Hold it down, DAREcember – 31 Days of Doing Things Differently

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The style dares for DAREcember were as follows:

A flag, a shield, a bit of armour

We all hide behind something don’t we? Personally I love hiding behind hats – hats get a huge amount of attention and by wearing a hat one is but an accessory to an accessory. This can be a nice anonymous …

Not Quite the Crotch Length Boots

For Darecember Day 6 – Boots in Summer

A long long time ago, when I was just a lass of not even I fell madly and deeply in love with a pair of very long boots not dissimilar to these.

From http://ebayleather.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/vintage-wild-pair-thigh-boots-still.html

I saw them in a shop called the Wild Pair in a mall either in New York or California. I cannot remember where exactly now but I remember clearly wondering to myself how amazing it would be to pull a pair of boots on that would magically transform my short, funny looking legs into something elegant and (possibly) alluring. I worked hard all that summer at temporary office jobs to afford those boots. When I finally stepped into the shop the assistant informed me sadly that they no longer stocked my size. I could feel my dreams of leggy sophistication evaporating and I wondered out loud whether they had the boots in a size near my own. They had a half size smaller. The boots fit but without but wiggle room. My feet felt like sausages inside but the leather shaft smelled so rich that I was prepared to forget about the comfort and hope that they would stretch. With the aid of Dr Wild’s Incredible Mink Oil, a lot of newspaper and patience the boots eventually stretched. Just in time for thigh length stiletto boots to be considered passe, tacky and faintly ridiculous.

So the boots remained in a box, brought out now and again for a tender caress and then packed away. When we migrated to Australia in March 2000, I was sure that the boots had joined us. We have a lot of still unpacked boxes full of art books, ornaments, paintings. No place to put them. No home of our own for long boots to find a space of their own. When thigh length boots became fashionable again approximately 3 years ago I rummaged through our many unpacked boxes at first with a sort of gift unwrapping excitement and then, as time grumbled on, with a slow creeping horrible disappointment.

The boots were not in any of the boxes.

The boots were gone.

Somewhere between my previous home and my new homes in Australia the boots had left my possession never to return.

Convinced by the magical properties of eBay I recorded a search for ‘wild pair boots‘ and ‘wild pair thigh boots‘.

Three years later I am still waiting for a pair of piratical principal boy boots to wink at me from a seller’s alert.

Three years later I had all but given up the notion of them entirely, let their memory puff off into the ether.

And theeeeeeen?

I saw these…..

Anna Dello Russo for H&M Crotch Length Leather Boots Discovered via Bootlovers Blog

I just about ended myself with excitement and typed myself to H&M’s online store as fast as my nimble fingers could carry me.

Only to find this message:

” Online shopping is not currently offered in your market. Please visit your local H&M for availability.
Please note that colours and sizes may have varied availability in our stores.”

I wanted these boots so badly that I felt like I had phantom limb syndrome.

The boots were only available in a handful of stores around the globe. London, Paris, Singapore, New York, etc. Not Sydney.

On Facebook and on Twitter, I begged anyone who might happen to be in an area where the boots were being sold to let me know if they would be prepared to go and pick them up for me and then send them to me. I would be not only over the moon but well, I would be pretty much forever in their debt.

I mean that most sincerely folks.

My fairy godmother sprinkled some happy sparkly thoughts over the photo of the boots on my Facebook page.

She is not only kind and beautiful but she is as bat shit crazy as I am about life altering footwear. Her name is Cheryl Wischover. She writes for Fashionista.com and blogged for me a while back about her wonderful Alexander Wang boots.

She felt my pain and she used her fashion writer clout to breeze in and pick up a pair of sold out everywhere boots in the ADR H&M pre-sale.

Here they are worn inside:

I haven’t had a chance to wear them outside yet.

I wanted to wear them for the Foxinflats Darecember boot challenge today. But I didn’t dare. They are too beautiful to be out anywhere other an elegant restaurant matched with my floor length leather Matrix trench coat. The Sydney summer beast is not yet fully awake so you never know, I might get a chance to wear them for Christmas Day…

Meantime, my trusty RMK boots (first pic) did a grand job for Day 6 of Darecember (Boots). The 5 inch heel shrinks down to 3 inches with the generous platform. Match with a floaty silk chiffon Wish tunic dress and summer boots don’t get (too) much adverse attention. I suspect that the ADRs would have had me followed down the street by boot fetishists. You have to be in the mood and well armed to deal with That Sort of Thing really don’t you?

On your own head be it…

DAREcember Day 4.

The challenge…

Easy stuff.

I am myopic with no prescription sunnies. I have bad hair days in summer even with short, short hair.

Meet Kangol paper fedora – my new best friend.

Also the weather is still up to the usual early summer jiggery pokery. Take that – squeals the weather elf as she throws out a shaft of hot lunchtime sun and then pulls it back in in the early evening. Just as I start consider chucking on the flannel jammies (such an enticing peignoir) the heat grabs at the corners of the evening and digs in its wee nails.

So for a dress I play the conservative card, the safe card, the no one wil look at me funny card.

I bunged on a maxi dress.

A maxi dress is a good mix between –

Hallo sunshine my old friend…

and

Crivens, I need to get the toe nails polished pronto.

Brooches tomorrow.

__________________________________

Bloggy Bits n Pieces

Dress gifted by Ms Kristen Obaid

Shoes (not seen)  – old Prada kitten heel mules.

Kangol Hat – Ozsale.com.au Warehouse Sale ($15)

How to Tie A Scarf (and other First World Problems)

Day 2 of Darecember brought with it the challenge of scarf wearing.

Once upon a time, a long time ago when I was (speaks into collarbone) a mwfffmwahhmffmmmm I had a lot of scarves and I wore them. Not so much now.

The scarf that I chose is one that my aunt and uncle in NY a wee while ago. It was made in India, of maroon silk with various silk ribbons threaded through it. It is long enough to wrap around as a skirt.

I tried wearing it as a sort of bolero.

I tried tossing it round my neck insouciantly.

I swore A LOT.

Finally I decided that the best thing to do was to wear it as a sort of fabric necklace and tried not to think too long and hard about the role that a long scarf played in the death of Isadora Duncan.

————————
The List of Things Worn

Scarf gifted by Robert Aaronson & Nancy Gropper

Velvet Dress by Onyx via Ozsale

Peep toe pumps by Roberto Vianni last blogged about here…

Stockings – Pretty Polly via my beloved stockingshq.com