Oranges and Apples Together at Last!

Wore this to mail one of the items that found a new home through Shop Jesspgh. My wardrobe choices used to rely mostly on dresses and prints because I found myself confused by color pairings. Lately I have decided to forgo arbitrary rules and treat jewel tones and brights as neutrals. This has made navigating the world of separates a lot easier and more interesting for me. Here is one result inspired by the unlikely combo of apple red and burnt orange.

J. Crew Annalise Silk Top (similar here, here, and here)
A.P.C. button front skirt in red (print on sale here; adorably similar from Topshop here)
Forever 21 belt (similar here, here, and here)
Daniblack trompe l'oeil quilted captop Posh Stencil flats from Anthropologie (still in stock in all colors here)
Alviero Martini bag from ebay

I wore this top quite a bit as the base layer last winter and early spring. Now for the first time I wear it on its own.

Trompe L'Oeil is Always in Style!

Tees by Sauce
Flats by Daniblack

Saw a few items featuring Trompe L'Oeil details and wanted to share them! My Forever 21 tote bag is in good company.

Adventures in Nautical Trompe L'Oeil!

My neighbor has a sailboat, which Chris has spent some time on the last few weeks, preparing it for the summer season of sailing. Accordingly, I have been fantasizing about summer events and outfits that will comprise my summer wardrobe. Because that wardrobe now includes a reason to be even more obsessed with all things Nautical than I am every summer season, I found it fitting to pick up this Trompe L'Oeil sailor dress from the Annie Creamcheese consignment and vintage shop in Georgetown.

Too patriotic? Too silly? Perhaps. I admit that it is somewhat costumey but my other outfit idea, (to wear white linen pants with my navy cashmere anchor sleeve sweater from Blanc Bleu in St. Barths) might not be practical, due to the heat and my epic clumsiness.

The tshirt style dress is scandalously short so I've had to layer underneath it an exposed slip by Hanky Panky. Hopefully I won't look too jaggy when just a dream and the wind will carry me.
I hear the canvas can do miracles. (I realize I age myself when I quote such lyrics, but whatever).

More Trompe L'Oeil Details Via Etsy and Eley Kishimoto

Since I posted about the Moschino Trompe L'Oeil pieces I've been hunting for something to add to my closet. And a few stylish friends have enabled the process with their tips! Laurenhockey alerted me to this Etsy "Tennis" dress with an embroidered trompe l'oeil belt and buttons from seller, Encouragementaward.


I kind of wish it had sleeves and was available in another color. But I think it is pretty great as is!

Then, I discovered via a messageboard this perfectly adorable Eley Kishimoto dress with Peter Pan and princess seam trompe l'oeil piping:

It also features an unfortunately astronomical price tag.
But I can dream and stalk for sales!

Consumed by Trompe L'Oeil Moschino Pieces

This week, a long-forgotten obsession of mine was resurrected. I've already mentioned time and again how the clothing genre of coats generally consumes me. My love for cold season clothing and the firm belief that outerwear is often an overlooked component of dressing combine to fuel further my position. Add this to the fact that the weather dipped into undeniably winter-coat-appropriate territory, and it seems fitting, despite the calendar date, to devote an early spring entry to coats. But I'm not interested in just any old coat.

I distinctly remember gripping Chris's arm while screening Kill Bill Volume 1 in the theater, back in 2003. It wasn't from the gore or the violence. It wasn't during any especially climatic moment in the non-linear plot. Instead my visceral reaction came when Daryl Hanna's character, Elle Driver, appeared on the screen, walking down the hospital hallway, dressed in the most incredible trench coat I had ever seen.

I didn't know who made it. I didn't know if it was a designer piece. I just knew that I had been studying Lacanian psychoanalytic theories about the gaze and trompe l'oeil, and that coat symbolized the possibility for two of my seemingly disparate interests, critical theory and fashion, to merge.

Eventually I learned that Elle Driver was wearing head to toe Moschino, from the collection depicted in the above, early-2000s ad campaign. But I never put forth much effort toward tracking down a piece to call my own, and my memory of it quickly faded... Until now.

Thanks to an outfit post by the always adorable and stylish, Lindsay of Janey Powell, I was reminded of my desire to locate one of the incredible trompe l'oeil pieces from that particular Moschino collection. Lindsay is fortunate enough to actually own one!

I had no idea there was a DRESS!!!!! Isn't it incredible?! Obsession: Resurrected, and Expanded. It now includes the coat, the dress, the gloves, and everything else that happens to utilize this "trick of the eye." Lindsay alerted me to the existence of a bathing suit, and while I couldn't pull it off, I am VERY interested in knowing more about the dress with the tricky bow detail, to the right.

Does anyone know anything more about this collection or these pieces? I can't seem to locate the year in which they existed. While Kill Bill was released in 2003, the 2003 and 2002 spring runway collections for Moschino on style.com don't feature these looks. Regardless, I have something new to track down and I have a feeling that I will need to muster all my shopping karma to make it happen.