joelle van dyne: early flowers of all things

i mentioned earlier this week how i have always liked the philip lim rosette dresses, and sometimes tried to copy them. i couldn’t come close to being able to afford one when they were new, so i assumed i’d never be able to own one. BUT…

last weekend i had a perfect afternoon- i met up with friends at the Met to see a preview of the exhibit ‘american stories- paintings for everyday life’. then we had afternoon tea in the museum (LOVE). then we explored some of the fancy consignment shops uptown around the museum.

we weren’t having much luck in any of the shops- they were all seriously overpriced. but just as we were leaving the last one, i spotted some white fabric peeking out of a clearance rack, and pulled out this dress! it had been marked down many times and was an extra 40% off… it ended up being quite affordable. why knows why it took so long to sell? could it be the fact that it’s basically an enormous flour sack with some flowers on the bottom? i don’t know. but i’m glad it is mine.

since i was wearing a special new-to-me dress, i wanted to wear other special things too. these boots were my birthday gift from the boyfriend. he did GOOD, huh? since the ann d single lace boots don’t seem to be in the cards for me, i think these are a nice replacement.

this year it seems like NYC went straight from summer to winter. it’s already too cold to wear fall jackets, so i’m trying to get in every last bit of wear i possibly can from my gryphon fringe jacket before i have to pack it away till next year.

in the end, i had to throw another jacket over the gryphon, which i was not happy about. i only look happy here because noel was making me laugh, telling me i look like a linebacker. or was it frankenstein? i can’t recall.

to make myself a little less unhappy about wearing a boring old peacoat, i spent the morning at work making these little pinwheel designs on the lapels with safety pins. i may try to decorate the whole jacket. as you can see, the jacket is also ‘decorated’ with some white furs.

meet the culprits: my cavalier king charles spaniel girls, harper and millie. they climbed all over the coat as i was trying to take a photo. they’re always helping me with my DIY projects in this way, so i thought i should finally introduce them.

one last thing- my favorite of the painting from the Met exhibit. ‘a reading’ by thomas wilmore dewing.

3.1 philip lim rosette dress, gryphon fringe jacket, fiorentini & baker boots, banana republic pea coat with safety pins, balenciaga pistachio city bag