The Ladybug and the rainy (but colored) island life

I don’t know what happened this year but since I arrived in Messina (my hometown in Sicily) mid-August, the weather started acting funny: not a single day with sunny weather but always cloudy and very changeable. One hour of rain, two hours of sun and so on for two whole 2 weeks.

We literally chased the sun but I couldn’t get more than two/three hours per day!

The problem is that when it rains and it is August the life on an island is pretty boring: I read a lot, worked on the blog (I made some changes, did you notice?) and on the online shop. I basically prepared my comeback to Milan and planned all the activities for September/October (not fun at all!).

One of these rainy days I was out and about with my sister (ok we went for a Sicilian “granita”!) we passed by this murals and she told me that it was perfect for a shooting as I looked like in the Caribbean! She was right, it was fun and so, here I am, in Sicily but looking like the Caribbean!

I wore my new orange wax skirt handmade by Heka Couture with an African print fabric that I bought in Senegal with my grey tee from Damsels in Distress and a pair of Clarks black gladiator sandals (one of the comfiest pair of shoes ever!).

Afro inspired earrings are from Mango while the Ghanaian mini bolga bag was a great find from Sankofa Beads and Baskets on Etsy.

The Ladybug goes for the bronze medal

Bronze, gold, silver…how hard it is to wear these colors? I love them and I often wear golden or silver boots and other accessories but when it comes to clothing the story becomes quite hard.

Not that I use to move back from fashion challenges, I totally love to push it a bit when I can but this often means facing people comments or strange glances in the street! I’m quite used to that but every now and then it just gets on my nerves!

I knew all this when I decided to buy and wear this amazing culottes and turban bronze combo from Heka Couture but I tested it for the first time in Paris where people were absolutely loving it! But Paris is Paris and Milan is Milan…but you know what? Who cares? “Let people stare at you and keep being fabulous”: this is what I say to myself when a glimpse of doubt crosses my mind!

So I wore my combo for work and then a movie date with a friend, matching it with Topshop pale blue shirt and Mango leather biker jacket.  I added killer black heels from 8 at Yoox, cameo ring from Alcozer & Co. and handmade earrings by Metalica Creazioni.

So what do you think? Fashion yay or nay?

The Ladybug’s message to the world: “More Love, please!”

 

One day I was walking with my friend in Milan and we were talking men…basically complaining about them! We both didn’t feel loved, for different reasons and of course by different men! While expressing our need to be loved we stopped in front of a clothes shop for the same reason: we saw this sweater screaming “More Love” from the shop window and we started laughing because of this strange coincidence…but coincidence doesn’t exist so we decided that we had to have that sweater!

15 minutes later we had both a version of it: pale blue for her, military green for me!

I brought it home for my Christmas holidays and I wore it on the 1^st of January (just to wish more love for myself – and to myself – in 2018!); so now two things: you can say from my face that I haven’t slept at all that night…I was totally asleep and I think I had my eyes shut in all the pictures that we took that day! I’ m sorry but I hope you understand! Second thing: it may seem strange that on the 1^st of January it was that sunny and warm that I didn’t need to wear a coat, but hey…it was in Sicily!

While waiting for sun and warmness here in Milan, I decided to post this old outfit wearing my favorite “More Love” sweater, my new Mango cropped jeans and Zara patent eggplant ankle boots (very 60s style!). I am also wearing my handmade pink flamingo earring…a Christmas present from the same lovely friend who has the same “More Love” sweater…another coincidence?!

PS: When you don’t feel loved, try to love yourself…who can love you better and more than that?!

 

The Ladybug’s new printed tee and jap culottes!

Back to Milan and to my adored Piazza Gae Aulenti: its architecture is still an inspiration for my outfit posts!

Today I’m wearing some of my new favorite pieces, starting from this beautiful printed tee by Heka Couture: I’ve always loved her drawings and she finally decided to print them for a new beautiful collection of tees. No need to say that I was on the waiting list! (I also have a black one, I will show it soon!).

During the summer sales I also fell in love with these Mango Japanese inspired embroidered culottes: they were in awful conditions, that’s why I needed to fix them but it was the only size left for 19 euros, how could I resist?

I paired them with my vintage biker jacket, a beautiful leather piece that I found as a bargain (17 euros!) in Munich at a lovely garage sale last July.

My shoes are from 8 on Yoox and my brass earrings are handmade by Metalica.

The Ladybug’s less obvious reason to hate winter

I hate winter, really. For a thousand of reasons that may be more or less obvious (the cold, the rain, the grey weather etc. etc.) but there is one that is a bit less obvious: I hate it because I cannot wear my adored wax fabrics! Every now and then when it is not too cold I still wear some headwrap or turban but I miss my colored dresses, skirts, culottes…I just need these bold colors in my life!

These pictures were taken in October, the weather was still good in Milan and I was enjoying a stroll in Parco Sempione with my friend when we decided that the sun and the nature were offering a perfect frame for a quick shooting session!

I was wearing my wide leg trousers handmade by Heka Couture: the African fabric we bought online because we loved the print so much (we also got it in yellow!). I wore them with a white tee from Asos and a 90s inspired Mango denim jacket (I loved the vintage vibe when I saw it in the shop at the train station in Naples!).

On my jacket I added some of my favorite pins at the moment: some African inspired pins from My Filibo that I found on Afrikrea marketplace and the lovely body positive pins “Love your cellulite” from The Triangular Prism on Etsy.

I also wore my Fulani earrings from Africaialha on Etsy and wooden clogs from Casta & Dolly at Archivio Vintage in Milan.

The Ladybug’s graffiti wall in Munich

During my three weeks in Munich, we passed every morning by an underground passage in Munchner Freiheit that we never used. We used to say: tomorrow we’ll take that one to go faster but we always forgot until a few days before leaving!

What we discovered there was a world full of graffiti and we couldn’t help stopping to take a few pictures also because the graffiti matched my African print shirt!

This Ankara fabric is one of my favorite ones: I bought it online on Ebay and used it for a lot of things: two pillows, a turban and this lovely handmade shirt! Considering the bold colors I wore it that day with black denim jeans from Acne Studios, Mango oversized denim jacket and New Look flowery loafer mules from Asos.

Anyway I couldn’t help adding big handmade silver statement earring from Metalica Creazioni (Francesca has been my favorite earrings provider since we met a couple of years ago!).

The Ladybug’s Friday afternoons in Munich

Another post,  another outfit from Munich (I have a few left, well more than a few, so prepare to travel to Munich with me through my outfits!).

Fridays afternoons were the best while I was there: the weekday was over and new exciting weekends were going to start, full of friends, trips, shopping and a lot of city wandering!

This was not my first long stay in the Bavarian city but every time I go back I discover new areas and new venues: this year I was in the area of Munchner Freiheit, a real surprise for me; it is full of life, colored buildings, restaurants and bars and loads of people enjoying the summer vibes and the fresh nights out.

This was taken the first Friday afternoon: relaxed face, messy hair and casual style!

I wore these amazing African wax culottes by Heka Couture (the pattern is just one of my favorites ever as well as the 50’s shape!) with & Other Stories navy tee, Mango 90’s denim jacket and Nike 4 & Other Stories white sneakers.

PS. There adorable vintage golden loop earrings just broke two days ago…I am still sad because I loved them. They were original from the 80’s and I definitely need a new pair! Any suggestion?

The Ladybug is pink in Munich!

As you may have seen on my social networks, I spent three weeks in Munich in July for work so I took advantage of a new location to shoot a couple of new outfits!

I will start with this pinky one, it was one of the first days, incredibly sunny and fresh…a real pleasure to be there and enjoy the German summer while the heat was unbearable in Milan!

Here I am wearing two of my new online finds: this lovely Mango pink striped top with one frill sleeves (I found it on ASOS during the summer sales!) and these Hush pink 40’s inspired frames that I left in my Hush wishlist for a while before buying them because it was the first time that I bought from their site and I didn’t know that much about them. Now I am totally addicted to this site and the sunglasses are amazing!

I wore them with black Dixie culottes and with my adored (and super old!) Jeffrey Campbell sandal-boots!

I will show you more “German” outfits in the next few weeks, so stay tuned and let me know what you think!

 

The Ladybug’s Completely Effortless Holiday Outfits #2

This is the second effortless outfit that I wore during my holiday in Corsica, in particular during a night trip to Bonifacio, one of the most amazing places that I’ve ever visited.

I took a boat trip there during the day and I decided to go back for a night to visit this beautiful town and have a perfect Corsican dinner at A Cantina Doria.

I wore a red and white Mango striped sweater and Topshop black harem pants.

As you can see, I didn’t even bring a bag with me: I only had my Marc by Marc Jacobs straw bag for the beach and my Vivienne Westwood navy canvas bag (which was Nike goodie bag for the last We Own the Night in Milan).

Again, I added my favorite Birkenstock Ibiza, my first buy once I landed in Bastia (I arrived early in the morning so I had to wait until the other shops opened!).  By the way… don’t pay attention to my white creamy feet: they got sunburned during the day and I had to put loads of calendula cream on them!!

I am also wearing again my coral lipstick is from Marc by Marc Jacobs make-up.

The Ladybug’s a Furry Cat on the Prowl in Milan

Winters are cold in Milan, but it is never too cold for a Saturday of shopping!

I’m trying to stay warm in this amazing vintage fur… one of my best deals ever! I got it for 25 euros at the little charity church market in Milan during the Antiques’ Market. I still can’t believe how lucky I was! I was going to skip that little market, but my friend Sara insisted for us to go… good call!

I am wearing all black with a Mango rolled neck sweater and pair of Zara skinny jeans, but I’m adding some color with my new green Chelsea boots from Les Lolitas, and here again I need to thank KNAGUI’s good eye: we were together when I got those and I showed them to him, saying that I was looking for something similar in black. His answer was so funny that I got convinced quite easily to get them in green. He said: “But Honey… green is the new black!” He wasn’t wrong indeed as I’m using them so much and they go with almost everything!

I added my Luella Bartley studded bag (a great Ebay find!) and an AMAZING pair of Dior vintage cat frames picked up at my friend Lilli’s wonderful shop, Maison Studio, this Christmas in Sicily!

[Photo Credit: KNAGUI]