Weekend Fancy

Since I am mostly focussing on work outfits on the blog these days, I wasn’t going to post this outfit at first. For some reason, though, it got a bazillion likes on Instagram, and I reconsidered. Don’t get me wrong; I thought it was a cute outfit too. But lots of outfits this cute (or cuter even) don’t get as much positive public feedback. I find these kinds of situations very interesting, and I often end up trying to figure out just what, precisely, about the outfit photo elicited a strong reaction from people. The colours? The silhouette? The angles? The backdrop? I tend to assume it has more to do with the outfit than the surroundings, but when you think about it, that’s not necessarily true in a visual medium. Anything could make the difference.

Feel free to offer your thoughts in the comments, by the way.

Since I blog for fun and am seriously lazy, I rarely do much except muse about these things. I think it would be exhausting to have to treat every IG post as a marketing experiment — constantly tweaking and adjusting your “presence” or “brand” or whatever based on the reactions you get. I know some people think that blogging is a lark, and while that might be true for amateurs like me, I don’t think it’s remotely accurate for professional bloggers. It’s hard work — not in a physical sense, of course, but hard nonetheless. It doesn’t appear that way because we’re sort of trained to assume that social media is some kind of effortless, spontaneous form of expression whereas for a lot of (professional) bloggers each post is more akin to an advertisement. They are selling their brand, even if they are not directly selling a particular product. Think about how much work goes into making a magazine or TV ad; the work isn’t simply in the execution, but in the strategy and the research and planning that goes into informing that strategy. Seriously, I’m tired just thinking about it. One of many reasons why I won’t be quitting my day job any time soon.

Moving on from that total tangent, I’ll say just a few words about the outfit. First, the coat. Now that spring is finally around the corner, I realized that I hardly wore my winter coats apart from my everyday MaxMara workhorse. Propelled by guilt, I made an effort to bust out of my routine, and pulled out this thrifted J. Crew Lady Day coat. I’m glad I did, even though it elevated this outfit to a more colourful level than I would have otherwise chosen, because it worked so well with the skirt.

The skirt is wonderful. It’s thrifted Baraschi, and I bought it even though it was about 3 sizes too big because I loved the print so much. And it has pockets too! I wasn’t deterred by the sizing issue, because I have a simple solution for circle skirts like this one; I just fold the waist over as much as necessary, and pin it with a safety pin in an inconspicuous place. The extra fold just looks like part of the design — quite unnoticeable, I assure you. Having the skirt professionally tailored is, of course, the better option; for this style of skirt, I don’t think the cost is very high, but I prefer to wait and see if the skirt becomes a closet staple before I commit. Learned that lesson the hard way, naturally.