Dress Of The Day with Angela

  Indigo Moon Jacket The jacket is so long on me it is almost a short coat. I live Indigo Moon clothes.  You will find huge numbers of them online in Ebay. In the UK and USA.

  La Senza pyjamas. Photo by Trevor Sharot. I bought from charity shop, St Luke's, in Hatch End. I usually wear night dresses rather than pyjamas. So, why did I buy them? I saw them in the one pound box of unsold rejects which I always search through.  Altering The Pyjama Trousers (Americans Say Pants) \I was considering turning the trousers into a skirt. I did this many times when I was living for several months of the year in Singapore. You slit the seam up the inside legs of the trousers and carefully across the crotch. I hesitated. Then I found the top. Why were they separated? The Pyjama Top The pyrama top was the same plaid or tartan. The top had only one pocket. Just enough for a paper hanky. (Americans say paper tissues.) If you attached the cut pyjama bottoms to the hem of the top it could make a dress. It becomes a shirt waister. The top still buttons up but the skirt would be pulled on over your head. You need trousers without pockets. These pyjama bottoms don't hav...

  Anthony Sicari Portrait for buyers, issued with some of his creations. The name Sicari is Italian. A sicari is a dagger.  The company was started in 1985. It ended in 1992. Seven years later. Please follow my blogs. Share links to your favourite posts.

What does the news tell travellers? The weather. The Seasonal holidays. What you should wear outdoors and indoors. Weather Warnings What to wear tomorrow.  What to pack for your destination. Whether you might want to cancel your trip, or your trip might be diverted. Whether there are parades blocking roads. Or storms diverting flights. In winter, will you have cancelled meetings? No news is good news, goes the old saying. Because newspaper headlines and the ones which grab out attention are often about wars, individual deaths, murders, accidents robberies and scams.  Those Who Avoid Bad News I have one friend who has a sick, elderly husband.  Yet she is very active in the community. She goes to art exhibitions. But she says she doesn't read the news because it is depressing.  I, on the other hand, read the news because it is vital to me when I am travelling.  Diversions & Delays I always remember 9/11, when I and my husband were in Singapore. A friend in Sin...

Green, long-sleeved vest from Patra. Selfie photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. I have a lot of Patra tops, in various colours. Patra in the UK, not the USA Patra which makes cocktail dresses. Patra, UK, started out selling silk. Now the silk is mixed with other fibers and the proportion of silk is gradually dwindling. Patra are also selling bamboo and cotton. In winter the long sleeved vest is a base layer which keeps me warm, but silk is thin and lightweight. I look for seconds on Ebay. Why wear a long sleeved vest in summer? I have been covering up for years. This habit started in Italy when I was a teenager on holiday with parents at a hotel. I wore a low-back dress. I was asked to dance by a member of the hotel staff, probably our regular waiter. I vividly remember being uncomfortable because he held my back with his hand which was perspiring. Ever since, I have been opposed to low-back dresses and tops on myself, and slightly uneasy seeing them on other women. Protection From Sw...

 New to me. Sighted goggles. Enabling you to see fish underwater. Opticians in the UK In Hatch End there are two opticians offering eye tests and spectacle frames and lenses. Hatch End Eyecare, and The Eyecare Studio. If you go further afield around London, to Watford or Harrow, you can find Specsavers, Boots and others.  Elegant Frames I come back back to Hatch End because I know the people and they have a good range of elegant and interesting spectacle frames which I will be wearing every day, so it's important for me to look right. In Hatch End Eyecare earlier this year I bought a reasonably priced spectacle string holder.  Angela Lansbury wearing varifocal lenses in spectacle frame from Hatch End Eyecare and a pik cord spectacle holder from the same shop. Photo by Trevor Sharot. Copyright. World for an online search include Glasses strap, chain lanyard. Hatch End Eyecare is on the same side of the street as the railway station. You will easily spot the huge spactacle ...

I was looking at the hats worn by Chassids, a minority sect of Jews. They were their large hats on the Sabbath and VIPs wear them. The hats are from northenr cold countries from the era when it snowed in winter and you had no central heating. It was the style worn by the non Jewish nobility.  I went online and discovered that the hats are made from fox fur. We have a fox in our gardne in London, in fact foxes are all over London, nowadays, now that fox hunting is either banned or unpopular. I wondered how long a fox lives. only four to five years. That means that during your lifetime of 80 years, several generations of pairs of foxes have lived in your garden or neighbourhood.  On Quora there is a great debate on this. I doubt whether destorying fur and ivory benefits anybody. It simply makes the value, the price, or rare items increase, so those who kill to get tusks and fur to sell have more incentive. I am in favour of wearing fake fur if it is a warm substitute.  But ...

How do you dispose of old clothes creating clutter? Buy new clothes cheaply for growing childen?  America has lots of shops for second hand clothing and clothes sold on consignment, pay when you buy, receive money for good taken to the shop or when they eventually sell.  In Singapore there's a chain of outlets called ReFash. I shopped in two of them. One is in Bukit Panjang in the NW, at the end of the Downtown line. In Australia, a swap system has just been featured and promoted. It works on getting a credit or token for items you leave. Another system has an entry fee which allows you to take up to five items. Of course there's the online bidding system, ebay. That would involve you packaging and posting up and taking photos. And paying tax on earnings.  Useful Websites  https://www.goodnet.org/articles/clothing-exchanges-are-becoming-more-popular?utm_source=inb_goodnet&utm_medium=inbound&utm_campaign=inb_goodnet&dicbo=v4-6pKj7rU-1131219455 Please share...

 My American friend Lianne recommended Chantelle bras. We were talking about wired bras and being stopped at security because your clothing set off alarms. She had trouble with her wired Chantelle bra. I said, I prefer to travel with wire-free bras for the 14 hour longhaul flights from Australia or Asia to Europe, and from the USA longhaul. She said she had travelled in a Chantelle bra. It was her new bra. It was expensive but she had bought it when it was on sale (on sale, not for sale, reduced price). She said,"Despite the wiring, it was so comfortable.'   I went online to look for Chantelle bras, a brand which was new to me. They seem to be sold in the USA primarily or only.  I thought the name sounded French. I was right. Their website says that the name Chantelle comes from the first name of the French woman who started the company. I had trouble identifying the bra which my friend liked. There were so many styles! I was interested only in bras with wide shoulde...

  Angela wearing a black top with red embroidery. Photo by Trevor Sharot. Label Quiz. Please share links to your favourite posts. I bought the top from a shop in Ilkley in West Yorkshire. Ilkely is a lively little town with historic sandstone buildings, the green sloping hills of the Yorkshire moors, Ilkley Moor, and more. Cancer Research is just near the famous Betty's tea room. Other charity shops down side streets offer more chances of finding bargains. The top The top is from the company called Quiz. The background is sophisticated black.  The vivid red embroidery is on the front, back and sleeves.  The front is lined. The sleeves and back are not lined.  It has a shirred elastic waist. The sleeves have a narrower shirred elastic edge. so it fits any waist size and any size arms.  The boat neck has elasticthreaded through invisibly. The size is GB 12, E 40. (E for Europe.) The garment has two long black loop hanging ribbons inside. When I saw it hanging on t...

  Taken in the Queens Head pub in Pinner, N W London, England, UK. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. Anthony Sicari 3 piece This blue 3 piece Anthony Sicari outfit suit consists of a long ankle-length skirt, and jacket, with a scarf. I see a lot of Anthony Sicari outfits on Ebay. I buy when I see three pieces, ideally at a reasonable price. The jacket has 7 large round buttons, metalic blue and gilt. Seven buttonholes.  Long Sleeves Warning About Buttonholes All the buttonholes are slightly loose and fraying. You don't notice when the jacket is done up. But they might need sewing later. The washing instructions are: hand wash. Lay flat to dry. Do not iron. Do not bleach.  That's easy.  And inexpensive. Just hand wash. No need to spend money on dry cleaning, nor electricity for ironing. No need to spend time ironing nor going to the dry cleaners. Wearing Style The skirt is unlined. Therefore, I wore it with a long black half slip. The skirt feels light. Fabric ...

 Footwear is described differently in countries around the world as I discovered to my dismay. Thongs in Australia  In Australia I went into a beachside bar. A sign on the door said, No thongs. Okay, I was properly dressed in a wrap skirt, no thong underwear revealing buttocks. The barman said, "No thongs." I replied, "That is okay. I am not wearing thongs." He replied, "I can see you are wearing thongs." I was puzzled. How could he see my underwear. Through my clothes? Visible panty line? In any case, he had made a mistake. I was not wearing thong underwear. So, I said, "I am not wearing thongs. How can you see thongs?" He pointed to my feet, "Those are thongs. On your feet. You ARE wearing thongs!" I looked down, and said, "You mean my flip-flops? You call them thongs?" "Yes." "Ah!" Luckily I had other shoes in the boot of the car nearby.  Indian Slippers A second misunderstanding happened in the UK. A fr...

The internet offers you a host of chances to buy and sell. Lt's look at them alphabetically. Aliexpress began in and is based in China. It began as business to business but now puts you the consumer in touch with sellers. Amazon in Seattle in the USA has a free audio tour of its headquarters. eBid has categories such as: Clothes, shoes, accessories; Jewelry and watches (American spelling), and Whatever's left. ebuygumm appears to be UK only. Lazada started in Asia. Here's the Lazada office in Singapore. On most sites nowadays the buyer can specify a price range, or search low to high or high to low. Other options are sizes, brand names, and fabrics. Useful Websites aliexpress.com https://www.ebid.net/us/ https://ebuygumm.co.uk/fees https://www.lazada.sg/sell-on-lazada? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazada Useful overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_shopping  

 American Weddings Brightline is a privately owned railway  line which has served as a marriage venue for a wedding in 2022.  I have witnessed a wedding (as the official witness) on a cruise ship out of Florida, but this is the first time I have heard of a wedding on a train. The train wedding couple did not meet on the train. They met when the husband to be was renting property (Americans say leasing) from his bride-to be. They had many dates taking the train and the bride thought the train ride was the most romantic part of the date.  The train company sectioned off part of the train for the ceremony and reception afterwards. Photos were taken on the train and at the station.  UK Weddings In England I have seen many reports of unusual carriages to the wedding venue, usually connected with the jobs of one of the spouses or their family. A nostalgic horse and carriage is quite common.  I recall a double decker bus being used. Also I recall one case of the b...

An American Woman's Hair Routine  In the USA on a travel press trip, a glamorous lady who edited a travel magazine had long shining hair.  We enviously asked her, "How do you get such lovely hair?" She replied, "I wash it every day - in the shower, when I have my morning shower." UK Hair Washing Habits That was back in the nineteen eighties when in the UK most people had baths, and washed their hair once a week, on a Friday night, ready for the weekend, in a wash basin. Now, living in Singapore, humid Singapore, where you shower at least once a day, in the morning, and if you are at home, often morning, lunch time, evening, even four times a day, in a cold shower to cool off,  I often wash my hair in the shower. Having wet hair helps me stay cool at home at the desk or out on holiday In summer in the UK, Washington DC and the USA, beach holidays in Europe, out for the day driving around Cyprus, and Singapore all year. In any case, since Covid, I have been swimmi...

  USA baseball cap showing the stars and stripes flag, and the eagle. Photo by Angela Lansbury I like the way the letters USA contain the US flag.  Why is the eagle chosen? It is a sign of strength. The Romans had the eagle as their symbol. The eagle chosen is an American eagle, also known as the bald eagle. On the back of the cap is another US theme picture. So you can be seen with the theme from any angle. The brim is wide. So, if you don't want to be in a photo, on Facebook or anywhere else, like the owner of this hat, when a photographer starts snapping, just look down. You can buy on Amazon a US flag patch which can be sewn on or ironed on to a cap, tee-shirt, or bag. It costs about 3 dollars. I get free postage because I am a member of Amazon prime. (You can also buy a UK flag, costing a bit more, and other national flags.) An eagle and flag washable apron is about 21 US dollars, plus postage. I prefer a wipe clean apron, which is a bit stiff. But if you prefer washable,...

Angela Lansbury wearing a Toastmasters International tee-shirt in black, with a DIY black skirt and Indian Mirror black shoes. Photo by Trevor Sharot. I had a friend who always wore black, She found it easier to co-ordinate. I thought it was depressing. On the other hand, I travelled on short trips with a black skirt, but not with a black top. I added a black skirt to this tee-shirt and feel that I would not wear it regularly. I need colour near my face. Especially on Zoom. When I travelled as a busy travel writer, the black skirt was good, for not showing stains and in any case was being hidden under the table at dinner. I matched it with various tops. The black skirt and black shoes went with everything.  If you wear black, it could go well with black hair, or make you look monotonous. If you have white teeth and eyes, and they are your good features, you can brighten up a black tee-shirt with a white colour. On zoom you want neck interest. Fancy shoes don't get much attention un...

When I was a student in London, England, I used to like wearing a skirt in Black Watch tartan. After I married, I used to go every year to a  Burns Night, January 25, is celebrated in Scotland and by my Scottish neighbour in London, England.  This year, when I told Singaporean and Malay members of a Singapore-based Toastmasters Club that January 25th was Burns Night, celebrating Robbie, Burns, they asked, 'Who's that?' I replied, "The man who wrote the words of Auld Lang Syne, which is sung worldwide on New Year's Eve." In Singapore, New Year's eve is long gone and they are now busy with Chinese New Year, or the lunar year. The Singaporean's have a word, Kiasu, which means trying to get ahead of other people as well as the fear of missing out. Having missed out on the celebration of Burns Night, I made up for it next day by wearing the tartan shirt I had had waiting for a week, along with a tartan bag.  I cut the Scottish flag off a row of bunting  fla...