Havana Affair

This is the last summer outfit of 2012. I know it’s funny to post a summer outfit in November, but I’m a busy person – finding time to write these loooong posts is not that easy for me, OK? LOL

I wore this outfit back in September. I was going to watch The Expendables 2, so I wanted to wear something that could somehow relate to the theme of the movie while still being suitable for the hot Spanish summer.

At that point, I knew my choices were rather limited. I had already worn the most of my hippie skirts and blouses and, of course, I didn’t want to repeat myself, so I started thinking: how can I put up a light summer outfit without using the themes I’ve already used?

I wanted to create a hippie look starting from something I had never used in that context before, and my brand new (at that time it was brand new LOL) khaki shirt was right there, in front of me, so I decided I could try combining it with this patchwork hippie skirt from Natura. Of course, the shirt had to be adapted a bit so it would fit in with the skirt, so I rolled the sleeves up and tied the bottom in a knot, instantly turning my proto-outfit into a tropical look.

I loved the fact that the colours and patterns of both pieces weren’t an obvious match – it made the whole thing feel more D-I-Y, like an outfit that’s been put up in the middle of the jungle with very limited resources… which was exactly what I wanted to get :P

Once the basics were in place, the time came to give the look some new dimension: it was going to be tropical, yes, but it needed a twist to make it more interesting.

I kept thinking about my Commando outfit. I wanted to add a guerrilla touch to this one too, as a reference to the fact that I was going to see a true badass movie (LOL), just like I did when I went to see The Expendables 1 (I wore a Sarah Connor kind of look back then :P), so I grabbed my camo scarf – which I didn’t have back in the time of my Commando look, BTW –. The problem was I didn’t really know how to wear it…

I tried to just tie it around my forehead like a bandana – Rambo style LOL –, but it was way too long and it really looked awful, so I had to come up with something else. After trying to put it on in every possible way, I finally had a strike of inspiration: why not turning it into a turban? I though it was a great idea. The only problem was I had no clue how to do it.

I searched for help in the internet and, after a while, I found a nice tutorial that explained it all quite well (link here). However, the tutorial clearly stated you have to use a SQUARE scarf… and mine couldn’t be further from that LOL I really messed up my hair trying to fit it in, but, after like fifteen minutes I managed to get a decent turban done. I was impressed.

I though about adding some plastic flowers to my turban, in order to give it some extra tropical appeal – I had in mind that headpiece Rihanna wore in the S&M video –… however I dropped the idea rather quickly. I didn’t really have the means to do that, and it would have strayed too much from the original theme of the outfit anyway, so I thought I’d just leave that idea for some other time…

The turban also adds a fancy 1920s touch to the outfit. I didn’t expect that, but it certainly looks great on pictures :P

 

Stepping out in the street wearing a turban was certainly a curious experience. I had never done that before. Technically, it’s not so different from wearing a hat or a cap, but you can’t help that feeling of having your head bandaged (LOL). I was afraid it would start to come undone at any moment, but it actually didn’t, so, eventually, I decided I was just not going to think about it until I got back home. It worked.

And it certainly turned a few heads ;)

Oh, and the movie was totally awesome, BTW. The first one was good as an introduction, but if you’re an action film dinosaur like me, The Expendables 2 is the real thing. Imagine: Chuck Norris telling a Chuck Norris joke; Arnold Schwarzenegger ACTING again (<3); Jean Claude Van Damme playing the bad guy (!); Jason Statham – do I really have to say anything else? LOL –, and there’s Stallone, and Dolph Lundgren, and Bruce Willis, and some other guys I can’t even remember… there’s SO many of them! LOL The audience spontaneously burst into applause at the end, so you can imagine just HOW amazing and hilarious it was.

Shirt: MNG

Skirt: Natura

Sandals: You Too
Scarf: Armand Basi

Necklaces: unknown

Bracelets: Natura

Bag: MNG

Mediterranean Madness

As soon as the thermometer hits 30 degrees, I switch straight to hippie mode. Suddenly, all my trousers, T-shirts and shoes become too heavy, and the only things I can wear are sandals, hippie skirts and Indian silk blouses from Natura. When summer comes around, I stop caring about looking like an edgy rock star (which, of course, is what I am LOL) and just get teleported back to the 60s – a time when it was OK for edgy rock stars to look like this :P

My biggest problem in summer is that, when the weather gets this hot, I feel like I don’t want to wear any clothes at all. I just want to stay at home in my pyjama shorts and my Jonas Brothers tank top (I truly wear that when I’m at home and no one sees me LOL), pretending the outside world doesn’t exist until autumn comes back to rescue me.

This is exactly what happened this time.

I was feeling terribly uninspired and frustrated. I tried on every piece of summer clothing I had, but nothing seemed to click. You already know how I am with outfits: I can’t just put on a couple of things that look good together and go out – I need to feel that special something that reflects the way I see myself right now… and that can turn the process of dressing up into a really exasperating task sometimes. It was already getting late and all my attempts at finding some new, groundbreaking combination seemed to fail, so I chose to reinvent one of my old outfits instead.

I had only worn this particular outfit once before, and I felt that I could give it another chance. I kept the Indian skirt and the silk blouse, but decided to change the shoes and the accessories. Originally, I wore this outfit with espardille wedges and a straw hat, but I wanted to switch this country approach for something more hippie; so the first thing I did was replacing the espardilles for my beautiful jewelled sandals (you might remember them from my last outfit). I think I love them more and more every day! (LOL)

It’s funny how this emergency purchase turned out to be one of my greatest acquisitions for this season. Sometimes the best things in life come to us in totally unexpected ways! :P

Once I had the basics, it was time to go for the accessories. I still didn’t know what the theme of the outfit was going to be, so I started to randomly browse through my drawers to see what I could find. I came across my giant wooden cross necklace (maybe you remember it from this post), and decided that the time might have come to take it out for a walk.

Of course, it worked perfectly.

This beautiful beaded vintage cross necklace was next, and it turned out to be a real game changer. It instantly reminded me of Dolce & Gabbana’s A/W 12-13 collection, and, all of a sudden, the whole look made sense in my head: it was going to be a D&G-inspired Mediterranean outfit, which, in my twisted mind could only mean one thing: “get more rosaries on”.

[Oh, God… don’t look at my hangover face! How can I get that without even drinking? LOL]

I immediately added my beautiful John XXIII rosary to the mix. It didn’t take me much time to know that this was the one: it’s one of my personal favourites because its beads have the colours of the Vatican flag, and I knew it would blend with the print of my silk blouse straight away! (LOL)

Once again, I completed the outfit with the black hippie backpack you saw in my previous outfit post. And this time I haven’t forgotten to take pics with it!

During the photoshoot, the sun was horrible, as usual, and the fact that I hadn’t gotten much sleep the previous night didn’t help either. Luckily, a kind summer breeze was blowing, so I got hair all over my face the most of the time, preventing you from seeing the huge bags under my eyes (LOL).

[Doing stupid stuff is always required at some point in my photoshoots :P]

The good thing is that these circumstances made the torment expression in this pic much more believable. Don’t I look like I’ve just come out of a Romanesque fresco? LOL

PS. No Kaulitz inspiration this time either. And the rosaries don’t count – I was already collecting them when the twins were still singing Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus in kindergarten ;)

Blouse: Natura

Skirt: unknown

Sandals: You Too

Necklaces: vintage

Wooden cross necklace: LSD

Bracelet: Natura

Bag: Indigo

Indian Summer

…and the answer is: No – I can’t live without my golden jeans anymore, I tried! I swear I tried to create an outfit without using them… but when I got this deep red and gold caftan in my hands I just had no choice!

The good news is that, for the first time ever since I started this blog, I’m NOT wearing a hat. That’s already something, isn’t it? LOL

As you can see, this outfit is embarrassingly (just kidding :P) simple. Once I put on the golden jeans, I felt like the look was almost finished, which is something very, very rare for me and my usual “more is much, much more” premise.

However, this is just the way it happened this time, and I feel fine about it. This caftan is so jewelled I felt it didn’t need anything more, so I just completed the look with a bunch of bronzed bracelets.

The big problem, however, came when it was time to pick the shoes.

What kind of shoes can you wear with an India inspired outfit?

The answer might be quite obvious, right, but it wasn’t that simple for me…

As I already told you in my last post, there are certain parts of my body I prefer not to show, and this is always a problem when summer hits the town, because I suddenly run out of presentable shoes.

I struggled with my (stupid?) moral (=aesthetic) dilemma for a while, until I convinced myself that sandals were the only possible solution. Right in that moment, I had some sort of mystical flashback: I suddenly remembered a pair of Pakistani sisters that went to school with me for a little while (for some reason, they didn’t stay there for long). I pictured them wearing their beautifully embroidered deep red (at least, those are the ones that I remember – I bet they also had them in other colours LOL) shalwar kameezes, with long scarves around their shoulders and their shiny black hair tied up in a long thick braid that fell graciously down their backs. I probably have somewhat of a creative memory, but remembering them like that just made me smile.

So I said to myself: “If people in India and Pakistan can do it, maybe I can do it too!”

  

In the end, I chose a pair of beautiful red lacquered Japanese style sandals we had at home from back in the late 90s (ah, the golden days of oriental minimalism…). A dose of metallic red nail polish did the rest.

[You can catsch a glimpse of the red sandals in this old pic from 2000. Obviously, I’m not the one wearing them – I was still a kid –, but you can see some of my genes in there LOL

BTW, were those the matching trousers to my caftan? Because they look pretty compatible…]

[This 1997 photoshoot perfectly reflects the spirit of the time]

With that and my black hippie sack on my shoulder I was ready to go.

[Yeah - I forgot to take pics with my bag, so I had to improvise LOL]

However, the gods of fashion (LOL) didn’t want to make things that easy for me.

I was just about to catch a train when I started to feel like the ground was too soft under me. I had already been through a similar situation before, so I immediately checked out the soles of my sandals, and saw that, just as I had suspected, the (expensive) rubber they were made of was slowly disintegrating with every step I made.

HOLY SH***********T!!!!!

Of course, I had no choice but running to the nearest mall in search of something to replace them, even though I was already late for my appointment.

It took me more than an hour to find a pair of sandals I could consider acceptable. I had never, ever thought it could be THAT hard, but it definitively was. I checked out around four different stores, and all they offered were either gladiator sandals (God, I hate them SO much LOL), orthopedic-looking granny style sandals or just flip-flops that were no way suitable for street wear. I was SO desperate! It all felt like a nightmare x__x

I found these when I had already started my (hopeless) second round. I had doubts about them at first (they were a bit too open for my taste, and the ankle strap didn’t convince me much), but they certainly matched my outfit better than any others (even better than the ones I was wearing, I have to admit) and there was undoubtedly NOTHING more to choose from, so I grabbed them straight away.

Now that I see it in perspective, I think I was very lucky to find them. They are cool, and they look just perfect with this outfit! And the ironic thing is that, if it hadn’t been for my incident with my other pair, I would have never, ever got my hands upon them. That kind of things returns you to the thought that everything happens for a reason.

Or maybe not?

[As you  can see, I was having a hard time dealing with the afternoon sun during this photoshoot LOL]

PS. Haven’t you noticed anything strange in this post? That’s right – I didn’t get ANY inspiration from Bill or Tom Kaulitz for this outfit! (LOL). Should I get scared already?

Caftan: unknown

Jeans: MNG

Sandals: You Too

Bracelets: unknown

Bag: Indigo