Yesterday I took the edge off my post-Gazelle hangover with a little visit to Miss Crystal Birch‘s farewell sale at her house in Vredehoek.
Crystal is a great friend of mine and she also happens to be a totally visionary stylist and milliner. She’s jetting off to Hamburg at the beginning of June on a whirlwind styling jaunt, followed by another in New York. The past few months have been spent clocking up more shoots than you can count with amazing photographers and models from all over the world, and always in true Crystal style: haphazard, high speed, transcendent. One afternoon she’d have a trio of topless Dutch and Estonian waifs jumping on her unmade bed, the next she’d be scooting around the city in search of pirate boots, tassels or fake fruit. The girl is a miracle. And our fortuitous meeting has been mutually beneficial to us both on so many levels – as friends, as fashion lovers, and as sisters who are doin’ it for themselves. Yes, I just said that.
Keen to offload some of the many mad things she accumulates through her styling, she hosted a sale (featuring a rail of gems from The Rah-Rah Room). I popped by to say hello and show my moral support, but inevitably, I ended up departing with a few things for myself. Including this epic darling of a striped sweatshirt, which has enough personality for fifteen sweatshirts! Super wide and cropped with tight sleeves and an irresistible funnel neck, it’s so visually witty, I just had to have it. I want to wear it over my new red and white striped H&M frock – a beauteous stripe overload. Its width calls for something really sleek, so the uber fitted H&M stripe will be perfect. I also like the idea of the two primary colours together, as well as the profusion of different stripes. There’s nothing like print with print, right?
I also left with a black mesh dress that is entirely transparent and which no doubt had a pair of glorious Brazilian breasts pressed against it quite recently… I don’t plan to wear it like that, but I do think it will work well with some interesting layers. My final purchase was a little white blouse with geometric cut outs and an unusual hemline. The pictures I took of them didn’t do them justice, so I will post them once they have been incorporated into an ensemble.
PS: I had a request from a reader to do more outfit posts, so this is me trying to do just that. I do feel slightly awkward about things like the truly 21st century ‘self photo’, but I am unfortunately mired with a flatmate who also happens to be my brother. The same brother that rolls his eyes when I ask him to take a snapshot of me, and whose idea of a good angle is my idea of hideous. I really need a gung-ho, snaphappy friend with an epic camera permanently on hand, like all those other bloggers out there! Until then I will surrender to being a 97% 21st century kind of a girl (in 20th century vintage).
The Pessimiss 