Back when I thrifted this Tory Burch skirt, some IG peeps expressed reservations; to be honest, I had some as well. Generally speaking, tweed doesn’t fit my current aesthetic. Moreover, A-line skirts are not really my thing. Still, I thought this skirt looked interesting enough to merit the $5 investment. There was Potential. That’s not a scientific assessment, by the way; most of the time, it’s just a gut feeling. Sometimes, my gut hits it out of the ballpark; sometimes, it’s way wide of the mark. I think we’re closer to a home run this time, no?

I just realized that I definitely don’t know enough about baseball to sustain this analogy any longer. Moving on.

Frankly, everything about this skirt is problematic; the tweed, the silhouette, the length. So much potential for things to go horribly wrong. And yet, I think this combo is not half bad. The streamlined blazer has a lot to do with it; it de-fusses the skirt. It’s one of my fave recent additions to my blazer collection, precisely because the style is modern yet classic. It works with architectural/minimalist outfits, but also with my more feminine/twee pieces.

When you break it down, this is a super simple, 3-piece outfit. It looks nice but not basic, which goes to show that sometimes, all you need is an interesting piece to liven things up.

I haven’t done a casual post in a while, so: ta-da! This is an update on one of my fave casual outfits from last year. I love grey, black and khaki with a pop of blue; it’s a nice, neutral, hard-to-screw-up palette. There are lots of (light) layers happening here which make this a great — wait for it — transitional outfit. If you read more than a few fashion blogs, you’re probably starting to get really tired of that word. Transitional. Honestly, at the risk of sounding cranky pants, I’m getting tired of hearing fashion bloggers enthuse about fall when it’s nothing more than a purely theoretical concept. Many bloggers’ “fall” is basically my summer. There is nothing inherently difficult about dressing for, say, 70 degree weather. Here, fall means that it’s low 40s in the morning and maybe mid 60s by the late afternoon. And that’s the best case scenario; in a few weeks, it will probably snow – bye, bye fall.

Ahem.

Where was I? Ah yes, transitional. Lots of light layers are a good solution to 20-degree-swing days. Which brings us back to this outfit. It’s one of my weekend stand-bys. It’s comfortable but a small step up from athleisure, which is always a bonus. All the pieces are older and well-loved, and they provide great mom-on-duty service. There really is no reason for me to be cranky about any of it, except that I hate fall on principle. It’s a trying time.

Is it spring yet?