Prints Charming

Christmas Party: 

"Prints Charming - A Festive Fashion Fairytale"

In which mixing prints - NOT the clicking of ruby slippers! - transports me to an English Country Garden before bringing me home again, where I find that fairies exist even at the bottom of Aussie backyards... 

Oh, didn't you know they love it down the back under the shade of the trusty mango tree?!

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Dress: Gift

Heels: Betts silk

Clutch: Betts silk

Headpiece: Vintage, 1950s floral

Cuff: Heathergems silver & green-dyed heather

Hinged Bangle: Heathergems silver & pink-dyed heather

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Avid readers of this blog will already know about my penchant for clashing prints, usually a maximum of two in one outfit... but this ensemble surpasses my record! Not only is the mixing inherent in the smock itself - with spotted chiffon topped by floral chiffon - but in the accessories: the floral silk patterned platform heels & matching clutch. Luckily it was all to adhere to the theme of the day, "Prints Charming: A Festive Fashion Fairytale!"

Invitees were transported to a lush English Country Garden full of shady secret enclaves, stone fountains, fragrant blooms in a myriad of hues, fluttering butterflies & mystical fairy tea parties... a breathtaking cacophony of colour & sound that I have attempted (somewhat clumsily) to recreate in these pictures taken at the bottom of my own Aussie backyard - under the mango tree, no less!

As someone who grew up obsessed not only with the classic children's novel The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, but the story about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle & the fairy pictures* - made into a movie called FairyTale: A True Story in 1997 - all of this was like a dream come true, sitting at the wrought-iron-painted-white table & chairs, sipping tea from mismatched china cups & nibbling dainty finger sandwiches from their saucers, hearing the tinkling of fairy bells & glancing over my shoulder, convinced that I'd seen a little sprite dancing from bluebell to snapdragon... Pure magic. 

Despite the busyness of the rest of the ensemble, the jewellery chosen was also a melange of colour, with a silver & green Heathergem cuff on my right forearm & a silver & pink Heathergem hinged bangle on my left wrist. And the embellishment didn't stop there, as each of the attendees received a vintage 1950s flower headpiece as a Christmas gift!

* Two little girls, one named Elsie & the other named Frances, fooled the world when they claimed to have photographic proof of fairies at the bottom of the garden. Most scholars were skeptical, except renowned author & spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. Doyle firmly & passionately believed the girls' story until they finally admitted that it was, in fact, fake & they had taken the photographs of the so-called fairies using storybook cut-outs propped up by bobby pins.