Elastic waists? Mais oui!

Look what I found at a Vinnies recently! Sonia Rykiel woollen pants for $22 (although I had a Vinnies gift card, so I didn’t even have to pay for them)!

Plain black and kind of baggy pants – not exactly my usual style, but I admit, I was a sucker for the label, and it’s good to experiment with a silhouette that’s out of your comfort zone every so often.

They were about two sizes too long and too large, but nothing a pair of heels and a bit of elastic wouldn’t fix. Elastic waists and French designer fashion would seem to be something of a paradox, but if you reason that the very concept of stretch fabric originated with the matriarch of French mode herself, I think I can be excused for this idea.

All I did was hand-stitch a length of elastic to each side of the inner waistband, stretching it as I sewed. This way the waist is drawn in without having to make major alterations and it’s not super-noticeable when you’re wearing them.

In a brush with destiny, the very first time I wore these pants, I happened to drop in to the Salvos and find this fuzzy jumper, by that other very famous French brand, Tar-jay, also known as The Red Circle Boutique. Why “destiny”? Well, Sonia Rykiel is known as the original sweater girl, so it seemed like the pants had sought out a garment that reminded them of their maker (although personally, I am somewhat reminded of the Cookie Monster…). Anyway, who am I to deprive designer pants of a suitable companion? Plus, I realised I could tuck the sweater into the pants, which helps to keep them up (I hadn’t used quite as much elastic as I perhaps should have!).

I’ve just recently moved into a new apartment and would have loved to shoot this outfit snapping away against chic inner-suburban backdrops somewhat reminiscent of Paris, but the Melbourne weather was being extremely uncooperative (ie it was bucketing down out there!).
I was forced to sit and think of another plan…

Unfortunately all I could come up with was selfies in my new living room – a situation that will have to be remedied toot sweet as the lighting is far from ideal, plus it’s pretty unlikely that I’m going to keep this wall plain white and unadorned just for taking photos!!

It would seem that this month is all about stretching the limits of fashion, because next week’s post is also going to be about using elastic. But don’t worry, this blog is not going to be Lycra-bombed any time soon!

By the way, happy Tanabata! I hope all you long-distance lovers get to meet today. I’ll be doing a bit of that myself next week when I fly to Vietnam to see my guy. But more on that when it actually happens! For now, I just hope the skies remain clear tonight.