Parasol Tips For Summer

Summer is here! It is June, and for those of you that aren't under the current gloom that currently hangs in heavy clouds of the Highlands, there might actually be sunshine. 

There's two ways to go about parasols; one is going for the proper lace and/or fabric parasols designed soley to keep the sun off and look amazing while doing so, and the second is just to use your umbrella (which actually means shade!) which is good for both the rain and still keeps the sun off if in a dark and opaque colour (obviously transparent ones don't work so well, and can actually act a bit like a greenhouse in the summer!) and are also an option for those who think actual parasols are too frilly and fancy. If anyone asks you why you have an umbrella up in the sunshine, just look confused at them and say "to use as a shade??", because they are clearly not being practical! If you live somewhere like Britain where the summer weather is highly changeable, having a shade that is also waterproof can certainly come in handy. There are also quite a few Goth and Goth-friendly designs for umbrellas on the market, so it should not be difficult to find one that suits your tastes. 

When it comes to lace parasols, not all are made equal; for one to effectively act as a shade, the main canopy needs to be as opaque as possible, which means either a dense lace, or a mixture of fabric and lace. Do not be fooled by the costume parasols with thin, open lace; often the lace is not very pretty in person, the mechanisms cheap and break easily (I know this from experience, buying a few when I was an inexperienced babybat) and they provide very little shade. A white and opaque parasol will reflect light away as well as shade you, and can be incoprorated into both all-white outfits and black and white outfits, whereas a black parasol while more traditionally Goth, can itself get quite warm. A black fabric parasol with white overlay would be best, both aesthetically pleasing and reflective on the outside and absorbent on the inside, so that sunshine that gets under the parasol is not reflected back onto you! Also, all sexes and genders of Romantic Goth, Gothic Lolita, etc. look equally awesome with parasols; they are not a gendered thing. 

A D.I.Y. option for a parasol is to take the mechanism of an old umbrella, strip off the waterproof fabric/plastic carefully, and copy the pattern in a fabric of your choice. This is a good option for those who don't like the lacy aesthetic of the traditional, Victorian and Edwardian style of parasol. You can opt for bold stripes, or a funky Halloween fabric, or do something really cool with block colours and the remains of ripped up tights for a Deathrock or Horrorpunk style. The limits are the limits of your creativity and skill! I will making a "Frankenbrolly" later this summer by using the ornate handle off a wrecked vintage umbella, the canopy from one of the pagoda-style umbrellas, and a new metal pole for the shaft, ready for autumn (not when the rain begins, but when the rain intensifies...) and I will post that up here when it is made, with a bit about how I do it.

Edinburgh City Part 2: Hanover St. Bank

While Gothic and Gothic Revival styles are my favourite, I don't mind a bit of Neo-Classical architecture now and then. 

These photos happened because I had to sit around and wait on the Saturday. K. and her friend Clark had to get their student bus passes, and I wasn't feeling well, so didn't want to go indoors where it might be stuffy to wait with them. Edinburgh was a lot warmer than Inverness was when I left, and even having taken off my scarf and jacket I was over-heating, plus I did not realise just how crowded central Edinburgh would be on a Saturday afternoon - I am not used to big cities and masses of people, and do not cope well with crowds. I was feeling pressed in and getting faint with the stress and the heat, and had nearly fainted in a heap outside a fast food restaurant on Prince's Street! As such, while K. and Clark sorted there bus ticket, I parked myself under the grand facade of this bank. 

It's currently a bank and a branch of the TSB, but I do wonder what this building was built for. Its temple style make me wonder if it was a Neoclassical chapel of one of the Christian denominations that shied away from the Gothic style for their chapels, or whether it was always a bank and that the severe lines of the Ionic Order were a statement of security, stability and seriousness. Either way, while Neoclassical architecture is not my favourite style, I rather liked this building, and while I waited, took these photographs. 

As I was right up close to the building, sitting on a ledge and trying not move around too much, I have not got any photographs of the building as a whole, but the entire building seems to be of a design quite directly inspired by Classical temples, although the colonnade here is only a portico, rather than supporting a roof and arcade down the sides of the building. The next building down hill also had columns, hence the photographs taken looking down one set of columns to the next in different style. 

I know that usually my architectural photographs are in black and white, but with the stone of this building being such a pale grey anyway, I thought it would be better to take some colour pictures, that and I wanted to capture the fact that it was actually sunny in Scotland (just in case nobody believed me! :P ). The day after the weather went back to cloudy and dreary, so it was short lived, but it was actually sunny for a whole afternoon.