What I Wore: August 2018 Workwear Recap

After the feedback on my last monthly recap post, I decided to tentatively bring back this feature to the blog. I will confess that there is also a selfish component to my decision; I like having an excuse to compile all my OOTDs in a neat little collage. I haven’t been very diligent about tracking my outfits in Stylebook lately, and this serves a similar function. Anyway, here are the outfits I wore to work in August:

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As you know, I was pretty pleased with how my July outfits came together; before I sat down to make up the collage above, I wasn’t feeling nearly as good about my August efforts. As I mentioned above, I’ve fallen out of the habit of updating my Stylebook regularly, and my outfit planning has been reduced to brainstorming ideas right before I photograph them. I don’t try on outfits ahead of time, tweaking things as I go; the result is that, sometimes, I am less than satisfied with the way some outfits look in photographs. I then have to re-work outfits after the fact, re-photograph them … lather, rinse, repeat. By the time I actually wear the outfit in real life, no matter how nice it looks, I’m kinda over it.

The answer is probably to go back to the way I used to outfit plan: i.e. start by playing around with different pieces in front of the mirror, until an outfit comes together, THEN photograph it. I got lazy AND complacent, which is not a great combo considering that I’m still working on getting the hang of a new aesthetic.

Anyhhhwaaaaay.

Looking at the collage, I don’t think my outfits turned out quite as badly as I thought they did. Which is always such a nice surprise, and a bonus of doing these recap posts. I think I just talked myself into bringing back this series permanently. Hmmm …

A few random observations:

– Still lots of brown happening. I had no idea I even had that much brown in my closet.

– I’ve been filming my thrift hauls on IG Stories for a while now, but I recently also started doing “anti-hauls” – i.e. showing what pieces are leaving my closet and why. I thought this would give a more comprehensive picture of my ever-evolving wardrobe, and people seem to be enjoying the videos. Also, I like talking through the process, and find it helpful in terms of committing to my decisions. The 15 second limit, though? Haaaaate it. I’m a babbler.

– I think I’m going to try to go back to a more capsule-like approach over the next few months. September is half over, so I am going to start with October. I’m hoping it’s going to push me out of my autopilot mode, and reignite some excitement over the whole process. Dressing is supposed to be fun, after all. Stay tuned …

What I Wore: September 10-16, 2018

The Long & Short Of It

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This outfit was inspired by @nitrochic on IG (she’s a fellow thrifter, and her style is always on point), but if your mind went to the Cake classic “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” then I don’t blame you, fellow Gen X-er. Because that the immediate association my mind makes when it comes to those two items.

I’ve talked before about my attempts to update traditional silhouettes and staple closet items for my current style; some have been more successful than others. The pencil skirt has been stumping me, I have to confess. I’ve paired it with voluminous tops with okay results, but nothing that felt like a “wow”. This combo – shorter pencil skirt plus tailored longer topper – is definitely making me feel things, though. The extra few inches of exposed skin above the knee feel a liiiiittle bit risqué, but I think they are successfully balanced by the buttoned-up Oxford shirt. I also quite like the subtle pattern mix of stripes (blazer) and geometric tiles (tiles); it livens up an otherwise pretty basic, mostly navy outfit. I don’t even really like navy! That’s some kind of magic there.

Offbeat Friday

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The notion that Casual Friday = jeans sometimes feels a little limiting to me. Sometimes, I don’t want to wear jeans to work, no matter what day it is. That concession to casualness might have seemed like a bigger deal when I worked at a law firm, but in my current work environment, it’s much less meaningful. I could have, for example, worn this outfit on a Thursday. And perhaps even on a Tuesday! And I may do that yet, because this is one outfit I can definitely see myself repeating.

It’s nothing fancy, which describes a lot of my favourite outfits, doesn’t it? Paperbag waist trousers are my current obsession, so it’s no surprise to have them pop up again. I’m pretty sure I’ve been wearing them at least once a week for the last three months. This pair from COS is really, really good and worth tracking down on eBay, ahem. Just saying. Wool-cashmere-poly blend? As for this filmy tank + thin turtleneck combo, it’s another repeat that’s too good to, well, not repeat. There are other ways of layering this tank to mitigate its sheerness, but for now this is the option I can’t get enough of. It’s also perfect for fall, so there’s that.

Witchy Woman

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On Saturday, I checked out the Elevate Fashion clothing swap co-hosted by my thrift pal Jenn (Life Preloved) and come home with a couple new pieces … including this hi-low MinkPink skirt. I think it’s a skirt. It’s a weird skirt, in any case. It’s pretty see-through, so I’m not sure if it was ever intended to be worn without leggings or pants underneath. But it swishes nicely. As soon as I saw it, I was inspired. I’ve been feeling the witch vibes lately – blame early winter in September – and I thought this piece had a lot of potential. Jenn was not entirely convinced, and I love a fashion challenge, so the very next day, I gave it my first shot. It’s probably not everybody’s cup of tea, but I loved this outfit. It was a bit goth, a bit rock-n-roll, and a whole lotta DGAF attitude. Even the sleet couldn’t kill my mood. And that’s saying something.

On Gratitude

I am not a big fan of self-help books, but I love reading about pop psychology, which is why I picked up 59 Seconds: Change Your Life in Under a Minute by Richard Wiseman at the thrift store a while back. In a nutshell, it’s a kind of amalgamator of results from studies on various aspects of social and individual behavior and psychology. Everything is distilled down to simple action items you can easily incorporate into different facets of your daily life. It’s kind of a superficial book in that sense, but on the plus side, anyone reading it might find at least a few tips that resonate with them – worth thrifting or picking up at the library if you’re in the mood for a bit of “self-improvement”.

For me, the tip that resonated the most involved keeping a gratitude journal. This is not breaking news for most of you, I’m sure, but I don’t particularly like journaling so it’s not something I was ever moved to try before. I think it struck a chord this time because I realized recently that my general contentment level was out of whack with my actual quality of life. One of the side-effects of my anxiety (and, possibly, an overall pessimistic bent) is a tendency to dwell on negative experiences – past, present and potential. However, viewed objectively, my life is pretty darn amazing. I decided that keeping a gratitude journal might be an easy way to remind myself of that fact.

Over the past month and a half, I developed a routine around my gratitude journal. Every day on my walk to the train station after work, I start to think about my list of 5 daily things for which I am grateful. It’s a quick 10-minute walk, and I don’t think too long and hard about any particular item; in fact, I like to choose as many mundane items as possible, as long as they are things that truly sparked joy for me that day – something I ate, or something I wore, or something nice someone said to me. It gets me to really focus on all the pleasant experiences of my day, which can sometimes change my perception of how that day went. If I can’t think of 5 mundane things, I broaden the net. Bigger picture items could be things like my kids being healthy, or having a supportive family, or upcoming fun trips. Heck, “only 2 more days till the weekend” has shown on up my list before!

Later, once the kids are in bed for the day, and I have a bit of time to myself, I write down my list. In conjunction with that, I also do a quick 10 minute “meditation” session using my tarot deck (a simple 3 card spread). I use that as a way to connect with my unconscious, and let my intuition speak. (I don’t believe in predestination and fortune telling.)

Over the first month or so, I began to notice a definite improvement in my overall level of contentment. I still experienced stress and anxiety (including one fairly unpleasant episode) but I felt more satisfied and at peace with my life and myself, and less inclined to negativity and general crabbiness. At the beginning of September, with the kids’ return to school and other life stuff, I began to slip in my routine – skipping days here and there, dropping the meditation part. And I feel like I’m backsliding in my progress. I am still in a better mind space than before, but I can see that if I’m not careful and don’t recommit to the whole process, I could easily slide back into the old mindset. So I’m going to try to avoid that. The transition to winter is always a hard one for me (short days + cold temps affect my mood like whoa) so anything that makes things a little easier is worth hanging on to.

If you’ve kept or are currently keeping a gratitude journal, I would love to hear from you. How do you stay on track? Do you find it making a real difference over a longer period of time? And what kind of differences are you noticing?