MY TWO-DECADE CARDIGAN

The other day I realised that the oldest piece of clothing in my wardrobe, apart from vintage, is a cardigan I bought in 1997 that I still use.  I was a bit impressed actually, as we seldom tend to think of clothing of today to last for that long. And cardigans tend to get floppy easily; this one not.  I remember the store I bought it from (which is no more), and was looking at it twice or three time before actually buying it as it was expensive at the time at 120FiM, which nowadays equals to about 20€. But back then that was a lot more. You could really get a lot for the green one hundred bill, with a stubborn Sibelius on it.

There was also this little episode when this cardigan went missing for about a year and a half or so after I moved away from home and I was certain I had not lost it anywhere. It was later found in a bag under my teenaged sister's bed, as she had borrowed it without asking and then hid the evidence. Nowadays she thoroughly denies this ever happend though. Now that I remembered this again I have to tease her a little about it.

SUMMER VIBES FROM WHEN IT WAS (ALMOST) WARM

October! The month changes and the sun says 'K bye!' and we get Halloween-ish storms in an instant. Not that I am complaining per se; I have big shawls and red wine and berets and turbans to cover my hair with.

But here's a throwback to an planned-but-unposted  (applies to 99%of the photos on my memory card since 2016...) day and it's outfit  from summer when I wore a turban in much more sunnier weather:

This summer I have been filming a thing that, for the first time in a long time allowed me to have a purpose to wear lots of nice clothing again! Meanwhile, something very strange had happened during the past as I suddenly find a lot of garments in my closet can no longer fit. Or not comfortably at least.

But happy to notice this old Trashy Diva-gem of mine still does!

The cardigan I've customed myself with iron-on patches, the turban is from Rubylea and the sunglasses broken by now.

And you know what? It's not even that long until it's summer again!

GUCCI AND BEYOND

You may have seen the Gucci campaign already, or you may not, and if so then here it is and I totally love that they did this:

So much of that oh yes!I'd wear it too.

SUNSHINE

It's finally warm and sunny! Yesterday was the first day without socks outside!
There is hope after all!

Here I tried to swing like a happy monkey in a tree, to illustrate the fact that it's warm and and one can now go bazonkas and so on, but turns out it was harder than I thought. Plus I kind of got a little worried the branch would crack and hit me in the head and I'd basically die blogging.  But as you can't be totally fabulous or witty all the time you get my attempt here anyway.

This was also a sneaky outfit post. The top is from Freddies of Pinewood and the lurex thingies are h&m.

LOST SPRING

Waiting for spring like -

WHERE IS IT!

Apparently spring is like a month late here or so by now they say on the news and in the papers.
Well yes, thanks, we kind of noticed. The true definition of "april weather". Sun and rain and random snow and temperatuare yo-yoing.

But the spring gear has however premiered. Even to the extent that I treated myself to a new vintage Pendleton and a pair of vintage boots, to stomp around in the mud over here in, via Etsy.
My pyjamas-like high waist wide-legged cropped pants are from Light in The Box.

(They promised -PROMISED - it'd be +20c this weekend so keeping my thumbs and hopes up for that. And if not, then - oh well, damn, it's the weather, then you still just can't do anything about it...)

FLOWERS THAT NEVER FADE/ TRUE BLOOM JEWELRY

When it comes dressing; dressing up, and the preferences that goes with it, it tends to be very cyclical for me. For most people I guess. So after some years of wearing minimal jewellery, I have strongly been enjoying to wear jewellery again, especially other earrings than just small studs.

So, quite suitably I was sent a very beautiful package the other day that made me very happy. It was from Anriikka, creator of True Blom Jewelry, with rose petals in a cool red tone, forever captured in bloom in resin.

I had roses like this in my little bridal bouquet when I got married.

True Bloom Jewelry is a Finnish brand that makes hand made jewellery out of hand picked flowers and leaves. The flowers are cast in bio resin that allows them to keep their delicate shape and natural colours. Bio resin is a plant based resin, which is more eco-friendly compared to other resins. It should also be a suitable material to those who are allergic to various jewellery materials.
Making flower resin jewellery like this is a slow process - one piece can take several days or even weeks to make depending on how many layers of resin are needed! As no flower is alike each piece is thus unique. Anriikka can also make custom jewellery out of flowers that you have chosen or picked yourself.

Resin jewellery is light and not heavy on the ears at all, which is a plus for me - I had extension plugs in my ears during the 00's; and even if they grew together quite well after taking them out almost a decade ago, the holes in my ears still tend to be rather "long", so I have avoided heavy earrings due to that reason; they stretch the holes out too much. These I can barely feel.

You can find True Bloom Jewelry's recently opened Etsy store here. Find the brand on instagram @truebloomjewelry.


Disclaimer:  This is not a sponsored post. While I was given this set as a gift the choice to blog about the items was my own.

THIS WINTER'S SKIRT

So far this year I feel I have mainly been living in a turban,  a thin knit and in this forest green knitted skirt with a strechty waist. Easy to pull up over the dance leggings and tops, to add an extra layer underneath to when it got really cold, and good as it is with just tights when it's been closer to zero - winter has been a real yoyo this year.

The top is from Lindy Bop and the skirt was a Christmas clearance piece from Lindex.

I am often asked about where to get turbans; the black soft ones I have are from Kuokkasen peruukkiliike in Helsinki, but Etsy, for example, has a lot of turbans! Apart from the constant black beret, turbans are a must-have; you simply can not have too many of them.

Also this is pretty much the only place in our house where one can take any pictures. Everything else is still full of boxes, in renovation-mode or covered in some fringly sparkly burlesque-project mess. Uh.

WINTERIZING SUMMER STRIPES

Well, it's that time of the year again when you either have packed some of your clothes away (if you are the organised type that actually does that instead of having to lean against your closet door to close it. Not saying I'm either one  though, ehrm), or have started indulging in some hardcore layering, in my vocabulary known as winterizing.


I wear quite a lot of my dresses during the colder season as well paired with thicker tights and something underneath plus a layer or two on top. It depends a bit on the dress weather it works or not; the thinnest materials seldom look good that way, but this cotton is a bit heavier.

This is a cotton summery dress that I got from thai vintage store Sugar & Cream Vintage, that you might remember me writing about some time ago.

It's in mint condition with hidden buttons in the front and, like in the red vintage dress I have from the same store, this one also has a hidden zipper in front in able to step into instead of having to pull it over the head.  Handy!

But I just might (or: will, eventually) have to add a pair of patch pockets, which, as you know, makes everything better - I have a cotton fabric with similar soft coloured stripes, just a few more hues in the blend. It will sit pretty well there.

And no, I didn't cut my almost-there outgrown bangs back; this is a wig! I use some pieces on stage and in shoots for all those days that I did not have the time to roll my hair the evening before, but some of them can make themselves useful during the bad hairdays of everyday life as well.

For those who want to know; apart from the Sugar & Cream Vintage dress the belt vintage too, the bag from the early 00's, boots new and the wig from Annabelle's wigs.

THE GOLD LINING

Me, online: So, now that winter is coming and we're out on the countryside for good I should really get myself a pair of practical boot...- uuuh hello what are these?!

So yes; I am still trying to remember to get a pair of practical shoes, because I ended up with a pair of cute black velvet-y platform boots instead. Now ho would've thought.

Well, in my defence, if you can manage to drag 20 kilos of suitcase for three days in a row on the cobblestone streets of Prague they could kind of be labeled as "practical", right?
But no, these boots with their flocked surface are indeed not for the muddiest days.

While on talks about the sliver lining (the one of clouds you know, that applies to events and situations) you can also talk about a golden edge in Swedish, which is applicable to anything or anyone that gives everyday life and existence even the tiniest sense of luxury. So this muddy-snowy-stormy November I'll let my gold lined heels act as the little golden edge of the day. Walk, at least. And thinking about it, I still have my old workwear boots from the harbour to wear in the countryside mud instead.

See, every cloud does have a silver lining!

I bought the boots from LightInTheBox.

DRESSED UP FOR OCTOBER

I went to a Octoberfest-themed party in the weekend and dressed inspired by myself in 1983.

(Even though I remembered my tiny dirndl had the colours the other way around, with a red skirt.)

I did not have that much time to put together an outfit and also wanted one just inspired by the look of a dirndl, not to create one. But if there's a next time I'll sew myself a pair of high waisted lederhosen-inspired suspender shorts (or skirt) instead!

This is a selfmade skirt and the waistcoat/corselette is one I use on stage as part of a very differently themed outfit.

This was also a great opportunity to get to use one of my petticoats! I seldom wear them nowadays.
I should go to parties more often I guess (not just perform at them).

SILK & POLYESTER

Channeling some 70's lounge vibes with my blackjumpsuit, peeptoes and slinky silk shirt.
It's all old stuff from the closet.

RED LEO COMBO

It's that weekend, or rather, week of the year, again that seems to have more hours than the rest of the weeks and in the same time way too few, as you don't really get to sleep and everything all blends into one long day. A very long such, during which I have managed to manage more things and details than one could possible think of, one of them being putting this pencil skirt tie-top combo together between one and three am two nights in a row. It turned out really good; the past years I've spent more details on how the clothes I sew look on the inside too and I've gotten used to how to cut the pieces of fabric for myself I usually get it right once away without having to correct the seams (I don't use patterns, just cut straight from the fabric) afterwards.

We are producing the Pin-Up Finland event this year again, thus the long days and short nights this week; and if you head over to Lahti tomorrow (or, it might be today by now already) you can catch me wear this on stage when I also host the event at the Autot & Viihde happening! Lots of great looking cars, bands, custom goodies to shop and lots of aspiring pin ups. And me, running on Choca-cola (that's caffeinaited chocolate for ya) for the xx-day in a row. So come, it will be fun!

APPLES, THE BLACK BERET AND THE PONCHO

It's that time of the year! The beret is out and the poncho is on and you can totally wrap yourself in it and there are apples everywhere:
It's autumn!

CORDUROY

 Twenty two years and one month ago, pretty exactly, I started seventh grade wearing this same vest.
And a black body (that was actually not a body but my mom's black gymnastics leotard) and a pair of batik-patterned loose trousers. I remember being very proud of that outfit.
(I stepped in to a trendier shop the other day and suddenly felt very old saw my early teenage years hang on the racks with pants just like that. And those ribbed tops with bold stripes and strings that crosses/ties in the front. Aaaaaaa!)

But yes, the vest I am still wearing ! It is actually my mother's old from the 1970's.
Although if I've eaten I am having a hard time closing it.

Or then I just really need to suck in my pilates powerhouse. Good practice.
The suspender skirt is self made and the bag vintage.

THAT ARTSY COAT

The good thing about going trough and organising your closet in deep-mode (OK; I can actually think of many, but let's start with this one) is that you may re-discover objects and pieces you had totally forgotten about. I am going trough stuff in the city apartment and found this old coat of mine, which is rather cute with an artsy vibe and just right for the weather we are having right now.

Last time I wore it was when I was pregnant, actually. And I found some beauty store vouchers expiring in 2010 in the pockets! (Damn, 2010, that was so long ago already!)

The coats is from ModCloth from years back, velvet leggings some randoms and shoes old (do anone even care about these things anymore?) I do get a lot of questions about my turban, which nowadays is as high up on my can't-live-without-it list as my black beret, especially for those days when I have curls waiting underneath like now: mine is made of in terrycloth and from Kuokkasen Peruukkiliike; you can find these from a lot of wig shops. It is also rather easy to make your own!

Well, time for me to coat along now, ta-ta!