Bright orange BHS top and converted skirt outfit. Dress of the day 395. BHS bye bye. Colourful teacher memories.
Description
Top
The label says BHS. British Home Stores. I love the bright orange contrast with the brilliant white of the blouse. British Home stores used to be like Marks & Spencer but cheaper. Clothes, bedding, lamps and household items.
Skirt
The skirt is created or converted from a pair of trousers (Americans say pants) slit up the centre seam and rotated so that the slits are at the sides.
I looked for a blank wall in the kitchen. My first thought was to avoid the red pattern on the blind on the door which I thought would be a distraction and a clash of colour. However, my husband said it looked jolly. Therefore, afterwards I made a point of being photographed next to it. With red lipstick and red shoes I would always co-ordinate with the blind. However, you can get tired of one colour. So now I am trying to alternate with orange and pink.
Teacher's Clothes in Singapore
When I worked as an English teacher in a private school in Singapore, I wore a black skirt and jacket with a different white blouse every day. I thought that looked businesslike.
However, the head of the school called me in and said the pupils had complained that I looked the same every day. They wanted me to wear a different, bright colour every day of our 6 days a week course. Such as red, orange, blue, yellow, green, purple.
I had to find co-ordinating, neat outfits in all those colours. I had expected to invest a little of the money I was earning in text books, workbooks, and props. Now it seemed that I had to invest a proportion of money earned as a teacher not in a uniform, but in varied outfits to keep the pupils' attention and enthusiasm.
UK and USA
A noticeable difference is colours worn in different countries and seasons. In the USA casual wear is blue jeans. That has spread worldwide. Now with the addition of patterned slashes, rhinestone embellishments, stone-washed blue, white, black.
To co-ordinate with the seasonal flowers and leaves, in the UK and USA and much of Europe, the spring colours are pastels, the summer colours are bright, the autumn colours are muted, orange and khaki and yellow, the winter colours are black with a little white. (Wear white at night.)
In Tropical Singapore, the seasons are the same, the temperature is hot, the colours are vivid, with magenta orchids and fuschia bougainvillia (named after a man of that name).
Photo by Trevor Sharot.
Skirt.
I made the skirt from orange slacks, cut up the centre seam. The square pockets are now moved, one at the front and one at the back. This works well with square or oblong pockets. Curved edge pockets look odd. In theory you could move the pockets. If you are left with a line of holes from the stitching, you could cover it with braid.
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