Blazer, Elie Tahari; top, RACHEL Rachel Roy (via consignment); pants, AG (via Kijiji); shoes, J. Crew (via consignment); bag, YSL (via eBay)
This blazer, you guys: this blazer is so good. I wear it all the time, and not just on Friday (though, especially then). It has an edgier vibe – hi-lo hem, leather trim, say what?
heyo, hi-low!
Just as I was getting ready to write the praises of the blazer, I realized that this outfit features another wardrobe MVP. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this Rachel Roy top, and specifically its floral print. It doesn’t look particularly loud, but it has all sorts of bits of colour mixed in (blush, yellow, blue, red) which makes accessorizing a cinch. Lazy? Moi? Jamais!
Total outfit cost: $171 (not including bag) / Retail: $819 approx. / CPW: $21.50
Dress, 3.1 Phillip Lim; cardigan, J. Crew Factory; belt, H&M; shoes, Nine West; bag, YSL (via eBay)
Is the whole hi-low mixing thing still, well, a thing? I hope so, because I feel like I totally nailed it with this outfit. The dress, bag, and my coat (which you can’t see here, but is my camel MaxMaraworkhorse) are tres, tres expahnsiv, even with the sizeable gift card that went towards their purchase. On the other hand, the shoes, cardigan, and belt? The very definition of affordable fashion. The whole look together? One of my favourite outfits of the year. Writing a post in question format? Probably more amusing to me than you. (My standards for amusement are low to nonexistent.)
bag lovelipstick, Rimmel Colour Rush – The Redder The Better
Think you could guess the total out-of-pocket cost of his outfit just by looking at it? We haven’t had some fun with wardrobe statistics in a while, so feel free to play along at home. I can offer you no prize for getting the right number, but you have my blessing to toast yourself with a glass of wine or other beverage/snack of your choice.
Ready?
Ok, so the total retail cost was approximately $3,670 – say it with me, “holy s**t!!!” – and my out-of-pocket cost was $890.* All I can say is: Thank God for eBay and generous gift cards. You’ll be happy to hear that the current Cost-Per-Wear of this outfit is a fairly reasonable $62.74 … not a bad price for feeling like a fancy fance for a day. Which goes to show – spending big bucks on the things you wear most, and that last the longest (like coats and bags) is the way to get the most bang for them bucks. With that said, I don’t know if anyone else thought I looked fancy or just, you know, plain old “nice”, which also goes to show that the main benefit of “investing” in expensive clothes is nothing more tangible than the confidence boost you’ll get out of them.
Have you ever tallied the cost of the outfits you wear? What is looking good for 10 hours a day “worth” to you?
all the favourites
* Technically, the total should be $830, because the shoes were a gift; I included them in the calculations so that the totals would reflect the cost of the entire outfit.
Oh hey, remember when I used to do these posts? Do you know why I stopped? Me either. Did you miss getting a brain dump of my current obsessions on a (sorta) weekly basis? No? Well, perhaps you need a reminder to convince that you did. Yeah? Yes!
Currently Wishful Thinking About: Valentino Garden Print Dress
droooooooool
Searching Google Images is always a dangerous activity. Instead of finding whatever cheap floral schmatta you were looking for, you end up gazing with unrequited longing at something like this. Meanwhile, your wallet is, all, “Lalalalalala, I cannot hear or see anything!”, and your brain is, like, “X yourself outta there, girl! Now, now, now, do ittttt!”, but your heart is, all “And I-eeee-iiii-eeee-iiii will always looooooove youuuuuuuu … uuuuu …”
Sigh.
Currently Loving: Fresh Flowers
Now that parts of our house are starting to look semi-decent and grown-up, I seem to be buying flowers all. the. damn. time. They just make a nice room look even nicer, you know? Plus, flowers are colourful, and we all know my Achilles heel. For example:
springtime in a vase
There are not enough purple/blue flowers in the world. I am dead serious. Some florists try to compensate by dyeing poor roses and carnations, but they are fooling no one. These hyacinths are not only the real deal, but smell delicious as well. [Edited to add: the smell is very strong; I ended up having to take these to the office, once they fully opened, because my mom couldn’t stand it. So if you have perfume sensitivities, these may not be the flowers for you.]
sitting pretty in pink
Prominent among my many “basic bitch” preferences, is my love of hydrangeas. They just look so fancay.
The key to buying fresh flowers often is to buy them cheap, and that means buying them anywhere but a flower shop. The hyacinths came from Costco ($12 for a big bunch), and the (potted) hydrangeas from Home Depot, of all places (also $12, decorative pot not included). I usually buy my orchids from IKEA, for under $20, and they tend to last a good 2 months. Unless you have a brown thumb like me, you can easily get them to flower again in a few months.
Currently Hunting: Tom Binns Alice in Wonderland Necklace
yes, please
Speaking of basic bitchness, I adore Alice in Wonderland. I am forever sad to come across things that were tied to the release of the 2010 Tim Burton movie, and which I somehow missed (or was not able to buy) at the time. Like this Tom Binns necklace. Is it a practical choice of jewelry for a mid-thirties professional? Who the hell cares? It is perfection.
Seriously, I want to have a lady date with Fran Leibovitz and Frances McDormand. There would be judging involved. It would be amazing. I’d be sitting there, slack-jawed with admiration.
I am also reading All We Know, a biography of three women who lived at the centre of the cultural Zeitgeist of the early 20th century but have since become mere footnotes in other, more famous artists’ lives. It’s kind of in the same vein as Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin: Writers Running Wild In The Twenties, but about less (in)famous women.
If you’ve got some good book recc’s, hit me up in the comments – I feel an Amazon order is in order.
Currently Obsessing Over: Game of Thrones
NEW SEASON STARTING IN TWO DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry, I have to get that out of my system. Coincidentally, this year’s Corporate Challenge theme is Game of Throwns which … makes no sense, but let’s go with it. I am super duper pumped because it means that my traditional competitive category – team trivia, duh! – will be the best one yet. And I get to be team captain! Or, at least, I think I am. Things got a little complicated recently. See, it turns out that my boss is a huge GoT fan, and an equally huge trivia fan, and there was some last minute, ahem, team shuffling. Our chances of winning have gone up exponentially, but I think my captaincy just went the way of the dodo. Oh well.
