Shimmering and Shivering

It finally got cold here this weekend, which was a truly strange sensation. We even got a real downpour of a rainstorm on Sunday, which made me feel right at home. Getting an extra hour of sleep, lazily sipping coffee and reading the paper while bundled up in a giant robe: that is the Sunday for me! I tell you all of this so you will understand when I tell you how deeply inappropriate this outfit was for the weather! I had planned it out a few weeks ago, and I wasn’t going to be foiled by the cold!

We didn’t venture too far away to do this shoot, which was good, because these shoes, as much as I love them, are new, and I haven’t quite broken them in yet. (By new I mean new to me: they are also from my thrift store bonanza!) But they are really fun to wear, and they illustrate for me what my life would be like if I were 4 inches taller. Kind of wobbly, so far!

This silver dress is one of the first dresses I made for myself. I was lucky enough to stumble upon this gorgeous silk for $2 a yard in Oakland (I know, my jaw was on the floor too!), and I am very fond of its shininess and simple shape. I was very proud of myself for getting the hem straight, and I liked the way the neckline produced these tiny little puckers. I actually wore this dress to my graduation this spring. On the way to the auditorium, I ran into my dissertation chair, and she took one look at me and said, “Magnificent!” And that was pretty awesome. And then I told her that I’d made the dress myself, and then her facial expression was even more awesome. A very happy memory!

Since it was obviously too cold to wear the dress alone (it is sleeveless), I put this teal sweater on over it. The crazy thing is that I bought this same sweater with short sleeves years ago from Crossroads, and then I found this long-sleeved one at a clothing swap party last spring. I feel like I have secret sweater symmetry!

This bright orange necklace is very special to me: it was a gift from the stage manager of the Bolshoi Ballet. Two summers ago I worked with the Bolshoi as an interpreter in Berkeley. Every day was a 12-14 hour adventure, and my Russian stage lexicon skyrocketed. I was so deeply exhausted by the end of it, but I met so many wonderful people. I had a lot of fun with their crew, and received so many invitations to Moscow that I couldn’t keep them straight! At the end of the stage run, the stage manager, who also dances in some of the ballets, gave me this necklace and a lovely signed postcard of her dancing in Don Quixote. For doing a job as stressful as that one, she was unbelievably kind and good-humored. And also, she had the most amazing style. She would wear a bright pink skirt with a bright purple sweater and a huge blue necklace, topped off with crazy high green heels. It’s totally the way I would dress if I but had every item of clothing in every color of the rainbow. So this necklace makes me think of her, and aspire to her incredible color-blocking ways!

And so, this is what I wore, while shivering out on the balcony. Not bad for early November! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend (and extra hour of sleep!) as well!