All the Frills: Abelard and Heloise

Continuing on from last week, where I profiled a few of my favourite books, this week I’m featuring an older edition of the Letters of Abelard and Heloise and a reproduction of the illuminated Master of Mary of Burgundy that I picked up many years ago while hunting for used book treasures in NYC. I can’t remember exactly where or when I came across the edition of the letters of Abelard and Heloise but it’s a favourite of mine. Most people know the twelfth century couple through re-tellings of their ill-fated love affair (which encompassed such engrossing episodes as Abelard’s castration) but I have always been more interested in the figure of Heloise and her fierce intellectualism. To me the part of the love story between Abelard and Heloise that fascinates is not the actual romantic events that the two shared but their long-enduring intellectual exchange. As for the reproduction of the Book of Hours of Mary of Burgundy, the original of which was made in about 1477 and is held at the Getty, what can I say other than that I’m a sucker for a good reproduction of an illuminated manuscript?

And here’s a little link love:

• Okay, so there are few strange ones on the list and some notable people missing but some of my favourite ladies are here – hello Flannery O’Connor
  
• Another awesome list full of awesome ladies I freaking love this! A little literary mystery...
  
• Like the gals at Go Fug Yourself, this headline really makes me laugh
  
• I'm going to write a movie script. It will be called Croc Forest: Trees of Doom. You've been warned
  
• My friend Jennifer described this one thusly: “In totally unsurprising news, researchers find that feminism has NOT made women freak out en masse if a man opens a door for them”
  
• The last living survivor of the Holocaust has passed away. This actually really scares me because I feel as though we’re now on the brink of a long process of forgetting. How will the average person 50, 100 years from now comprehend the Holocaust now that it’s moved out of the realm of immediacy associated with it having still been rooted “in our time” with those who lived through it still among us?

Blue Nile

One of my favourite parts about a slightly warm winter’s day (we had some nice weather here last week...as opposed to yesterday, when it was colder than the fourth round in the ninth circle of Hell) is the chance it offers for a tights and shorts pairing.

And the gorgeous Blue Nile necklace I won in a giveaway on my friend Meg’s blog  arrived in the mail so I just had to wear that as well. I just love how delicate it is – it’ll definitely be popping up in a lot of future looks.

shorts: H&M / shirt: Vero Moda / blazer: H&M / boots: ASOS / necklace: Blue Nile / tights: Target

Layers

So I’m super into layering my favourite sweaters over dresses these days – it’s a great way to mix and match items to generate more outfits. Plus there’s something really comfy about a dress with a warm sweater tossed over top!

dress: thrifted, Value Village / sweater: Sheinside / necklace: Target / booties: Target

All the Frills: Old Timey Books

My area of focus as a historian is early modern England, and early modern Europe more broadly. As you can probably imagine, this was a pretty religiously-minded society – both pre- and post-Reformation (don’t even get me started talking about the Reformation in England, or Reformations more accurately…I’ll seriously go on for like a week). References to scripture and other religious texts appear with great frequency in documents from the period and so I have several bibles and collections of psalms kicking around my home library for use in my research. But my favourite editions are these reproductions of a late medieval illuminated Bible and Book of Psalms. I love me a good timey book, and these ones were gifts from my parents from many, many years ago (both bear dated inscriptions, which I love), so they’re doubly special.

Moving on, here are a few odds and ends that caught my attention this week:

• Edmonton's stylin' librarians (I worked for the Edmonton Public Library system for 5 years so really enjoy this one).
  
• Mean tweets music edition – cannot stop giggling at these.
  
• Putin on the Ritz!!!!! This has been around for a while but I am easily amused and every time I see this I just lose it.
  
• The ‘Diamonds are Forever’ ad campaign is, actually, eternal.
  
• This article on homophobia in Russia is really interesting.
  
• Any Jeopardy fans? This kid’s got a system that inspires both rage and admiration. People who are inspired to rage and admiration by Jeopardy are my favourite kind of people.
  
• This might be the height of irony. Tragic and sad as well, but deeply, deeply ironic.
  
• Anyone love Settlers of Catan as much as I do? This profile of its creator is pretty interesting.
  
• I’ve got some problem with Lego’s “girls” building sets. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one.

I've Combined Comfort and My Innate Cheapness!

This is the perfect top to wear to work on the days when I attend a meeting that runs every third Monday from 5-9 pm. It’s loose fitting, comfy, and yet not totally unstylish. And I paid about $20 for it in an online Boxing Day sale. Even better. I really like to pinch those pennies.

pants: Dynamite / top: Zara / boots: ASOS

All the Frills Fridays: Cartography

When I was little my Dad had this amazing antique looking globe that I used to be totally fascinated with. It got consigned to a garage sale bin when my parents sold their house about eight years ago and I’ve wanted a globe of my very own ever since. Enter this beauty that my awesome helpmeet surprised me with recently!

And here a few links that I’ve stumbled across over the past week that engrossed me:

• Lean In and Getty Images are partnering up to disseminate a new style of stock photos that challenge ideas of femininity and the depiction of women in the media.
  
  
• Who doesn’t like oogling images of amazing libraries?
  
  
• Can I go back and request that Tim Gunn be my outside examiner on my dissertation committee?
  
  
• Why is this not happening here? Cat Café! Well, at least it’s happening in San Francisco. I may need to move.
  
  
• There’s something very unsurprising and yet deeply unsettling about this.
  
  
• An abandoned Nazi beach resort. That pretty much says it all.
  
  
• Et tu Lego?
  
  
• In honour of Valentine’s Day and all that romantic hullabaloo, Ruche has rounded up a decent list of literary love quotes (I have to say, my person favourites don’t appear here though).
  
  
• Vintage Halloween Valentine’s cards? Hello best idea ever!
  
  

Piling on the Hits

I decided to combine my two favourite pieces in my closet (this month, at least) into one awesome outfit. I’m pretty pleased with myself.

dress: Zara / boots: Aldo / glasses: Clearly Contacts

Plaid and Zippers

I’m a sucker for zipper detailing and a good plaid, so these pants were pretty much a Boxing Day shopping no brainer for me.

pants: Zara / shirt: thrifted, Value Village / blazer: H&M / heels: thrifted, Value Village / watch: Kenneth Cole / bracelets and ring: Aldo

All the Frills: Intro Edition

Welcome to a new, and I hope regular, feature on Sartorial Sidelines – All the Frills Fridays!

I’m endeavoring to use my Friday posts as a place to feature a different accessory, knick knack, what have you, alongside a little link roundup to get the weekend started. For the inaugural edition, I give you….drum roll…this Lancastrian rose locket that is one of my most prized possessions. I picked up this necklace on my first trip to the UK, when, in a fit of post-high school, pre-university independence, I backpacked across Europe solo and ended my trip with a month in England.

The red rose of Lancaster and the white rose of York were later combined to make the Tudor rose, which was selected by the Lancastrian Henry Tudor as the badge of his house after his defeat of the Yorkist Richard III in 1485. This defeat, at the Battle of Bosworth, ended the so-called War of the Roses (sort of – I’m of the opinion that the War of the Roses actually carried on for several more years as various Yorkist claimants threatened Henry’s hold on the crown). Henry Tudor, now Henry VII and first of the Tudor dynasty, married Richard’s niece Elizabeth of York, thus uniting the two rival houses and combined the two rose emblems into one.

As a historian of the Tudor and Stuart periods I treasure this locket, in which I have pasted images of Anne Boleyn and Katherine Parr (my two favorite wives of Henry VIII).

And because I’ve devoted this inaugural post to English history, I’m going to mostly keep that theme rolling in the links round up:

Pornography, Georgian style. Plenty of ye olde sauciness.

I’m soooo excited to see The Monuments Men. Here's a bit on the often overlooked Monuments Women.

Lady Edith is getting some ‘20s style!

Any cinema costume fans out there? This fascinating Tumblr is for you!

Hot on the discovery of Richard III under that car park, they may have located Alfred the Great’s remains.

Aside from environmental degradation, there are a few other sinister things that come along with oil field expansion.

The owner of one of my favourite Edmonton hangouts, The Empress, has opened a new venture. The best part is that it’s 7 blocks away from my front door. Hello new home-away-from-home!

So apparently hotel rooms in Sochi are not good.

Things Rip When You Break the Rules

I was pretty deflated last week when I pulled this dress out of my closet and realized it had a tear in it. It’s one of my favorites – I love the asymmetrical hemline and the pockets...technically I'm pretty sure it's actually a pool cover up but I like to make my own rules and have been wearing it as a dress. Suck it social convention.

Although I'm reasonably handy with minor repairs, this rip requires a sewing machine. So it's off to the tailor for this one. What a crappy way to start the day. You guys, I've got a lot of problems.

"dress": Target / tights: Winners / belts: Mexx / booties: Target

Winter Warmth

While we have had some unseasonably warm weather here in northern Canada as of late, my city of Edmonton remains (from October to March, at least) a winter one. As a result, my closet is pretty stocked with winter jackets of varying styles and warmth. When you spend 6 months of the year in a coat you want to have a few options. That’s actually one plus to my relocating to Canada last year – when I first moved to Connecticut I packed my extensive coat collection and then pretty much kept most of them in storage for the 6 years it took me to do my PhD; the weather just never got cold enough!

So now I’m back in the winter coat saddle, so to speak.

jacket: ASOS / snood: Marshalls / booties: Target