Working from home = t-shirts & leggings

This year has been one of big change. I lost my job back in July, I went to America again (which always, even when it's not planned, seems to spark deep philosophical questions about my life when I get back), and then the big one, I started two new jobs, both of which don't require me to spend every day in an office.

While that works for me in many ways (though I have no trouble keeping busy), the one thing I love one day and hate the next is that working from home doesn't exactly encourage me to get out of bed in the morning and be creative with my outfits. In many ways, I feel like I should be more creative than I was in an office because I'm not limited by any office conventions (like low tops and singlet sleeves for example), but who wants to work in their beautiful pinup gear when the only people to see your outfit most days is the dog? 

So I've gone completely in the other direction. That is, my pjs have become my uniform. To counteract being slobby and gross (and being ashamed of answering the door when the postman comes), I've been working on some dressed, but comfy work-from-home outfits and hairstyles that don't involve getting dressed to the nines. 90% of which centre around my Black Milk leggings. The way I see it is, if I make an effort to be properly dressed, I don't have to change if I need to run out to Officeworks or hide when the postman comes.

I'm going to share a couple of outfits here, and then share some others in future posts - I think there are a few work from home-related topics to be covered. Be warned, this will frequently mean seeing me out of the pinup gear, no makeup and the dreaded top-knot or bun (we'll talk about that later too). 

I did in fact go out in this outfit. To the hospital to visit my pop.
Who later told Mum that you'd see me coming in a blackout.
Achievement unlocked, I think.

Outfit 1 details

T-shirt: The Mighty Thor

Leggings: Black Milk Tartan Yellow Leggings (Now a museum piece, sorry!)

Shoes: Bam!Pow! flats from Rubi shoes | Similar

Oh hai, no make-up face

Outfit 2 details

T-shirt: Eff Your Beauty Standards shirt from Tess Holliday | Similar

Leggings (not pictured): Black Milk Matte Black leggings

We're creepy and we're kooky...

 

It's Halloween, yay!

I'm not sure if it's because it's falling on a Saturday this year, or if my dreams have finally come true, but Halloween feels like a bigger deal than it has in years. It was never really a thing here in Australia, but it's been getting bigger and bigger. I've been out and about today and there are so many people dressed in costumes and makeup talking about trick or treating and parties, and I love it.

Tonight I'm planning on watching something scary and hopefully handing out lollies to some trick or treaters (if any come - it's not a sure thing). Halloween is weird sort of non-event for me as a cosplayer, which is weird. I think it's because inevitably, someone asks to borrow one of my costumes and I have to explain to them how much work goes into them. So, I decided to show off how easy it is to put together a closet costume without spending a penny.

It's hot here in Brisbane today, so no long sleeve sweater for me. Instead, white shirt under a black t-shirt, black skirt and Docs. For my makeup, I mixed my regular foundation with some white face paint, went heavy on the eyes and easy on the contouring (just a little along the cheek bones). I always suggest to my non-cosplay friends that they pick an iconic character who wears normal wardrobe items if you don't want to spend hours crafting.

Outfit details

T-shirt & white shirt: Kmart Australia

Skirt: Seams Nostalgic

Docs: Vintage

 

Out of the bargain bin

 

 

I’ve been wearing vintage for a really long time. Even back in the day where I was a complete rock chick/tomboy, I would drive over to Wooloowin where a lady had a retro store in a house called The Retro Stop, and buy 60s and 70s men’s pants (grandpa pants as they were known as in my house). But when I first started to change my outfit to being vintage-inspired and then pinup, I had no money to buy repro or the really expensive, highly curated vintage beauties you see at retro stores. I’ve mentioned before that I changed my dressing style by buying cheaper clothes from Kmart and Target if they had a vintage shape, or adding vintage hairstyles and makeup to modern clothes. But the other thing I did was shop the bargain bins.

Back in the days of the Love Vintage fairs (vintage shows that traveled around Australia and that were pretty much the best for getting a lot of shopping done in one place), I would dive straight for the bargain bins. That’s where you’d find dresses with a hole or a tear, things that needed a stitch here, a new hem, or a good soak to get stains out.

This dress is a bargain bin dress. It’s in perfect condition, the only thing wrong with it was that it was missing a couple of buttons. So for $15, I bought it, found some buttons in my cousin’s huge collection and resewed them.

I love the dress because it incorporates so many different colours and I’ve worn it with bright yellows and reds, oranges and green. It works in the summer (though, it’s a nice coarse poly blend that isn’t the most breathable fabric) with sandals or in the winter with tights. Or, like I am today, a warm spring day but a cool night, with brown boots and a brown belt.

So, don't discount the clothes in the bargain bin! They just need a little TLC.

And now, because the outfit is vintage and you can't buy the same (though the belt and boots are from Kmart Australia), here are some derp photos from this set (it's sad when you like 90% of your derps better than the serious face pictures). 

Foxy foxes

 

A couple of months ago, I was a lucky ducky and won a custom swing skirt from the queen of custom skirts, Betty Le Bon Bon. I've been obsessed with all things foxy for a long while, so I chose a gorgeous woodland animal print that really featured the foxes, but had lots of other colours and animals in the print.

In anticipation of the skirt's arrival, I ordered a fox brooch from Deer Arrow. 

With Betty Le Bon Bon skirts, you always need to wait for a little while for them to arrive (around six weeks), and what's great about that is that you order them, get excited, then forget to watch the post for a while. Every time I've ordered a skirt, its arrival has been a nice, almost unexpected surprise. 

I couldn't wait to wear this one, and this (Queensland) wintery outfit came together really easily. I matched it with a basic orange t-shirt from Uniqlo, navy tights and a navy cardigan. I felt super cute all day!

Outfit details

Skirt: Betty Le Bon Bon Cheek Boutique

Brooch: Deer Arrow

Cardigan: Banned from That Shop

T-shirt: Uniqlo

Shoes: William's (past season)

Scarf was my Nanna's :) 

Wardrobe tantrums and dresses as tops

Most days I plan what I'm going to wear before I get up in the morning because if I don't, disaster can strike (particularly on the days where I'm teaching and need to be out of the house early). Wardrobe tantrums are the result of what happens when I don't plan - I am sure lots of you ladies can relate to the way it feels when a dress doesn't look right, so you pull it off and it goes on the floor, then that skirt doesn't fit, so it goes onto the floor too, and before long you're standing in your underwear, hot, sweaty, stressed and usually late. 

But this outfit was a lucky stop to what was fast becoming a wardrobe tantrum. I'd grabbed my Black Milk bowerbird play dress off the hanger on a whim after not planning (on an early start morning too), and I decided quickly it was a winter dress, and too short to wear in the spring now I've given up on tights for the season. I grabbed a skirt off the clean laundry pile and was pulling it on at the same time I was pulling off the dress, but then realised that actually, the dress worked well with the skirt as a top. The green cardigan had been given to me a couple of days before and also easily accessible, and after that, choosing shoes to match was an easy choice! 

I was really happy with this outfit because it gave me some new inspiration and a way to wear some of my shorter Black Milk dresses in the summer. I also wore some of my new Ariel jewellery, bought from Hot Topic while I was in the US. I felt like it was a nice pairing - bowerbirds are collectors and Ariel's kind of the bowerbird of the sea! 

 

Outfit details
Top (actually a dress): Black Milk Bowerbirds white play dress

Skirt: Seams Nostalgic (custom made) 

Bow and Necklace: Hot Topic
Shoes: Crocs

 

Winter pinup

This is my wardrobe.

Yep, I’ve got a few clothes (that's not even all of them).

I live in Queensland, which means that 90% of what’s in my wardrobe is more suited to summer. With the exception of maybe four long sleeve dresses.

We have about… a month of cold weather, if that, every year. Which means I manage to get by with cardigans over dresses, stockings or tights underneath and when it’s really cold (this week it’s been properly cold for Queensland), I wear a plain black long sleeve shirt under my dresses (usually hidden by the cardigan). My normal, everyday work outfits range between a sort of toned-down version of pinup me, or more conservative vintage girl.

Today’s outfit is my case in point:

But last week, I headed down to Tasmania to visit my family. For those of you not Down Under, Tasmania is cold. It’s very cold.

My other dilemma is I went for five days and decided to only take carry-on luggage. This means I need to plan my outfits very carefully around one pair of shoes, one coat, and as little outerwear (scarf, hat) as possible.

When I was planning my outfits, there was a temptation to spend the whole week in leggings. But as much as I love all my Black Milk leggings, I don’t have a hell of a lot to go with them for the colder weather (I have a lot of cute t-shirts and cardies that I pair with them, but when it comes to layering…).

So I tempered my packing with two pairs of legs (navy matte and my favourite yellow tartan), and then I went for layers. I tried everything on beforehand to make sure they'd go with my Docs (but what doesn't go with Docs, really?) and set them out on my bed in outfits so I could be sure I had enough stockings, singlets and socks to go with each and then rolled them into my case. I picked dresses with thick, flared material. Even though I only folded my dresses in half at the very top of my case, there was still a good chance they'd get crumpled, so by picking the thicker material, it meant they could crumple a bit without me needing to iron at the other end.

Here's what I wore:

You can't see it in this picture, but I wore a nice warm wool skirt from Retrospect'd with a long sleeve black shirt, my Collectif cardigan, stockings and boots on my first full day in Tassie. Here, I'm dressed to go out for lunch on what was a cold, windy, wet day and have my grey pea-coat, red scarf and red hat on to brave the cold!

I've had a kind of love/hate relationship with this gingham Jenny dress from Pinup Girl Clothing since I picked it up. On the one hand, I'm super in love with the pattern, especially since it's a big gingham, as opposed to many of my other gingham dresses. But it's a perfect dress for travelling because it's a heavy, gathered fabric that doesn't really crease in a suitcase. I wore it with black stockings, my Docs and my Collectif Clothing black swallow cardigan. When I was outside, I had my grey pea-coat over the top and a scarf.

I have never had anything but love for this Bernie Dexter Osterly dress in Winter Wonderland print. I know it's a very Christmassy print, but it's technically Christmas in July time here! Again, I wore it with black tights and Docs (and a coat outside), but this time I wore a black undershirt for extra warmth and a purple jumper over the top.

The conclusion is that layering worked and I was happily very warm and comfortable the whole time and still looked retro. I got a few funny looks walking down the street in my lovely Bernie Dexter dress but when I went to visit Ms Katt, she said it happens a lot in Hobart!