Welcome Back!

by

Welcome back, Directorate! Where have you been?

What’s that?

It is I, your Directrice, who has been missing?

Fair. That’s fair.

I’ve been very busy. Some day I’ll tell you all about it.

Let it never be said that the Directrice is not willing to hear, and be persuaded by, opposing points of view

To make up for my unexplained six month absence, I am going to include two outfits in this post, although one of them is a late winter ensemble that was photographed in February (timely for my Antipodean readers) and the other is a dress (which as we have discussed on many occasions isn’t really an outfit at all).

We’ll start with the dress.

Aforementioned Dress, which I have altered, making it worthy of some discussion

You can add your own Mogambo and Out of Africa references here

It’s another khaki dress.

The Directrice! She has a type.

I scooped this dress up in the year-end 3.1 Phillip Lim sale and because it is a little hard to wear I feel confident you could find it now, even more steeply discounted, somewhere on the Internet.

The dress is hard to wear because the fabric is very stiff. But it’s so charming, all the same.  Importantly, the stiffness only makes it unflattering, not uncomfortable.

This dress is constructed as a top attached to a skirt, which made one key alteration simple. It was too long in the waist for me. But that was an easy fix  . . . for a professional seamstress.

I love this not-quite-flattering dress
I must confess, I started to take the dress apart m’self and then stopped, remembering Fatima’s many cautions

I made one other change. The dress, as conceived by the designer, featured dropped sleeves. I must have tried it on a dozen times to examine them and could not decide if they were advanced or sloppy.

I settled on sloppy after the other alterations were complete (shortening the waist, closing pockets that added bulk) and so pinned them myself. I actually like the way they look.

#directricesoclever

The finishing touch: a Climbing Man brooch.

It occurred to me last fall that a Climbing Man in another color (turquoise/robin’s egg blue) would be very useful.

I sent some Benjamin Moore colors to Sienna Patti and she sent them to David Chatt  — et voila!

I realize that “useful” might not resonate outside the Directorate — but you understand, don’t you?

Because the dress didn’t involve a particular exercise of ingenuity — maybe a 3 on a scale of 10 for figuring out the alterations — I am providing bonus content that I am going to rate a 10.

Behold a boiled wool top — reshaped and embellished. By me, with my own hands.

Let the beholding begin now

This boiled wool is super-soft;  it feels like I imagine a woolly sheep would feel after a nice bubble bath

I found this Isabel Marant boiled wool top on The RealReal and loved the general idea of a cozy, oversized ivory top with black buttons.

The shape however, was odd — blouson through the bust and ribcage, then fitted with tight darting and a zipper at the waist.  Creating the shape of a . . . weightlifter?  Non, non.

Armed with my stitch-remover, I undid the darts.

And I simply unzipped the zipper, creating a vent, below the waist. I planned to leave the vent as-is (as-was) and layer the boiled wool top over a pink or ivory tank — but the layers were too bulky.  Yet, the idea of a fancy fabric extruding had taken root and I couldn’t let it go.

The stitch remover is always nearby

Undulating pleats are a small detail to delight the eagle-eyed when I am sitting, standing, and walking naturally

I held that thought for at least 30 minutes during which I had found and ordered a yard of the most exquisite bridal fabric — a pleated silk organza — from Bridal Fabrics in Darwen, Lancashire, England.

The pleats are formed in beautiful waves.

The fabric, sadly, went missing between there and here — seemingly lost in or around customs — but Bridal Fabrics very nicely filled the order a second time.

I was so excited when the fabric finally arrived (and also worried that winter would end before I could wear this top) that I sewed this inset  myself.  I did a terrible job — but you can’t tell, can you?

Sewn by m’self

I am realizing, as I hold this bag up for your inspection, that you aren’t seeing it with the outfit and therefore not feeling the full impact.

After admiring Marni Trunk bags for many years, I bought one that appeared on The RealReal. Hear me now and believe me later, this bag is so versatile.

It goes with everything, if khaki is your type.

I’ve stopped coveting other people’s Trunk bags (good!) and am now loving my own (bad!); as I say to The Photographer when buying something costly, “One should not stake one’s happiness on material possessions”

A few final notes:

Ten years into this blog, I still think this is one of my funniest posts.

JCrew has a lot of great sundresses and summer dresses this year.

As anticipated, Anthropologie has brought back the excellent Colette pants. I fear my tip is late in coming; some colors/fabrics are already sold out.

19 thoughts on “Welcome Back!”

  14. So glad you’re back. Lucky for me that I looked through my junk folder today.
    I’ve been on a style and sewing journey the past 2 years and your looks give me a lot of inspiration. I love the combination of classic and fun.

    Reply

  15. So glad you are back! Have checked in periodically, as I have worried about so many DC-based/DC-oriented folks through the Current Unpleasantness.

    Reply

Leave a Comment