ugly cute

These shoes are a few years old, and I save them for spring/summer.  They are sort of ugly, but in a cute way.  The awkwardness of them is what is endearing.  Sort of like pants that are a bit short or the look of suspenders.  The pug of the dog world. Not at all sexy in anyway, but charming nonetheless.

 

(p.s. I think it is really really time for a new phone.  My photos are getting fuzzier.)

gray

no surprises here.  yep.

8 out of 10

Today, in an uncharacteristic display of fitness and desperation, our athlete accomplished what few have. Her routine started out with a maximum of 10 minutes to flex her wardrobe prowess. She started out with maroon pants (what a brave choice!) and moved on to a gray dress to wear over them (slightly hippy, but a rare move). Next, she removed the pants and went with leggings. Before we knew it, she took of the leggings and went with black tights. Black shoes, red shoes, black shoes, clogs. Such finite decision making at such an early part of her day! At what we can only guess was a last-minute resolution, our athlete backed out of what we thought would be a very challenging outfit, and instead tossed everything on the floor and started over with only minutes to spare. She kept the tights on but at this point we see that she was in her zone, completely relying her instinct. Out came the well-exercised jean skirt, the "old-chinese-woman-shirt", and the oxford pumps. The audience sighed in relief as we saw it all come together with her yellow polka dot scarf. And, after a quick kiss and grabbing her bag, she was off to catch her bus.

goodwill hunting

Had a trip to our local Goodwill.  It was pleasing.  I found this amazing chunky sweater I am wearing today (with my jean skirt, gray t-shirt, some high knee socks (which is my new favorite thing), and gray boots).

I also found a jean jacket that I am going to attempt to wear at a later date.  Jean jackets are EVERYWHERE but I am not sure if it is something that I can pull off. It is that strange intersection of preppy, older woman, 80’s, and dude.

p.s.

Here is a fantastic true story (names have been changed to protect the innocent):

At a dinner with a group of friends, Gus said to Chuck, “that shirt you are wearing looks remarkably familiar."  Chuck answered that he had found this shirt a few months back at a thrift store.  Gus mentioned that he had given away such a similar shirt and noted the weird creases/folds on the sleeves that he had found so annoying.  Gus’s fiance, Sara, wanted to see what color the thread was on the bottom button since she remembers sewing it on.  To all of our surprise, the bottom button had a dark thread and we could all safely assume that the shirt that Chuck was currently wearing once was Gus’s shirt.  How cool is that?

it's a hoot

This new shirt/dress is all about owls which are really a big deal in fashion these days.  I usually shy away from bandwagoning but I really really like owls and this shirt probably has some of the cutest ever.  I ordered it online due to the pattern rather than the style of the item and now I am struggling on figuring out on how to wear it since as a dress it is too thin and short for work, and it has a weird sleeve thing going on.  Regardless I have soldiered on and wear it today to celebrate the end of a crazy week.

Between late nights for school, social things (softball!  Bob’s Burgers event! Happy hour!) and a bit of insomnia, I did NOT get enough sleep this week.  Perhaps it is a quirk of mine, but I find that thinking about what I am going to wear the next day to be a solid way of turning off my brain in order to get to sleep.  I can also plan a sewing or painting art project in my brain and this also helps.  I tend to believe that it is the creative part of my brain taking over from the thinking part of my brain – and, the creative part is just a bit closer to the dreams that are lurking in the sleeping brain.  Just a theory.  Owls!

my mullet

shirt. 

This is a fun one from Forever21. It is business (black) in the front.  And, it is party (fun design) in the back. 

But I swear I spent way too long trying to capture the idea of it; twisting my arm around, blindly trying to hit the button trying to take a photo or two.  Most are of my blurry hand, the back of my head, or the wall.  Here were the closest thing I got to keepers:

clogs are pretty awesome

They are like closed-toed flip flops.

Pros:

They are clunky
easy to slip on
easy to slip off
cute and funky in a retro way

Cons:

They are clunky
the good ones are expensive
perhaps not fashionable
potentially an ankle breaker

my knees

make their first appearance of the year

na/nur - ture

A thought I had when walking to work – since fashion is HUGELY subjective (what I find amazing you may find horrific or be indifferent to) – where does this sense of fashion come from? 

Your first exposure to colors, textures and clothes comes from you parents.  Perhaps you develop your interest (or disinterest) in clothing based on childhood.  This would be similar to a child generally liking the taste of food that his parents eat. Of course money plays into this – if you grow up with less, you may have had to be more creative and thrifty – however this could flip as an adult into a need to show your wealth in your clothes/shoes/jewelry.

My baseline of good music is the 50’s and 60’s (oldies!).  I have grown my musical tastes since then, but I still have a fondness for the music my parents listened to.  Perhaps how your present yourself is similar.  My dad’s flippant ties and ability to wear anything he wants, and my mom’s appreciation for colors as well as comfort all went into my early opinion of fashion.  Since then, I have soaked in ideas from friends and magazines/movies and have developed my own style.  And, it keeps changing.

I remember BATTLES with my mom on what to wear – she wanted pink and cute and all I wanted was my sweatpants.  Now, I do still enjoy a good sweatpants, but my overreaction to my mom toned down over the years and I got back to the girly stuff a bit.  So, perhaps my sense of fashion is a bit of both nurture (parents) and nature (life).