The other week I was invited to a flat warming - a friend of a friend, so naturally I was dubious about what I was going to wear to a flat full of people I didn't really know. Heels or no heels? Dressy or super casual?? It's always so hard to know. So... I settled on a slightly dressier version of jeans and a tshirt! Earlier on in the day, I had been in town and was going through Farmers looking for a bath towel, only to discover that particular Farmers only sold beauty and fashion products! However, it was the day of their 'Beauty Event'! I got my nails done by OPI, and my makeup done by Revlon. Buuuut.... The Revlon lady didn't really seem to have much experience in dealing with Asian faces. For a start, she chose a foundation which was waaaay to pale for me (the entire time she was doing the makeup I couldn't see what she was doing), which didn't look too bad at first but really showed up in photos. She also added VERY thick black eyeliner along the bottom eyelid, which she assured me 'looked great from further back'. When I got back home my flatmate wondered what had happened to me. It looked a lot better when I removed just the liner from underneath. This woman told me she had been working for Revlon for 12 years. In all this time, she didn't really seem to have learnt how to deal with people who do not have the easy-to-work-with eye shape and skin tone! Oh well, it was an experience.
Here is the flatwarming attire that I eventually settled on (and edited a little to disguise paleness of face)
The tshirt was another little DIY project. I bought the little beaded things individually and sewed them onto the tshirt by hand. The hardest part was deciding where to put them! (I must admit, I have a bit of a phobia of pins sticking me, so I was awkwardly trying to wear the tshirt and simultaneously decide where I wanted to put them, and hold them down in some way without pricking myself. And then came the task of getting it off. Sigh.) The beaded appliques are from a little shop in Onehunga, Auckland, called 'Antique Fabrics'. It really is an amazing little boutique-y shop that sells a whole variety of fabrics. The reason I wanted to go there is because of their applique collections. The shop, although it's not huge, isn't minscule either, and every single wall is covered from head to toe in hundreds of different little beaded applique things. If you are ever looking for something to match, its almost a guarantee to find it there! Although its slightly harder to find things in multiples as pretty much everything is a one-off! This shop really is a hidden gem.
The rest of the outfit:
Jeans from Glassons
Belt from Espirit
Boots from... Wild Pair? I bought these a couple of years ago and really haven't had much wear out of them, so I'm avidly trying now to justify their purchase. I thought they would go with a lot of things, but it turns out they don't look great when jeans are scrunched into them (which happens a lot with me because my jeans are all too long), and then, practically all my tights are black, with not a lot of other brown clothing. Hmmm. Someday I'll make the perfect outfit for them!
