Rose Cafe Bustier + M7971

Shoes | Coclico

      I finally made the very popular Rose Cafe Bustier dress pattern in a gorgeous deadstock Amour Vert silk. A few months back I met up with a lady I know from the sewing internet and she took me to Fabrix, which mostly stocks deadstock/leftover/overstock fabrics, and which I definitely recommend if you are in SF. It is the type of place where you probably never know what you are going to find, but you'll probably always find something good. In this case, this 100% silk (which has an abstract animal print and is such a pretty rich berry color in person) was only $6.99 a yard! I bought 3 yards but wish I had bought a little more. I initially thought about turning it into a slip dress, but the slip dress pattern I have is cut on the bias, and this fabric isn't very wide, so I decided against that because I was worried that there was not enough extra fabric to recover from any mistakes. After seeing a few inspiration photos online, I landed on making a Reformation style dress (sample photo below) by using the RCB pattern for the bodice, mashed up with the McCall's 7971 for the skirt. I also decided not to make a toile, to test the fit, and decided to just cut right into the silk.

Dress the Part

Hi there. I've recently had quite the shakeup, relocating from my old home in San Francisco to a new one in Dubai. I know I want to do something to capture, preserve and otherwise process this experience and this space came to mind, although I'm not sure it'll end up staying here. 
When I mention the move people have a lot of questions about Dubai and I feel like I have more questions than answers at this point. As of today I'm about a week + a handful of days into this new transition and I want to zoom in and just talk about something I do know something about: my outfits. 

Clothes always help ground me to a situation, whether I want to be confident in a meeting, joyful at a wedding, or whimsical on a weekend. You can't go outside naked, so "what do I wear" is a question that at least flits through all of our brains on a day-to-day basis. One way I've been documenting and processing the move is taking an outfit selfie everyday. The clothing experience here is particularly different from what I was used to in California for two main reasons. 

• The first is the culture. There is a different standard of acceptable dress here and I'd like to be respectful. I've received some conflicting reports on what that means for me as an expat and as a woman. I can seemingly wear most of my wardrobe as is, though, and my plan is to do a lot of people watching (which I love anyway) and get a sense of it for myself. As a result, for the first month or so I plan to lean conservative with my clothing choices. 
• The second is the weather. I cannot express to you how hot it is here. During the dead of night it is minimum 90 degrees Fahrenheit/32 degrees Celsius.  During the day it climbs to 109/42 degrees F/C. However, not only that, but it is also humid (right?!) and so my phone will report that with the humidity it often "feels like" closer to 121/49 degrees F/C. Currently, I'm only going outside when absolutely necessary, mostly during the small moments when transferring from the air conditioned hotel to the air conditioned Uber to the air conditioned destination (like the mall, more on that later). It also means I always have sunscreen, a hat, sunglasses and water. 

Combine those two elements and I'm targeting natural breathable fabrics, light colors, flowy garments and decolletage, shoulders and legs mostly covered. So, here's what we've got so far:

2017 Superlatives

Another year has come and gone, which means it is time for me to look back at what I've purchased. If you'd like to look at last years' superlatives, you can click here.

The Past: Starting in 2014, I have kept an excel chart of my purchases, documenting brand, price, size, and end of year reflections on the item (how much have I worn it, alteration costs, and so on); a few insights:

1. This year, only 35% of my wardrobe was purchased secondhand, which is a bit down from last year. 
2. The single store/website that I purchased the most items from was Nordstrom Rack (16 items) and my most purchased brand was Rag & Bone (8 items). 
3. I ended up going about $100 over my budget (although I did buy a wedding dress this year, which was a one-time purchase and caused the total budget to grow above what I'd normally expect it to be).
4. I did save a whopping 81% off the retail price of my clothing (up from last year)! (For anyone wondering how I calculate that number, some clothes - like from Nordstrom Rack, still have the tags so you can see what the retail price was, and for items that are secondhand, I do a google search to try and locate the exact item, but take a guess when necessary, based on comparables). 

The Future: In looking ahead to 2018, I'd like to increase my second-hand purchases to make up at least a majority of my total overall purchases. I said that last year too, so I guess I want to try to actually achieve it this year. There are a lot of good second-hand and vintage stores in the Bay Area, some of which I already know about, but I bet there are even more, waiting to be discovered. Also, I honestly like mostly everything I bought in 2017 and there isn't anything currently that my heart desires. Usually there is a specific item, or a general category that I want to tackle, but right now I feel pretty content. My plan is to try to capitalize on that feeling and do a better job of  organizing and displaying my clothes, so that I remember what is in there. One of my favorite things about the spreadsheet is that it is always a good reminder about what is in my closet, and what (if I see it on the sheet and haven't thought about it for a whole year) should probably go.

Anyway, enough of that, let's get to the roundup:

New Jeans

Top | Amour Vert
Blazer | Theory
Pants | Rag & Bone Dre Jeans
Belt | Talbots
Shoes | Cole Haan

     For me, 2017 has really been a "the days seem long but the year seems short" kind of year. I've had a bit of a posting hiatus while I sort out a few things and wind down the year. I am, however, looking forward to going through all my 2017 purchases and figuring out my best and worst purchases of the year. 

Beat the Heat

Top | Amour Vert
Skirt | Banana Republic
Shoes | Paul Green

     I've paired together two recent outfits that are both drape-y, if that is even a word (quick google search produces mixed results, no hits from OED). I've recently been drawn toward clothing that is more soft and flowy, avoiding anything tight or structured. Part of this might be because of the recent heat waves the Bay Area has been having. It got up to 106 degrees in the city last weekend - the hottest ever on record. 

     Now, I know what your thinking, "my city also got up to 100+ degrees" and I hear you, and that is hot, but heat is always tough in SF because it never gets that hot, and as a result, no one has air conditioning. No A/C in your apartment. No A/C in the bogeda on the corner. No A/C in the majority of restaurants. No A/C in most coffee shops (except Starbucks which was a madhouse). I and about a thousand of my fellow city-dwellers decamped to the movies, which is one of the few places with air conditioning.

     On Tuesday, when I was back in the office, I still couldn't bear to wear sleeves or closed-toed shoes. So instead I wore this:

Top | Calvin Klein
Skirt | Amour Vert
Shoes | Coclico

In-vested

Dress | Amour Vert
Vest | Rag & Bone Ines
Shoes | Calvin Klein 

     I am always mindful to avoid looking like a restaurant waiter whenever I wear a vest, the same way I never wear a red shirt and khaki pants when I go to Target. For this particular outfit, I knew I wanted to wear this knit dress (another new Amour Vert find), and couldn't figure out what else to wear with it. My blazers were too long and made the skirt look a bit short, a sweater pulled over the dress sort of ruined the nice lines of the dress, and I didn't feel like wearing a cardigan. 

     Vest to the rescue. This vest shows off the long sleeves on the dress, the white provides a striking contrast to the navy, and, as the vest has pockets but the dress doesn't, it adds a level of functionality. Also, since the vest has lapels, it invokes the style of a blazer in a way that still looks polished, for work. I don't wear this vest very often (I was actually surprised to see that I purchased it back in 2014) but it keeps surviving my closet clean-outs because when it does work, I really love it.

Amour Vert Sample Sale

     I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I love a good sample sale. This is especially true when it is in San Francisco, since they are few and far between. I thought I'd write a review since this Amour Vert sample sale is going on this weekend (August 17-20) AND next weekend (August 24-27), in case anyone else in the Bay Area is interested in checking it out.