joelle van dyne: the lady in rrreeeeddddd

i came across this ruffled morton myles red dress in the shop capricious traveler on etsy (check out her shop- lots of great stuff!). since i shy away from wearing color, i was a bit put off at first. but then i read this in the description: “A little designer info- Morton Myles gained almost instant celebrity in 1961, when Jacqueline Kennedy wore his blue sleeveless linen dress on the cover of Look magazine for a family photo. Mrs. Kennedy had purchased several of his designs.”

well well well. if it’s good enough for a kennedy, it’s good enough for me.

when i received the dress, i loved it the moment i pulled it out of the package. but when i put it on, it didn’t quite read ‘jackie o’. it read more like… ‘sad, mumsy, yet desperate and creepy SWF at office xmas party’. so i went at it with a needle and thread.

and voila! after a little shortening of the hem and sleeves, i think it’s much more modern. since this seemed like an especially special vintage dress, i decided not to go with my trusty baby hem- i felt guilty thinking about permanently altering the dress. so instead i made a thick fold of the hem, then folded up a 2nd time, and hand sewed it to the dress’s lining.

i left the ruffles cascading slightly longer than the hem- still deciding how i feel about that.

i feel the need to make an apology for the title of this thread, particularly if it has left you with the chris de burgh song stuck in your head for all eternity. i just couldn’t think of any other quotes about a red dress, and it seemed appropriate.

at some point a couple years ago, my boyfriend and i were arguing over the lyrics to part of the song (i’m constantly mis-understanding song lyrics- the words i’m hearing don’t make any sense, and yet i’m always 100% confident i’m hearing them correctly… anyone else like this?). so he downloaded it in MY itunes. why? because he was embarrassed to have it in his own music library. you KNOW i made him repay me that 99 cents.

so now every once in awhile when i have friends over, and am trying to show off my ‘cool’ (it is never cool) music to them, without fail, my itunes shuffle chooses to play ‘the lady in red’. and everyone is all ‘yeah, right, your BOYFRIEND downloaded it’.

moving along.. adding the furry vest to the dress was a foregone conclusion. i have to wear it just a few more times before it’s too cold. OR before one of my friends throws red paint on it. and not because they are peta members- just because they’re so sick of seeing it. lately when i show up in it, i can see them inwardly (or sometimes outwardly) rolling their eyes, in an ‘AGAIN with the furry vest?’ kind of way. they are so against the love that can blossom between a girl and a vest.

aaanyway. i had to add a close-up of my THIRTY DOLLAR PRADAS. i wanted to make sure everyone could appreciate the fact that i have on very tall heels. so tall i feel like a tranny when i’m wearing them, but nevermind. they are THIRTY DOLLAR PRADAS so i don’t care.

vintage morton myles dress, prada wedges, marc by marc jacobs turnlock teri bag, black halo belt