what i wore: leaves know they're ending, celebrate their end

ah, the fall! so beautiful, and quickly coming to an end. i must post these pictures before the snow starts to fall! i don't know about where you guys are, but almost all of our leaves have fallen now here in beautiful québec city. early october is always peak season in ontario and quebec, and i had the chance to enjoy the beautiful colours when visiting my family for thanksgiving/indigenous day of resistance weekend at the beginning of the month.






this is my younger sister's wonderful dog, aspen. she is potentially my favourite four-legged creature on the entire planet, not gonna lie. look at my big goofy smile! how can you not love this dog?


and how can you not love the beautiful fall leaves?




if you're interested in that kind of thing...
dress: 1950s cotton day dress, vintage clothing fair in ottawa circa 2007 i believe?
crinoline underskirt: thrifted
necklace: key from the ste. foy flea market, 2$, chain thrifted ages ago
belt: from le vestiaire, free
oxblood heels: gift from my mother, naturalizer
goofy smile: thanks to my awesome sisters and an adorable puppy.

so with that out of the way, we can talk about more interesting things.

the folk festival de québec is in full swing as of tuesday and i am filled with musical love and lust. anne-marie, simon and i went to see ferriswheel and timber timbre, which was so lovely. timber timbre's music is always so perfect around this time of year, and it's always a treat to hear it live. there are so many shows i'd love to have time to check out, but my time and my pocketbook unfortunately will not permit such things. i do think i'll have to go see lisa bozikovic, though.

this beautiful song, no denial, is about the death of her mother, and features some of the most beautiful lyrics.

brilliant gold, crimson red/ the leaves know they're ending/and celebrate their end

i don't think i've ever heard a more beautiful metaphor for death.

what i wore: apple picking

one of my absolute favourite things to do when fall rolls around is to go apple picking. so earlier this month when my friends ben and april invited us to head up to l'île d'orléans, a twenty minute drive from québec city, i jumped at the chance! here are a few photos.

the bridge to l'île d'orléans. magnificent to visit in the fall!

the island is full of farms and orchards, and it is a great place for me to get local produce and enjoy the wonderful weather we have around this time of year. this was really wonderful, this orchard was right next to a beautiful old barn. i wish i had snapped some better pictures of the inside, but with the sun so bright and only my little point and shoot, this is all you get.







dress: vintage, thrifted in peterborough, 2007
belt: from le vestiaire, free
shoes: gift from simon, mexico city
socks: deadstock menswear! love 'em.
crinoline underskirt: thrifted



all of these were taken on september 19th, and we just finished our gigantic bag. it took us three weeks to finish our 20 pound bag of apples! we clearly overshot and should have gotten a 10 pound bag. instead we tried lots of new recipes, made apple juices and ciders, adding apples to salads, and of course making lots and lots of desserts like apple crumbles et bien sûr! des tartes tatins. i just simply cannot resist wonderful local fruit at such a good price.



also i don't think i've mentioned it before, but i started a food blog a little while ago. it's called "food i want to eat" and it mostly features recipes i want to try. expect mostly vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, and/or raw recipes. check it out if you're interested in recipes.

what i wore: matching our surroundings

last week, my friend anne-marie took me thrifting. as we stepped out of our doors, we realized... we match our neighbourhood!

i absolutely love anne-marie's t-strap shoes, and i could not believe the colour was the exact same as her front door.

we don't mess around here in québec city; we are so stylish, we accidentally end up matching our beautiful surroundings. how about that.

posting these very fall-themed photos reminds me... anne-marie, morgan, simon & i went swimming during the heat wave a few weeks back, and it was possibly my favourite day of the entire summer. okay perhaps second favourite, a close second to swimming in the pacific back in july. i better post those photos before we forget what the summer heat felt like! not to mention all of the writing i have to work on before we come up on the 1 year anniversary of this here little blog.

anyway, back to the grindstone. until then!

what i wore today: homage to teddy girls

consider this an homage to a jacket, to a season, and to a stylish group of badass ladies known as the teddy girls.

after a week of intense heat at the very end of august (very unusual and quite historic for québec city) we have finally been blessed with a cool autumn breeze in the air. as much as i love summer, i must say sartorially fall has always been my favourite. it's so much fun to play with colours, layers, textures... ah, tweed, plaid, how i missed thee.

today was one of those lovely early fall days, and so i dug deep in my closet to fully enjoy the autumn air while i ran some errands. here's what i came up with.

.the outfit.

(i feel like i look a wee bit... stoned in this photo)


it's moments like these where i love volunteering in a thrift store; that saddle bag and pair of high waisted pants are my rewards.

.the jacket.

the shoulders! they are just the perfect cut for me.


and even the namesake is perfection; jules was a nickname of mine when i was younger.

this is potentially one of the best items in my closet; it can make a dress more casual, a short and pants outfit fancier, and fits me perfectly. i used to think the sleeves were too short but now i understand. when i found it years ago, i really did not appreciate the treasure i had found. i think i paid $2 for it in a thrift store in trenton, or was it peterborough? by any means, it didn't really suit my style back in 2004, but now that i am a bit older and a little less afraid of looking "serious", every fall i look forward to pulling it out and pairing it with new things. the combinations are really endless. here are two ways i wore it back in the fall of 2008.

.the inspiration.

teddy girls:


Teddy Girl, 1955. by Ken Russell






all photos by filmmaker and photographer Ken Russell

how can you see these photos and NOT want to look exactly like them? they have so much attitude, yet at the same time so much joy. i especially love how in the first and last photos, the boys are almost jealous of all the attention the teddy girls are getting, as if they wish they could be in their "club." sorry boys.

here is part of the essay that accompanied the publication of these images in picture post magazine:

These photos were taken in January 1955 in Walthamstow, Poplar and North Kensington: solidly working class areas of London. The girls photographed embody three of the great issues of the time; class, gender and youth. They are rejecting the drab costumes of class conformity and post-war austerity. They are pioneers for women looking beyond home for a place to be valued. They are young girls blazing a trail that will be followed by youth cultures for decades to come. But somehow Teddy Girls as a group remain historically almost invisible.

how great is that! pretty amazing if you ask me. i wish i could have known some of those teddy girls... hell, maybe some one you brits might have had a relative who was a teddy girl! ask around.

clearly i am not the only person to have ever been inspired by the style of these ferocious femmes. back in 2006, bust magazine had a teddy girls themed photoshoot that i enjoyed so much i scanned to share with friends. here are two:

now if only i could get someone to do my hair, the look would be complete.

what i wore today: femme tea party

pervers/cité is happening in montreal this week, and let me tell you i am wishing i could be there. yesterday, there was a femme tea party happening in montreal at parc jarry from two to five. seriously, how can you resist an awesome (bilingual!) invitation like this one:

Mixer for femmes of all genders and our friends! Come frolic in all your finery and enjoy a terribly refined afternoon of iced tea, cupcakes, games and a fabulous femme photoshoot. Rain or shine.

seriously. what femme is not reading that and thinking "AH I WISH I COULD HAVE BEEN THERE!"

if you're like me, and couldn't make it there, what would you have worn? instead of moping around about the fact that i couldn't meet up with some of my wonderfully sexy montrealer queers, like my friend jesse, i decided to get dressed up anyway, even though i just had a pretty dreary lazy sunday at home and running errands.

here's my outfit:

vintage hat + veil: emmaüs thrift store, qc
necklace: gift from meghan
shirt: zara, thrifted from le vestiaire
black shawl: le vestiaire
gloves: from le vestiaire
sandals: thrifted from village des valeurs, qc.


and then i had tea for one.

did any of my readers out there attend the femme tea party? i can't wait to see the results of the photoshoot! what did you wear? what kinds of conversations did you have? how gorgeous did everyone look?

oh yes! and i almost forgot, i have a little announcement: yeah, sure, i love writing about fashion culture from a critical feminist perspective here, but i like to write about other things, too! film, for one! shameless mag invited me to cover film fridays over there starting next week. i can't decide whether to start with the runaways or youth in revolt... comment there to make requests and all that jazz.

until then,

xo
julia

recommending reading browsing
pervercité - official website
fuck yeah femmes - tumblr
5 feminist conversations i'm over - number 6!

what i wore: perfect july dance outfit

photos by simon dumas

these were taken near dolores de hidalgo, as liliana, simon and i made our way in search of the san luis potosi desert in early july. it was so much fun to stop and take pictures along the way of our trip, and i'll share more of my favourites on flickr and perhaps here in the near future.

as i was dancing to the music blaring from our little rental car in the middle of nowhere, mexico, i realized that this is potentially my absolute favourite dancing outfit. and i remembered the very first time i wore it: june 2008, at pride in toronto. i had just purchased the skirt from a vintage store across the street at a very discounted price, and hadn't quite found a good way to accessorize it. the day before pride, though, at my best friend morgan's encouragement, i decided to go with a semi-rainbow theme, even though i often find it a bit... ridiculous. sequins, glitter, boas, i can go for and wholeheartedly endorse. even rainbow suspenders, or belts, etc. but a whole rainbow outfit? i wasn't sure it would work. but! in fact it's really just four bright colours.

what to wear to pride is always a big conundrum. there are a whole host of factors a queer must take into consideration:

1. hotness, of course. and by hotness i mean you gotta be sexy. clearly this definition/requirement changes for everyone, depending on tastes (style wise and sex wise of course). looking sexy, however is not nearly as important as...
2. feeling sexy.
   
3. practicality. this goes extra if you're in the dyke march or any type of parade you've gotta prepare yourself for lots of walking... and that ain't so easy in your favourite pair of 4 inch heels.
4. weather. pride in toronto falls at the end of june or early july, which is usually when it just starts to get to that smoldering summer heat us canadians long for during our excessively long winters.
5. and, of course, there is the stereotype that gay men are the harshest fashion critics. are you going to dress for yourself, or for them? (my vote is always to dress for yourself)
   

for me, this was definitely my pick for best pride outfit. it was great for the heat (although i really wished my hair had been a few inches shorter), for dancing in the parade, for flirting with cute queers, for seeing friends i hadn't seen in months and even years, and last but not least topping off the night dancing to a free hidden cameras show.

while in mexico, i realized that i still love and wear that outfit that i first wore exactly two years ago! but, with my long hair and glasses, i feel like i look a lot different.

aa dress (yeah i know, gift from an ex) worn as strapless top
vintage circle skirt from king of kensington
(i lived on kensington ave. for 8 months and managed to buy this skirt and one other dress... an incredible feat considering my affection for vintage, the selection on the street, and the fact that i was actually flush with cash during that brief time in my life)
vintage shoes from st. vincent de paul, peterborough
leather satchel from value village, ste. foy
wooden necklace from now closed vintage store, montreal

with some lovely ex-peterboroughites, melissa and muna, taking a break from the heat at pride 2008, toronto

OMG J.D. SAMSON
this doesn't really have anything to do with this post or my outfit other than
OMG I MET J.D. SAMSON AND TOTALLY FANGIRLED

so tell me! what do you wear to pride events? do you have a favourite outfit that you first wore years ago and can see yourself wearing years from now?