I mentioned in my last post that I might snap some shots of my latest Oh My Gauze purchases, and this past week I ended up with about an hour to spare wherein I could throw on some clothes and shoot a few outfits. So, here they are:

It’s been unseasonably warm here this winter – it was over 80 degrees outside when I took these shots, and it was humid as hell. To avoid messing with lighting and dealing with the small space in my little office/studio, I ventured outside to use natural light, which made things move more quickly, but it had its drawbacks. The heat, first of all, meant I got sweaty and tired pretty early on and by the third outfit change I was pretty much over it. And, as usual, my ability to take decent shots out of doors is still low, and as I tend to do I chose to shoot at the worst time of day (around 1 PM). The light wasn’t TOO much of problem this time, because it was overcast, but it sure would have helped both the light AND the heat situation if I’d thought to take pictures earlier. Anyway, the only thing Oh My Gauze in this leap shot is the skirt – it’s the Mahi skirt I showed a screenshot of last time. Obviously you can’t see it well here, but the shots I took just to show off the skirt were terrible so I didn’t edit any of them. Here’s another screen grab of the real thing (it’s better than the last picture I showed, I think):

The gathers at the side are a nice touch and as with all of OMG’s clothing, it’s well-made and very attractive on. I’m wearing it with one of many Free People items I’ve bought lately; there was time when FP had terrible sales (10% off orders over $300, crap like that) and so my purchases were fairly restrained. But in the past year, they’ve really upped their sale game, and I’ve gotten some nice deals recently. Unfortunately, my favorite thing to do in the morning while I sip my coffee is peruse the FP online store on my iPad, and damned if they don’t keep putting things on sale that I really want for a good price. I’m not a huge fan of stripes at all, or collars for that matter, but the panel of multi-patchwork-floral cutting through at the middle really sold me. Also, it is made of the softest material that’s really comfy, and the sleeves are overly long, which I happen to like. The shoes are my Ugg hightops that are lined with sheepskin; they were a bit pricey and I waffled on buying them for several weeks before taking the plunge, and I’m glad I did. They’re really comfy, and I’ve been wearing the hell out of them. Hard to do when it’s 85 degrees outside, but I finally  just started wearing my winter shit even though it wasn’t cold enough for any of it. I bought winter shoes and I’m going to wear them, dammit.

You know, there was about a ten-minute period of time when I was outside when the damn sun peeked out of the clouds, and it was when I was taking these shots. So, the color is blown out and overall it’s just a meh picture, but I did like the flow of the dress. In fact I had a hard time choosing which one to process because this dress makes some great shapes when it’s flung about. When it’s not being flung about, however, it looks like a big sack on me. In fact, when I was taking these pictures I had the tags stuck into the sleeve because I figured I would return it – after seeing the pics, though, and liking the way it flowed, I decided to keep it. This may have been a mistake, because it really is way too big for me, and it was $93, but I figure I can either give it to my mom (she is a sucker for big, flowy clothes just like I am) or use it as a cover up. And yes, I did manage to take all these shots without falling in the pool. I actually tried to orchestrate a levitation shot here, but when i went to edit the shots it just didn’t come together.

This is called the Alex dress, even though I’ll probably wear it mostly as a tunic. The color looks lavender here, but it’s actually a very soft gray called Ash. While I love this, it may be a smidge too big on me; I’ll wear it around for awhile and see how I feel about it, but I may end up getting it altered a bit. On several of these new tops the neckline on me was very wide and tended to fall off one shoulder. I put a cami on underneath them all for the shoot, but I’m picky about such things and in a lot of cases it kind of ruined the look. i did order a few interesting cami tops recently that I haven’ t got in yet – with some detail at the neckline like lace or a laser-cut pattern – but I don’t have them in yet to see if they will work better showing up top than a plain cami does. Anyway, I love the hemline of this and the big unique pocket on one side; I also really love the ruched sleeves even though, again, i think they are a little wide on my skinny-ass arms.

One reason I don’t feel like these shots turned out looking as nice as I wanted was that I used my wide-angle lens, which tends to flatten things out a bit. I used it both because I was still working in some tight places and needed to be able to zoom out (our pool takes up a lot of space in our backyard) but mostly because I wanted to take the opportunity to do some leaping shots since I haven’t done  them in awhile, and the 17-40mm works best for those. Still, I should have just used my 50mm for the clothing shots and switched to the 17-40 for the jumping ones – I was just too lazy to bother. Moving on.

Ooooh, now this top I love. On the website it looks interesting, but not nearly as pretty as it in in person, and that color is a new one called “blonde” that on the site looks much more beige/tan. I took a chance on the color anyway, because I really was curious about it, and I’m glad I did because in reality, the blonde is a lovely soft yellow that goes great with all  the new colors I tried. It also fits perfectly on me and the arm holes aren’t too big – usually a problem for me. The pants are called the Polo pant, and I bought two pair of these because I just love them. This is the Flamingo color here. Oh, and I had to bust out my new Louis for a few shots, of course. I am in love with that bag!

That skirt is another Free People steal; I think I paid maybe $30 for it at the store and was flabbergasted at how cheap it was for how nicely it’s made. It’s fully lined, not that mini-liner crap that barely covers your butt and all the stores seemed to be pushing now. I do NOT like my legs to be showing through the material of my skirt; it’s not that I’m a prude, I just think it ruins the look of the skirt. Anyway, I paired this with a newbie from OMG called the Kitty blouse. This is one is also in the Ash color, and it’s much better represented here than in the previous photo. I’ve learned that with OMG tops only certain cuts suit me; in general staying shorter is better than going really long (although obviously I make exceptions) and avoiding tops with the sharkbite shape (shorter in the middle and longer on the sides) is best because it’s a cut that’s really overwhelming on me, and makes my already-long torso look longer and my already-short legs look shorter. That said, if I do get a top that isn’t tunic-length, I also tend to avoid tops that are cut to fit narrow, because on me they are still much too big and even altering them doesn’t help with that. If the top, like this one, is meant to be loose but isn’t too long, though, I’ve found it will work for me.

Last one – and oh MAN was I hot, sweaty, and grouchy by the time I took this photo  (remember, in each outfit after I took some normal shots to show the clothes, I then did some leaping shots)! The top is called the Stingray blouse, and as you can see the neckline is REALLY wide. I don’t like the cami I put underneath it as it distracts a lot from the blouse,  but like I said, I’m working on it. The pants are another pair of the Polo in Ash (the top is in Flamingo).

That’s everything I bought from OMG this last round, but wouldn’t you know in looking on the website while writing this post to be sure I named things properly, I now see several more new styles I haven’t tried yet and of course I want to buy a few of them. I also see two more new colors – Washed Black and Washed Blueberry – that of course I want to try as well. So, you may see a few more new things on the blog soon. “Washed,” by the way, means “subtly tie-dyed” in OMG-speak. I have a sleeveless top in the Washed Reef color already; it’s not my favorite effect but the Washed Black looks pretty awesome.

I intended to shoot some of my Free People stuff, too, but it just got too hot to do so (it’s about 80 degrees here right now, by the way, and when I wake up in the morning it will be about 35. Welcome to Texas). It’s mostly been really cute and comfy tee shirts, but I did finally give in and snag this one dress I agonized over for a week or two (well, not really agonized over, but you get the idea). Free People is a tricky store; while they have a lot of awesome things, sometimes their materials aren’t the best and can be quite flimsy, and they tend to throw in some little detail that rules it out for me, like a really cute top that’s backless (which is a no-go for me) or a great dress that utilizes teeny tiny shell buttons all the way up the damn back (who in the world are these women who can get someone else to button them into their clothes when wearing this stuff? Because there’s no way you can do it yourself). In the case of tee shirts, I can buy an extra-small and I know I’m fine (in part because FR tends to run a little large on me) but dresses are another matter. So, I waffled because it was a dress, and also because in the pictures on the site the fabric looked like it might be really thin and transparent (FP does that a LOT). I decided to give it a go in the end, because I just couldn’t get it out of my head no matter how hard I tried, and I am so glad I did because it’s GORGEOUS. I don’t have any photos to show you, but here’s a screenshot I snagged to give you the idea (I couldn’t fit the entire model into the screenshot, sorry):

FP makes several different styles of henley dress (this one is called the Wildflower Maxi), and I’ve always wanted to try one, but the generally narrow cut of them through the hips and thighs has made me hold off. This one, though has a looser fit as you can see, and I really loved the panels sewn into the skirt to make it flow better. And again, the arms are super-long, which I really like for some reason (not sure why, I don’t have overly long arms, I just like the look of too-long sleeves. I’m a long sleeve gal overall, really, and there isn’t much in the world of fashion I don’t think would look better if it had long sleeves! But I digress). It’s long, but even though it touches the floor on me I still don’t think it will need hemming, and I was happy to see that the fabric was sturdy and not as transparent as I feared it might be; I will still wear a slip under it because I always do, but in reality one probably isn’t needed. I also got another Stitch Fix box in and only kept one item from it which was – you guessed it – a Free People sweater! (Speaking of Stitch Fix, funny story I came across here – SF sent a woman a pair of shorts in her Fix with a Nordstrom Rack tag attached to it along with the price, which was about $45 cheaper than what Stitch Fix charged her. LOL. I think the kerfuffle was overblown, IMHO, but it made for interesting reading nonetheless).

Anyway, so there’s my post about clothes. Happy week before Christmas, everyone! At least when I wake up tomorrow it will finally be cold!