Giving autumn's colour palette a helping hand

Outfit details

Caramel brown snood: eBay seller tina.g-2008
White rose stud earrings: Claire's
Brown cardigan: Suzy shier
Vintage maple leaf scatter pins: Antique store in Vernon 1970s/80s does 1940s/50s autumn floral print dress: eBay
c. 1940s cream gloves: (I think) eBay
1950s corduroy bucket purse: etsy seller Rue 23 Vintage Clothing
Straw hued heels: Anne Klein
Lip colour: MAC Russian Red


Photography by

Antonio Cangiano

 

♥ ♥ ♥

Rain, buckets upon buckets of rain pelted Penticton in the early days of autumn this year. It came with a sidekick: bitterly cold temperatures, and the two made sure that the usual resplendent palette of the season took a lot longer than usual to spring to life - and that when it did, it wasn't exactly giving Connecticut a run for its money by any stretch of the imagination.

As much as I adore a gloriously picturesque autumn, I wasn't going to let the lack (most days) of one get me down, especially not when my absolute favourite hues to sport just happen to be those that we associate with this mellow, fun filled time of the years. Pumpkin pie perfect oranges, perfectly aged oak browns, cactus tinted greens, saffron yellows, and gentle creams set my heart smiling and I try to sport as many of them as I can before snow banks the size of small mountains come calling all too soon.

Few dresses in my closet are as plucked-from-the-fall-forest perfect as this 1970s/80s frock with classic mid-century lines to it. However, while I love it dearly, and bring it out at least one every autumn, if I was ruthlessly culling my wardrobe, it would likely go to a new home. And why is that, Jess? I hear you asking. That, my lovely dears, is because, unlike most dresses, this one is too small for me in the bust and upper rib cage (the polar opposite of the issue I have with a few of my other frocks, such as this green number, that are too generously cute in the bosom region).

I can get it done up, but it gaps between some of the buttons and feels restrictive while sitting. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of seam allowances, and I wouldn't want to hack down into a skirt, when it could very easily work for someone as a dress the way it stands now, so instead I toss a cardigan or sweater over top and make sure not to sit much while wearing it.

One element that I've always really liked about this dress, is that it has two sets of ties. One in the front and one in the back. I don't believe any other frocks in my closet can claim the same and I've only seen this double tie detail on other dresses a few times in all my life. This effect looks darling when the dress is worn on its own, however when you wear a cardigan over it and undo the buttons before the reach the bow, I do find the effect of the two pieces comes dangerously close to making one look pregnant (which I'm definitely not).

Still, even with these things factored in, I love it because the warm, splendidly earthy palette and floral pattern embodies so much of Mother Nature's spirit during this time of the year - a colour set that I backed up with my choice of accessories, complete with a cute little trio of vintage maple leaf scatter pins that I picked up ($15 for the set) at a small little antiques store in Vernon, that I can't for the life of me remember the name of right now (if I do, I'll come back here and credit it properly lickety-split).

As you can see from these photos, which were taken near Rotary Park down at Okanagan a little earlier in the season, there wasn't much in the way of telltale autumn hues going on in the background yet, thanks to all the aforementioned rain we'd been getting in spades. As summer leaped almost head first into winter, it seemed that everyone you talked to at the grocery store, bank, dog park, etc was floored by how it seemed autumn had bypassed us entirely.

Time would go on to show that it didn't fly over our heads completely this year. Yet even so, it wasn't as richly vivid, subtly warm, or beautifully sunshine filled as it normally is in these parts of the woods, which is precisely why I was even more eager than usual to slip into seasonally hued garments and inject the local scenery with some of my own vintage autumn colour palette. It's a win-win for both Mother Nature and I, if you ask me! :)