Outfit #7: Forest Wandering

Some days the forest just begs to be explored.

Outfit #7: Forest Wandering



I love pictures of winter turning into spring - melting snow, dead branches coming back to life, the first hints of flowers....



The day I took these pictures was just insanely gorgeous! The sun was shining, it was warm but not too warm... just perfect.



I love this hairclip! I got in on sale at zappos.com when I was ordering something else and I'm so glad I did. The chains really add a hint of medieval flair somehow :).



This is the bookbag I use most often - there's a picture of one of my favorite paintings, Waterhouse's "The Lady of Shalott" in the little nametag slot and two buttons, one for The Strand bookstore in NYC and the other one a picture of Byron that says "The best heroes are Byronic", which is, of course, true :P.



Only needed a light-ish sweater! Fantastic :).

I sadly didn't have time to set up any father away shots this time, so just a bunch of closeups. This was a day for exploring outside! :).

Outfit #6: Modern Witch

This was an outfit I wore to my "Witchcraft in Comparative Perspectives" class... which, yes, is as awesome as it sounds :P.

Outfit #6: Modern Witch



I absolutely love Waterhouse's artwork and "The Magic Circle", shown here, is one of my favorite pieces of his.



I love how versatile this dress is! You can dress it up or down so easily. Velvet blazers are pretty much my favorite things in the world and the moonstone necklace is also one of my all time favorites.



The moonstone ring was a gift from one of my very best friends and the other ring says "witch faerie" on it, a bit of an inside joke from my folklore department but one I feel expresses me pretty well really :P.



Lovely moonstone earrings and black earrings I wear with everything.



You can really see the necklaces here! The other necklace is literally called, no joke, the "witch fairy" necklace. My mom got it for me for Christmas and left it in the bag it came in so that I could see the title and flip out :P. She's riding a broom made out of a tree branch! I love how red my hair looks in this picture... when the light hits it just right it's awesome :P.

So yes, after this I went off to discuss witchcraft in the early modern period - I believe I was dressed quite appropriately!

Etsy Treasury: A Scrappy Little Bird Waiting for Spring

A new etsy treasury! This one was inspired by fabric scraps, feathers, wool, odd, sparkly trinkets, scraps of sunlight, and a touch of magic... the collection of a scrappy little bird waiting for spring :).



As before, please click on the image to see the whole thing :).

Outfit #5: Wuthering Heights

An outfit modeled after the ghosts on the moors...

Outfit #5: Wuthering Heights



Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is one of my all time favorite books and I did my best to capture a bit of its dark, romantic, wild theme.



The two twisting roses ring is made out of silverware (!) and this is actually my second version of it... the first one was a gift and I wore it so much that it snapped right in half :(. I was so surprised and delighted to find it again recently!



Photographs reveal that this dress is sadly not as flattering as I had thought, alas. I still like the color combination of that really light gray and black though.



Snap of my bag, I was off to ballads class after photos :).



Love that high necked lace top and the necklace, which is actually a perfume holder! I wish the picture hadn't turned out so blurry :/.

Well, not one of my best photo sessions but still fun! I am loving coming up with themes :).

Etsy Treasury: The Folklore of the Forest

Today, I made my first Etsy treasury, The Folklore of the Forest! The inspiration behind the collection is what I imagine to be some of the stories included in the folklore of the forest and I tried to pick pieces that you can't help but make up wonderful stories around :). Here's what I came up with -



I couldn't get my monitor to show the entire thing so be sure to click on the image to see everything :). There are a lot of my very favorite etsy sellers included so please do check out their stores as well!

I made this for the weekly contest they're currently running at the wonderful Folk Reveries blog. You must use an item from the last week's winner and they encourage you to use less well known sellers, both of which are lovely ideas.

I really like making treasuries! The only problem is that now I want everything I listed :P.

Outfit #4: Arabian Nights

I recently went and saw the amazing production of Mary Zimmerman's "Arabian Nights" at the Arena Stage in D.C. and wore this outfit... I tried to make it fit the theme a little bit?

Outfit #4: Arabian Nights



I really like the background images in this one! I'm also amazed that I found a skirt that looks even a little like the one I actually wore... the real life one was my Mom's from the 70s :).



Not too different, eh? I seriously adore this skirt and have been wearing it ever since I first found it back in middle school. It's a wrap skirt so that's possible :P. The gold thread literally glimmers, the pictures do it no justice!



The necklace is a watch, also formally my Mom's. The engravings on it are beautiful leaves and such! It sadly doesn't run very well anymore though.



The shoes are Fluevog "Dohje"s and you'll notice I wear them a lot! They are SO comfortable for heeled shoes that look so nice and witchy and fabulous :P. Well worth the splurge!



A rare face shot! :P. You can see the earrings I'm wearing a little bit, these were hard to find approximations of... I got them at a craft show a long time ago. They're made out of painted tin and are a really cool sort of jagged shape.

Again, I highly recommend the show if it ever plays in your area :). My folklore-y friends and I had a wonderful time!

Outfit #3: The Modern Queen of Elfland

Once again inspired by my ballads class, this time especially by "Tam Lin" :).

Outfit #3: The Modern Queen of Elfland



I love how this one came out, all forest magic and dried herbs and crystals. And now for the real life versions!



Pretty close, no? I warned you about the head chopping :P.



The labradorite and copper choker I'm wearing is by the absolutely AMAZING Sihaya Designs and is one of my favorite pieces of jewelry of all time. I also adore the simple quartz crystal by The Social Cellar and wear it all the time :).



Labradorite ring, a birthday present a few years ago... you can also see a small bit of the writing on my hand, a very common feature :P.



Whew, so there is the first outfit photos post! More on the way :).

The Two Polyvore Sets That Sparked This Idea

I discovered the wonderful website Polyvore a long time ago but never really had the time or inclination to make sets of my own there. However, a few weeks ago I had the idea to sort of memorialize and, frankly, show off some of the outfits that I make up in real life using the Polyvore system :P. It was fun to create the "feel" of the outfits using other pictures and things and if I couldn't find the exact thing I had worn I figured I could at least get pretty close (or even upload pictures myself) and that is exactly how it turned out to be.

Outfit #1: The Fairy Tale Scholar



This is the one that started it all! I spent a ridiculous amount of money on clothes from ModCloth.com after Christmas and wanted to show off a couple of new pieces - the dress and the blazer are from that particular spree. I wore this to a meeting within my department at school - a meeting, obviously, concerning fairy tales :).

Outfit #2: Ballads Class



I am currently taking a folklore class on The Traditional Ballad and I wore this outfit to our first class meeting. That lace skirt is one of my very favorite pieces of clothing of all time!

Clearly this process was ridiculously fun and after making these two sets I thought maybe it would be good to take a few actual photos of the outfits as well! Thus the idea for this blog was formed :). I hope to someday re-create these two outfits and take a few photographs of them both but for now the sets will have to do on their own :).

First Post and Welcome!

Hello all! My name is Brittany and I have decided, after much debate, to take a shot at fashion blogging. I'm 26 and currently in graduate school for folklore and literature where I obsess daily about fairy tales and other such things :).


(Me!)

I enjoy putting outfits together, especially outfits and items based around fairy tales, faerie tales, folklore, mythology, etc. My style is a bit eclectic, folksy and gothic and victorian and bohemian and all sorts of other things all mixed up together. I plan on posting pictures of my interesting outfits and putting together Polyvore sets that get as close as possible to the actual things I wore. However, I'm notoriously not photogenic (it takes a lot of luck and/or a lonnngggg time to get even a descent picture of me, I always make the most bizarre faces and hardly ever even look like myself!) so I'll probably be cutting my head off on a lot of these pictures :P.

I also spend a ridiculous amount of time online, shopping around for new and interesting items related to folklore and I figure that people may want to see posts about that as well :). If you know of an interesting shop that may have items like this, please do let me know! I love discovering new places and hope to feature some of my favorite shops and specific items soon. I have a shop myself too, Ashes of Roses Designs on Etsy, and will likely post a bit about that as well... I make folklore and fairy tale inspired jewelry and accessories.

I've named this blog "Dress of Stars" after the third dress often requested by the princess in the ATU 510B "Donkeyskin" stories. It has always been one of my favorite pieces of fairy tale clothing and one of my favorite stories.

A bit more about me:

As I stated above, I'm in graduate school for folklore and literature where I concentrate primarily on retellings. My very favorite tale of all time is "Sleeping Beauty." I am also a creative writer and draw constantly on my academic studies for my poetry and fiction. I sing, act, and make jewelry and do not believe in setting limitations.

I have a livejournal: briarspell (yes the name comes from "Sleeping Beauty"!), where I post most often and am on tumblr, twitter, flickr, and last.fm. I also have a personal website called velvet-roses.net that's amazingly been online for over ten years. I am currently working on my professional writing and academic website as well.

I hope you enjoy this blog, I know that I've been enjoying working on it! :).