A very talented friend of mine recently up-cycled some old furniture. Like an Alchemist turning lead into gold, he magickally transformed an ordinary 1930s sideboard into something very special and unique. I was blown away by his beautiful handiwork and it got me thinking about all the old dresses I still have from years ago that I no longer wear. I wondered if I could up-cycle some of them.
I went rummaging in Narnia (my wardrobe) and one of the first potential up-cycling pieces I found was an old Karen Millen dress that was literally rolled up in a ball on the floor. I'd not worn the dress for at least ten years as I've put on a good stone in that time (I was skin & bone back then; it was not a good look). I could barely squish myself into the dress and no amount of force or holding of breath was going to get the zipper up and over my curves. So I took it to my Tailor to see what kind of magick he could work on it. The dress was a very unflattering length, somewhere between 'midi' and 'wrong', so he shortened it to a much more elegant length and used the excess material to let the dress out around the chest and upper body area. He literally transformed the dress and it only cost me £20 for all the alterations.
In a gorgeous pewter colour, the silk Oriental style dress features a cute Mandarin collar with a deep v-neck, cap sleeves, beautiful floral embroidery on the chest, back and hem and pink corset lace detail at the back to nip in the waist. My old dress has been given a new lease of life & I seriously believe I will wear it more now than I did ten years ago when it was brand new. I'm already hunting through my dress archives for the next up-cycling project; this is going to save me a fortune!
I styled my dress with the most fabulous new shoes. It was my birthday in May and this perfect pair of nude, patent, Christian Louboutin shoes were my favourite present. Aren't they gorgeous? They will definitely feature in many more blog posts... MANY more... as they go with absolutely every single piece of clothing that I own.
Get The Look:
Dress: Karen Millen Oriental Corset Dress (similar)
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