Beautiful Blues. Vivid Royal blue, TU dress, silk jacket, Dress of the Day 476
Blue Thai Silk Jacket
The jacket is thick silk in a lovely almost vibrant royal blue. The label says Thai Silk 100%, and Made in Thailand. The washing instructions are hand wash at 30 degrees, cool iron, no tumbling.
Beautiful Blue Buttons
Ten buttons, yes, ten middle-sized buttons, covered in the same colour blue fabric, are down the jacket front from the neck. The buttons are fastened by semi circular stiff fabric loops.
Buttons in the same fabric as the jacket look expensive. The matching buttons create a unified, elegant look. But also sleek, svelte, subtle.
DIY Covered Buttons
You can buy templates for fabric covered buttons for making buttons to match your own hand-made clothes. The button bases have clip on lids with four or more gripping teeth. You cut a small piece of circular fabric, large enough to cover the top of the button and tuck into the lid. Wrap the fabric over the lid, or sew it over the lid, or glue it. Then fix the prongs of the fabric covered lid inside the cup shape on the button stalk.
There are no spare buttons, nor backing buttons. But, if I were making a jacket, would I bother with spare buttons and backing buttons? No.
Shoulder Pad Fashion
The inside of the jacket has a blue fabric lining for the body and sleeves. The wide shoulders have shoulder pads attached by narrow Velcro or hook and close strips. Shoulder pads suggest that this is a vintage item.
I was interested to see these strips because I had found two such strips under the shoulders of another garment and wondered what they were for. Now I know that the puzzling garment must have had shoulder pads. Either the shoulder pads were deliberately removed when fasions and tastes changed, or the foam in the shoulder pads disintegrated so the pads were removed.
The Blue And White Scarf
I wore a blue and white scarf as added protection against wine or food staining the jacket. I did not want to wash the jacket. Water might remove starch which stiffen it and enables it to hang well. Water could make the colour fade, or leave the colour mottled, or shrink it differently to the lining fabric, or made it shrink more one way, either horizontally or vertically.
The Blue Dress
The blue dress's label is TU. From Sainsbury's supermarket in the UK. 95% viscose. 5% elastane makes it stretchy. The picture of me full length in daylight and under neon lights, taken with a handphone, accentuates the difference in the blue colours of the dress and jacket. The slight difference in the blues does not matter in the evening when the colours co-ordinate perfectly. Besides, most of the time, at the Verulam fish and chip supper in St Albans in England, I was seated. When the jacket is done up, you do not not see the contrast of colours in the top half.
Dress Up Or Down
When I put the outfit on and asked for my husband's opinion as to whether it was suitable, he replied, "It's only a fish and chip supper. You are overdressed. You look like you are going to a wedding."
Good. That's what I want to look like. As if I am a person of importance, with interesting things to say.
When the guest speaker at the Writers' Summer School, Swanwick, had a local VIP as guest speaker on the last night, she wore a plain colour but very smart cocktail dress. It looked to me as if she was the VIP, elegant, well-prepared. She conveyed the impression that she dressed up for grand dinners and ceremonies and formal ocasions. (I hate it when you cannot identify the speaker. You might want to locate the VIP and talk to them, before, during, or after the meeting.
Please share links to your favourite posts.
Comments
Post a Comment