Capes And A Little Black Dress

Top O’ The Mornin’ and Happy Belated St. Patty’s Day to All My Gal Pals,

I planned on getting this blog out last week but stuff happens. I ended up with shingles and a respiratory problem (no cough or fever). I cannot even imagine what those with the Covid-19 virus are going through. I have asthma and those of us with breathing problems know what it is like when you get sick with a respiratory illness and have difficulty breathing. I believe I am getting better on both fronts. My prayers go out daily to all those who contracted this awful virus. I am so thankful for so many things. I personally thank every cashier that waits on me, my pharmacist for showing up to work so I can get my inhaler, my doctor and her nurse that show up each day so I can ask for their advice and there are so many others that I can’t thank personally like truck drivers, delivery men, all hospital workers, postal workers and everyone who is doing their best to keep us safe and helping us to get the things we need. It seems like such a trivial thing to continue a fashion blog but I think we occasionally need something else to think about so here is my contribution to just that. On a lighter note, I am a single woman with 3 bathrooms that are always well stocked with toilet paper. I figure if I move from bathroom to bathroom I can wipe until mid summer.

Luckily, none of the clothes I am showing you today were stuck at the cleaners. I dropped some of my clothes off at the cleaners right before I got sick and the person behind the counter asked me when I wanted them back. It seemed like a crazy question to me. I said there was no hurry since I didn’t know when I would be able to go anywhere to wear them. I have been doing a lot of reading to occupy my time and in one magazine I read that Kourtney Kardashian stated she feels most desirable when she is naked. I just cannot relate to this! I can better relate to Aunty Acid who says “The scariest feeling in the world is in the split second when you lose your balance in the shower and think ‘Oh God, they’re going to find me naked!’.”

Let’s talk fashion. I love a little black dress! Not only is it slimming (Yeah!) but it is like a blank canvas waiting to be adorned with color. I love Karl Lagerfield’s quote “One is never over dressed or under dressed with a little black dress”. I have dressed them up with beautiful accessories and dressed them down with a short white jean jacket and white canvass shoes. Sara Bareilles even sings a great song called Little Black Dress. The little black dress can be traced to the 1920’s and Coco Chanel helped to popularize it. The most famous little black dress is the stunning dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Diane von Furstenburg said “The little black dress is the true friend…she travels with you…is patient and constant…you go to her when you don’t know where else to go and she is ALWAYS reliable and timeless”. I love to adorn my blank canvas with beautiful jewelry but even better I love to accessorize it with a beautiful cape. Fashion accessories are something used in a secondary manner that complete the perfect outfit. That is exactly what a cape does. It seems funny that in the last blog I was talking about fur as an accessory and in this blog I am talking about a cape that can keep you warm in a changing season. That reminds me of another Aunty Acid quote “I’m finally getting rid of my winter fat now I’ve got spring rolls”.

Let’s start with one of the pictures I took from my house before I moved.

I thought this was an appropriate picture for this blog. This canvas hung outside where I could see it every day from my living room window. The colors make it beautiful and the painting of the poppies brings back so many memories. My dad used to have a raspberry patch at the back of our yard when we were growing up. He was afraid the neighborhood kids would climb the fence to get to the raspberries and hurt themselves so he ripped out the raspberries and planted red-orange poppies. The sign above the painting is so appropriate for these times, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain”. Adding the paint to the canvas is like adding colorful accessories to a little black dress. So let’s look at some examples.

First I want to describe the little black dresses I am wearing in each of the photos. The one on the left is a knit dress that is ribbed through the bust area then flairs out with pleats, hiding all my midsection rolls. It has a beautiful cowl collar and ribbed sleeves. The one in the middle is a sleeveless swing dress which also hides THE BELLY and is one that you can throw on to run to the store. The sheath dress on the right has capped sleeves and pockets. Designer Jason Wu stated “A perfectly fitted sheath dress that can take you from day to night is something every woman should have in her closet”. With each outfit I am wearing 4 inch heels but it feels like I am wearing 2 inch heels because of the platform under the balls of the feet. You could wear any size heel with these outfits.

How is this for an accessory? Talk about a painting on a canvas! The nice thing about capes is that they can be worn several different ways. I have turned this cape so the buttons go over my shoulder. I am holding it out so you can see the scene on the cape but when I put my arms down it just looks like a palatte of paint. It looks great with the straightness of the sheath dress. All the capes I will be wearing in this blog came from stores in the towns around the cottage in Michigan.

The flower pin looks great against the colors of the cape as do the two bracelets, ring, sunglasses and earrings. The sky is the limit when you have so many colors to work with. And like my capes, all of these accessories came from the little boutiques in Michigan.

As you can see, this cape is reversible and is beautiful on both sides. My sister tried to capture the back of the cape in the mirror behind me. I am wearing it with the long sleeved little black dress because it is made of a heavier material which is perfect for our March weather. Again, you have many colors to work with for accessories but with this outfit I went with the pattern instead of the colors as you can see below.

The two tone silver flowers on the necklace reminded me of the flowers on the cape. The beautiful bracelet was a gift from my sister, daughter and son-in-law. It is from a fine jewelry store in South Haven, Michigan. The removable charm on the bracelet is a gold and silver wreath. This is a very popular bracelet and the store carries so many beautiful charms.

This cape came from The Bridge in Holland which is the fair trade store of handmade items that I described in an earlier blog. Again, it is a reversible cape that looks lovely on both sides. This picture does not do the cape justice because you can’t really see the beautiful sheen of this material. It has a ribbed knit collar and is lightweight enough that you can unbutton it and wear it as an indoor jacket. I am wearing it with my swing dress.

The earrings and bracelet are a set and came from a store in Douglas, Michigan that sells estate and antique jewelry. The earrings are clips, of which I have many, because I love old jewelry.

Well, that is it for today. I am not even going to talk about a diet because I am bingeing on comfort food that consists of sugar, sugar and more sugar. It doesn’t help that I am also bingeing on competitive baking shows like Zumbo’s Just Desserts and The Great British Bake-off on Netflix. The funny thing is that I don’t bake. In fact, I barely cook unless I can throw a piece of meat on the George Foreman Grill and pop frozen veggies into the microwave. I think that right now we all need a little comfort food. I like Aunty Acid’s thoughts on this, ‘If we’re not meant to have midnight snacks, why is there a light in the fridge?’.

So just remember during these hard times God loves you and so do I. Stay healthy and safe.