Camel Day

No, I didn’t wear this on a Wednesday. But maybe I should have! I never really know what to call this colour, so let’s go with “camel”; which makes this a camel-on-camel kind of outfit. I like the way the colour looks against the lighter wash of the denim. I was actually going to wear my even lighter wash Holding Horses destroyed/patched jeans, but I ended up having to go to a work seminar thing, and I figured those would be too, ahem, fashion-forward – shall we say. Speaking of which, my mom recently commented on the HH jeans by asking me if I couldn’t afford a normal pair of jeans. Which is a very “Mom!” thing for my mom to say. Anyway, where was I?

Oh yes. So, while I didn’t wear this outfit on a Wednesday, I feel like Friday – and more specifically Friday afternoon – is other real hump/slump of the week, so the outfit was apropos after all.

Bohemian Glory

If you watched my IG Stories last week – and, really, you should be watching all of them, all the time, what are you even waiting for, go – then you will remember this Anthro sweater. (Sidenote: a reader/watcher helpfully enlightened me that the brand is Monogram. The more you know, etc.) I said then and I maintain now that this hits my Bohemian avatar aesthetic on the nose. I think it’s because it’s really loud and big and graphic rather than naturalistic; it’s not twee or cute. But, to be honest, it’s difficult for me to explain in words why this works and 90% of florals don’t do it for me (fashion-wise) anymore; also, who cares. But this is great! I wanted to go all out and pair it with an equally Bohemian bottom – wide-legged pants, perhaps – but I sort of chickened out because I was going to see a bunch of family and friends for a big shindig and I’m not sure I’m ready to re-up on the “crazy fashion lady” reputation. But! I did bling out with some of my recent thrifted costume jewelry, so there was that. Needless to say, I loved this outfit … HARD.

She Made Me Do It

My BFF made me buy this dress at VV’s recent 50% off sale; it was $8 so I humoured her. Ok, fine; my arm was mostly made of rubber anyway. The shape is a bit too femme/fitted for my current taste – sheaths are a silhouette I used to rock all the time – but the midi length is less traditionally flattering, and the colour is very much my speed. I threw on a long blazer to further un-prettify the dress, and I think it worked.

So, I haven’t done a monthly work outfit recap in a while; mostly because life happened, and I got out of the habit of it, after which my natural laziness just prevailed. I also feel like my current style evolution being what it is, there is less material to showcase. I am now much more likely to repeat outfits, or outfit formulas, which does not make for particularly interesting blog fodder. I also work from home a lot more often, which means fewer outfits overall. But, really, this is not so much an explanation as an excuse for my laziness, which I plan to continue indulging when it comes to the blog #sorrynotsorry

I decided to make an exception today because April was the first month following my recent epiphany/ paradigm shift regarding personal style, and I was curious to see how that ended up being reflected in my outfits.

I will say that, with the significant uptick in the time I spend on other hobbies these days, outfit planning has taken a huge step down in my list of priorities. I still plan my outfits in advance – simply so I don’t have to think about them in the mornings before I rush off to work – but I spend less time doing so. Overall, I think there is less active creativity involved, but I also feel like the individual clothes are now doing most of the heavy lifting in terms of creating the image/expression that I want. In other words, it’s less about me expressing who I am through the combination of clothes I put together, as much as through the clothes I buy in the first place. Does that make sense?

Anyway, here are my outfits for April:

The most noticeable differences for me are: (1) a much stronger sense of cohesiveness; and (2) All The Pants! There is also a much narrower colour spectrum represented in these outfits, fewer prints, more oatmeal. In fact, the outfits I like best are probably the blandest of all. I would guess that compared to, say, a month from 2016, there would be a pretty stark contrast. I can also see why a lot of people would say that they preferred my old style. Alas, since this is a personal style blog and not a marketing tool, we shall carry on with the current mandate. In the long run, I can see this space becoming less about my outfits and more about other style-adjacent (or not so adjacent) interests of mine. Which, I think, is natural in the scheme of things.

This week marks what would have been the 8-year anniversary of the blog, if I were still keeping track of things like that. That makes it one of the longest relationships of my life, which is pretty cool – especially considering that some of you have been here from the beginning. Thank you for that, by the way. Blogging has been going the way of the dodo for a while now, if you go by what the social media pundits are saying, but it doesn’t actually look to be giving up the ghost any time soon. So who knows what the next 8 years will bring? It’s been an interesting ride so far, and I’m sure it will continue to evolve in newly interesting ways.

Got predictions for the future of blogging? I’d love to hear them. Got requests for stuff you’d like to see on the blog? Let me have those as well 🙂