Retro Rack

I love this suit, I found it on Haight Street in San Francisco, and it fits without any adjustments ~ yes even over the Rack! I've had to mend it over the years but it holds rand as one of the very first vintage pieces I ever put into my wardrobe. To this day I am mystified that anyone would get rid of it.


This style came in with the New Look and hung around for years. Mine is a v neck dress with a little jacket that goes over it. I pars out the jacket on occasion.


Of course, the black suit for formal occasions has been around for a very long time, perhaps best attributed to Coco, who popularized the style.


It persisted into the 30s and 40s.


But in my world, say its hay-day with Dior's New Look in the 1950s.


I've worn mine for a number of events and often bring it with me if I have the room simply because it makes a good catch all for an unexpected occasion. And, of course, basic black goes with any accessories I might have.




One for Alexia . . .


And what to rad in your little Dior suit? Children of the Night by Mercedes Lackey.

This is the second in her Diana Tregarde series. Lackey was writing Urban Fantasy before we called it that and this is one of her best. You don't need to read the first one before it. This one introduced Andree, sexy French vampire, one of the first hot vampires to enter modern SF/F literature. The romance between him and Diana (a strong and powerful witch) is adult, complex, and deeply moving. Real romance. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

The infamous black pencil skirt.

I know, it's wrinkled in the picture, but trust me, this skirt is great. I am a huge advocate of the black pencil skirt. In fact, I would say it is almost more important to a wardrobe than the Little Black Dress. If you are of the pear shape and self conscious about a pencil, then by all means go for an A-line instead (I have one of those too, future blog in the works).


So perhaps this skirt is a little tight. But my goodness I love it. And honestly, I'm in my 30's I've made peace with the dreaded girl tum. Frankly, I'm a chick and I'm curvy and I have a tum because I'm not an airbrushed model. Besides, I don't want to be one of those crazy razor sharp Hollywood women who do 800 sit-ups a day and look like they not only live on endives but might actually turn into an endive at any moment.

Katy Perry with Girl Tum

 So while I can still zip up the darn thing, I'm going to wear it. For World Fantasy in 2009 I paired it with a pink blouse (which I no longer own) to match the cover of Soulless, and some Irregular Choice shoes.


Irregular Choice makes the most wonderful looking shoes on the planet . . . and possibly the most painful. Mine are wedges (unlike the ones above) and I love them, but I can't wear them for more than a few hours even with inserts. Sadness.

However, Fashionable Reader, this is meant to be a WorldCon retrospective and so here I am, in the black pencil skirt at WorldCon 2008 . . .


This time I wore it with a gray silk sailor blouse and gray spectator pumps.


I have several other black pencil skirts but this one sits apart because of the length. Normally, I do not go for a mid length skirt, in this case several inches below the knee. Nor do I recommend it for any but the very tall. For that reason I always wear this skirt with the highest heals possible.


Vintage wise, this length is best suited to a 1940's Dior look. That said, the black pencil is a staple that always seems to show up on the fall/winter runways and this year was no exception. I even spotted a few in this, a more vintage, length.


More on the black skirt in future, I have several different versions and I intend to go into the relative merits of each.