Cold Days... Old Days...

We have an unusually cold week here in Seattle. What I love about these days - the sky is perfectly clear almost all the time (rare, rare for us). The temperature is in the 40s during the day and 30s at night. It is so cold - it even made me get my very old and dear to my heart camel coat out!

I love this photo session very much - I think Justin took amazingly beautiful pictures. It was close to sunset, and light is particularly pretty at that point. We took a leisurely stroll in Bellevue downtown park. So many people were walking, jogging, enjoying their time with family and friends, and even... taking their wedding photos! :)

I won't write too much this time. I just wanted to tell you the story of my coat. It was made especially for me by my auntie Rimma who is a very talented tailor and at some point made her living by making clothes (she is actually a computer specialist by day job, and a good one too). Living in Russia (although it began as growing up and living in the USSR), so many of us learned to make things with our own hands. I used to make my own clothes, both by sewing and knitting. We so wanted to look fashionable and fabulous, and it was very difficult to find anything at Soviet department stores if you did not live in Moscow. But girls will be girls, right? So we learned how to make pretty stuff and looked stylish anyway! I remember making my first clothes when I was a young teenager, just a school girl, and all through the college years. I used to get compliments about my style all the time. :) In my mid 20s, right after college, when I started making my own money, I could afford to order clothes from a tailor. I had a few favorite ladies to work with (most of them kept very busy all the time). One of them was my aunt Rimma with whom I was good friends too. The things she made looked and felt like they were made by a fancy dressmaker in Paris! I found 100% wool camel color fabric in a newly opened store (it was post-Soviet times already, so there were many shopping options available). I picked the coat style from a very popular German sewing magazine Burda Moden (we used to read this magazine monthly, it was our fashion guide for many years). And then I asked my aunt to make me a coat. And so she did. And I picked these unusual buttons for it. (I think they repeat the oblong shapes of the coat - the raglan sleeves, the collar, the flaps on the pockets...)  I wore my coat for many years there, in Russia, and then brought it with me to America, and then I forgot about it for a few years. You know how life goes - you get married, have kids, get divorced, work or start your own business, you search for your soul-mate and get married again, your kids grow, you start another business or two, you search for yourself and the meaning of life, you gain a few pounds and a few wrinkles, you loose interest in fashion and get it back again, you discover and rediscover yourself... The coat stays the same though, still a timeless beauty, even though probably 15 years old or so by now. It fits me differently then all those years ago. But it still fits me, and I still feel elegant and warm wearing it. Thank you, Rimma. And oh, by the way, I started seeing raglan sleeves again! Is it coming back to fashion? :)

Oh well, it seems I had a lot to say about my coat in the end. :)

Wool coat - hand made by my aunt Rimma. Leggings by Hue. Leather gloves via TJ MAXX. "Royal" booties by Aquatalia (my story about them here). Purse by B Makowsky via TJ MAXX (love love love the color!)  

Location: downtown Bellevue