stocked used book sale is a well-stocked used book sale with a free bin. After buying my fair share of gorgeous volumes at a local like-new literary extravaganza this weekend, I stopped by a table of unwanted scraps and paperbacks, ready to glean to my heart’s content.
It’s appropriate that I had to basically excavate my way through the Burgess Shale of coffee-stained romance novels and old sheet music to find this incredible treasure: a natural history book for kids from 1942. As a girl who loves vintage children’s illustrations as much as she loves Tiktaalik, I am delighted by this rare opportunity to peek back a few decades–and aeons!
Continue reading “Cambrian Cuties: Science Lessons from 1942”
