Betty Bunny Travels Light (But Not Light-Fingered)

Our favourite grumpy bunny author has a new project that doesn't involve space rodents or whobunny-dunits. Recently she has become very knowledgeable about the rabbit fashion designer Sonia DeBunnay, who was known for her intricate beadwork and innovative combinations of carrot orange and radish red. DeBunnay's super-stylish hats and coats  were often bought by celebrity rabbits, who were then painted by Sonia's artist husband Muncha Muncha; so Betty has been busy following some of those research rabbit trails. Sadly, many of the original pieces had been eaten by hungry rabbits, who confused them with vegetables. However, a trunkful of DeBunnay treasures came up for auction last month, and the Rabbit Historical Society bought them. Now they are planning a special display and celebration (because those rabbits always like a party), and Betty has been invited to give not one but two talks over the opening weekend. She agrees to go, partly because she can work in a visit to her friend Lucy Pocket who has a new baby bunny.

Here are her constraints:

It's going to be hot. Not Florida hot, but midwest Rabbit Land hot, which is hot enough. Betty bought a new dress awhile back for such times as these (not a DeBunnay, sadly); but, with this weather, she might have to rethink that, as the dress is a bit heavy for summer. However, the other side of hot could be frozen-food-aisle air conditioning, so there you are.

She's taking BudgetBunnyAirways again, which means the less stuff to stuff, the better, and nothing prone to wrinkling. However, she has to look put-together for the first evening talk, followed by a cotton-tail party, and then also for the next day's talk, after which the rabbit attendees will view the one-rabbit play "Sonia: In Her Own Scarves," starring Betty's ever-onstage niece Maud.

Betty thinks it would be most appropriate to wear some of her own favourite vintage things, in the spirit of the event. She plans to do some mixing and matching, though, so that nobody mistakes her for a museum rabbit-quin. She decides to pack by starting with her two "best" outfits, and then planning something to wear while travelling. Any space she has left will be a bonus (or room for a baby gift).

While a bright pink striped two-piece dress may not be a typical choice for a mini travel capsule, Betty has her reasons for starting there. First, it works with her light blue blazer; but if it's just too hot for a jacket, or if all the other rabbits are wearing party clothes, the top and skirt will be fine by themselves. Second, the two pieces can be worn separately, with other things. Third, the dress is rayon, which isn't the coolest summer fabric, but it does hand-wash easily and dry quickly, in case anything happens to it. For accessories, Betty decides to keep it simple with a string of vintage pearls and her favourite blue earrings. She reluctantly packs a pair of low-heeled pumps, although she would really rather be wearing sandals. Betty remembers an event when one of her rabbit co-authors stepped out of her shoes right on stage and kept going in her bare bunny feet, which Betty thinks was very courageous of her.

Now, a second speaking outfit, which had better be a bit more comfortable as it has to last all day (and this time she's going to wear comfortable shoes). Betty packs a navy polka-dot blouse, with a green shirt jacket she found at a flea market, and a pair of navy trousers. Again, if the jacket is too much, she'll be fine (though less colourful) in just the blouse and trousers. The fancy purse may take up too much room in her bag, but she hears Sonia DeBunnay whispering in her ear, "bring it anyway."

She's aiming for nine pieces of clothing, three to wear and six to pack (something she learned from the Vivienne Files). So far she has six pieces; if she really had to, she could get along without the striped skirt and just wear the  trousers with the striped top, but she's being stubborn about wanting the whole dress. So: one blazer, one shirt/jacket, one pull-on top, one button-up blouse which could be a jacket in a pinch (it has an awful habit of coming undone at inopportune times anyway, which she'll have to deal with); one striped skirt, and one pair of navy trousers.

She adds two things: a sleeveless navy top with a collar (it's a golf shirt), and a pair of chambray trousers. Both of those things go with almost everything she's packed so far (the top also works with the striped skirt). It's not a completely get-dressed-in-the-dark capsule, because the green jacket doesn't do much for the striped dress. But, other than that, it's pretty blendable. The striped top can be worn with the chambray trousers, and the navy top and trousers can be worn with either of the jackets, or even the polka-dot blouse. Actually, she likes those two so much with the green jacket that she briefly considers leaving the slightly risky blouse at home and just wearing the plain navy top. However, there's that hot/cold question, so the blouse stays.

She has room for one more thing, and she decides on a navy and grey sleeveless top that works with the blazer and the shirt jacket, and both pairs of trousers. One of those combinations will be her travelling outfit there, and the other (whatever's clean) for back-again. That also gives her enough options for a day in the park with Lucy and the young rabbits.

If Betty had extra room, one thing she thinks she might add is a white lightweight v-neck pullover. She pulled that on one day when she was wearing the navy top and trousers, and thought it all looked quite nice together. She also (briefly) thought about packing her pair of ecru linen trousers, but quickly decided against it because a) ecru linen might be a traveller's worst nightmare, and b) these particular trousers have not only a button placket and slide closures, but a drawstring waist thing; somebody obviously wasn't thinking about tiny little  lavatories and the contortions required to get those up and down when they designed them. So, no; she's sticking with the six-pack for this event.

Betty hasn't quite figured out the whole packing plan yet, including how she's going to get that rhinestone-embellished handbag stuffed in along with tailbrushes and bunny-tronics. But so far, so good. 

If she weren't such a well-behaved (though crotchety) rabbit, she might be planning a hat heist at the museum. But that's a whole other suitcase.

An Eiffel Tower Wardrobe (Halfway Through the Year)

Visual inspiration: Eiffel Tower gift box and porcelain dish

I've been following the Delaunay Eiffel-Tower-inspired wardrobe collection since it began several months ago on the Vivienne Files website. My first post about it was here, and the second one was here. Some commenters on the Vivienne Files have been unsure about a wardrobe built on three neutrals with only one accent colour, and I understand the "I'd get bored" position on that. I like variety too. 

More inspiration: thrifted earrings

However...I have been finding that my tastes in colours and clothing have been changing. Maybe it has to do with approaching a birthday that includes a zero. Anyway, I'm becoming happier with a toned-down, trimmed-down approach, so the three-neutrals thing is fine with me, though maybe with a little extra blue and a shot of rose or purple?

As of the May post, the Eiffel Tower heroine has 24 clothing items, probably about half of the total she'd be aiming at by year's end. Because the posts started last December, some of those clothes are turtlenecks and warm trousers, and this update is going to focus on warm-weather clothes. Although I think of the later additions as summery, especially the linen things, they're checked off mostly as spring clothes on the Vivienne Files Timeless Wardrobe chart, mostly because of sleeve lengths. 

Imagine that I have a fall/winter storage box. This (out of my approximation of the Eiffel Tower clothes) is what would go into it:

Winter white ls tee

Navy ls tee

Navy check flannel shirt

Teal pullover

Winter white mock neck pullover

Dark blue button-up cardigan

Taupe trousers (because they're just a bit too heavy-feeling for warm weather)

Dark teal skirt

2 Turtleneck tops

Brown long knit vest

Navy cords

Frosted teal ls tee

This is what I would be keeping out (an approximation of the warm-weather-friendly items already on the Vivienne Files list):

Brown linen-look blazer. It was a toss-up between this and a brown linen shirt, and you might think the shirt sounds more versatile, but the shirt does that soft droopy unironed linen thing, so it can look a bit sloppy as a second layer. 

The blazer holds its shape better, so if I had to choose one for a capsule wardrobe, I'd pick the blazer. (Shown with sleeveless top and shorts from the list below)

Jeans

Navy dress pants (they're not summer weight, but sometimes you need them anyway)

Navy striped dress (although it has 3/4 length sleeves and you wouldn't want it on the hottest days, it would be fine for cooler days or in air conditioning)

Dark blue lightweight pullover (doesn't seem very summery, but, like the dress, it could work on cooler days, or over a dress)

White linen shirt

Ecru linen blend pants

Muted green sleeveless top

Striped blue and white shirt

Sage green rayon pants (shown with striped t-shirt and navy fleece blazer which aren't on this list)

Green shirt jacket

(24 clothing items, if you're keeping count.)

Since it's almost June, we can assume that the Eiffel Tower heroine will soon be going shopping again and she'll probably be adding things from the summer list. So let's imagine that she adds four or five clothing items and a couple of accessories. Like this:

Pair of shorts, navy, mostly for at-home wear

Navy sleeveless top (like a polo shirt but without sleeves)

Frosted teal t-shirt, short sleeves

Sleeveless maxi dress, dark blue floral

Finally: a fast-fashion rayon tunic top, chosen for general usefulness (and stripe-i-ness) rather than high quality. I'm convinced that if you treat thrifted things like this gently (i.e. hand-wash them or at least wash on delicate and hang to dry), you can get enough wear out of them to justify having them in your closet.

Then our heroine hits the accessories motherlode at a couple of yard sales and thrift stores:

Fossil purse, green earrings (detail below), and somebody's grandmother's string of pearls

Vintage acetate scarf (also shown above with the t-shirt)

Do they all work together? Yes, mostly, and the greens are better together than you'd think. The pale green t-shirt works with all the casual bottoms, including the sage-green and ecru pants. The navy shorts and top work with the green shirt jacket or the brown jacket. The navy sweater can be worn over the sleeveless dress.

The year is half spent--and we're not done Eiffel-Towering yet.

Last updated May 23, 2025

Fashion Revolution Week and a Wardrobe Update

Flea-market scarf

Part One

We are living through an era when many people, for various reasons, are becoming newly aware of where the goods they buy come from, and they want to support their own national or local economy. I'm hearing that conversation applied much more to food items (or maybe cars) than to clothing. Finding a locally-brewed beverage is often easier than finding locally-made shoes, and a little intentionality in one direction is certainly better than nothing at all. However, the trend to more intentional shopping can easily extend to questions such as "Who made my clothes?"

April 22nd begins Fashion Revolution Week, which began as an annual remembrance of the Rana Plaza tragedy, and continues as a way to point out that, in many ways, "things" ten years or so later aren't much better, and in some ways they're much worse. "Things" being the whole story of clothing on this planet, from crops and factory production, to advertising and selling, to the wearing and maintenance of a purchased clothing item, and to its eventual disposal. And, at least until this fairly recent trend to shop more patriotically, I have not seen much to suggest that people are buying less,  choosing better, or treating "done" clothes any more kindly. Thrift stores are notoriously full of junky clothes at surprisingly high prices, which pushes frustrated people back to buying more junky clothes that are at least new. Who can blame them?

But it doesn't help things either. And the chaotic state of manufacturing and marketing doesn't excuse us, as consumers, from needing to make the most responsible choices we can. Maybe that's upcycling or mending, maybe that's supporting a sustainable but pricey small company with one or two purchases, maybe that's wearing what we already have more and taking better care of it. My own strategy is thrifting the best-quality clothes I can find at reasonable (sometimes better than reasonable) prices, and sticking to a few favourite colours. It's still possible, still practical. I shrug my shoulders just as much as anyone when I see crazy overpriced stuff, but I keep looking for the things that got passed over.

My wardrobe Kryptonite? It's hard for me to pass up a great jacket or blazer, though in a mostly home-based life, I could survive without any office clothes. For me jackets are just fun, especially the colourful vintage ones, and they often sell very cheaply; but I do try to keep them to a reasonable number.

Eiffel Tower, by Robert Delaunay

Update: shirt jacket found at flea market

Update: linen-blend pants

Update: thrifted earrings

Part Two

This is an update to the wardrobe plan I posted last month, which was based on a year-long Vivienne Files wardrobe project. Most of that was based on cold-weather clothes, and we are (finally, after an excruciatingly long winter) moving into more reliably warm weather here. 

The Vivienne Files plan takes more of a whole-year approach to wardrobe building, and in the March update, the imaginary heroine added a navy sweater vest and wool pants, two turtleneck tops, and some accessories. I'm not going to show my versions of these clothes, but they are similar to things I would be pulling out or looking for in the fall.

For April, the VF plan added an ivory linen shirt and pants, a green short-sleeved t-shirt, and a navy cotton pullover sweater--plus a pair of brown sandals, a lovely scarf, and a pair of earrings. I do have a pair of white jeans, but, to be honest, I don't see a lot of women under or over a certain age wearing white trousers around town. At the beach in summer, maybe, or doing the coastal-grandma look for a day at the flea market; but not so much for everyday, at least in this wanna-be-spring season; maybe it's a matter of practicality.

But...I did thrift a pair of sage-green rayon pants, which work well with navy and also with some darker greens.

Also, a lightweight dark blue pullover.

I already have a lightweight white linen shirt, and a brown linen-blend one (trying to add to the brown in the VF plan). I have a sleeveless muted-green top that some people might say clashes with the pants, but I kind of like them together. Also, see the brown sandals in the photo? Thrifted last month, lucky find.

Oh, and I almost forgot--I found a really good spring dress, in the middle of a rack of really ugly and ratty ones. Sometimes you do have to look extra hard.

As for accessories, I did find a vintage scarf that isn't bang-on with the Eiffel Tower palette, but is pretty in its own way. Also a necklace.

So, I think we're caught up with the VF for now.

Again, this isn't meant to be a whole plan for the whole spring/summer. If I were doing a full wardrobe, I'd add in the light-wash jeans that my daughter offered me from a bag of free stuff, and a couple of other recent finds. 

But that's enough for now.

Locally-crafted earrings

Last updated May 14, 2025

Green and Leafy: Late-Winter Wardrobe Plan

Over on The Vivienne Files, one of this year's ongoing wardrobe projects is based on a 1909 painting of the Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay, and uses mainly navy, brown, ivory/white, and soft green. Delaunay's painting, though from early in the last century,  has a palette that fits well into the blues and greens that were also popular later on (think midcentury upholstered furniture). 

Me as a tot, with my great-great aunt

I recently bought a vintage scarf that, while not exactly the same, does pull in some of the same muted colours. So I thought I would put my own clothes up against those of the imaginary heroine. Because this is a year-long project and it's had only three installments so far, the plan isn't very extensive: there are twelve clothes items and some accessories. I'm trying to curb my impulse to add extra items to this story (such as clothes for spring). So please don't take it as "you could totally live with twelve things and don't add anything else for the rest of the year." It's a beginning, is what it is.

Here's a list of what Janice's "heroine" has so far:

Three pairs of earrings in browns, golds, and labradorite green

Two brown purses

Printed scarf

Shoes, all brown: ballet flats, loafers, sneakers (bronze)

Ivory long-sleeved t-shirt

Brown long-sleeved t-shirt

Teal plaid flannel shirt

Brown shirt

Dusty teal pullover sweater

Ivory crewneck pullover sweater

Navy button-up cardigan

Jeans

Brown corduroy trousers

Navy cotton trousers

Brown midi skirt

Teal striped dress

Looking at my own clothes, I have more navy than brown, especially in accessories, so my take on the colours will be a bit different. Also, it's still the dead of winter here, so snow boots and warm coats are more important than loafers. Plus, I'm Canadian and we wear socks in the house. But we'll pretend to have a normal life where people do wear shoes.

Here's my version:

Three pairs of earrings

Other jewelry:  bracelet set (Fierce Lynx); wristwatch; necklace

Two purses: navy bucket bag, sand convertible mini backpack (from Pixie Mood)

As a third option, if I wanted something dressier, I would add my other Pixie Mood purse (the ivory one was bought new, but the backpack came from a Salvation Army thrift store when we were daytripping last year).

Two scarves (besides the vintage one shown above).  The first one is smaller and lighter weight; the second is the kind you can bundle into.

Three pairs of shoes/boots, navy and charcoal: ankle boots, sneakers, loafers (not shown)

Three t-shirts: navy, frosted teal, winter white. (Two of those tops were bought new. Most of the rest of the things shown in this post were thrifted.)

Navy check flannel shirt

Short-sleeved white blouse with tiny pleats (instead of a brown shirt)

Dusty teal pullover sweater

Winter white mock neck pullover sweater (not shown)

Dark blue merino-wool cardigan. I do have other cardigans and jackets in a more traditional navy, but I'm choosing this one for a couple of reasons, mainly because there's a skirt coming up soon and this is the sweater that matches it best.

But since the dark-blue cardigan is a little lighter and dressier than I might want for everyday, I'm adding in this fisherman-style hoodie pullover. 

Taupe brushed-cotton trousers (not shown). The original plan had brown cords, navy cotton pants; since I have navy cords, I'd put these in instead.

Blue jeans and navy corduroy trousers (not shown). Jeans are usually a no-brainer for me, and I do have a pair of navy cords. If I were trying to live only out of these clothes, though (say for a trip), I might substitute a pair of navy tweed trousers for either the jeans or the cords. Or even a pair of plain navy pants, if I were trying to stay as versatile and dress-up-dress-down as possible.

Dark teal midi skirt (instead of a brown one). I found this at a thrift store--no labels, I think somebody made it at home.

Finally we get to the dress, and that's where I'm going to pass on trying to come up with anything close. If I were going this minimal with clothes, I think the jersey midi skirt would be dressy enough to handle most of what I'd be doing, especially paired with this blouse.

As I said, I don't want to add in a lot of extras to the story just because I have navy, white and teal things in my closet. But there are a couple of things that I do want to include. One is this long knit vest, partly because I like the style, and also because it adds that bit of brown back into the mix.

The other is this vintage tapestry-print blazer that I found last fall at a flea market. Blazers aren't part of my daily at-home lineup, but I would definitely wear this one for church, dinner out, whatever, maybe with navy underpinnings, or with the taupe pants. 

It also works with the green pullover.

I'm not going to show outfits, as this is one of those mini-plans where you can't go too wrong. A top, a bottom, some jewelry or a scarf if you're feeling it. I'm not going to be wearing only these twelve-or-so clothes items, but I am going to put them front and centre for the next month or so. Thank you to the Vivienne Files for continuing to inspire!

Last updated February 6, 2025