The safety pin- nothing short of fashionable

It all began with Versace's iconic Spring-Summer collection in 1994. Up until then, Walter Hunt's humble safety pin was considered nothing more than a tiny contraption used to hold pieces of fabric together. Two decades later, Versace's diffusion line has re imagined the original concept in its Spring 2015 collection.  

Here's a look down the two decades at the use of safety pins as embellishments on clothes, which started off on the runway for high end brands, trickled down to the more affordable high street stores, dispersed across thrift stores to eventually make the rounds on DIY blogs and yet continue to inspire designers and even get an honourable mention at the MET.

Image : Helmut Lang. Versace Spring/Summer 1994

Image : Rex. Versace Spring/Summer 1994

Image : versace.com. Versace Spring/Summer 1994 ad campaign

Image : Marcio Madiera. Gareth Pugh Fall/Winter 2008

Moschino Fall 2009

Moschino Fall 2009

Image : popsugar.com. Vena cava Spring 2010

Image : Vogue. Balmain Spring 2011 by Christopher Decarnin

Image : Vogue. Balmain Spring 2011 by Christopher Decarni

Image : the x stylez. Backstage at McQ by Alexander McQueen Fall/Winter 2011

Image : diverseclothing.com. McQ by Alexander McQueen Fall/Winter 2011

Image- www.metmuseum.org. Punk: chaos to couture May-Aug 2013

Image- www.metmuseum.org. Punk: chaos to couture May-Aug 2013

Images: sorchaoraghallaigh.com. Sorcha O' Raghallaigh Spring/Summer 2014

Image: sorchaoraghallaigh.com. Sorcha O' Raghallaigh Spring/Summer 2014

Image : sorchaoraghallaigh.com. Sorcha O' Raghallaigh Spring/Summer 2014

Image : sorchaoraghallaigh.com. Sorcha O' Raghallaigh Spring/Summer 2014

 Image : sorchaoraghallaigh.com. Sorcha O' Raghallaigh Spring/Summer 2014

Image: telegraph.co.uk. Versace Versus Spring 2015

Giannni and Donatella, in 1994 and 2014 respectively, unveiling their safety pin-studded collections.

Image: republicofchic.com. A blogger's take on safety pin DIY.

Image: a Balmian-esque safety pin encrusted leather jacket, bought off a thrift store in New Delhi, India.

The neon bat

There was a point of time when neon scarves were quite the rage. They flooded the markets and I just went mad. We have a saying in our family that if you love wild colours, then you are probably a little crazy. My grandmother used to say that a lot and the funny thing was that she loved all those bold bright hues of red, orange and pink.

Coming back to the story of the neon bat, like any other neon deprived girl in a metropolitan city, I went out and got myself one too many such scarves. 

It was the neon apocalypse explosion in my closet. Neon scarves everywhere.

Neon scarf to the right of me; neon scarf to the left of me and then I thought, too many scarves, time to convert one of them into something else. 

I was feeling particularly lazy that day so I decided to do something that required minimum work. The minimum work came to me in the idea of a kimono style top, an idea that I lifted from the internet. (Gotta be honest when the designs are not my own idea.)

Very simple work. Just fold the scarf into half, stitch up the sides, allowing ample room for slits and hysterical hand movement. Then cut up the front bit in the middle and hem it up. 

The ribbon can be optional. I just thought it would be nice to throw in another bright element, as if things are not bright enough already. 

Let's remove the pink stuff shall we?

Begone Pink!

Somebody's instant reaction on seeing me was to call me a 'Neon Bat'. 

I like the name. And the idea of neon bat prowling the streets of Mumbai, distracting pedestrians with hysterical hand movements.

However, like most people, I have sane parents, so I should probably avoid that.

Safety pins galore

The coloured safety pin obsession.

The moment I realised that safety pins are a nice way to tweak up an outfit, I got carried away. Fortunately for me, my obsessions last about a week and then I move on to something else, or rather, get distracted by something else.

So to feed this obsession, I started digging through my closet, looking for 'meh' outfits that are a guaranteed yawn. 

What is a 'meh' outfit? You may refer below for the answer.

 The tee? Such a bore.

The shorts? Seen it everywhere.

But the shorts and tee +safety pins?

You never know if you never try...

Caution- may cause slight discomfort while sitting

To be honest, I was actually planning on making a safety pin necklace with these, but they ended up here and I don't mind, really; I did manage to sort of get the effect I wanted. The nice thing about this design is that it would look good on a plain vest as well. Suddenly my tee doesn't look so old anymore.

So let me end on a cheezy note and add that I plan to "Pin this" on Pinterest.

  

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Skirting the issue

So you're back from your Goa trip, still in vacation mode, dreading the thought of dragging yourself back to work, wondering if by some weird twist of fate your company would relocate you to Goa so that you could waltz into work ever morning in a pair of flip flops.

You've brought back the hippie pants that you used to cover up that tummy bulge, because, lets face it, you didn't really think your body was in 'bikini condition'.

Those hippie pants that made you feel so cool and made you feel like you were a part of the expat community there.

Those hippie pants that you can't really wear now without looking like an extra from a Forrest Gump montage scene.

But they're so comfortable that you don't want to let go of them just as yet.

Till you have this weird idea that converting them into a skirt might not be a bad idea. Better this way, you can add a lining easily because those trousers were too transparent to begin with.

Hippie no mo

The skirt could have been shorter, perhaps, but I am in a calf skimming mood and if I ever get bored, there's always a pair of scissors within my reach.

"Click them thrice and think of home"

Any pair of red shoes remind me of the ruby ones whose heels Dorothy clicked and thought of home. I remember watching the film as a kid, in total awe of those shoes. They aired it at 9pm on one of those days when Cartoon Network would give way to TNT for its regular evening-night time slot.

TNT usually stuck with its black-and-white movies but one day decided to air The Wizard Of Oz. My Grandpa told me I would love it and we watched it together, and Dorothy's slippers never left my mind after that. Any shoe with a slight hint of red=Dorothy's shoes.

And by any pair, I mean any pair, as long as they are red in colour.

Dorothy's shoes didn't need any retouches (In my six year old mind, they were the most beautiful pair that ever existed) but I felt these ones could do with a little bit of work. To be honest, I loved them as they were, but I wanted to take things a little further and experiment with shoes as well.

Olympic rings much?

The first round of stitching went well.  And then I thought, 'Why not stitch some more?' It was a risk, because these were not even my shoes and ruining them would mean inviting my friend's wrath. But she had okayed me for the change so there I was, confident that the assurance of her blessings would cloud over any experimental disasters. 

And here is a photo of her feet happily posing for the camera before rushing off to work. The pink nail paint was unintentional, but it fits right in. Just like jigsaw puzzle pieces coming together.

Another happy day.

Dressed to the Tee

There are some T shirts that you wear and wear till they can't be worn anymore, and there are some that you just wish you could snip up because you see a better alternative future for them. The former usually lands up eventually in you dad's car and is used as a wiper for the windshield. The latter, well, you take it out of your closet and look at it, wondering why you ever bought it and whether you could barter it with your best friend in exchange of that lovely one off piece she bought form a flea market that you have been begging her for the past four months.

Or something like that.

I guess you get the drift.

Off with the arms!

First up, those arms needed to go. In fact, I believe my disdain for the tee began with the arms. The arms could have been better but they weren't so off they went; I got a little carried away and chopped off more than I could sew (lame joke alert). Off went the scissors and the sides were cut up. It looked like a poncho. No wait, a tent - a tiny tent pitched on a curve-less girl.

But all hope wasn't lost. Jersey is a flexible material to work with so all I had to do was tug on it and tie it at the sides. 

The knots ended up looking messy. Atleast for me. I was not happy at all so a few of my tiny friends were summoned. 

  

My tiny friends gave me the finishing touch I wanted. Looks like this one is also going to be worn till it can't be worn anymore and eventually land up in our car's dashboard.