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#TBT: Nautical—Breton Stripe

Did you know that this classic blue and white striped pattern has a name? As you probably guessed from the title, it’s the Breton stripe, and is summer’s unspoken neutral, especially next to the beach. The original shirt, worn by navy men from Brittany (France) before men from Breton adopted it. Originally, it contained 21 stripes- one for each of Napolean’s victories, but at some point, the French’s military imagination got the better of them and the stripes went haywire. Coco Chanel was instrumental in this diffusion, popularizing the stripe by adding it to her 1917 nautical line.

But I think my favorite reincarnation of this summer staple is Jean Seberg in Godard’s Breathless, which basically makes this post as obnoxious and basic as possible. At this point, I will make my exit.

Bathing Cute

Isn’t it funny to think that back in the day this is what bathing suits looked like? It’s no wonder people were afraid of getting into the water and drowning! By the time you pick this sopping mess out of the water, most likely, you’re physically spent! But I have to admit, it is super comfy to run around in. I know a lot of people (especially the tall among us) aren’t crazy about rompers (while looking the best in jumpsuits that inevitably coil around my ankles like an unsolicited set of bangles), but I think rompers are the perfect solution to trying to master ease and comfort. They take no thought- like a dress, and at the same time don’t require the constant attention and shall we say poise a dress entails. I can just bungle around wherever I please. 🙂

Getting Jazzed for the Tonys

Get excited theatre lovers! Today is none other than the Tony Awards!! To celebrate the occasion, I had to don something sufficiently zany, but (if I do say so myself) wholeheartedly FABULOUS. Can’t you just see Gloria Swanson walking down a boardwalk adorned as such, tipping her sunglasses and crooking those ominous eyebrows? Or maybe I could belatedly join Anything Goes? I think the closest aesthetic I could fit to anything currently playing would be the King and I, up for a best revival nomination, but it’s quite a stretch (and I’d need to trade in the trousers for a hoop skirt). Ah well, I will have to content myself to watching. For those of you who don’t know, competing for Best Musical are:

An American in Paris: two (coincidentally very good dancers) fall in love in Paris after WW2- think old Gene Kelly
Fun Home- a woman realizes she’s a lesbian at the same time her father struggles with the fact he is gay- based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel)
Something Rotten- two aspiring playwrights try to outdo Shakespeare in the 1590s by writing the first musical- the makers of Avenue Q and Book of Mormon collaborate on this for nothing short of comic hilarity
The Visit- the richest woman in the world returns to her poverty-stricken hometown. What will happen?- based on a Swiss 1956 play of the same name (but in Swiss)

For Best Original score, switch out An American in Paris and add The Last Ship, or Sting’s (you heard me right) new musical currently on Broadway. The musical focuses on a man who returns to the shipyards of his hometown after his father’s death and tries to woo an old flame…

I am very conflicted as to what to vote for. Fun Home is probably the most controversial, and though it addresses issues not covered before of the Great White Way, to me the modern musical scores are kind of hokey. Ring of keys (the song that will be preformed from it tonight) centers around the word “swagger,” which ends up annoying me so much that I can’t listen to it. Telephone Wire is catchier, but uses what seems to me an obvious metaphor that feels stale when it becomes more of a symbol than an object.

I haven’t heard how they’ve redone an American in Paris or anything from The Visit. Something Rotten is very funny but has frequent language (making it, I think, less applicable to universal audiences, even if it is truer to Shakespeare’s usage). Further, as the title promises, a lot of the jokes are “rotten” as in more base toilet humor, which I find boring after a few times, personally. So! I guess I’ll just have to see who wins.

Real talk: Today’s outfit was shamelessly inspired by the wardrobe of the heroine in my new favorite Murder Mysteries Mini-series (scoot over Angela Landsbury). Meet Miss Phryne Fisher of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. There will be more to come on this topic in future posts.

Beach Bag Essentials (More or Less)

Right in time for nautical week, eco-friendly lingerie brand Naja asked me if I’d like to join some other bloggers and share my beach bag essentials. I’m pretty terrible about the thinking ahead that is involved to pack a beach bag (or even a bag in general), and more often find myself frantically running, arms over chest, up to the house where I drip all over the deck before someone takes pity on me and brings me a towel. But I suppose if I was travelling (or took an unexpected trip to the Azores– it’s a long story), this is pretty much what my beach bag would look like:

1. Beach Hat (Panama, floppy, boater? get in my bag.)
2. Passport (although don’t leave this unattended if you go in the water… or in general!)
3. Sunglasses
4. Binoculars (For boys or birds? It’s a tough call.)
5. Book (This list is in no particular order, or this would be at the top- especially a good vintage Penguin edition 6. Watch (or phone to keep time)
7. Shells and or Sharks teeth (though I’m more likely to find these for the bag home…)
8. Linen/cotton/gauzy Scarf (mostly to blow in the wind while you walk)
9. Cool drink (Perrier, every day.)
10. (not pictured) Kite (When is a better time? With better wind?)
11. (not in bag and probably won’t fit) Umbrella!
12. Towel

I hear the ocean… but I don’t think it’s this shell…

While I personally haven’t had the chance to try any of Naja’s products yet, they are super sassy, and you can find out more about them here. They offer uniquely designed underwear, as well as an eco-friendly bra and swimwear line, which is made with fabric from recycled plastic bottles. So it could be the perfect find for those looking to lessen their eco-footprint. I like this suit, named Faye. Regardless of the reason why, it reminds me of Faye Dunaway (or Bonnie of the Bonnie and Clyde movie duo). Tres chic, non?

A Certain Path

My profound apologies for missing the link up this March. Things have been swamped, my computer broke, work has been all-consuming, and that’s before saying anything about class. The link-up will resume on schedule next month. I still haven’t decided whether to postpone it until later this March, or what… I’m open to feedback on that point.

All the hullabaloo that has been life lately, though stressful, is really exciting. But I can’t help wishing at moments that it would all be over and my future *momentarily* clear. Then again, there’s a certain vivifying pleasure to having the road stretch endlessly before you and endless opportunities waiting to be discovered. I wanted to personify this dynamic and tried to dress in a similar drama to a silent movie heroine. Coupled with these trees and this path with their ominous about-to-envelop-Snow-White appearance, I hope we can share the trepidation and ecstasy that comes with prospects the future holds.

Conservatory

When it gets to be bitterly cold like this, and the snow flurries more like soap flakes and less like frozen rain, I am reminded of Miss Minchin’s Seminary for Young Ladies (I’m talking the ’90s movie version). I don’t know if it’s because of the–spoiler alert–window scene where Sara and Ram Dass have their dance-in-remembrance-of-India moment, or Sarah giving the buns to the rose lady in the blustering cold, or maybe the girls bundled up walking, olive-colored dropwaist dresses and ties rumpled underneath. Regardless, I have adopted the dropwaist and tie at my very own private school to survive the miserable snow and have named the weather Lavinia.

Pictures by: Leigha Crout

Welcome to the Link-up: Eccentric Glamour

Hi! Welcome to my link-up: Eccentric Glamour, designed to showcase forgotten, yet fabulous articles in your closet. The idea is to create an outfit once a month around some piece languishing in the back of your closet, helping us to better know what’s in our closets, force creativity, and appreciate what we have (you knew there’d be moral somewhere around here). All bloggers will be able to submit their post links via the inlinkz widget below beginning the 1st and ending the 3rd of every month. You can find more information below (or feel free to ask).

For my contribution, I wanted to show you this fabulous (and very Downton, I hope) coat I bought on a whim. To go with it, I’ve made up an eccentric backstory to match the outfit. It’s 1933. I, Mrs. Rosemary Fitz-Simmons, wife of the late grain tycoon, Mr. Cornelius Edward Fitz-Simmons, married up to gain a large fortune for myself. However, upon Mr. Fitz-Simmons’ unexpected, unwarranted, and mostly untimely death, I discovered the ledgers in disarray, and our fortune lost. Anxious to secure another wealthy millionaire before anyone discovers my secret, I have chosen to attend the opera, though still under the guise of mourning and wealth. In reality, I’ve dressed to kill under my coat and am scoping out any marriageable bachelors still circulating in the middle of the Depression. Cross your fingers I find luck!

Please add your link below so we can better meet and appreciate our fellow fashion bloggers. Here are the rules:

If you’d like to regularly contribute, please take a moment to follow my blog (links can be found on the sidebar).
Please confine posts to those which showcase some spectacular article of clothing. It doesn’t have to be crazy, but just a bit in line with our theme of “Eccentric Glamour” (although choosing one half or the other of that mantra will also suffice). However, if you choose to post, please provide a link back to the Eccentric Glamour link-up somewhere in your post.
Try to check out a few other bloggers posts to build inspiration and community!

Thanks everyone, and I look forward to a bright 2015 linking with you!

Throw Back Thursday: Vizcaya

It was last year, around this time, and I was deeply, madly, unabashedly in love with a certain pair of Anthropologie shorts. So much so, that I still have the picture I took as reference so that I could show the workers what they looked like (just in case) as I began the long wait for what is the double markdown (or bi-annual sale on the sales) at Anthro.

Well, mere moments after I finally got the shorts of my dreams, we threw ourselves in the car and went to Miami (clearly in the honeymoon phase). I’m afraid that today, besides telling you that my shoes were Clarks, watch was Target, shirt was GAP, and glasses were Disney, this isn’t about fashion. This is a travel blog.

Allow me to take you to one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been:

from Instagram.

Vizcaya. Nestled down a verdant road across from the planetarium in Miami is a palisade befitting Fitzgerald’s musings. All at once a coral cove, deserted beach, Victorian jaunt, and tycoon’s mistress, Vizcaya sits on the coast pleasantly secluded from downtown Miami, but with a perfect view of the skyscrapers in the not-so-distance.

Built in 1914 on 180 acres, Vizcaya was the European-inspired brainchild of American harvesting magnate James McCormick-Deering. They wouldn’t let me take pictures of the inside (I did manage one or two equally sneaky and shaky ones that aren’t worth showing), and I would like to note that these were all taken on my Iphone. With that in mind, try to envision how much better the real thing is…

Instagram ftw

The entrance to the pool:

From Instagram

I particularly loved this man-made island-functioning-as-a-dock right outside the sitting room.

The Atrium. I just wanted to sit there and write poetry. Alternatively, it seems like the perfect arena to reenact the Liesal/ Kurt Sixteen Going on Seventeen love scene if anyone would like to oblige my ever present need to jump across benches.

From Instagram.

Too bad there were no benches. I suppose that would make a good subject for a terrible poem. The Gardens: I know this is a bit different than the regularly scheduled program, but it was so beautiful (and my shorts were so en pointe— even after two markdowns), I thought it might make for a nice stroll down memory lane.

Shared to TrendSpin on TheFashionCanvas and Simbaco’s Instagram Travel Thursday (on that note, I’m @bexwrecks on instagram if you’d like to follow me).

Midwestern Marvel

Finals are OVER. I couldn’t be happier. Even though I’m still technically not done, it’s been nice to relax a little and kick back. In the short time I have left I’ve been trying to figure out how to see and do all the things I put off with the excuse of finals. South Bend gets a terrible rap, but it (and the general area) has a lot of hidden gems. In my two weeks remaining here, I want to make it into a bit of an adventure, checking off the list (and documenting some of the finer points for you– if I can find an outfit worth showcasing). Today starts the tour (tomorrow will be a brief hiatus), and I thought I’d match my outfit with my perception of the Midwest. Not to say that all the women would wear hair nets, I just think I had an idea of Westward expansion in mind:

I think in my head (though I wouldn’t have admitted it) I imagined a place with log cabins, half pint, well, really just Laura Ingalls Wilder (notice the prairie-length skirt with oversize belt). I haven’t actually made it to Missouri for that childhood pilgrimage yet, but I have two more years to make it happen. In the meantime I’ll perfect the hippie / school teacher vibe I’ve got going here. Speaking of schools (of thought), they say that along with economic decline comes the lengthening of skirts, and this year has not proven contrary…

One thing I miss about England (my three months there) is seeing the fields full of rape — that is the name of the yellow flower, I kid you not. It’s actually quite beautiful, and you’ve probably seen it in movies, even if you didn’t realize (in one of those Gladiator wind in the grass sequences, no doubt)(also, Take Courage did a beautiful shoot in a field of it that you can see here). Well when I saw this field off on the side of the road, my heart just swelled! In addition, it epitomizes another fact about the Midwest. It. Is. Flat. With the exception of Cincinnati (don’t know what happened there Ohio), I have yet to find a hill. It is harder to bike around my neighborhood then this campus.

Outfit Details:Shirt: French Connection (ebay)
Skirt: Anthropologie (Maeve last Fall)
Belt: off an old skirt from Macys
Shoes: Pour La Victoire (ebay again) The grass was so long and soft, they didn’t do their due diligence in these pictures, especially since I was running back and forth with the self timer.

Closeup on Accessories:

Beret: Target
Necklace: Girl with Umbrella (my newest love!) — estate sale last weekend $5
Earrings: Target
Watch: Disney

Sharing to The Pleated Poppy’s What I Wore Wednesday

Rompin’ ’round a Fiddler’s Hearth

After my first two finals, two of my friends from UGA came into town to save me from sure desperation and destruction. I had a lovely time showing them around Notre Dame, taking them to all my favorite places (we saw this cool Studebaker along the way).

But I have to say, I think my favorite place to go in South Bend (after a walk around the lakes to the grotto) is undoubtedly Fiddler’s Hearth.

Notre Dame pretends to be Irish, but Fiddler’s is the only truly Irish thing in this town (sorry Mulligans and O’Rourke’s). A wonderful collection of ne’r-do-wells, locals, and misplaced college students., this is the closest Indiana gets to a real Irish pub. They serve their fish and chips in newspaper, their Shepherd’s pie is a dream, but personally I keep coming back for the Irish Stew (as the lamb is cooked to perfection). Not to mention they are one of the only places with good cider on tap. But better than the food, I really love the character of the establishment. Tables are first come, first serve wooden planks, and it isn’t at all amiss for two unaffiliated parties to group up to getting seating when the band starts playing (usually something folk).

Lately, because of finals, I’ve been perfecting the art of no-fuss ensembles. This translates to a one-piece number I can run around, eat dinner, lay on the floor, and sleep in. Thus, I’ve been vacillating between leotards (with a skater skirt) and rompers- both of which are great options, until you have to use the restroom. Still, throw on a pair of heels, and people will think you tried.

Romper: French Connection (ebay find for $12)
Watch: Target Men’s
Earrings: Thrifted
Belt: Zara
and……..