cat. hat.

hi. my name is sallie forrer, and i am not a witch.

Well, maybe I am.
I thought I should introduce my face to this here bloggy blog. Hello blog. This is me. And despite my feverish gesticulations with twigs, stringing together some vaguely Latin inspired words, and poking and prodding at newts, I am, as of yet, not a witch. However, I have been inspired to dress like one lately.
Today I wore a blanket / shawl. The impetus for this being me moaning and groaning about the house (a witch, no - but perhaps a ghost?) this morning, not wanting to go to work, and finally I called out to the man of the house "why don't I own a poncho?!?"
To which he thoughtfully replied, "I don't know - why don't I own a poncho?" (Uh oh! I know what someones getting for Christmas! Twinzies...)
Anyway I instead decided to throw this blankety item I bought from UO to keep the chill of the A/C off of my shoulders while at work over me and added this bestial belt and some shoesies. And I was off. On my broom In my car.

Wearing: UO blankety shawl thing, Anthropologie wolfman belt, Levi's Mom-butt high-waist jeans, Jeffrey Campbell clogs

I usually end up throwing some sort of blanket/shawl over me while at work anyway - since I get very cold - so I figured I might as well style it into some sort of outfit.

So full disclosure here: I really am not a witch (yes I am) but maybe it is just this Autumn-y time of year (its still really freaking hot) that has me thinking of cloaking myself (no seriously, I'm sweating) in layers and adding voluminous elements (to hide all the tacos I eat) to create a different silhouette (taco belly). Regardless I like the slightly mysterious "how does that woman use her arms" sort of feeling it gives. Answer: I don't. I'm typing this with my nose (see: witch). Plus, yesterday while at the Walgreens picking up the necessities and in full on drapey mode some fine gentleman, who wasn't creepy at all, stopped me and said, "You look so familiar, are you Russian?"
I didn't know if I reminded him of his babushka wearing grandmother or his mail-order bride who used him as a ticket to the U.S. then ditched his creepster ass. My thigh-high stockings and smudgy red lipstick leads me to think it was probably the latter.
xo
s.
p.s. I really am planning on giving ya'll (note: non-ironic use of ya'll) a post on things I am making very soon - since that is really what I want this blog to be about - not whatever asshole outfit I put together or my latest gripes about the 90's fashion trends. Okay bye!

lets all drink the kool-aid

images from Hanneli and Mr. Newton

I am slightly mesmerized by the kool-aid hair I have seen cropping up on street-style blogs. I have spent more time than I would like to admit grappling with my emotions with some of these more strip-mall grunge fashion and beauty trends. On one hand, I think that hair the color of mold, chlorine, and crystallized fruit drinks should stay firmly planted in my tween years. On the other hand, these ladies do manage to make the 90's trend look sort of cool - even elegant?

Really what I'm having trouble with is this: am I only okay with throwback trends if they are trends that happened before I was alive? I mean, I think even my 12 year old self thought that the 90's were dark days indeed for fashion. Is it appropriate or even timely to revisit them? Does this mean - gasp - that we are secretly longing for the Clinton years? If you see trends in fashion, design and even art as part of some sort of cultural and social consciousness - then is kool-aid hair a political statement?

Since my feelings on this are fairly ambivalent - I will leave it at that. No. I lied - I have one more comment - so I'll admit that there is something pretty about the cotton candy colored hair. But green? Green never looks good in hair. It looks mossy and moldy and like you might be a bog lady.
Are you a bog lady? If so. Carry on.

catherine linton hearts heathcliffe

Since I have declared a self prescribed break from sewing - mainly due to the fact that the last two garments I tried to make turned out severely misshapen and riddled with mistakes - I thought I would share some of the images that keep circling my consciousness every time I imagine my ideal cold weather wardrobe. This is a bit of a joke since Texas never got the memo that its autumn, and if I even obtain my ideal cold-weather wardrobe I'll only be able to wear it for a short while before summer descends again. Sigh. Nevertheless, a girl can dream - and many of these things can be translated for our milder winters...

First - I know Velvet has been a lust fabric for awhile now - consider me slow on the uptake. But I'll be honest, as much as I love the luxury and decadence, and even regality that velvet somehow implies, its also a bit of a scary fabric, no? It reminds me of Christmas pageants and late 90's - early 00's (is that a thing yet? "00"?) goth wear from Hot Topic. However, I think the Victorian Gothic (as opposed to mall gothic) influence of velvet has won me over and I've been dreaming of making my own version of that little TBA dress. Which reminds me of another scary fact about velvet... sewing with it! Eek!

From top: Velutto Shift (www.jcrew.com), TBA dress from their A/W 2010 collection (www.ilovetba.com), TBA dress in Urban Outfitters, Dublin from Liebemarlene ( http://www.liebemarlene.com), Siren Song Dress from Family Affairs A/W 2010 (http://toujours-toi-family-affairs.com)

Okay, so this next obsession is a bit less practical given my geographical location, but ohhh how I would love to add furry accents to my daily wardrobe! I am equally taken with the spotted variety, the vintage and the faux - fur is just another one of those things that feels equally campy and glamorous. And while donning a full fur stole might be a bit much - I think I could get away with a collar added to my cardigans once the weather turns nippy. And a leopard print belt seems like it should be a wardrobe staple - like the new neutral.

From the top: JCrew calf-hair belt (www.jcrew.com), Feminine and Feline Cape (www.modcloth.com), Fox Fur collar, Zaama on Etsy (www.etsy.com), Style Spotted Scarf (www.modcloth.com), Mink Capelet, The Greedy Seagull on Etsy (www.etsy.com)

And finally, this one really isn't all that surprising or original ( were any of these, really?), but as soon as deep jewel tones start cropping up in stores and on street style blogs, and on the runways, its almost a given that I will start to reach for the richer colored fabrics in my wardrobe and to sew with (in fact - one of my most recent botched projects was in a lovely wine colored charmeuse). Lately I've been particularly taken with deep bourdeaux's and purples - a color that I can honestly say has never been a favorite. But I believe this Fendi look has completely won me over, and made me a plum-colored-convert. I've even started haunting the local Sephora and M.A.C stores for a deep - dare I say - gothic lipstick!

From the top: Fendi A/W11 (www.thesartorialist.blogspot.com), Mepris Tunic, Family Affairs (http://toujours-toi-family-affairs.com), Hair and Lips, Yves Saint Laurent A/W11, Street Style, London - all from The Sartorialist

And with that - I'll leave you. Hopefully soon I'll be back in action with some of my own creations to show.

xx

lets begin at the beginning

and i'll try to make this blog thing work. i would love to see all sorts of lovely things on these pages. but lets just start with some basics - shall we?

like... a proper header for instance. or perhaps a less crowded set up. any suggestions?