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 mixed color palette

Another winter outfit with the colors of autumn…am I completely inverting seasons or is it just the weather confusing our minds?

Sometimes I like to push a bit my style, matching different colors and playing with apparently unlinked color palettes like a few weeks ago, when I paired caramel, camel, teal and pale blue in a funny outfit that attracted all eyes on me (I know, people are shocked quite easily lately…where is your imagination guys?!)

It all started with this new caramel corduroy culottes from Zara that I wanted so much because I loved the color and the 70s style. I had to buy them online because I couldn’t find them in shop and I immediately wore them with my caramel wool headband from Dixie that matched them perfectly!

In the middle I added a touch of pale blue with this Cos sweater (with a huge bow in the back) and my long camel coat from Diffusione Tessile.

As it didn’t seem enough I decided to add teal tights (I always buy colored tights but I barely use them!), 60s inspired brown boots from Marella, vintage silver loop earrings and of course brown lipstick!

The Ladybug’s doubts on a vintage faux-fur coat (advice needed!)

It is already April but spring seems so far away from here!

Am I really wearing a faux-fur coat in April? Well, this was from a couple of weeks ago but I’m looking forward for the nice weather as it is raining again today…

Wearing faux-fur coats (I don’t wear real ones anymore as I am selling all my vintage pieces) is for me a pleasure and a nightmare at the same time. I love faux-furs, especially vintage ones, but it is so hard for me to find a nice piece that looks good on me. I always feel too fat or too short, this is why I keep buying them and selling them after a few times that I wore them.

This one is a vintage find from the famous El Rastro market in Madrid during my last trip: I loved the style and it was a real bargain (even if it was hard to put it in my small suitcase, full of vintage pieces that I bought during my 3-day staying in this beautiful town) so I couldn’t help buying it; but now I’m wondering already if I want to keep it or not…what do you think?

I paired it with Zara checked culottes and turtleneck and with my new bronze fringed shoes from Francesco Milano that I found in a lovely shop called Merry Go Round in Porta Genova (they have another one in via Larga, both beautiful!).

I added some glow to the grey day with a beautiful handmade headband from Madame Ilary with golden trimmings that paired my Mango earrings!

The Ladybug goes green, finally!

Do you know when you get obsessed with something and you cannot find it and you get more and more stressed about it until you finally find it?

Well, this is what happened with my 2016 winter obsession with green pants. I decided that I wanted a pair of green trousers or culottes but I couldn’t find a pair that I liked until this winter, at Zara!

I was actually looking for corduroy culottes when I found these online and I thought that the color was so nice that I wanted to try them: they are in the middle between trousers and culottes and when I received them I realized that they were exactly what I wanted!

I wore them immediately with a Benetton black jumper and a black coat from Sportmax at Diffusione Tessile (where I almost buy all my non-vintage coats!). I added a touch of green with this Stondo asymmetric hat and golden loops from Sugar Mama Vintage.

But the biggest highlight of this post is this pair of amazing leather ankle boots with pearl buttons from Marella! I fell in love with them at the beginning of the season but I had to wait until the winter sales session to get a pair that I dreamed of for about 4 months!! Now they are at my feet almost daily (as they are also super comfortable!).

The Ladybug is a modern 80s child

I don’t buy only vintage. I’d love to but I find it too complicated and every now and then I am tempted by fast fashion and high street labels as well as designer.

Nevertheless I realize that even when I don’t buy vintage I always buy vintage inspired pieces that I love to mix with original ones to create my own personal vintage mixed outfits!

It was the case when I bought this maxi camel jumper from H&M:I loved so much the 80s oversized flare that I bought it two sizes bigger just to exaggerate it!

I paired it with a black pencil skirt from Zara and original 90s slouchy boots from Max&Co. To complete the 80s look I added a pair of handmade “3/4 moon” brass earrings from my adored Metalica Creazioni.

The Ladybug goes back to the fairground

Another outfit from my Sicilian summer, I can’t get enough of going through these summery outfits with the beautiful colors of my Sicily!

This time it was near another fairground in town, just along the sea in my hometown, Messina while enjoying an afternoon stroll.

I wore what I call my Carmen Miranda shirt, because of the prints on it: I bought in Frankfurt at Zara while I was there for a weekend in July.

I paired it with my black handmade culottes by Heka Couture and my thrifted Topshop afro flats!

As I cannot go out without a turban I wore this beautiful handmade piece by Madame Ilary with an African print that I adore (as well as the shape of the turban, pretty African inspired too!).

My golden loops are – well, were as I lost one – vintage and my round Moroccan straw bag is still my favorite one from Maluan Maroquinerie on Etsy.

The Ladybug and a pinky Sicilian sunset

Honestly this year it is harder than usual to get into the winter mood: maybe I was just hit by winter on my way back from Sri Lanka and I still cannot stand the idea of wearing coats and tights but I think that I will keep posting summer outfits for a while!

Also because I have so much still to share from my summer, starting from my wonderful trip to Senegal and some nice views and outfits from my homeland, Sicily.

This set of pictures was taken during my first day at home in Sicily: while enjoying a walk with my sister along the sea we realized that there was a wonderful pink sunset that perfectly matched my off shoulder top from Topshop!

As usual when I am at home I was super relaxed and my outfit just mirrored the idea; I paired the top with loose jeans from Zara and super cool accessories:  the round straw Moroccan bag was my summer favorite as I wore it almost every day, it is an Etsy find (btw Etsy is my new addiction!); earrings are from Zara (I bought them at the airport on the way back home just to celebrate the new opening of a Zara store in Malpensa airport!) and shoes are Birkenstock’s (another summer favorite: I basically wore these every day in Senegal and in Sicily!).

The Ladybug faces her biggest fashion fear

Let’s have a break from Munich (but not from outfits!) just to celebrate this special Try-Day Friday! This is an outfit post with a story and with some important message for me and for all my beautiful readers.

But let’s start from the beginning: a few months ago, before going on holiday, I spent a lovely Sunday with my friends; we went for a brunch in a beautiful location in Milan (the Fuorimano, amazing place and delicious brunch!) and then we enjoyed a beautiful tour of the colored vintage houses of the Quartiere Arcobaleno in Milan. As the locations were pretty interesting and my favorite photographer was there with his camera, we organized a lovely photo-shoot to share on my blog and social media.

I didn’t share until today and there is a reason for that: I was facing one of my biggest fashion fears ever…the naked belly! When I woke up that morning I was in a very good mood: I was about to leave for my summer holidays and I felt particularly fashion fearless. I then wore one of my favorite African wax tops from Heka Couture, an amazing couture piece that I usually wear with high-waisted bottoms (as it is quite short and I need to cover my not fabulously toned belly), with a normal waist jeans from Zara. It didn’t feel too bad, until I saw the pictures: they were amazing but I kept focusing on these few centimeters of belly appearing between my top and my jeans, screaming something like: “you are fat”!!!

I decided then to leave these pictures there for a while, until I was maybe feeling better about them. I came back to these photographs a couple of times in the meanwhile but nothing, the scream was still there.

As I don’t believe in coincidences (everything happens for a reason!), while lazily surfing on Instagram the other day, I found out about Dia&Co Try-Day Friday… Their message is very simple: beauty is not a matter of size or centimeters, you are beautiful no matter what size is written on the tag. They promote the Try-Day Friday attitude, supporting women to wear at least once a week something that scares them and to feel comfortable with it.

There is a lot of talking around body shaming and body positive attitude lately and my personal slogan is “curvy does it better”, but all my positive body ideas, all my talking about beauty coming from the inside and from self-acceptance and self-love just fell down in front of these few centimeters of fat belly.

I spent a couple of days with this idea in mind: how is it that I am super positive about other people curvy bodies and self-love and I am so critical about myself? After a few days I found the answer, but more importantly I found the action to face and to overcome this stupid fear: it was time to share with the world my naked belly pictures! I am not scared of other people’s opinion about me and maybe, some of you with similar fashion and body fears will find the strength to do the same!

I understood that I am not defined by the amount of fat on my body and that my body is not defined by the models that are everywhere on TV, magazines and Internet. I choose to embrace my fat, my cellulite, my wrinkles because it is me, and I am super proud of myself!

 

Photo Credit: Marco Di Terlizzi

Top: Heka Couture

Jeans and shoes: Zara

Vintage bag: Epiphany Vintage Frankfurt

Sunglasses: Hush

Vintage earrings: Bohemian Retro Prague

The Ladybug’s hunt for 90’s denim

Denim Denin Denim: this is my obsession this year!! Why? Very simple: I sold most of my used denim on Ebay because I lost weight and many of them were too large…to make long story short: I realised I only had two jeans left in my wardrobe, a mom jeans and a skinny one. Not good!

I then made a list of the jeans that I needed:  denim culottes, flare 70’s jeans, cropped jeans, 90’s large jeans and vintage Levi’s. Huh…too much hunting!! I should do a little step at a time!

Let’s start from the first one, that turned out to be a three-pair 90’s large jeans/culottes…more than what I needed actually but the price was too good and I couldn’t resist!!

I left for Munich on the first day of sales, so the following weekend I decided to go for a sales session in town. I started from Zara of course and I found many interesting jeans 90’s style for less than 15 euros each. I couldn’t find my size so I started my Zara denim’s hunt across all the shops in Munich and Frankfurt but without any positive result. I was so upset that I went online and checked the availability in stores to find out that all of them in my size were available in…Milan!!

When I came back home I first headed to Zara to try them all and they were perfect! 40 euros for all of them was a good price so I got them all! After all, I needed jeans right?

This is my first pair a 90’s shape mixed with culottes….two pieces in one! I also love the side split and the colour. I paired it with a thrifted Twenty8Twelve red tee, a 70’s inspired red little bag from Zara and my new adored New Look floral loafer slippers found on Asos for half the price (20 euros!).

The Ladybug’s second “Star Wax” episode

Last week I told you the story of my “Star Wax saga” (you can read it if you missed it in my last post, first “Star Wax” episode) and as I anticipated we used this beautiful African print fabric for a few pieces.

Among them a beautiful blazer that I wore for the rehearsal of La Boheme at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan a few weeks ago, handmade with love by Madame Ilary.

I was feeling incredibly 80s when I first wore it to try it, so I decided to create an 80s inspired look with genuine vintage accessories of the era.

First of all I customized the blazer with an elasticated belt with a golden ribbon as a buckle, a vintage find from my Singapore trip a few years ago. Then I added original 80s golden clip earrings from an antiques fair in Sorrento many years ago.

I kept all the other pieces black and high street: Dixie culottes and Zara pointed ballet flats.

PS: there was also a very 80s inspired black bucket bag but I don’t know why I’m not wearing it in the pictures!!