Early Christmas Shopping

Imagine if all your festive season presents were delivered straight to your door. And with plenty of time to wrap, and decide exactly what you really want to give away.

Although I do like visiting vintage stores to make those special purchases, some online options make it so easy to chose.

So I was pleased to have my interest piqued when I received the WKD email advising they waived shipping costs until Monday 26 November [UK time]. Now for all we lovely people outside that isle, especially for those readers planning to place a larger order, this becomes quite an attractive offer.

I purchased a lovely compilation of the most beautiful stockings and tights. I know a few people who would be very happy to unwrap some of these decadently beautiful items, so I chose two different pairs for them each. Luxury lingerie at such a reasonable price [even for university students, like myself] and without postage seems like a logically festive choice.

I purchased two pairs for myself, so all I need now is to find a dress in my wardrobe to complement them!

Have a peek!

xx

Leaving 5000 Leavening

My Dear Followers,

My regular visitors, my new friends, and those who just come by from time to time, I would like to thank you. How pleased I am to see that I have had so many. Today: Hallowe'en; the Day of the Dead; Samhain; what or whether you celebrate or not, today is the day I crossed that liminal line and had my 5000th page visit.

I am so thankful to you for bringing me this far. My little blog with all the things I love. And you have been so kind to come visit and share them.

This day of crossing across. This day of revisiting and visitations. Tricks, treats. Liminality, the midpoint between equinox and solstice. Whatever we believe, we are beholden by nature. Strange that this celebration of liminality is common with cultures who had never known each other.

This Celtic New Year, that begins today. All Saints' Day. All Souls' Day. The link and the loves that lie between purgatory and heaven. Divination. We all seek the same thing. Love lost and returned.

I find you here. But you are there, on the other side. My night. Your day. 

I love you nonetheless. 

Come sit beside me. I have set a place for you.

xx

Seamed Stockings

You will have to be quick!

What Katie Did is having an overnight sale on their seamed stockings, and everything is reduced.

Slink in here to purchase the most beautiful stockings at reasonable prices.

For you, for the one you love, and maybe even for something a little festive!


xx

Ruby

For those who were interested, Ruby warmly welcomes you, and your comments.

Honesty, and the Beautiful Reappraisal of Truth

The seeds of ideals are embedded in our formative minds from such an early age. They can be things we aspire to. Things we long for. Things we assure ourselves are right.

But like faded covers on favourite books, they often belie the vivid and complex truths that compose intricate stories.

Today I had, through the most exquisite presentation of honesty, a reappraisal of those ideals to identify a truth that is so much more applicable than I could have ever expected.

Although ideals may serve as models or aspirations, they do not often manifest effectively in reality.

But honesty, the kindest intentions, and the intrinsic love and respect of ourselves and those we care for, can reveal the most beautiful truths which can be much more significant and relevant.

I am so thankful I can share it with those people who mean the very most to me.

xx

Chevy '57

A while ago I was driving by a garage that specialises in restoring old cars, and saw this lovely girl.

.

I shot these on my film camera, which seems to make the colour so saturated and divine.

What a gorgeous cruiser she is.

xx

I Love Your Attention to Beauty

There are some things a girl wishes for, but thinks they only exist as a peculiar whim. One of those, as I have mentioned in a previous post, is for her admirer to exhibit a fine eye for her attention to detail.

As this 1957 Chevrolet advertisement says:

Close inspection marks the merit of a man!

 

As you know, dear readers, a little motor vehicle aesthetic is quite rewarding!

 

I love how you notice the beauty in so many things.

 

xx

Fireflies in Fitzroy Gardens

Sometimes expectations change rapidly, and perspectives are re-aligned.

In this past year I have had to relinquish what I had deemed the most vital friendships, as they became the most volatile.

Recently, I met a felicitous young man. He left gifts in my inbox with  delightful and extraordinary content. And in one small evening he strung fairy lights across the rooftop, made concentric circles in clear oriental ambrosia ring around me, and opened up the world I knew to show beauty which had always seemed elusive.

Then he did something beautiful and delicate, something perfect that a girl had dreamed of and never thought would be realised.

He taught me how to find grace in cutting strings, and staying true to intrinsic intentions.

A girl could not wish for anything more.

But she does.

Thank you, my dear.

xx

Lingerie and the Woman You Love

As a part of my Honours coursework, my studies assess the effect of subcultures within society. This required a presentation on the particular subculture, and its interrelation with its immediate community.

It is a difficult subject, as there is often little available research on the particular subcultures, and time constraints prohibited the ethics clearance required for interviews which would have enhanced the anthropological aspects of the study.

I am sure many of you would not be surprised that my topic encompassed lingerie, femininity, and feminine agency. The study contrasted the effects of feminism, arguing that its embracing of masculine ideals as models for empowerment effectively devalued women's inherent value propositions, which centre predominantly around femininity and intrinsic female roles. 

Before anyone starts tossing quotes from Greer or Friedan from left of stage, the paper did not refute the important benefits of feminism, nor did it espouse pre-feminism. Instead it valorised the feminine not in response to masculine hegemonic predilections, but as a complimentary proposition to wrest balance between the sexes, and to re-appropriate the feminine ideal.

A presentation on such a subject would require a woman to be appropriately attired. As you know from this weblog of mine, this particular woman dresses in two distinct stages: from her underwear to her outerwear. There were some lovely new items of apparel I was keen to appropriate for my presentation, and a very lovely surprise which I am sure many of you would appreciate, and which I would like to share with you here.

Before we dispense with the formalities, I am pleased to concede that the presentation went extremely well and garnered considerable attention, even without me revealing [exactly] what I was concealing. There were certainly some raised eyebrows at the hints to my undergarments.

First, my ensemble in its entirety:

There is my beautiful cardi, my full petticoat and gorgeous What Katie Did stockings, suspenders, bullet bra and Morticia corset. But you clever readers have spied something else, haven't you ...

What an eye for detail you have! But first you must admire the detail of the beauty here:

and here:

How can a girl resist such divine luxury from her heel to her garter strap?

You can't wait, can you? Yes, you are quite right, it is she ... and it is her original autograph. 

You don't believe me do you?

It is true. I have it here.

Dita von Teese's autographed card. Just for me!

Let me know if you are more interested in my final paper*, than my outer- and under-garments, and I shall send you a copy ... 

... but I know you: Wicked!

xx

* on lingerie, femininity, and feminine agency  - in case you forgot! (pettichrome@gmail.com)

Manhattan

http://www.newyorkpalace.com/experiencenyc/culture.php

Sometimes a girl has to wait a long time for what she wants.

I have dreamt of returning to Manhattan, quite literally. I shall visit the Flatiron, of course, and no-one shall hold me back from those gorgeous Art Deco pieces of architecture-divine that are the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings.

It seems the city for me, in so many ways. A most favourite poet, Jordie Albiston, wrote The Fall which was based on a 1940s photograph of a young woman who married death to life from the top of the Empire State. I cannot do it justice here. You must seek it out; with the photograph.

I could wrap myself in Manhattan, quite literally. If I could afford it. You know I am referring to the stockings which you have seen here.

But I shall have to wait. They are extraordinarily expensive, because they are as precious as bespoke lingerie.

They are made on machines that weigh 6 tonnes each, and are 17 metres long. They have 16,800 needles which produce only 30 stockings (or 15 pairs) an hour. Then they are hand sewn from top to toe, and dyed to some of the beautiful colours you saw on my previous post.

One day I shall have my very own pair in bitter chocolate.

Until then I shall have to enjoy it vicariously.

xx

Bass Guitars and Beauty

I had been ill for a long time. I was bedridden and had not eaten for a about a week.

My favourite musicians were playing at a cosy venue. I put on the beautiful blue dress I had sewn myself, it is dark blue shot with tiny ultramarine flowers, my first petticoat, and let my hair out around my shoulders.

It was a magnificent evening. They played every song I loved. And then something unexpected happened. The bassist knelt down in front of me and played a whole song, telling me things I could not hear over the tenor of his guitar. And then, at the encore, he took an armful of flowers which garlanded the stage, and showered them all over me.

Sometimes beautiful things happen.