I can’t believe I didn’t think to pair these two pieces — dress and necklace — before. They’re truly perfect together. I feel like most of the credit needs to go to my MaxMara necklace, which has proven to be a statement accessory superstar. So much for all the doubters (ahem, my husband) who questioned the wisdom of my decision to buy it. Almost every time I am in need of a special piece to elevate a simple outfit, this necklace does the trick. It’s a compliment magnet too. There is something surprisingly elegant about all those big pieces of resin.
oh hello there, dear feet!bell sleeves – love it or hate it?
My outfit was not the only good thing going for me. Behold, a Good Make-Up Day:
magical make-up
Don’t ask me what I did differently that day, because I have no idea. I just, somehow, magically, looked far more rested and fresh and glowy than usual. Like lightning in a bottle, this whole effect has proven rather difficult to replicate. If you’ve got some new must-have beauty items to recommend, I’m all ears.
Back to the outfit, with one more word on the dress. I am starting to be less enamoured of the bell sleeves. I know they’re currently trendy, and they’re not flappy enough to actively bother me, but I feel like they make the dress look a bit “fancier” than I’d like. Plus, they’re hard to fit into blazers without wrinkling them. I’m debating taking the dress to the tailor to consider a partial sleeve-ectomy. Thoughts?
Coat, J. Crew (thrifted); turtleneck, Club Monaco; skirt, Baraschi (thrifted); boots, Bandolino (thrifted); bag, Gucci (via consignment)
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.
close-up on skirt
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.
Nope, I’m not going anywhere just yet … but I am saying good-bye to this dress. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, made part way through the day on which I wore this outfit, but I’m pretty confident about it. There is nothing wrong with the dress; I simply don’t feel “wow” in it, and so I wear it mostly out of guilt. It’s a nice dress, and it deserves to be worn with joy. Consider this my Kondo-approved “thanks for all the memories” tribute before the dress goes off to meet its (new) destiny. (Coincidentally, for those of you who have been asking, tomorrow’s post is *all* about the current state of my closet.)
accessory close-upfanc-ay!
I had initially planned to wear the dress with my greige blazer, only to realize that the result was … a whole lotta beige. Instead of reverting to my usual default — black — I chose to go the opposite way, and pulled this old cream cardigan from the back of the closet. I think the draping of the cardigan worked nicely with the draping of the dress. I added one of my fave waist cinchers to add some visual interest and definition, since the cardigan is fairly voluminous. Last but not least, I went with burgundy accessories rather than black so as not to “weigh” down the outfit too much. The result is, well, as you see it. Not a bad way to bid adieu.
