the owl and the olive tree

Thank you to everyone who voted in the dress poll and expressed opinions!

My plan right now is to buy the Bella in silver/pewter and then either the Divina or the Riona in burgundy, deep blue or jade green (not sure right now), and see how they look under the corset. If the lacing and/or embroidery detail doesn't work with either (as several people have expressed as a concern, and I think it's a valid concern) I'll get something else to go with the corset (whether a different dress or a skirt/tunic combo) and I'll just wear the others as dresses.

And when I get wedding shoes, I will pick shoes that will look awesome with whatever I get. :D I'm thinking maybe something with a nifty lacing detail....

vom_marlowe pointed me to HolyClothing, which has a lot of lovely hippie/gothic/gypsy/faux-medieval styles. They're also reasonably priced! So I think I'm going to get a dress for Sirens from there.

The dress would be worn under my skirted corset. In that picture, both the blue tunic and the burgundy-and-black skirt are separate pieces; the skirted corset is only the deep blue (with silver and gold overlay) corset and split skirt. So whatever I get would be taking the place of the blue tunic and the burgundy skirt.

I'd love some help picking out the dress.

A few caveats: the theme of Sirens this year is faeries, so I'm looking for something more faerie, not so much, say, goth or steampunk. Also, don't worry about temperature: if the dress is too summery, I'll wear it with a wrap. Also-also, I'm splitting 'cut' and 'color,' so the example images of the cuts will all be in silver for consistency, and then you can suggest better colors separately.

The dresses that appeal to me (all are in silver so you're comparing cuts rather than colors) are the Divina (an empire-waist dress with no sleeves and a not-very-full skirt), the Bella (a dress with a lacing detail, full sleeves, and full skirt, which I could either wear flat or make more full with a crinoline), the Paulina (a dress with a lacing detail, sleeveless, and a not-very-full skirt), the Alexis (a dress with an empire waist, short sleeves, and an A-line skirt), and the Riona (a dress with a lacing detail, small/spaghetti straps, and an A-line skirt).

The colors that I think would work well both on me and with the skirted corset are silver/pewter, white/ivory, black/midnight, burgundy/wine, lavender/blue, sapphire/blue, divine/blue, purple/passion, or jade/green.

For the first three questions of the poll, assume I'm asking just about a dress to go with my corset for the Sirens ball. The fourth and fifth question are more open. The picture of me in the corset is a pretty good gauge of my coloring, although I'm a bit more, uh, full-figured now than I was then (in other words, I've gained 10-20 pounds).

How bad an idea would it be for me to layer my hair like Boomer from BSG?

I can't do short bangs, because I won't get them trimmed enough to keep them out of my face. I just won't. But longer bangs, layered, to add interest...?

I like wearing long skirts, especially around the house. Indeed, I'm making a few skirts for summer (one black, one dark green). However, most skirts don't have pockets -- and I'm not a good enough seamstress at this point to add pockets to a pattern that doesn't include them.

Plus, many women's pants patterns also don't have pockets, or they have pockets that are so small to be unusable. And most of my shirts don't have pockets either.

This isn't really a problem most of the time; it's why I carry a purse or a bag. But often, when I'm cleaning the house, I want to listen to my iPod -- or when I'm going for a walk, I want to bring my phone and my keys but not lug a bag with me. This is a problem when one is in a pocketless state, since there's noplace to put the iPod. Indeed, sometimes when housecleaning I am forced to resort to sticking my iPod through my bra strap, which is precarious and kind of uncomfortable (and unattractive, but I don't care about that if what I'm doing is scrubbing the kitchen floor).

Does anyone have an idea for how I can carry an iPod or phone-and-keys combo without pockets? I'm not going to resort to a *cringe* fanny-pack arrangement, because I am not fond of the way they look or the way they feel. My best idea so far is to copy medieval folk and make some kind of small pouch that can be hung at my hip (medieval clothes did not have internal pockets), but I was wondering if anyone had other ideas.

I need a new jacket, having lost (sob!) my Pava's black leather trench. Alas, poor coat.

I need a hat, because otherwise my nose will burn.

Would it be totally ridiculous and steamrat-ish to buy a brown linen duster (I want a new leather jacket, too, but it's not the season for a heavy coat yet) and a, um, a fedora? I kind of have a hankering for a Victorian lady adventuress persona, a la Amelia Peabody, or Indiana Jones-meets-Gwendolyn Fairfax-by-way-of-Cordelia Naismith. And a tan or brown linen jacket of a sufficiently unassuming cut would go okay either with a t-shirt and jeans or with a walking skirt and perhaps some sort of bodice. I realize that the fedora is a bit cliche, what with the new Indy movie, but... but. It's awfully tempting, and I'm excited to have a fashion paradigm that's so appealing.

(I am trying to convince jmpava that a tasteful steampunk decorating theme would be awesome for the new place. Emphasis on tasteful -- I don't want anything garish or cluttered-looking myself, and random gears stuck everywhere is passé -- but it seems to be a plausible way to bridge his desire for the simplicity of glass and black metal and my desire for something a bit more old-fashioned with wood and colors. He isn't biting yet, though. Of course, given how many things we saw at Uwajimaya and went 'omg, that's awesome!', we might go more that route, though I think I'd feel like a poseur going too heavy on the Japanese influences.)

I should also probably get more long hippy skirts, since I have exactly one and I wear it so often I'm going to wear it out, but I'm sure I'll have ample opportunity for that at the umpty-million street fairs in the summer. Or I could probably make one -- the pattern is fairly simple -- though I do not as currently have a sewing machine and there isn't really room in the budget to buy one until we've got necessary house-ish things out of the way first.

Fashion is a lot more fun when I'm worrying about what I want to look like and not at all about what's in style, though I still don't go for the extremes -- I'm too introverted a person to want to be stared at.