The Ladybug is a chameleon in the park

There is a new park in Milan: they call it “la Biblioteca degli Alberi” (the Trees Library)  and I really love to take pictures here because of the contrast with the modern skyline and because of the beautiful light that there is here during some hours of the day.

I didn’t realize that I perfectly matched the colors of the park until I saw the pictures on my phone screen! It was funny but not completely wrong as I remember that when I got dressed that day I was specifically needing to be more in contact with my mother earth. I couldn’t do it in a better way: taking pictures in the nature dressed like…nature!

I was staying super cozy in my new Zara teddy coat (maybe the best selling at Zara as I see it almost everywhere!)  and in my new mustard turtleneck wool sweater from Benetton. I love this color in winter because I love to mix it with light blue and rust even if in this case I paired with military green. I have a special love for these 4.10 trousers because I love their fabric (super soft wool) and their shape but more than ever I love the fact that they are ethically made, in Italy. A piece of slow fashion and an example of amazing design, quality and respect of the environment and of people’s work. I really wish one day we could all afford more pieces like that.

My 90s inspired sneakers are from Dixie and my black bag is from Coccinelle. Handmade brass earrings are from Metalica Creazioni.

The Ladybug’s perfect compromise to wear vintage at the office: the vintage blazer!

You know already that I am not new to wearing vintage at the office! Sometimes I just wear one piece of clothing, accessories or jewelry mixed with high street fashion or thrifted designer, sometimes I try to add more pieces because I know now that my colleagues are pretty used to my vintage outfits!

This time I started with a classical vintage Armani blazer from Opherty & Ciocci that was the perfect compromise between vintage (a wonderful designer piece in mint conditions!) and smart office wear. I fell in love with this beauty and I am buying more and more designer vintage blazers because I can use them at the office or dressed down with jeans and sneakers in my spare time! The shape of the blazer is amazing and so is the fabric, this is the reason why I didn’t want to have it in a boring smart outfit so I decided to use a bit my imagination and I paired it with warm tones of the rust corduroy culottes from Zara and the sporty denim shirt from H&M.

As vintage pieces are never enough I added this 70s velvet clutch with geometric pattern (an Italian gem from Opherty & Ciocci’s amazing vintage bags collection!), a beautiful handmade retro inspired owl brooch (also available on Opherty & Ciocci website) and a pair of vintage silver earrings from my own family collection (they were gifted from my grandmother to my mum and from my mum to me!).

Las but not least, I added these 60s inspired brown ankle boots that I got from Marella two years ago during the winter sales and that I still love as when I saw them on the shop window for the first time!

Would you wear this outfit at the office? Maybe on a casual Friday?! 

Photo Credit: Milena Molinari

The Ladybug’s three outfits challenge with Zaful

Do you remember when I offered you a discount code for Zaful site last November?

Well, I used the discount code too and I found it quite hard to pick up only a few items on their site! I got lost in teddy coats, bomber jackets, lovely skirts and sweaters, tons of retro inspired accessories that I needed days to decide what to buy from them! To make my final decision I followed one criteria: what do I need? Or, better said, what do I want to buy? I knew I wanted a dungaree and a leopard print skirt so I went straight for them. The crazy thing is that there are so many adorable things on their site that I ended up buying two dungarees, the exact animal print skirt that I was dreaming of and a lovely silky scarf with the loveliest print!

(By the way, at the end of this post there is another surprise for you! )

I decided to create three different outfits with these pieces, let me know which one you prefer and what is your favorite piece!

1.       The romantic pinky outfit

I must confess that I have a passion for dungarees but also that I always feel a bit ashamed when I wear one: am I too old for a dungaree? When I got this black dungaree from Zaful I really didn’t know how to wear it and make it look “for not very young anymore” girls! While thinking on how to do that, I decided that I wouldn’t care less; even worse that I would have worn with pinky colors and make it very young because I am not 20 anymore but hey! I am not 80 anyway!! So I matched with a vintage pussybow dotted shirt from Aramayo Vintage in Madrid and with an adorable silky scarf with printed pink flamingos from Zaful again. I am totally in love with the scarf and I am often wearing it on my head as well as on my neck.

2.       The leopard lady outfit

When I saw this animal print silky skirt I knew that it was going to be mine: it has the exact print that I have been looking for for ages and it is so soft that you can easily wear it bare legs in summer or with tights  in winter like I am doing here. It is elasticated at waist which makes it pretty adaptable to different sizes and it is a bit longer on the back which makes me love it even more! I used it at work with a total black outfit (Zara sweater, Francesco Milano ankle boots and statement earrings from Gogo Philip).

3.       The grown-up dungaree outfit

For my second dungaree I decided to play it safe. This is a military green corduroy piece from Zaful again, that I changed a little bit because I removed the buttons to make knots on the top! It is soft and very easy to use, especially when you decide that this time you would make it look more “grown-up”! In fact I wore it with a silk & Other Stories shirt, a Mango black blazer and Ouigal laced ankle boots. Too serious? I added big Gogo Philip hoops (the same of the pinky outfit!) and a fun Basquiat pin from Ex Child Genius!

If you liked my outfits and you want to prepare for the perfect Valentine date you can find a lot of Valentine’s day outfit ideas, free shipping code and Valentine’s flash sales here

Also, if you use the codes ZFACTION  or ZFMOVE at the check-out you will have 15% off discount on your order!

Photo Credit: Milena Molinari

The Ladybug and her struggle with romanticism

I’m not a romantic person. Better said, I’m not anymore a romantic person. Maybe my past love experiences turned me into a cynic lady but when someone starts talking love to me I immediately feel suspicious. You know, after years of disappointing guys of every type, style, race and nationality I decided that the only person I sincerely trust is myself!

That said, sometimes (quite rarely) I truly enjoy romantic reads or romantic outfits.

All started with a romantic cream blouse that I bought at Oysho this winter but I’ve never worn it until a few weeks ago! When I bought it I loved the vintage style with the little crochet and frill but I realized that I’m not good at wearing this style!

I decided then to pair it with my military green Zara chinos (I’ve been looking for a cute military green pants for ages but finally this season Zara made one for me!) and my “Zara meets Chanel” shoes. Just a short mention for this amazing shoes from Zara: I saw them online on a Friday afternoon and I really loved them because they made me think of a Chanel model that I definitely cannot afford. They were just listed and I decided to buy them by the next day. One day after all the sizes were sold-out! As I understood that if I really wanted them I had to speed up I immediately used the store locator to find a pair in my size in Milan where I finally found them (after some struggling though). Statement earrings are also from Zara, during a little shopping session in Sofia!

The Ladybug is a vintage lady in the streets of Milan

Sometimes I really like dressing like a vintage lady: the way people look at me in the streets makes me laugh especially when I pair my vintage pieces with 40s inspired diva turbans. At that point they start staring at me. Honestly this type of reaction is typically Italian. When I used to live in Southern Italy it was even worse but I didn’t expect this also in Milan that is supposed to be the most open minded city in Italy.

When I travel abroad I use to wear my turbans and nobody seems disturbed or intrigued about that…so why should people care so much about what anyone is wearing?

Anyway, I couldn’t care less, so I decided to wear my new 70s vintage dress from A rebours Vintage in Milan with my new handmade turban from Madame Ilary, vintage earrings and 60’s inspired Zara patent boots. I loved this mixed outfit and it made me feel like a real lady from another era walking by mistake in the crowded streets of “modern” Milan!

The Ladybug and her love story with a Blackamoor special one!

I must confess that I have had a very strange and complicated relationship with vintage jewelry. Even when I started dressing with vintage clothes and accessories I was not very keen on vintage jewels because they looked too old style for me. I felt old when I tried to wear them.

A few years ago, when I got a lot of weight and I didn’t want to buy clothes anymore because I didn’t like them on me, I started buying a lot of vintage accessories, from shoes to bags and…jewels! Thanks to a couple of my now favorite vintage jewelry providers (first of all my friend Valentina from Déjà Vu Vintage) I am now passionate about antiques and vintage pieces, especially brooches. During my first times of vintage jewelry passion I also discovered that I am madly deeply in love with what is called Blackamoor, referring to vintage pieces usually representing African topics and people. Although this type of jewelry is often considered having racist connotations because it is associated with colonialism and slavery, I personally appreciate the representation itself without this type of association with which I totally disagree, and I love wearing and collecting Blackamoor brooches and other type of sculpture or jewelry.

Like a few weeks ago, when I wore my newly added vintage brooch from Déjà Vu Vintage to my daily outfit and paired it with silver African inspired handmade earrings from Metalica Creazioni. When I saw this piece on Valentina’s Instagram I totally fell in love and I waited for her to come to Milan to finally make it mine!

When I travel abroad or visit vintage and antiques markets I always look for Blackamoor pieces and I do the same online (on Ebay for example) where I can find amazing pieces especially from American sellers.

I wore a 70s inspired double-breasted jacket from Zara with large burgundy culottes from Please and black silk shirt from & Other Stories. Black leather bag is from Coccinelle and vintage inspired ankle boots are from The Shoes of Pretty Box.

The Ladybug adding curves to a Zara outfit

“You look like a Zara dummy, but with curves!”. This was a comment from a friend when he saw me dressed like this. I guess that for some reason he saw the dummy in the Zara shop, dressed exactly like this (honestly this is where I took  my inspiration for buying these two pieces and then wear them together!) and he realized when he saw me! But adding curves to an outfit was such a compliment for me!

After many years, not only I accept my curvy body but I definitely love it the way it is. I honestly prefer this outfit on me than on the Zara dummy, and so did my friend! This simple thing made me think about my complicated relationship with my body over the years: I still have my downs, there are still parts of my body that I don’t like every now and then, but it’s me, it’s the body that I have and that I have to take care of. How can I think that people will like it if I don’t do it first? It takes time and self-awareness but I’m glad that I am at this stage!

One of the things that I hate most is when people try to tell me that I should dress in a way that suits my body: I shouldn’t wear long skirts as I’m not tall, I shouldn’t show my legs as they’re not thin and long, I shouldn’t do this or I shouldn’t do that. We often limit our creativity because of other people’s reactions. I am someone who takes things personally and it took a lot of time and strength not to take this kind of remarks on myself but now I often answer “So what?” or “Please keep these limitations for yourself” or I just laugh and turn my head on the other side. Most of times criticism comes from not acceptance of ourselves, so just leave this feeling to other people if they want to live with it!

Ah…the Zara dummy only wore this checked skirt and blouse together but I added matching Zara patent ankle boots and vintage earrings + Senegalese bracelets!

The Ladybug and the joy of self-acceptance

This set of pictures was taken a few months ago, on one of my worse days. I was not in a bad mood, just you know, those days when your face looks old and tired, your hair is a mess, you feel fat and not well dressed (anyway whatever you put on you just feel awful on your body). We all have those days: there is no make-up, hairdresser or favorite clothes and accessories that can help!

Probably it was not the best day for shooting but my friend insisted and I said ok. When I saw the pictures I just decided to throw them away! Hey, I cannot post this!

A few days ago I was cleaning my bin when I saw them and I said “Hey, stop blaming yourself for not being at your best. It happens! Just let it go and post these pictures! The dress is so cool and so is your smile!”.

Accepting myself in my bad days is still a hard task for me but I keep working on it and publishing these pictures is a way to fight my self-limitations which I try to do every day. It calms me down and give me a smile and I can feel a pure joy inside when I manage to take a little step towards my life free of self- limitations. Self-acceptance and self-esteem is probably the first step to reach and I am proud of making a step closer to this point by posting these pictures.

I was wearing a Zara dress that I bought on sale, after trying it a few times as it looked too stretchy for my body; but in the end I decided that to feel more comfortable I could wear it with a jacket, like I did here (velvet one from Massimo Dutti). Pointy ankle boots are from Francesco Milano at Merry Go Round in Milan, necklaces from & Other Stories and small loop earrings are vintage.

The Ladybug on total black outfits and total black days

I know that it’s strange to see me wearing head-to-toe black outfits but yes, I have my total black days too!

Sometimes it happens that I wake up moody and angry and that my early morning meditation is almost useless!

During these days you will see me wearing a lot of black (thanks God they are pretty rare!).

This outfit comes from one of those days: black yes, but still stylish!

The velvet tunic dress with flower decorations (the only color that I’m wearing here!) comes from Zara: I loved the vintage inspiration and I got it for less than 15 euros during the winter sales. Same thing for the ankle boots that I found on sale this winter at The Shoes of Pretty Box: they looked so vintage and they were so comfortable that I imagined to wear them almost every day (which I actually did!) with almost every outfit!

I tried to compensate my total black outfit with golden jewelry. The big earrings are from & Other Stories while my brass bracelets have African roots: one comes from Senegal and the one with the shell is from the amazing Afrohemien.

The Ladybug’s “Sweet Velveteen”

That I am a huge fan of velvet is not big news right?

I can’t resist the charm of this soft fabric with such a vintage, glam and sophisticated feel. I have a few velvet pieces in my wardrobe but I couldn’t resist these two pictured here:

• the first one is this beautiful velvet shirt, a vintage piece from Atos Lombardini that I found at Humana Vintage in Milan for a few euros during a sales session (I was super proud and happy for my bargain that day!);

• the second is this amazing handmade decorated headband from Madame Ilary: I still remember that I was in bed scrolling down my Instagram feeds when I saw it and immediately sent her a message telling her to consider it sold…to me! The color is so beautiful, and so are the soft fabric and the silver decorations!

I paired my “sweet velveteen” combo with checked culottes and patent ankle boots from Zara and vintage silver loop earrings.