Silver Cat Tea Party

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Outfit of the Day: Back in Black

I noticed I've been wearing a lot of black lately

It hasn't at all been intentional. Maybe it's the cold dreary days that have been influencing my outfit choices. Maybe subconsciously I've been picking out dresses to take refuge in, like going into a dark cave for the winter months like bears do.

In any case, here are three more Outfit of the Days that I've worn recently. One, the weekend before last last weekend going out to the movies, another out to see the ballet that same weekend, and another from last last week, out celebrating my husband and I's five year wedding anniversary.

Outfit of the Day (couple of weekends ago Saturday):

On this day I felt that my Trashy Diva Honey Ruffle dress in 5th Ave Floral was calling to me. It has a really fancy contrast pink top (see it from this past OOTD post here) so I decided to try and make it a bit more casual by wearing this with a black cardigan buttoned up which I got several years ago from a shop in Australia. For a finishing touch I paired this with an Erstwilder bow brooch which I believe I bought a couple months ago from Cats Like Us, and is my usual, also wore this with a pair of black flats.

Trashy Diva Honey Ruffle dress in 5th Ave Floral- Front View

Trashy Diva Honey Ruffle dress in 5th Ave Floral- Side View

Erstwilder bow brooch- Close Up

Outfit of the Day (that same weekend Sunday):

The next day on Sunday I went out with some friends to see The San Francisco Ballet perform Frankenstein! It was the North American premier of the show and an amazing performance. For the event I wanted to wear a special dress. I decided to wear my Trashy Diva Katherine dress in Peacock. The peacock design on this dress is actually embroidered all around the dress. It is quite stunning in person and was one of two very first Trashy Diva dresses I ever bought. Going to SF I knew to layer up. I paired this with a black cardigan, which I got several years ago from a shop in Australia, and a black coat by LUX which I took from my sister's closet several years ago. She got it several years ago from Nordstrom. For added warmth I also wore a pair of nude back seam tights, for comfort I wore a pair of black flats, and for a finishing touch, I wore a pair of black sparkly bow stud earrings which I got from a local vintage repro shop, Vintage Alley.

Trashy Diva Katherine dress in Peacock- Front View

Trashy Diva Katherine dress in Peacock- Side View

Trashy Diva Katherine dress in Peacock- Front View

Trashy Diva Katherine dress in Peacock- Side View

Black bow earrings- Close Up

Outfit of the Day (last last Friday):

On Friday a few weeks ago my husband and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary! We went out to celebrate at my favorite local fancy French restaurant, Le Papillon. For the occasion I decided to wear a dress that made me feel beautiful and fancy yet was comfortable, my Trashy Diva 1940's Flutter dress in Cherries. I paired this with my black cardigan and for a change wore this with a pair of B.A.I.T. Ione heels in black and cream which I got from Pinup Girl Clothing a couple years ago. For a finishing touch, I put some small hair flowers (from Forever 21 from several years ago) in my hair and also wore a pair of 1920's style dangle earrings by 1928 which I got from Macy's several years ago.

Trashy Diva 1940's Flutter dress in Cherries- Front View

Trashy Diva 1940's Flutter dress in Cherries- Side View

Trashy Diva 1940's Flutter dress in Cherries- Front View

Trashy Diva 1940's Flutter dress in Cherries- Side View

1928 Earrings and hair flower- Close Up

Bonus pics!

Just a few pics from the Ballet

And one from our Anniversary dinner

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Dress Review: Dog Days of Summer

While the winter is slowly but surely making its way out I am enthusiastically waiting for the warm weather to hit!

Seeing the new Spring collections rolling out by Trashy Diva makes me all the more excited and impatient to finally get to wear dresses again without tights and overcoats! Bring out the light and airy prints as the sun shines down on my skin <3

The Dogwood print is the first new Spring print by Trashy Diva to hit the site. It features an overall bright turquoise blue reminiscent to me of a clear tropical beach or as Trashy Diva has described it on their website, the color of a bright spring sky. While my eye is really drawn to the bright tropical sea colored turquoise blue of the body, this print is all southern charm. It was created as a love letter to Atlanta perhaps in celebration of Trashy Diva's new store launch which just occurred there a few months ago. It features a southern inspired all over print of dainty dogwood blooms in white with accents of dark green, light yellow green, shades of grey to add depth and rendering to the blooms and a smattering of dark burgundy. It is an incredibly feminine and dainty print which I think is just so pretty and charming.

I opted to get this print in the separates, the 1940's skirt, the Lena blouse, and for fun the Alexa tie top, imagining all the different ways I can wear it and all the different things I can pair with it. I am looking forward to wearing this all together as a set making it look like not just one dress but two completely different dresses when worn with the Alexa tie top. I'm super excited as well to wear the pieces separately... the 1940's skirt paired with a white Trixie top, or perhaps even the Citron green trixie top they came out with several months back. For so many other combinations of completely different outfits I also am looking forward to wearing the Lena blouse or Alexa tie top paired with a seersucker or chambray skirt or even shorts! That's 6 different combinations just right there. What I love about separates is that there really is no end to the different looks you can put together with them!

Let's get back to the pieces themselves though. The 1940's skirt in this print is a bit different from other 1940's skirts I've seen released by Trashy Diva. This skirt features a wide waist band which is wider in the front and tapers down a bit as it goes towards the back. I'm not sure if it's because of this different band style, but I ended up having to size down from my usual size up in skirt and get my usual dress size in this skirt. Not sure if that line makes sense... but usually in skirts most ladies will have to size up. I usually have to size up. But for this skirt the size up was way huge on me and I ended up exchanging this for a size down from what I usually order in skirt. This a-line skirt has two pockets and is gathered at the waist. For some reason both skirts I received from Trashy Diva seemed to have more gathers at the sides then in the front which I feel makes the drape a little funny in the front. Even with steaming, it still has this funny kind of drape where the folds seem stronger in the front and not as equally distributed as is usual with their 1940's skirts.

I also got the Lena blouse as a perfect accompaniment to this skirt. It features a pleated bust with a structured underbust to accentuate curves. It has stretchy ruched side panels for easy wear which helps ensure a great fit. Also helping with the fit, this top has adjustable straps which can be buttoned at three different settings to make shorter or longer in the straps as needed. I got this top in my usual size.

And because I love the idea of making a dress look like a completely different dress with the addition of a tie top, I also got the Alexa tie top in this print. Like Trashy Diva's previous Carol tie tops, this top ties in the front and has an overall similar construction. However, unlike the Carol tie top, this top features petal sleeves which features fabric that layers over each other at the shoulders rather than the usual gather puff sleeves that the tie tops had before. This unique structure is supposed to help with movement of the arms and allows for full arm range movement. I've always felt that my tie tops fit a little blousier than I like so for this one I ordered it in a size down from my usual size which I feel gives me a better fit. I don't think this size advice would be able to be applied across the board to ladies though. I have heard that with the tie tops some ladies have had to size up. I think it all depends on body type with the limiting factor here being how broad your shoulders are.

One other note to add is that this print came out in a light airy flat rayon rather than the stretch slightly thicker rayon they have been releasing lately. For fans of the old flat rayon can rejoice! It's back!

And so there you have it! I hope you have found this review helpful and hopefully not too long!

Trashy Diva 1940's skirt, Lena top in Dogwood-Front View

Trashy Diva 1940's skirt, Lena top in Dogwood-Side View

Trashy Diva 1940's skirt, Lena top in Dogwood- Back View

Trashy Diva 1940's skirt, Lena top, Alexa Tie top in Dogwood- Front View

Trashy Diva 1940's skirt, Lena top, Alexa Tie top in Dogwood- Side View

Trashy Diva 1940's skirt, Lena top, Alexa Tie top in Dogwood- Back View

Trashy Diva Alexa Tie Top in Dogwood shoulder detail- Close Up

Trashy Diva Dogwood- Close Up

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Outfit of the Day: Miss Fancy Pants Outings

Hello Kittens!

Here are some Outfits of the Day from the weekend before last <3

Outfit of the Day (Saturday):

On Saturday the weekend before last I went out with some friends to celebrate a friend's birthday! We started the night with dinner at a vegan restaurant in Oakland called Millennium then ended the night at a local Oakland brewery called Ale Industries. The food at Millennium was excellent while the beer at Ale Industries was super good and really cheap! It was a fun night out but the best part was the company spent!

For this night I decided to dress up a bit and wore my Trashy Diva black cage dress. I paired this with a black cardigan which I got ages ago in Australia in a small boutique shop. For comfort and ease I wore this with my go to basic black flats while for extra warmth I also wore a pair of nude tights. For a finishing touch I wore a vintage cat brooch gifted to me from a friend and a pair of white floral earrings gifted to me by Trashy Diva as a surprise bonus during a recent purchase <3

Trashy Diva black Cage dress- Front View

Trashy Diva black Cage dress- Side View

Gifted vintage brooch and gifted floral earrings- Close Up

Outfit of the Day (Sunday):

On Sunday I went out with a friend to the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. It was like food for my soul not only going to the modern art museum but also going with a dear friend from high school. It reminded me of when we would go out there during our high school days <3

For this day I decided to wear my Trashy Diva Americana dress in Mini Fleur print. Because it was cold in the city, I paired this with some sweater tights I got from Kohls several years ago and once again my basic black flats for comfort. I had a beige wool overcoat from Target over this while outside but I forgot to take pictures of it.

Trashy Diva Americana dress in Mini Fleur- Front View

Trashy Diva Americana dress in Mini Fleur- Side View

And here are some bonus pictures of two of my favorite pieces at the SF MOMA from Sunday. I love modern art <3

inside Sequence, Richard Serra (2006)

inside Black Beauty, Lutz Bacher (2012-13)

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Dress Review: The Bird's the Word

March of last year Trashy Diva put on a March Madness

Trashy Diva proposed to re-release an older print and put it up to a vote to the fans which one it should be. They selected a few prints at a time and let them go head to head until they had a winner. Then they repeated it again for another round, and then another (or so) until finally the winners themselves went head to head. It was all good fun. Though I do know emotions ran high for a lot of us who would get emotionally invested in hoping "our" print would win. In the end, it was just a super exciting thing to know that Trashy Diva was officially going to release an older print and that they were even proposing that this would be a annual release which they are dubbing their Heritage Collection. After the fun of March Madness, us Trashy Diva ~~fanatics~~ lovers sat on our hands with bated breaths until the print was to be released in the winter of that year. And so, while this post is, late to the actual release of the long awaited print which came out early January, here is my review of the highly anticipated Love Birds print.

Love Birds is everything I had hoped it would be! It is an amazingly beautiful novelty print of pastel birds, flowers, and flowers in cages on a black background. It is an incredibly dainty print which is girly, feminine, and sophisticated all at the same time. Some ladies that I've heard from who have seen this print in the original silk release from Trashy Diva say that this release of the print is even more beautiful because the pastels are so much richer in color. This print (this second time around) came out in the Hopscotch, Gia, Trixie, 40's, Camilla, and Ruby Mini dresses, sizes are going quickly though!

Watching it from its release, the clear favorite of many was the Hopscotch dress, a gorgeous swing style dress with mandarin collar, cap sleeves, decorative buttons at the bust, and flirty back cut out. But for me, because I told myself I need to start only buying one dress per print (if even that many), and because the colorway of this dress reminded me a lot of the previously released Hourglass print which I already have in the Hopscotch dress previously worn here, I decided to go instead with a new to me cut, the Gia dress.

The Gia dress is a perfect cut for emphasizing the feminine girly-ness of this print. It features a full gathered swing skirt, perfect for twirling in! It also features a flattering though modest v-neckline both in the front and back, as well as cute little puff cap sleeves. For extra convenience and ease of wear this dress also has a hidden back zip and pockets! Like a lot of other prints released this past year by Trashy Diva the Love Birds print comes in a super soft smooth stretch rayon. Also, for those that are so inclined, for this print, Trashy Diva paired with UK jewelry designer Rosita Bonita to create beautiful fun matching pieces to go along with this print which includes brooches, earrings, and two different styles of necklaces which feature either the pink birds or blue birds of the print.