Hawaii Outfit 2: A Lotta Sauce

Mar 9, 2010 | Fashion, Life

(Sauce tee, Bebe cardigan, Forever21 mirrored ribbon necklace and studded bangle bracelet, Hue footless tights, Rock & Republic destroyed denim shorts, Steve Madden flats, unknown skull-studded bag from Pineapple County)

Last day in Hawaii.  I met up with some old friends and had a blast!  It’s so wonderful to reconnect and find the odd little ways your lives have paralleled, even after years apart.  If you have an old friend who you haven’t heard from lately, definitely drop her/him a line and say hi!  New friends are dear, but old friends are dearest!

Edit: I just noticed that weird kid in the background grinning.  He seems a lot more thrilled than I look to be photographed, he he.

I liked the design of this Sauce shirt and bought it with a gift card to Saks Fifth Avenue.  The shirt is so cheaply constructed, though!  Worse than the worst of Forever21.

Edit: I was actually taxiing down the runway to take off on the plane back to Portland as I was typing the above.  I didn’t think I would actually get done with this post before they forced me to turn off my electronic device LOL!  But I managed to bang out the above…and decided later to add some more info.  The shirt’s side seams are overlocked with a simple double-needle; hems are raw.  Collar, instead of being made with ribbing, is done with self-fabric, turned, and finished with twin-needle overlock, so it stretches out the more you wear it.  The fabric is super-thin and 100% cotton – it feels and looks utterly cheap to the touch.  (Unlike my beloved Kain label tee – which is a blend of silk – and truly feels luxurious.)  This shirt feels like it will disintegrate in sunlight…or in the washing machine!  Ugh.  So not worth $70!  (The only rationalization I can make for its price is that the oversized screenprint (thus requiring non-standard sizded screens) necessitates a higher screenprinting fee??  But I think this is one example of the consumer paying the jacked-up price of label luxury – i.e., the brand of the shirt is its cache, not the quality.)  I think it’s funny how the skeleton’s pelvis is quite higher than the wearer’s.  Hub calls it my “midget skeleton” shirt.  In my mind it’s also an ironic commentary on the current INness of skinniness in the fashion industry…could this be the current ideal of the female body??  hehehe.  It kind of reminds me of those shirts they sell at Spencer’s Gifts or in raunchy catalogs as beach cover-ups with an airbrushed hot chick’s bikini body on them….in sizes XL – XXXL only…except this is the other extreme.;-)I haven’t been in the habit of wearing black tights under my shorts, but here in Hawaii after the earthquake in Chile it’s been super-, super-windy.  Almost hurricane weather.  Of course I didn’t anticipate this and didn’t bring any warm clothes or long pants; so I tried layering these tights under my shorts, doing the whole Japanese-tourist-in-Hawaii-outfit.  If you’ve ever been to Honolulu, you’ve probably noticed that all the young Japanese girls are layering black leggings or tights under their jean minis or shorts.  For warmth?  To hide the non-tanned state of their legs?  To hide other leg imperfections?  To be more modest even in a tropical climate that almost necessitates the showing of skin?  I suppose one will never know…it’s a sort of a micro-trend here on the islands amongst the tourists from Asian countries.  And me haha!

Hope you guys all had a great weekend!

xoxox
Carly