Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Black Way Down Suit


This is the last Saturday that I'll be working in February so it'll be another 10 hours before my weekend begins.

Hard to say how the weather will be today.  It was pretty windy last night.

Today I'll be wearing my light-purple scoop-necked T and my light blue jeans.  My poor blue jeans.  I really need to mend the side hems of the jeans.  They are ripped there.  Sometimes I safety-pin the sides together.

Last night, I was reading Elvis in Vegas and it's so fascinating to see the different outfits he wore.  At times, his outfits were pretty elaborate.  And the names!  Dude Suit.  Bicentennial Suit.  Black Way Down Suit. I may create a separate post just on this book.

Look's Ratings:  Style - 3; Comfort - 10 

Are there any celebrities who inspire your style?  How would you re-interpret the "Elvis" look for today?

image source:  myelvisworld.com

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Treacherous Middle Ages



A couple of weeks ago, I checked out a book on the Middle Ages, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman and...Wow!  This book rocks!  It's packed with a lot of details but it's a page-turner and Tuchman adeptly handles the different alliances, feuds, intrigues and battles from that time.

In her book, Tuchman recounts the times through Enguerrand de Coucy who was a French nobleman of that time often acknowledged for his diplomacy and tact. 

I'm still in the midst of reading this book but so far Tuchman has covered the bubonic plagues, peasant uprisings, wars between Britain and France, the marital alliances of the Viscontis, 2 popes who each claim that the other is the false pope and the betrayal of Bétizac.  Really a dastardly deed but not that uncommon for those times.

For style, Tuchman provides some insight as to laws which would forbid certain classes from particular attire or restrict the amount of clothes that they could purchase.  The materials involved for wedding, tournaments or other ceremonial events are also occasionally described in the book.  For clothing, one person who stands out is Count Amadeus of Savoy who was known as the Green Count because he once arrived in a tournament dressed in green with his horses, knights and ladies-in-waiting similarly decked out. 

How would you create a medieval look from your wardrobe?  Do you have a signature color like the Green Count?

image source:  amazon.com