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The thing that I have been really lacking and needing in the past few months is time to do my little fashion experimentations that don't necessarily need a lot of manpower/effort but do need a bit of thought and the shopping trips to facilitate stumbling upon the right raw materials.  Fashion is like my geek subject that I pore over most unhealthily and I only wish I could buy more time to do that. 

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When people commented on the 'WTF' fabric as being very Balenciaga-ish, when you really think about it, vintage stores/thrift stores/charity shops are absolutely full of floral prints that would all happily nod in that Balenciaga SS08 [5] direction if you so wish.  Personally, I took to the shapes more than the prints in my initial reaction but now, the contrast between the technical body sculpture and the slightly garish original Cristobal Balenciaga prints pushes and pulls each other in all the right ways.

So with some X'mas spare time, and taking advantage of the unusually quiet Beyond Retro [6] in Soho, I picked up a blue floral dress with inbuilt shoulder pads, something of an old lady dress.  Then with some shape building makeshift underwear/padding (black corset, puffball skirt and netting) and some tucking in, an on-the-cheap homage occurs.  It will take a bit of permanent fixing to wear out but the elastic on the puffball skirt is such that, it's pretty much secure when all the tucking in is done.