I Wear: The Lady Loves Lavender

I attended a friend‘s engagement party at Gallops, the restaurant at Mahalaxmi Race Course, a few weeks ago. It struck me that I haven’t done an I Wear post in awhile so I caught these on the go. Do excuse the low-grade quality of the pictures but I did want to chronicle this look. I must have been the only woman at the party, not in Indian wear.

I was keen on wearing a dress. For one, travelling to Mahalaxmi in a saree is not an attractive prospect. Secondly, I really did want to try out a Western outfit at an Indian wedding event. An engagement and at a swish restaurant like Gallops provided me the perfect opportunity, without needing to stand out too much.

First, I want to talk about this dress. Nearly 7 years ago, I was at a fabric sale when I came across a square piece of cloth. It was a bright, shiny material but not malleable enough to be silk. It also felt slightly waterproofey, which meant it would only work in warm weather. The print was a gorgeous pastel print on a lavendar background. I picked it up without thinking about what I would do with it.

I did try it out as a scarf but the fabric was too stiff and the piece too large to work well. It wouldn’t sit well in a knot and it was too slippery to stay on my shoulders for very long. Finally, I took it to my tailor and asked him if he’d consider making it into a dress. It actually was big enough for one (though I daresay if I had been a little larger in size it wouldn’t have sufficed). I drew him a simple straight pencil-dress outline to follow. He added some lining to give the fabric weight and shortly, I was the owner of a lovely evening dress! The cut is a really simple one but I wanted to showcase simple lines and bright silver/white gold accessories with it. It would probably be categorized as a cocktail dress, given its length.

I paired this dress with a sapphire ring set in silver, my steel watch and trusty silver ring. The bag is actually a plain purple clutch (identical to the red one seen in this post). For some reason, in the picture, it shines almost like it’s plastic but it looks a lot softer than this in real life.

My shoes were a pair of turquoise sandals that I bought on a whim, wondering when I’d ever wear such a decadent colour or heels. To my surprise, they go wonderfully with most of my party wear!

And finally, my make-up. I indulged myself as this was a night event. I’m just getting back into eye make-up (beyond the basic black eyepencil, that is). This is the denim look eyeshadow by Revlon with a nude pink lipstick (again showing up differently in the photograph, for some reason).

I Wear:

• Lavender paisley print dress: Tailored
• Sapphire ring: Bangkok
• Steel watch: Casio
• Turquoise sandals: Inc.5
• Purple clutch: Maybelline make-up kit
• Eye shadow: Revlon ‘denim’ powder

* Cross-posted to Divadom.

Ideamarked: The Best Of 2011

2011 has been a lot of things but boring. One feature that I was really happy to add to The Idea-smithy was the Ideamarked section. Interesting links dot the internet and I come across plenty of them in my daily trawling and my daily feeds.Sharing them on Facebook is easy-peasy but that only reaches the Facebook users on my network. Bringing the month’s links over to the blog made it possible for me to share it with the readers here and also credit all my friends & followers who shared a link. Also, it has been interesting to see just what gripped our fancy each month.

I spent so much time looking through those links on 31st that I couldn’t actually put up this post on the last day of the year as I planned. But a couple of days late, I’m still very happy to bring you the best things that The Idea-smithy spotted in 2011:

• January: ’1000 Life Lessons or How to stay alive forever‘
• February: ‘The Ten Commandments of telecasting film industry award shows‘
• March: ‘Date a girl who reads‘
• April:“Sadhu beedi, nalla swadulu beedi” – old-school advertising for Sadhu beedi
• April: “To Afridi, With Love” A Pakistani journalist welcomes their cricket team back after the World Cup 2011 performance, with a letter that touched hearts on both sides of the border.
• May: As prices rise, multiplex service standards crash. An aggrieved customer writes them a letter of goodbye.
• June: ‘If Historical Figures Endorsed Modern Products‘
• July: A list of countries that an Indian passport-holder could travel to, visa-free. I didn’t realize there were so many of them!
• September: A hilarious email chain that’s been modified and edited from the original article, for sometime now: ‘London Times Obituary Of The Late Mr.Common Sense‘
• October: Apple founder, Steve Jobs passed away. The products he pioneered have touched many of our lives in different ways, whether it was the iPod that was the first thing you saved up for & bought with your own money or, like me, if you were lucky enough to have a Mac for your first computer. Fans, detractors aside, here’s what stays with me – Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address.
• October: ‘Social Networks Defined Through Peeing‘
• November: Hail the motherland of idlis, software dreams & kitschy Kollywood songs! This month’s music craze – Kolaveri Di
• December: ‘A Very Calvin & Hobbes Christmas‘: Fans of Calvin and Hobbes, remember his winter sculptures? Here’s a hilarious video that recreates many of them to the tune of ‘Winter Wonderland’!