As many of you are probably aware, we’ve just completed Shark Week back in the States. Now, amongst the scientific community, Shark Week tends to be a bit controversial, a bit sensationalized, and a bit of a stretch from what we shark biologists actually find ourselves doing on a daily basis. Though everyone assumes Shark Week is Christmas Morning meets Mardi Gras meets an 80% off shoe sale at Nordstrom for me, it truly isn’t so…
Not to mention that the Discovery Channel started putting out a series of “mockumentaries,” including those that claimed the Megalodon (a prehistoric ancestor of the great white shark) still roamed the sea or that mermaids existed. And in addition to being blatant fabrications, they caused an uproar because a significant proportion of the public thought they were true accounts, thus casting disparity over anything produced by the network (and a heck of a lot of repetitive conversations for us science folk). I’ve heard that things were much improved this year – although I’ve been (and still am) traveling, word on the street is that there was much more real science, more biodiversity, and far fewer Megalodons than there had been in previous years…
To celebrate the end of Shark Week and the halfway point of my trip around New Zealand, chock full of sharky goodness, I couldn’t think of a better time for the inaugural styling of this amazing skirt, which was handmade for me by the incomparable Rebecca from Girl in a Whirl. In addition to the fabulousness that is the shark on this skirt, whose pectoral fins gently rest on my right hipbone, there’s a shoal of little red fish swirling around the other side, endlessly twirling in a bubble curtain of their own making. I think I like the ambiguity of Shark vs. Shoal the best, as if you can’t quite figure out who’s chasing who….
I took Mr. Dressed Aesthetic up to one of the most beautiful places in the world at the start of this week, the Leigh Marine Lab at the Goat Island Marine Reserve, where I was asked to give a talk on my research to a sea of new faces and a handful of old memories. It was pretty incredible to step back in time for a bit and visit the lab where I did my PhD – although a lot has changed and most of the place has been rebuilt over the years – it’s still the place that grew me up in a lot of ways and that nostalgia will never change.
This trip has been an amalgamation of the past catching up with me and constant reminders of about how far I’ve come. But as is usually the case when it comes to the past or the present, who exactly is chasing who, that is always a mystery…
Anyone else have the past catch up with them lately?
xoxo
Outfit Details:
Skirt: Custom made by Girl In a Whirl
Top: Pinup Girl Clothing
Necklace: Modcloth
Handbag: Word from the Bird (similar here, here & here)
Shoes: Miss L Fire (similar here, here & here)
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