First let me give you a glimpse of my last couple of weeks where I seem to have dropped off the face of the earth or at least the blogging part of it as I just have not written anything in quite some time. It has been quite a strenuous couple of weeks of tests for me with the last one culminating to five tests in one week and I know to the adult world a test is just some joke that doesn’t stand up to actual jobs and paying bills and all those tiring things you keep warning us of but for a tired and emotionally strained 18 year old it can end up being quite stressful and time consuming. Something I battled with was focussing and I didn’t want to even give myself the temptation of writing a blog when I was so far away from completing my studies. Along with this I also went through some (more) personal and emotional issues which rocked me a little more than expected and for the most part I became an empty unenthusiastic and stressed shell of a person and I threw aside my personality not willing to deal with myself and how I felt for the most part.
But after giving myself a weekend to sleep, recuperate and improve my happiness I have finally felt the enthusiasm to once again blog. How exciting!
Before the test season we, my fellow engineering-wannabes and I, had one last bash. It was hosted by the Capetonian in our midst at his house (when your life revolves around residence rooms, their rules and tiny size an actual House is a rare and exciting phenomenon). The theme was formal which posed a slight challenge for me as I had not bought a mass supply on fancy clothing down to Cape Town with me. Plus it was cold. I only had black stockings which didn’t go with my dresses or my shoes so that was a no go. I wanted to wear pants and a smart shirt to almost mimic a man’s typical formal outfit as a joke to my mainly male dominated engineering friends but sadly the fanciest pants I have are jeans and that seemed a bit of a let-down and I wouldn’t have been able to look better than the suit-clad-bowtie-wearing boys, so it would have pointless. So after a frantic call to my friend, and fellow fashionista, I managed to score myself her black midi skirt which comes more to knee length than midi on me as she is tiny but none the less I felt retro and classy. I paired it with a loose formal white button-up shirt leaving my outfit vaguely reminiscent of my previous idea. I wore (the only high heels I had in cape town – so not much of a choice but I love them regardless so it didn’t matter too much) my turquoise wedges which are still my favourite pair of heels and have seen me through many a fancy event. I threw over my new black coat. I bought it at the end of last winter choosing, on a meagre student budget, to look in the end-of-season-sale for the new item in my coat collection. It is a large structured black coat with striking zip detail and a dramatic collar and I always feel like I could walk into my job as a head of a Highstreet clothing brand wearing the thing. I matched my turquoise clutch with the shoes. The clutch never disappoints with its silver hardware and pleather feel and I am always looking for an opportunity to use it. I then added my classic Jemma twist. This time it was adding my favourite necklace. The traditional orange beaded accessory clashed both in colour and style yet bought the outfit together and made it stand out.
Fifi (the skirt-loaning friend) fittingly and unknowingly also wore black and white with her added piece of African ‘bling’. Her outfit was classy and simple with a straight black dress and classic white heels but with an oversized denim jacket to add some character to the look. You can check out her thought provoking discussion of it and its connections to her role and being as a black woman in fashion and South Africa at http://www.allzuri.blogspot.com/ .
It was a fun evening filled with Champaign (for my friends) and orange juice (for sober me) and the classic formal feast of pizza (the biggest pizza’s I’ve ever seen). Vinyl’s were played (briefly) then other less retro sounds, alcohol infused board games were competed in and for a brief moment we all pretended we didn’t have engineering homework due on the Monday.
I liked having an excuse to dress up and can’t wait for round two.
Plain Old Glasses 