Stardust | BBRBF Book Club + Outfit

Welcome to January's edition of the BBRBF Book Club. This month we read Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I was really excited about this month's choice because I absolutely adore the movie and Neil Gaiman is always a good time. If you haven't heard of Stardust the summary from GoodReads.com is below.

From GoodReads.com:

Young Tristran Thorn will do anything to win the cold heart of beautiful Victoria—even fetch her the star they watch fall from the night sky. But to do so, he must enter the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient wall that gives their tiny village its name. Beyond that old stone wall, Tristran learns, lies Faerie—where nothing, not even a fallen star, is what he imagined.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman comes a remarkable quest into the dark and miraculous—in pursuit of love and the utterly impossible.

The book had a lot of similar elements to the movie that I enjoyed. The world Neil Gaiman has built is this wonderful left of center fantasy world that uses iconic fairy tale elements mixed in with grown up wit and satire. It's a quirky combination which leads to a totally unique fairy tale experience and while I immensely enjoyed the world, the actually story was a bit flat for me. Tristan always just seemed like a bit of a childish fool who never develops much as a character and I never actually felt Tristan and Yvaine, the spirited and caring fallen star, fall in love. It was almost like Yvaine fell in love with him purely because he was in the proximity of her.  Problems like this don't seem to bother me in movies, but when reading a book I need to feel the love not just know of it's existence. That's what makes reading a book the better experience.

I do see a lot of merit in this book and I'm glad I read it. But, it's not a show stopper. It's just pleasant. 

Obviously I had to wear my star print dress in honor of Yvaine, but I have worn it several times on the blog and wanted to put a new spin on it. I chose to take inspiration from the witches and add some dark fairy tale vibes with my mesh corset from Orchard Corset. I love how drama it adds to wear a corset over any outfit and I always feel like a vampy villain when I'm rocking mine.

Make sure to check out all the BBRBF babes and their reveiws of Stardust.

Circle Skits & Petticoats

The Eyre Effect

In a Nutshell,

The Miss Information Blog

Wrap Dress and a Fur | Outfit

I've heard that when one feels anxious about life it is common to make drastic changes to hair to create some illusion of control. As I have never been able to do more with my hair than just feed and pet the beast and hope it behaves well enough, I don't do much experimentation with it. Once I find something that works I'm always so afraid of making it angry again. But, when it comes to style of dress, my experiments run a little wild and certainly make a plaything of the idea of cohesion. It occurs to me that crafting a new style, not yet accomplished, is my way of recapturing control of my life. 

I feel adrift; tipping off the precipice of great change. While I go free falling into a life that has very little do with the life I carefully crafted for myself, my immediate reflex is to fling my arms out and grab onto a style that exudes strength, grace, and attitude like rambling branches sticking from the cliff face. It's meager and the likelihood of it saving me is slim. Yet, what else is a falling person supposed to do besides cling to the tiny things within one's reach?

Dresses and shoes...fur and velvet do nothing to help my situation, but when put together in the right combination, black floral wrap dresses with daring bits of exposed skin, boots that ride high on the legs, and furs that drape like cats give me tiny reminders all day long. I am strong, I am spirited, I am worthy, and I do not allow others to dim my light.

Dresses that wrap around my body with care and furs that draw attention are small gestures and yet they are just a mere representation of the power that exists within me.

In this interim of life, I feel myself throwing down the happier, more innocent elements of style that have marked the last few years. Bright colors, sweet prints, girlish details are all falling away like dead skin to reveal something darker and more brazen. Something that combines the tawdry and the elegant in an apologetic way.

I've taken to stalking new style crushes on Instagram, (spookyfatbabe, jaglever, margotmeanie, etc) and my brain is working through ways to combine the dark elegance and glamour of Dita, the witchy vibes of Stevie, and the trashy, vintage, rock n' roll quality of rockabilly girls.

You can see my newest style inspirations on this Pinterest board riiiiiight here.

This outfit has a lot of Dita flavor in the classic style of the wrap dress and the dramatic fur stole. I can tell you all right now, prepare yourselves for a lot of black floral dresses because that is the epitome of my current mood. In fact, prepare yourselves for a lot of black. Black is my friend. Black is coming.

This Eshakti dress is going to get a lot on the body time because it possesses so many elements that I am looking for in my clothing. The wrap dress style is one of the best items a woman can own. It hugs and floats in subtly sexy, magical ways to extenuate the female form. And while this is a delicate and floaty crepe fabric, the dress is fully lined which will allow it to stand up to the viciously cold Wisconsin winters.

And this faux fur stole from Torrid? Can I sleep in it, guys? I'm going to be throwing this on top of everything because I need a little extra diva in my life right now. Nothing puts some sass in my step like wearing something outrageous with a smile and "so, what?" attitude.

So, loves, tell me in the comments, what major fashion changes have you made recently and why?

Dress: Eshakti | Stole: Torrid | Tights: Target (similar in plus) | Boots: Charlotte Russe (similar in wide calf) | Lips: Colourpop's Liquid Lipstick in Tulle