Outfits from the archive - 2015

I have been away from the blogosphere for quite a while, but I have still taken quite a lot of outfit pictures. So here are some from the archive from last year. I was experimenting quite a lot with color, texture, more romantic items, with contrasts.... Hope you enjoy!

An early summer outfit. Pretty basic, but I really like that blouse (H&M)! Such a great pop of color, and can be either festive or casual... Here I went for casual. 

Another basic one where I really like the blouse/top/thingie. This one is so whispy and romantic! The necklace is a raw smoky quartz point.

Unusually colorful for me this dress... Doesn't show very well in the picture because of a lack of natural light, but it is a rather bright yellow with a floral pattern in red, white and green. Kind of a bit too happy for my tastes, but with a leather skirt underneath, a leather belt and a bird skull necklace it feels more me.

Here is one of my favorite blouses! A silky mustard colored one with a paisley pattern. Big sleeves, accentuated shoulders, crimped waist and mandarin collar, what's not to like! Here with leather belt and  skinny fit pants with a geometrical pattern. I really liked the contrast between the paisley and the geometrical patterns, and because the patterns are so subtle it didn't feel like too much pattern going on.

A classic outfit that I usually end up wearing sometime around the holidays. There is just something about the skirt and the flower brooch that feels very festive! :)

And lastly, here is what I wore for Halloween! It's not often I get to go all out these days, especially not at work, but the library where I work hosted a Halloween At the Library-type event so we in the staff got to dress up. The library was lit only by candle light and I got to walk around with a lantern and scare little kids! So much fun!!

Most of this outfit has been seen before on the blog, it is rather a classic, but I still wanted to share!

I seldom wear these striped socks anymore, but they felt quite witchy and I think I was going for steampunkish-witchy-ghost librarian or something...

Yum, those sleeves!!! And the waistcoat too!

Note the neat collar on the shirt, love that detail! The bronze bird skull necklace is a classic that I can never grow tired of.  I also wore my bird claw ring, but I don't have a picture of that. And I finally have a proper chain for my pocket watch!

And here is the outfit with more Halloween details added. You obviously can't see a lot because we got makeup and final prep done at work and it was night by the time I got home. Anyway, messy bun, pale powdered face, foundation on lips to make them pale too... and then some spider web on the hat. :)

Looks rather spooky doesn't it?

How was your style year? What styles did you dig? What didn't you wear? What inspired you? What did you wear for Halloween (yeah, I know I'm late...)?

On life during a hiatus...

It has been more than two years since I last posted anything on this blog. During this time I have had several people encourage me to start writing again and I have always promised that I would get back into it someday... It just hasn't happened. Outfit pictures and blog post ideas kept piling up but still failed to make me more motivated. In the end I just haven't felt like it. I've had other things to do.

These last couple of years I have kept working at a local library. A couple different part time positions. Nothing permanent, but at least I've had a pleasant job to go to every week. I really love working at a library, being around books and people who love to read is just... lovely! I spend my paycheck on food, basic bills and the rest on extravagant luxuries! Like expensive niche perfumes, decadent sweets, luxury booze... and some clotches and accessories of course. :D

I still love clothing and strive towards always dressing in keeping with my personal style. Working at a library I have to dress at least somewhat professional, not to mention practical, but I can still be creative and alternative. I have experienced rather a lot of change in my personal style over the last few years though. I tend to go through phases of obsession. For a while I was really into the grunge aesthetic. The rough textures, decay and post-apocalyptic vibes enchanted me. Then I went through a very minimalist phase. Then I played with the librarian stereotype a bit. Right now I'm in a phase of all black with focus on different textures. I think I'm in this sort of phase now because the cold spell we have here  gives me the pleasure of wearing my fur coats and thus adds one more textural dimension to my clothing. When I can play with fur, wool, leather, suede, iron (jewelry), and whatever other texture I can come up with, I really only need one color and that is black!

Kind of classic Nadja-style! ;)

From my grunge phase. (And look! I have a new mirror!)

Floral macabre, or at least delicate florals with rougher leather...

from my stereotypical librarian phase. Needs a bun instead of a hat though to be pure librarian! :D

All black texture play, without the fur coat.

But despite these experimental phases, I feel like my personal aesthetic has finally started to crystallized and take permanent form. It started with my perfumes. I think I have mentioned my love for Olympic Orchids Tropic of Capricorn here on the blog before... Well it is a very floral macabre sort of fragrance, full of lush tropical flowers but also overripe fruits and an undercurrent of rot, decay and fecal matter. This scent is like a representation of the cycle of life and death! It is floral, full of innocent life and fecundity, as well as macabre, full of more sinister vibes, of death and stagnation... I crave this contrast in everything these days! I just love that slight hint of macabre in an otherwise innocent outfit, I love that hint of death or beast in amongst the fecundity of a sweet floral fragrance and I love overabundance to the point where decadence turns almost sinister!  (You know, like when a liqueur is so sinfully dense and sweet that it feels like forbidden fruit, like poison almost... I don't know if this makes any sort of sense to anyone but me...)

Floral macabre collage.

Speaking of liqueur. I have taken up a new hobby, in making liqueurs! Everything from classical berry liqueurs to more experimental herbal or flower flavored ones. I enjoy both making them and drinking them!

Cranberry liqueur... I think...

Lilac flowers macerating in vodka. I could make a whole picture post about liqueur making if anyone is interested.

I have also recently taken up embroidery as a hobby. I've done a bit of cross stitching from time to time before, especially subversive cross stitching. ;) But now I've started making more figurative embroidery. Mostly free-form fantasy flowers for now but I can see myself branching out, maybe to free-form landscapes or even portraits... I dislike patterns of any and every kind so I guess I'll just go as far as my talent can carry me.

My first floral embroidery. I am pretty pleased!

Oh, and I need to speak about perfume! These past couple of years have been such a wonderful fragrant journey! My collection has grown rather immensely and I have had such a great pleasure sampling all of these lovely perfumes. I have gone through olfactory phases too... I have been in turn obsessed by conifers, leather, gourmand notes, sweet florals, sweet citruses, balsamic notes... and so on. But at the end I am most fond of the floral macabre, the animalic florals, the rotting fruits, the skanky gourmands. And anything overly decadent! Slumberhouse is still my favorite house though and I doubt that will ever change. My current favorite scents are Slumberhouse Rume (in its 2015 limited cask iteration, dangerously sweet and smoky), Slumberhouse Zahd (the rather legendary very limited edition, decadently syrupy berry liqueur) and Xerjoff Mamluk (sweetly animalic and smooth like a mink coat).

Part of my Slumberhouse collection.

More of my Slumberhouse collection. 

Xerjoff Mamluk.

Anyway. Happy New Year everyone! I have a lot more pictures that I could post and a lot of topics to write about so I think I'll make it a New Year's resolution to not let this blog die again, at least not this year! I hope to see some old faces and some new ones, and I hope someone still follows this poor old blog of mine...