Recently I was in New York, Fashionable Reader, and though I haven't had time to chat about it on my Author Blog, I am posting some of the outfits I wore here for your perusal.
I picked up this light weight black blazer several yeas ago at Nordstrom Rack because it was useful in so many ways: steampunk elements, zipper front, nice fit, washable, good material. I use it a lot. Where others would wear a hoodie, I wear this blazer. It's only flaw is it has no pockets. I took some leftover ones from making my steampunk black pocket belt and put them on the inside.
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| 1940 Jacket 1940s The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
For Prudence to wear in the Custard Protocol Series:
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| Afternoon Jacket 1895 The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
And a modern retro take on the blazer.
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| Black Blazer Du Juan Numero China FW2013 |
For this NY trip, I paired my blazer with my infamous black and white fish tail skirt.
My mother, who is an excellent seamstress (she made most of her own clothing in the 60s and 70s), made this skirt for me shortly after my first book, Soulless, was accepted for publication. You see, Fashionable Reader, I had this vision that one day I would be the kind of author who flew to NY for lunch with her agent and her editor wearing... a black and white skirt. Don't ask me why, but a black and white skirt always featured largely in this overly romanticized vision of my authorial future. So when Orbit wanted to fly me to BEA in 2009, I had to have the skirt. When I couldn't find one to buy, my fantastic mother made this one for me.
Here I am with my editor, in the skirt in NY. I paired it with the afore-mentioned blazer, a white shirt of questionable fit over the Rack (what can I do?), white shoes (J.C. Penny) and bag (vintage), black velvet hat (vintage) worn to the side, and black octopus necklace (gift).
And the skirt with a velvet top (part of my 1940s velvet suit) and the black hat worn towards the back of the head, and white bobble jewelry.
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| Stylebook peak at my white accessory collection |
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| The blazer zippered up. |
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| BBC series Dancing on the Edge blue |
These shoes turned up at my WORD event in Brooklyn. Aren't the dreamy? And they are two parts, with the upper portion being a spat. So cool!
Some more black and white to go with the skirt:
Black Pencil Wiggle Dress $48, Lindy Bop 1950s Swing Dress $48
For Alexia after the Parasol Protectorate Series:
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| Dinner Dress Charles Fredrick Worth, 1880s The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Petticoat 1908 The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.
That is a fantastic blazer! I have some steampunk-y jackets, but they are mostly button or hook do up, not zip. It's frustrating because the threads are always coming loose and so I don't wear them as much as I should because I'm terrified of loosing a button (my favourite one has buttons down the front with a rough image of the British coat of arms pressed into them, which would be difficult to replace!). I really need to take an afternoon and re-sew everything on.
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