The Blue Coat

I bought this wool coat in the secondhand shop in Vännäsby. The worst of the winter cold seems to have passed, and this coat is perfect for the middling snow. In related news, I'm wearing my grandmother's beret.

Snow, At Last

It snowed! It snowed! We'll have a white Christmas after all!

Today I cut down pine branches in my Swedish military uniform from 1941.

Jumper

It's England. It's grey and rainy and I don't have enough sweaters jumpers. So I bought this at H&M.

I like to think of it as my post-apocalyptic nun outfit. 

A Change in the Air

Notice my stripey socks. 

And pockets. We musn't forget the pockets.

Scissored

In case you didn't already know: I've cut my hair.

Sunday's Best

You should know I always feel really silly taking these pictures.

Pumpkin Dress

"Stand over there, next to the rosehips," says mom. "You match." 

Scarf

Cropped Jacket

This jacket is vintage Laura Ashley, manufactured before Hong Kong declared its independence of the British Crown.

Today I had to go to town and buy a few necessary items for my upcoming move to England. Mamma and I had to first drive to Yttersjö to deliver a mailbox back to the previous owners of our house, and the road there took us through rolling fields and silver lakes. The summer has suddenly disappeared into bright, brisk autumn days. 

A Dash of Colour

Colour, colour, and more colour. That is advice I give freely.

Why dress like a boring person when you're not?

Midsummer's Day

This dress cost me exactly ten Singapore dollars. I bought it in Chinatown and had completely forgotten about it until I unearthed it in a box in the garage. I wore it for Midsummer and felt a bit like Jane Austen. Don't mind the terribly boring background. My parents are still moving into their new house.

On another note, I am very pleased with my hair.

Skirt

Winter Fashion

Tip

With a long skirt, you will always look graceful, no matter your predicament or position.

Measure of a Man

"You look very feminine today," Rebecca told me, because usually, you know, I wear black muscle shirts and cargo pants and a moustache or two. I don't know. I think turbans are pretty manly.

All Done Up

This is one of my favorite skirts, and my red shoes make me think of Professor Kirk, and I have a sudden urge to walk around in a bathrobe and smoke a pipe. Perhaps I'll too find Narnia in my closet.

Difference

Sometimes I wear things that are ordinary--such as this flowered shirt and leggings. And sometimes, like today, I wore tattoo sleeves and pirate pants and a headscarf, and I was anything but. My students were at once baffled and delighted by my tattoos and one strange woman in Starbucks took such a liking to them she asked me where I had bought them. Success.

More Stripes

 Many years ago my friend Tim Chow gently pointed out that I must really like stripes. "Really?" I said and looked over my wardrobe only to discover that he was right. I had many striped shirts in my possession, and I continue to like stripes in much the same way my grandmother keeps to her leopard print. There is something crisp and adventurous about them.

It isn't the easiest thing to dress up here. People already tend to stare because I am fair, different from the local population, and then there is my red hair, my height, my unusual  clothes; and sometimes I feel their glances keenly and I wonder if I should just give up altogether, slip back into the crowd, avoid being noticed. But something in me refuses to bow to conformity.

Mamma doesn't like it when I put my hair up. She says it makes me look too old-fashioned, but I always tell her that's the point. I've always wanted to be a character in one of my stories, and that will never happen unless I, in the words of Jean Luc Picard, "make it so." 

Stripes

 My boss has the extraordinary ability to let me wear what I wish, granted that it is modest and vaguely professional. "As long as they learn," is how she counters my more bisarre ideas ("Can I come dressed as a pirate? How about a Jedi Knight?"), which I think is a very healthy way to go about things. Perhaps more leaders need to be like her--willing to change, to try something new, to approach the subject from a different angle. 

 One particular day I came dressed in stripes from top to toe.

My black and white striped pirate pants that I bought for ten dollars in Chinatown.

 



 Sometimes I wonder what she thinks of me, but mostly I'm just grateful.