Zipper leggings

The other day on my way home, I decided to get off the bus in Dalston to check out the legendarily wholesale haberdashery shop next to the awesome Oxfam (which name now I forget, and have no time to google). I've been meaning to go there for ages, but with their slightly abandoned look and shop-windows protected by iron grids, I always think they're shut. Turns out they are open on a daily basis until about 4pm, and they do have a nice (but pricey) selection of trimmings and buttons, and some fabric (which I didn't look very closely).

I came away with these pair of long yellow zippers.


I already have a thing for zippers, and since I spotted these AA leggings, I've been fantasizing about inserting zippers in all the bland leggings lying around in the studio. It's just the right amount of va-va-voom for a snip of the price of the AA ones (£39 and going up - god, hate what the recession is doing to the pound) and for someone's as unskilled as I am when it comes to *inserting things*, shouldn't be that difficult, ra-eeght?
Wrong!
It turns out inserting long zippers in stretchy fabrics requires - there's no other way to say this - practice. So mine turned out like this:

The zipper undulated in a strange but even way, making this little bumps that look like ... an alligator's tail?


Amusingly, it also resembled a lot the Ikea mirror I found on the street last year, which always did my head in for being too thin and wavy to fit my entire person in it.

Anyway, haven't formed my opinion yet on whether these wavy/bumpy leggings will see the light of day anytime soon...

Layer it, baby

Okay, so two posts down I said I was going to compensate for having spent money on new leggings when I have TONS of legwear to choose from at home already - so I did. Here's first attempt:

Primarni patterned tights layered over AA silver leggings.

I haven't worn those silver leggings in ages, thinking it was a little bit passé (I mean, it seemed EVERYONE in London had them two years ago), so it seemed like a cool idea to hide the obvious sheen a little. And the fishnet tights are (at least in my head) slightly Rodarte like (gosh, just saying the label's name makes me want to cringe a little. Are you sick of everyone talking about as much as I am? E-v-e-r-y fashion blog talks about it. And here I am as well. Sometimes we can't escape it, inn't).

Freebie T-shirt (Secret Garden Party), boots Primani, hat Beyond Retro

Glory for the Legs

Only recently I realized that many style bloggers out there share my enthusiasm(I was gonna say obsession, but then I don't actually DREAM about it - only THINK a couple of hours a day about it) for legwear, specifically leggings. In my teens I was absolutely fond of gym gear and would gladly ditch my uncomfy jeans (stretchy denim was not very popular at the time in Brazil) for leggings and ballet catsuits - even though my schoolmates would sniff at me for daring not to clad myself in low-cut bootcut like 99.9% of them.

I wouldn't dare to sport anything other than black leggings, though, until, of course, I moved to London and found Topshop (that was 6 years ago) - and OH, the glory! They made printed ones, which no one bought and were always relegated to 75% off sales rack. I fell in love.

Then I started doing the vintage thing - at this point, my leggings passion had found American Apparel, and all the other high-street chains which were churning them out to death - and found a supplier who had stacks of 80s leggings. The Original Printed ones. High-Waisted ones. Madly-Coloured ones.

I looked around Ebay and it seemed I was the only one who thought they were like gold. No, diamonds.

I sold most of that first batch, saving a couple for myself, and for little more than peanuts, including the now celebrated floral ones - which topshop made sure to make the WORLD go crazy over it. I'm trying not hit my head on the wall since I saw the lookbook a few weeks ago.

But of course, I couldn't contain myself today when I saw they turned up at the online shop, and decided to put my paypal account to work. I had to make-up for the lost ones. I feel guilty though, with all the other vintage leggings in the studio waiting to be fixed, DIY-ed, adjusted. I'll make for it, promise. Meanwhile, those babes are gonna look grrrrrreat on my midget legs.