How to Wear: Off-the-Shoulder Blouse

Little doubt in anyone's mind that Sophia Loren could front an off-the-shoulder peasant blouse with authority, as she does above in her first English-language film, The Pride and the Passion.

But one need not be a Mediterranean bomba to pull the look off, as Doris Day proves below.


The simple necessities are these:

1) Glossy skin
2) Not a lot of froufrou at the neckline--a skinny chain at best. Hoop earrings would be great, though.
3) A relatively covered-up bottom half. If you wore short-shorts with a blouse like this, the impact of the shoulders would be lost.
3) A blouse whose edging draws attention to the lovely boundary of clothed and unclothed, example from eBay below.



Image of Sophia Loren from Dr. Macro's High Quality Movie Scans, many thanks. Image of Doris Day from the fab Unofficially Doris: The Doris Day Web Forum, many thanks too!

Who's a Sexy Nun, Then? Why the World Loves a Wimple

Not a lot of explaining necessary here . . .



Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, and most recently, in the December Paris Vogue, Lara Stone demonstrate how to work a wimple.

Call me crazy, but I think Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga is going for much the same effect from an entirely different direction, with his sleeveless hoodies for Spring 2010. Yes they're black leather rather than starched linen, and owe as much to the hood rat as they do to the lamb of God, but don't they make the wearer look alluringly untouchable--encased--in exactly the same sort of way?

Audrey Hepburn in The Nun's Story, Sophia Loren in White Sister, Lara Stone photographed by Cédric Buchet for December 2009 Vogue Paris.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye Like an Itty-Bitty Pewter Pie

This is an equal opportunity blog, serving readers of diverse interests. Some adore vintage pearls. Others will will wear nothing but classic Chanel.

And others still like pizza. Really really really like pizza. And who am I to deny those extra-cheese lovers their very slices of life?

Because eBay truly does serve all needs in all genres, there is no need to limit the pizza to the plate.

Here, an actually rather well-crafted and undeniably cute pewter pizza-box brooch.

If I were Sophia, I know exactly where I'd put it . . .




(wikimedia image at top, Sophia Loren prepares a pizza in Vittorio De Sica's L'oro di Napoli, 1954)