Noir City Nightclub

As the finale to Noir City week this year, the "Czar of Noir" Eddie Muller threw a speakeasy-style cocktail party called "Everyone Comes to Eddie's," which Mark and I attended at the Swedish American Hall. The event was fabulous, with great entertainment, tasty appetizers and cocktails, talented dancers, and an exceptionally good-looking crowd of people decked out in noir-style evening wear. My outfit for the evening consisted of my 40's reproduction dress, vintage-styled shoes, and a flower hair clip. The pearl necklace and the bracelet are actual vintage pieces. This is an event that I hope I don't have to wait another full year for; Eddie hinted that he might try to make this a regular occurrence, and I for one would be a regular attendee if he did.

For photos of the Noir City festival as well as the nightclub event, click here.

Dress: ReVamp Vintage
Shoes: Faryl Robin

Bad Girls

The Noir City film festival just seems to get better and better every year. There's a Noir City tradition of having the Thursday night be "Bad Girls" night, so of course that was the show we decided to get dressed up for. This year's Thursday night lineup featured our bad girl icon, Beverly Michaels (star of one of our Noir City all-time favorites, Wicked Woman), in Pickup. Laura, Fawn and I even made up a drinking game to accompany the double feature, the rules of which were:

• Woman applies lipstick: one drink
• Woman puts a hand on her hip: one drink
• Someone lights up a cigarette: one drink
• A slap followed by a kiss: two drinks

It was the cigarette scenes that really did us in. I frankly wonder how people found time for anything else besides smoking in the 40's and 50's. 

Laura wore a dress she got from Modcloth, which just happened to look like it was made specifically to go with her adorable pair of pink and brown John Fluevog shoes. She topped it off with a vintage mink stole she found at an estate sale. Fawn went for a classic secretary look complete with pencil skirt and cardigan, pairing it with a vintage hat that I retrimmed myself. I wore my vintage 50's dress and a vintage fur-trimmed hat I found at Goodwill.

As for being bad girls, we did get a little tipsy, but we weren't even in the same league as Beverly Michaels. We've really got to work on that next year.

Edwardian Ball 2012

As promised, here are a couple of photos from the Edwardian Ball, which was fabulous as always. My friend Fawn had never attended the ball before, so I fitted her out for the occasion by loaning her my ruffled top from Sequoia and Gita and one of my self-made hats.

All year long I had been intending to create an elaborate costume involving my Marie Antoinette wig, but somehow it just never came together. Instead I recycled this outfit, which is what I wore to our friends' Victorian/steampunk style wedding at the Bohemian Grove back in October. It was pretty good, but not nearly as over the top as it might have been. One would be hard pressed to come up with an outfit that's too elaborate for the Edwardian Ball. In fact I'm certain it would be impossible.

The highlight for me this year was the upstairs level, which hadn't been opened up in past years. Turns out there's a whole other ballroom on top of the main ballroom at the Regency, and it had a bizarre, mysterious vibe like something straight out of a David Lynch film. Any minute I expected to see Isabella Rossellini come out and start singing Blue Velvet.

For more info about this year's ball, click to read what SF Weekly had to say about it, or take a look at this slideshow.

Vest: Lumme Designs (formerly Attila Design)
Dress: from a shop in Copenhagen
Hat: made by me
Boots: John Fluevog

Fun Filled

Here's a skirt-based outfit that made the grade for the walk to work. The skirt is dense and holds its shape well; thus there's no need for a slip, either for opacity or to prevent the skirt from clinging to my legs. To me that makes a world of difference, because half slips make an outfit feel like they're in need of constant adjustment. You've got multiple waistbands to deal with, and then you have to make sure the slip isn't hanging out at the bottom of your skirt hem or twisting around in some awkward way. I want to start experimenting with full slips under a skirt and top, because I think that might be a better option. There are so many things you never notice about outfits until you have to walk a long way in them.

I've had a fun-filled couple of days. On Thursday night Mark and I attended the annual holiday party at Anchor Brewing Company, where we ate delicious food, sampled the new Christmas Ale, and even got some VIP access into the distillery and the rooftop bar (thanks to my fabulous inside connection). Reporters from the Celebrator and 7x7 Magazine were in attendance, so who knows, Mark and I might even end up in their pages.

On Friday I had the pleasure of finally meeting Lisa, aka LPC, in person for lunch downtown. She is vibrant and intelligent and a delight to talk to; I felt like I'd known her for years. For all her talk of being a Sturdy Gal, I suspect she has a big streak of Arty Cousin lurking just below the surface, so I'm looking forward to going shopping together and seeing how much of that comes out.

On Saturday Mark and I attended my company holiday party at Foreign Cinema here in the city. I wore my Valentino dress with Wolford tights and Miu Miu shoes, a combination I've been wanting to put together for quite awhile. And yes, I was too lazy to take photos.

I'm headed off on my trip to Germany and France today; see you next week!

Jacket: thrifted
Skirt: Marc by Marc Jacobs
Boots: Ecco
Necklace: Wendy Brandes