Dress: Igigi
Belt: Glassons
Tight: Marks & Spencer
Shoes: Miz Mooz
I work really hard at being socially adept. I’m a bit of an introvert, and I can come off as stand-offish, cold, or a bit of a snob unless I’m paying attention to how I interact with people. And I’m really not! I’m reserved (and surprisingly shy for someone who’s puts so much of herself onto the internet), but I’m very loving and gregarious when you get to know me, and even a bit cheeky and irreverent when you get to know me well.
Sometimes it can get a bit tiring, having to always work at “fitting in”, especially when I’m around people who aren’t necessarily sitting on my wavelength.
Since moving to Fitzroy, I’ve found myself having to work a bit harder to pass myself off as normal. The bulk of the people living in this suburb seem effortlessly cool; sipping latte’s in tiny coffee shops while interesting dogs stand guard over their fixed-gear bicycles (My brother jokes that every shop in the main drag – regardless of what they actually sell – has a bike in the window).
And while The Sophisticate – black-rimmed-glasses-wearing, apple-product-buying, film-industry-working gent that he is – mocks me for being a “hipster” along with the best of the Fitzroy-ites (Fitzrovians?), I know I’m actually just faking it.
Today’s outfit helps. It’s a kind of social camouflage, and it makes me feel a bit less like I’m being silently judged when I order my coffee in the tiny local cafe on the corner.
I’m wearing the batwing dress from Igigi that was sent to me at the beginning of Summer last year. It’s finally cooling down enough to wear it regularly. Which I totally am. Today I swapped out the kimono-style wide belt for my own slimmer brown belt. I think I actually prefer it this way – It’s not quite as shapely, but I don’t feel like my boobs are so prominently presented.
I’m also wearing a bead necklace that I made myself, after seeing a similar one on Etsy for $40, and deciding it would be a quick and easy project to DIY. It was. Did you guys want a tutorial?
Necklace: DIY
I was thrilled to find a decent bead supply shop walking distance from home (Fitzroy. They like to craft here.) and the supplies for this came to about $7, which is hard to complain about.
My true “hipster” camouflage is my messy top-knot and vintage cats-eye glasses.
I always feel equal parts smug and embarrassed when people ask where I found my spectacles and I get to tell them I bought them at a second-hand dress shop in Kansas City, and yes, they’re really vintage.
I’m also feeling Pretty Damn Pleased that I managed to find some ankle boots in New York that don’t make my curvy calves look like fence posts.
Boots: Miz Mooz
I’d pretty much given up on trying to find ankle boots that flattered my legs, but I got caught short in ballet flats during a rainstorm when I was in New York, and my feet were so cold and wet that I kind of gravitated towards the boots, and spotted these.
They’re fantastically comfortable, with a solid wedge heel and a little secret platform that makes the heels look much higher than they really are. I trekked Manhattan in them pretty much non-stop for the next few days, and they’ve rapidly become one of my favourite pair of shoes. I think the dipped ankle stops the boots from cutting my legs off short, so I know what style to look out for in the future.
Just quickly to finish up, I’ve been invited to offer one lucky reader the opportunity to take her Mum to a special Mother’s Day High Tea hosted by Bursaria at The Abbotsford Convent.
I do love a spot of high tea, and this sounds just divine with its vintage theme. Plus Mum’s are awesome and well worth spoiling, so if you’re in Melbourne and you would like to go into the draw to win a double pass to treat your Mum leave me a comment telling me what item from your Mum’s wardrobe reminds you of her the most.
For me it was – and she’ll kill me for telling you this – a navy blue corduroy dressing gown to which she had pinned a little bell. As far back as I can remember she cuddled me in that dressing-gown, and I was secretly heartbroken when she told me recently that she’d thrown it out. Apparently she kept the bell though.
I’d love a tutorial! The necklace is gorgeous 🙂
Would love to see a tutorial. I would also love to win this. I adore high tea and what better way to spoil myself on mothers day!
The item in my mums closet that reminds me of her the most, is not actually in her closet (does that make sense? probably not…but I am off in the land of sleeping pills and pain killers….), it’s a bra. Now my mum WAS a busty gal as myself *until she dieted repeatedly and breastfed four kids)…but she HATED wearing a bra. The problem is now with….sagging….is that she tends to wear clothes where you can tell where her boobs are….and that is hanging down around her navel. I have bought her many a bra over the years (including a gorgeous set of silk bra & panties from the Colette Dinigan collection from target) but she prefers to let those babies hang. Hey, more power to her I say. (well not really…I say “For F**cks sake mum, put on a god damn bra!” but I am her daughter…I’m allowed).
this is going to sound rather stalkerish and I dont mean it to but.. I saw you about a year ago at melbourne central and didnt say hello because I am also socially adept and shy!! so I dont think you should worry about it at all because most people feel the same.
this dress is just ahohah! 😀 you look terrific! 🙂
Oh I’d love to take my mum to high tea. I’ve been away from home for so long & am back for a visit at the moment, loving spending time with mum.
The item in mum’s wardrobe that reminds me of her is a beautiful grey winter coat that she would (occaisionally) let me borrow. Whenever I put it on I smelled the faint trace of her perfume & I felt like she was giving me a hug the whole time I wore it.
Hi awkward hipster socially inapt friend, I’m looking at myself on the mirror then 🙂
I’d love to see a tutorial!
When I was in NY I bought a pair of Miz Mooz sandals, very cheap when compared to Europe, and they’re the most comfortable shoes my feet could scream for.
Love this look on you! The dress and belt are perfect, and your messy topknot, fringe, and glasses are a brilliant match, hipsters or no hipsters 🙂 Also, fab ankle boots. I decided last year that I wanted a pair and have never looked back. They’re perfect for dodgy weather and the days when you just don’t know what shoes to put on. Health to wear them!
Dear Lilli-Frocks,
Please, please, do not try to blend in with hipsters! We love you as you are; you inspire us, in every post, to wear what we love, and not what other people expect us to wear (because they are wearing it also, and they cannot face their own decisions, or bear to be alone).
Your blog is a delight- I don’t even recall how I found it, but it inspired me to (finally) begin a little blog of my own. That’s how sincere my flattering imitation is: Hipsters, and people who ‘blend in’ do not inspire.
I humbly offer you my own blog: http://www.wayofthedodo.org.
Kind regards, and thanks for all your images, ideas and inspirations,
-Marcia.
You look lovley and still like yourself. The hairstyle suits you like the sideknot does. I could never imagine you as not fitting in, but do have the same problem in groups (and I am still painfully shy, working on not being invisible or cold and then being called to stiff)
When I remember my mother I do not think about cloth, but how she did put curler in her short nearly black hair every saturday and sits below a big standup blow-dryer. I smell the fixing spray, too. 🙂
I just received my first Igigi dress, the saphirra, it’s stunning but too loose, I need to have it taken in. I’m not a plus-size, but I wear a canadian 12 so I thought maybe their smallest size would fit – I wish they went down to a 10!
You look lovely as always!!
I am a total Miz Mooz convert- hands down the most comfortable and stylish range around.
Love the outfit & suffering hair envy as always.
Also just think of it as hipsters like to think they’re different to everyone else so you’re just outhipstering the hipsters if you feel different to them. In your face Fitzroy hipsters!
My mum rarely parts with or discards any item of clothing. Her rationale is that ‘it all comes back in fashion anyway’. She has a shirt in a sheer fabric – black with beautiful flowers in various shades of pink, from the palest to the most shocking -with slight bell shaped sleeves that she has had since she was in her 20s. It is stunning, and she still wears it to this day (and she being proud to admit to being in her 60s!). My mum is timeless, just like her shirt.
On another note, I LOVE this dress on you. We are having our son baptised today, and this dress would have been perfect for me for this event too!
Mine was also a dressing gown.
Mum’s was long and purple with a wraparound silhouette. It has a white flower on it.
It smelt like hairspray and ponds cream and I loved it.
I have my own dressing gown that I cuddle my little daughter in and just a few days ago said it smelt like flowers. I love this tradition and will make sure she can always find my dressing gown to cuddle long after I have gone.
My mum had a fleeze jumper that rode all the way to her neck in the dear 1980’s…but the jumper had amazing miniature coloured lipsticks printed all over it. In the middle of the jumper was a Cindarella-esque hand mirror with sparkling diamonds printed all around it. My mum would wear this jumper when she was mowing the front lawn with her massive bon jovi teased hair! If you can imagine a less than 5 foot Filipina woman in this jumper handling a massive mower, im sure you’ll get why i remember this so clearly.
Fleece!
Mizz mooz have great shoes- def better buying in the US though! There is a shop in Brunswick St fitzroy that stocks them! They have such cute shoes! Those boots looks gorgeous with the cute spotty tights!
Hipsters scare me while amusing me at the same time with their insistence they’re all unique and individual while they all look/act/talk/eat the same!
The dress looks gorgeous and I love the pop of yellow!
Dr Seuss once said “be who you are and say what you feel, because the people who mind don’t matter and the people who matter don’t mind”.
You be you, grrrrl.
My mum always loved spangly Indian style clothing. When I see a beaded tunic or long colourful skirt in the shops, I think of her.
I love the necklace! Very gorgeous!
The thing that reminds me most of my mum in her wardrobe is her purple scarf. My mum collects scarves (and by the sheer quantity, you’d probably expect for a living ). The scarf and I have a special bond, when she lent it to me when I accidentally left my scarf in my Grandmother’s house while taking a trip to Europe. With the freezing Belgium still on the Agenda, it helped cut through the icy winds. It also happens to be her favourite colour, and the colour of her beautiful velvet wedding dress. It reminds me, when I wear it since, of the time that she lent it to me and her natural sense of generosity and kindness and never fails to keep me that extra bit warm in cold weather.
I’m popping in to say I love this look and I secretly love hipsters! 😉
The item that reminds me of my mum most is a gorgeous, dangly necklace covered in charms that I ‘handed-up’ to her. Actually, she just happened to borrow it one day and I never got it back…
It is now known in my WHOLE family as ‘old faithful’ because she wears it with every. single. outfit.
I’m glad she loves it so much but I did get her a new necklace for Christmas so she’d have a bit of variety in her accessory wardrobe! She is too cute x
This is a cute look, and you still look like yourself! That is the most important. I too “pretend” to be a socially adept person. At work especially, it is my job to be friendly and outgoing, but in my “real life” I am far quieter and more apprehensive about speaking to people. I am usually the “quiet” one, until I start to get to know people well-but of course that is difficult to do when I am nervous about speaking to someone!
Hey Lilli
You’ve got a successful blog, you are writing for The Guardian and your off to NY for fashion week. You’re the last person who should feel like you don’t quite fit in or you’re not quite cool enough.
You rock and don’t let anyone make you feel otherwise.
Michelle
I live in Kansas City! We do have some marvelousness here. What second hand store??? Also, you are my new favorite blogger of all time. 🙂