Goorin Bros - The Seventh Sphinx

Style ain’t nothing but keeping the same idea from beginning to end. Everybody got it.

–August Wilson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

I got a new hat, a snazzy little blunt-brimmed straw fedora in bright ivory. Arguably out of place anywhere but summer.

You gotta get. that. dirt off your shoulder…

Some light, easy fare for the last days of summer. Old Navy top, Hollister cut-offs (thrifted, cut off myself, as is invariably best – don’t want them to look too neat or precise), Victoria’s Secret python bikini top, Superga sneakers, Goorin Bros. Marin fedora, Fossil watch, antique scarab pendant, Pearls of Joy 6-7mm studs. On the lips: OCC lip tar in Banjee.

This is my rather dull balcony. There’s a fair amount of hat holding because there was a real danger of having it blown off. Plus, it looks saucy.

If you can’t do gangster poses with a fedora, when can you?

Resolved to play more with black and white. Got the excellent advice to include some pure black or white (or both) in the composition to maximize the range of contrast. Have a bit of a thing for sepia, too.

This lip color is a straight, marigold orange (swatched here in my ode to orange). I was skeptical to use it alone–thought it would look too editorial/bizarre–but after messing around a bit, adding a little gold powder to the center, I really liked it. Not as distracting/weird as you would think bright orange creamsicle lips would be, right? [Or maybe I got desensitized over time…] Fruits of experimentation.

It is probable that the juxtaposition of the excessively serious and excessively frivolous, which is the basis for the rhetoric of Fashion, merely reproduces, on the level of clothing, the mythic situation of Women in Western civilization, at once sublime and childlike.

–Roland Barthes, The Fashion System

I spend a lot of time determining what to acquire. A lot, a lot. I take acquisition quite seriously, or rather am able, when in the mood, to shift into a very serious stance about it, so my choices are at once outside, peripheral to what is necessary and deserving of considerable time and attention.

I think it’s always interesting, how people spend their money.

Here are some current highlights.

[vendor images]

If you’re in the market for a hat, the Goorin summer sale is a good place to start. I picked up a short brimmed straw panama, the Marin. [Wearing it here!]

I find hats difficult to wear, usually, but I love them anyway. They radiate attitude. They often for me can fall into or at least approach falling into the category of too much, which is exactly what I like about them.

On a slightly related note, inspired by the price and the pattern, I picked up this utterly charming and unnecessary paper parasol mentioned in a recent xojane post. A childlike selection.

A parasol is a pleasantly eccentric accessory, but a practical one, too. As a prop, for about $15, I couldn’t resist it. At 32″ in diameter, it’s not small.

Made curious by boisdejasmine‘s post about ways to use orange blossom water, I picked some up to play with.

Another comfortable underthing option for the flat chested, the Cheap Monday triangle microfiber bra (via asos). This looks less like a bra and more like a basic bikini top or abbreviated camisole. Great for wearing under loose tank tops as it doesn’t look especially bra-like, i.e. like it shouldn’t be visible. Great for tee shirts, too.

And one truly practical item, a light cargo jacket by add (via YOOX). This is a wonderfully light (ideal early autumn weight) and thin parachute-like material. Loving the symmetrical pockets that make it at once slouchy and structured. I got this quite a while ago, actually, but only recently is it approaching the weather for it.

Have also been finding some great dresses, on which will have to do a separate post.

Tag: Goorin Bros

the straw fedora

this month in shopping i