Spring clothing

Spring has finally sprung as they say. What to wear? It depends, because spring can be cold, and spring can be hot, wintery, summery. 

I found this Eileen Fisher cotton sweater at the Pink Alligator. It's navy and has pockets. 

More pink alligator.  A red cotton shift that I like to wear with black pants. Bathroom shots are a bit weird, but there is a good mirror and the lighting is decent. 

Sweater vest from Housing Works on Chambers Street in NYC. With a black tee-shirt or...

                                          a pink and white Talbot's blouse. Pin from my mother.

 To close: shoes from Revolution in White River Junction,

skirt from Housing Works on Chambers and...

               

 ... sweater vest from I can't remember anymore. It's a grey and black leopard spot style.

                                                                 HAPPY SPRING!

Springtime in Seattle and Tacoma WA

April 1st. April Fool's Day. Spring and winter duking it out. That means coats. I noticed in the uniformity of puffy blackness, some colorful wool coats in Seattle and New York, where I traveled recently. But alas, no photos. Just this coat found in a real vintage store in Tacoma, Washington, a city that itself looks like time stood still, with its 1930s and 40s era buildings left intact, giving visitors a pretty accurate idea of what an American city used to look like well before a Starbucks at every corner (come to think of it, down the highway from its birthplace in Seattle, where they have spawned like rabbits at Easter, there isn't one). I left the coat on its rack, where I thought it looked just fine.










New acquisitions, not including, still, no photo, my newest bad ass black leather coat with a rip in it, acquired at a relatively new thrift store in White River Junction, Vt, around the corner from Revolution. I do, however, have a photo of a (real?) suede coat that I bought at Beacon's Closet on 13th Street in NYC, right after seeing Isabelle Huppert in her latest (mediocre) film at the Quad, in which she looked fantastic in a greenish suede coat.

I could use some lipstick, I know, but even then I can't compete with the captivating face of la Huppert. 

Dress from consignment store in Brattleboro, Vt; linen jacket, from Lyon, France consignment store; waiting for the spring, ready with an outfit

Bourgeois(e) in NYC

 I begin my January visit to NYC with text, first, a book I saw in the MOMA bookstore, with many wonderful archival photos of college women at all women's colleges. Have added that one to the Amazon wish list. On the right, the pretentious -- at least I thought it was pretentious -- explanation accompanying the rather uninteresting -- I found it uninteresting -- exhibit at MOMA asking the question "Is Fashion Modern?" Fashion is difficult to display in a museum. I find that it looks best in dark rooms. The only piece that had me intrigued was

this one. 

I want to make this with different elements. It seems fairly straightforward. Perfect for recycling all kinds of materials. 

 While waiting for my daughter Clara, I observed the crowd from one of the staircases. My eye was drawn to a very nicely dressed woman, tall, elegant, perhaps yes, bourgeoise. It's too easy to make that pun, when the show we were visiting was the Louise Bourgeois retrospective. (I came up with another bad pun joke: she had three sons. What do you call her sons when they were small? "Petits Bourgeois." Haha. )

 I was pleased to see that Clara was wearing the necklace I had given her for Christmas. But it looks really nice on her! (all her clothes are used, by the way. I must ask her the origin of that animal shirt, it's amazing!).

 More bourgeoises at the Bourgeois retrospective.

I was also intrigued by the printer in Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Her prints are enormous, and I wonder why she chose one in New Hampshire. I must look them up to see if they're still around.

 The note taker in front of one of Bourgeois's late enormous prints.

LB recycled old fabric and added her own painting and stitching. 

----

And a discovery in Williamsburg to end with: Junk on Driggs Avenue. 

straight lines/messy year

Well, it's the end of 2017, not a great year here in the US, the less said the better, soso year in Britain, awaiting its Brexit, okay year in France where Macron managed to pull it off.

I end with geometric lines, accumulated during the Paris week in December. 

 I followed this woman in the Métro because I really liked the way her Freitag bag, silver  and black, went so well with the white and black stripes at the bottom of her coat. I do enjoy people watching, and observing what they are wearing, how they are presenting themselves to the world. Here, she was just no nonsense, let's go, I need to get to work (or wherever she was going).

 The movie theater on the Boulevard de Montparnasse, Les 7 Parnassiens, still shows really good independent films and still has a small cafe space where you can drop off books, and read new ones.

And then, last but not least, a nice surprise at Orly Airport. Fun colorful bathrooms. 

Here's to the comfort of straight, geometric lines in what has turned out to be a difficult year. 

Mid December in Uppsala, Sweden

In Uppsala Sweden for the weekend before heading back to the States. Uppsala is a university town, and my friend Laure who lives there with her partner has shown me the second hand stores, consignment shops and charity shops. 

The Swedes love Christmas, and decorations are everywhere. 

So are winter coats, that can be acquired very cheaply, including beautiful furs and sheep skins. The Swedes seem to favor puffy coats in the winter, and have clearly become more ethical about their winter wear, hence the profusion of animal skin coats in the second hand stores.