Ode to My Fashion

It is officially winter time in Pune. Nothing too dramatic since it is a mere 24 inside my flat. However mornings and nights are chilly enough to make me crave thick blankets and knits. I have been happily digging inside my Winter clothes suitcase to grab sweaters and jackets, and boots. I never really liked the cold but I love the layering look so you can imagine my excitement. Plus it is a good reason to wear my fave boots. Today was Xmas eve. I did not plan anything special except to entertain the kids. I went down to the gaming center at the mall and let them go crazy. Cardi-jacket - gift from my Dad, had it for 18 years and counting... Shirt - Sunder shop, M.G. road Pants - M.G. road Boots - Shimamura Bag - Omake from Non-No magazine As I said earlier this cardi-jacket was a gift from my Dad. He bought it during one of his business trip in Italy or Egypt, I am not sure. I remember wearing it for Xmas and New year's eve bash back in 1996. It was per

Winter 2001, just after the events of 9/11 reshaped the entire world,  I traveled to Tioman Island, Malaysia. I stayed in Berjaya hotel where I ate, snorkeled and met some interesting people there. I rang the new year there. Fast forward 12 years, 1 marriage, two kids and 20 kilos later, I am back. The resort is not what it used to be but we are still having fun. The city is more developed which makes it easier to get out of the hotel. But we do not at all because we are quite content with what is here: cartoons on TV for rainy mornings, pool and beach for sunny afternoons and affordable local restaurant just outside of the hotel. It is a very simple and relaxing holiday. Holidays at the beach should be simple and I do not need a lot to make me happy: good food, good bed, a book or two and Internet connection. I also discovered that I like sketching by the sea. I just wished I had taken my sketch book and pencils with me. But a pen and paper will have to do for now. Things like that h

As I am taking these pictures, fireworks are banging outside my balcony. I am not sure I have told you already but I live right across the river from a hotel and behind a hall. It means that whenever there is an event like a wedding or a concert I get treated to free fireworks. On busy weeks, I get to watch three. Some are short, others long but they are all so loud. It is a blessing in disguise. I thought I would be bored by now but every time I hear them, I rush to take a look. My kids enjoy them as well and they like to sing Fireworks by Katy Perry, while watching them. How do they know the song? Madagascar 3. Anyway tonight, I was invited to a barbecue by some friends. I could have gone with tee and jeans or tunic and jeans but I wanted different and comfy around the waist as I knew I would be indulging in good food. What's comfier than a maxi dress? Nothing in my book. So I grab this "in your face" maxi and added a dark  jacket to tone it down. Jacket - Max

To kick off my Never worn challenge , I picked this wine red pleated skirt. It was the last thing I thrifted in Japan before moving to India. I had seen this jewel at the thrift store for weeks before deciding to get it ( the system of the shop is that prices on items decrease as weeks pass by). Truth be told I wore it once to drop my kids at school but I hated how I styled it and how it looked on my extra pounds. And needless to say that I have not worn it since. Until I was once again inspired by Pinterest. I swear the person who invented that thing is a genius. Cardigan - random shop in M.G. road Tee - 390 Mart Skirt - Don don down Belt - Zara Shoes - Max I love how the entire ensemble turned out to be. I think a tee is the way to go for a casual look. I just wished the skirt was a bit longer but I can still make it work. I will wear it more from now on. This one is a keeper!

Hi! If you are anything like me, there are plenty of clothes in your closet waiting to be worn. I want to remedy to that. So for an entire month, I will wear all the clothes I have never worn. And if by the end of the month, I do not wear a single one, it gets donated or sold. Here are the items on my list: Striped pants What was I thinking? Now I have to find a way to style these without looking like beetle juice. Pleated maxi skirt The last thing I thrifted before leaving Japan. I love everything about it expect that it is not long enough. I also find it too classy for casual days.. Lbd I went crazy and bought two of these. They are cute and should be fairly easy to pull off. But they are confined just because I need a special occasion to wear them. Printed blouse I bought this fairly recently, 7 months ago. I was attracted to the print and to the softness of the fabric. So it does not make any sense at all that this baby has never seen the world.

Hello my readers. I just wanted to let you know that I changed my other blog address from odetofashion.blogspot.com to odetofash.blogspot.com. Some bug or virus was attached to it and I already apologized for it. It took me a while to figure it out. I am not that Internet and computer savvy. Anyway please check out odetofash.blogspot.com. I promise to have new articles for you to read soon.

The kids and I went to their school's Dandiya night. Dandiya is another Indian festival ( more details here ). I was very excited about going because I heard that there would be Garba, a dance with sticks. I fell in love with Garba after watching it in one of my favorite movie Bride and Prejudice . The dance was so beautifully choreographed that I wanted to see it live.  Well, during the festival at the school, the children and the teachers performed and it was as good as I expected it to be. But the highlight of the night, was to see everybody in their Indian attire. As a fashion addict, it was a feast for the eyes to see all the bejeweled Ghagra, Sari, Anarkali, Choli and more. It was a kaleidoscope of mirrors, sequins, beads, lace, tulle, tassels, gold, silver, colors. Oh, it was overwhelmingly pretty! I just wanted to take a picture of everything, touch every fabric and drool over how it was made. It was pure fashion orgasm. Too bad my camera does not do well at night. I man

I wanted blue skinny pants for a very long time but never found the right pair. I was about to give up when I stumble into this random shop on MG road that had some blue pants in stretchy fabric and in my size. I bought them on impulse instantly regretting it because they fit but not as well as a skinny jean. In other words, they are not jeans, which I think have more support. Plus these tend to sag at the bottom always forcing me to pull them up (something I discovered after I wore them for a day) Anyway, I went home with my new skinny pants, and I am faced with another problem: the styling. I am tired of always going safe with white blouses and denim shirt but what else to pull? I forgot about the pants until I saw a pic of one of my cousin on Facebook rocking the blue pants with a coral blouse. I am thinking that I do have a pink blouse that slightly resemble hers so why not steal her style? VS Black open cardigan and Pants - Same random shop in M.G. Road Pink blouse

I was invited to a party at a lounge not far from my place. I was excited as anyone could be because it was a grown up party meaning no kids allowed. I panicked at first because I did not have a babysitter but a quick chat with my helper solve the issue. Anyway the party was from 4 to 8 pm. I arrived fashionably late at 4:35 to discover the place half empty. Apparently India is like my home country Senegal, people show late at events. No fuss! I chatted with the people who were there and assessed everyone's style. There was no dress code but people dressed up. It was casual chic. Girls wore figure hugging or babydoll type cocktail dresses with lace, animal prints, floral prints, sequins paired with booties or pumps or platform. The preferred length was above the knee. But some girls showed up wearing Indian Anarkali and gowns. The boys were very casual with some wearing colored denim paired with velvet jackets or crisp white shirt. It was a young crowd so the outfits were trendy,

I hate tailors. Ok, "hate" maybe a strong word, therefore let us just say that I do not like tailors. On one hand they never quite do what you ask of them. This one will make that midi skirt a maxi skirt just because he thinks it is modest, and that one will make that dress tight just because he thinks it will be sexy enough. I mean I need a tailor, not a designer so you can keep your input to the minimum please. On the other they never respect deadlines. They will tell you come retrieve that dress on Saturday and when you show up, they have not even cut the fabric yet they are taking on new customers. They usually blame it on power cuts but I think it is just pure lazyness. With all that, you understand why I prefer to shop retail than going to a tailor. I thought things would change when I came to India. There are many tailors here and they do not ask for crazy prices. But how to decide if they are good enough. After procrastinating for many months, I decided that I nee

It is Eid and I am sad. I am in India, miles away from my family aka parents, brothers, cousins, aunties and uncles. I got my smaller family with me and we are going to make the most of it but it is not home. Eid for me was the ultimate festival back home. All my cousins, family friends ( mostly Christians) will come to hang for the day so the house was packed. We would cook tonnes of food: french fries, mustard onion sauce with olives and barbecue mutton among other delicacies. The entire day my Mother would busy herself making the house appropriate, first barking orders to the help and aunties to clean it entirely and then bask it in incense. My Dad who is allergic would retreat to the backyard washing the mutton with my brothers and uncles. Then before the guests would arrive, my Dad would have sacrificed the sheep, cleaned it, carved it and handed it over to my Mother who would season and cook it. It was a long process and often we would eat in the late afternoon. But we did not co