what i wore: lucha libre

when we told pati, the housekeeper at la casa d'escritor in mexico city, that we were going on a date to the lucha libre, she exclaimed: "wearing THAT?!" i was wearing what i normally wear on a nice summer day; a simple red knee-length dress with white piping, and comfortable sandals. no no no, she insisted. i should wear a t-shirt and jeans.

ha! me, in a t-shirt and jeans. i thought...

why not.

for those of you who know me in person or have seen what outfits i have posted online... well, i am hardly a t-shirt and jeans kind of person. in fact, i do not and have not owned jeans in a good three or four years now. but my relationship to denim and pants is a whole other story... i scrambled through simon's closet and dug out two of my favourite of his clothing. seriously doubting my ample hips would be able to squeeze into his already skin-tight jeans, i gave it a go anyway. pairing it with his awesome "SCREAMING FLAMING OHMYGAW EAGLE" t-shirt, as we love to call it, a gift from a stylish belgian friend, i found i looked, in fact, quite badass.

and here is some proof.

photos by simon, edited by me.

honestly i've found many people's concerns about what i "should" and "should not" be wearing on the streets of one of the world's largest cities slightly exagerrated... but that said, i really did not end up spending much time in the city itself, and only went out by myself once. in fact, my experience with mexico city have really reminded me of people's reactions when i first moved to toronto: omg you can't ever go out by yourself/wearing that/in neighbourhood x/don't talk to strangers/etc. this is something i could really go on about at length but! another day, another time.

i have three days left in this wonderful country; tonight we are going to celebrate at los toros in colima, simon's favourite bar in the world. tomorrow, we are waking up early, packing a bus with food and friends, and celebrating our three year anniversary while playing in the waves of the pacific ocean. sunday, a goodbye party in mexico city. monday, we catch our flights back to québec city.

i know july has been slow here posting-wise, but believe you me i'll have LOTS to share with everyone in august, i promise.

mexico

for the past few months (oh who am i kidding, years) i've been trying to flesh out my ideas about self-portraits. why i take them, why they are interesting, why i find them so thought-provoking. but since every time i sit down to write about them, i end up writing a novel, i decided to simply share some self-portraits with you guys while i work out some actually writing. i realized i still had yet to share my favourite self-portraits i took while i was in mexico back in december. it's about time i shared them with you.

(view this one larger, it's much better that way)


this one, i love because it's all about the mistakes; i had no idea there would be the shadows of the clothesline and powerlines cast on me. i didn't know i would hear a noise crashing in the kitchen that distracted me so that i wasn't looking (posing) at the camera. my favourite self-portraits are always the mistakes, the surprises.

also, in these photos, we see my uniform from my time in mexico. i bought that dress the first time i went to a tiny thrift store in ste. foy for a whole dollar, and only get to wear it when it's really really hot. so far it was worn for one day in québec city, three days in brooklyn in august, and five days in mexico.

(i tried to recreate the mistakes from the first photo i took in that spot but to no avail)

i might share a few more later, but these are my absolute favourites. to see more or comment on them, you can see them on my flickr.