Aug
2018

What I Wore: July 23 – 29, 2018

categories: style

A New Riff

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I’ve always worn this skirt with a tucked-in top. I mean, that’s what you do with pencil skirts, right? It’s a silhouette that works well with my body shape, but feels a bit “boring” now. Maybe “predictable” is a better word? Pencil skirt fans out there, don’t @ me. This Bailey44 top is also a bit of a one-noter; the combination of color-blocking and trapeze shape doesn’t do much for its versatility – you pretty much have to treat it almost like a tunic. I was pondering what else I could do with it, when a light bulb went off and I put these two pieces together. I think it works? The volume of the top plays off the volume of the skirt in an interesting way … to me at least.

Also, can we talk about this J. Crew necklace for a moment? I first spotted this years ago on Lisa from the blog/IG Respect the Shoes, and fell in love with it on the spot. I had no luck hunting it on eBay (not at a reasonable price, anyway), and gave up after a while. Out of the blue, a few weeks ago, I found it at my local Goodwill. It’s in great condition, only missing a little ribbon that used to be attached to the pendants. The coincidence just blows my mind. As if I needed more reasons to be devoted to thrifting …

Metallic Monochrome

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I love a subtle metallic. I don’t love brown, but the redemptive qualities of a bit of shimmer are surprising. This outfit was anything but blah. It was definitely comfortable, on the other hand. Linen culottes and a relaxed knit sweater are a great combo for our maybe-summer-maybe-fall weather. It’s been basically September here since May, which I kinda love. As much as I love hot weather when I travel, I think my ideal everyday temperature is somewhere around 25 Celsius – warm enough for bare legs, cool enough to add a cute jacket for aesthetic appeal. I like layers, what can I say. Speaking of which, though not pictured here, I wore my trusty (faux) leather jacket with this outfit on my commute to work, and it was the perfect final touch.

Blast from the Past

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This Gap skirt is almost 20 years old. It’s the closest thing I’ve personally purchased new that might qualify as “vintage”. I wrote about it in my last post, but suffice it to say that my reasons for hanging on to it all these years are mostly sentimental. Writing that post made me want to pull out the skirt from storage and give it another whirl. A handkerchief hem skirt is not the easiest thing to style – and it’s not really my current style – but I went ahead and treated it just as another maxi skirt. With a loose sweater and some simple metallic accessories, it’s not half bad.

A couple of words about my cuff bracelet. It was a $4 find at Value Village, and it’s a bronze piece signed “Al Smith”. It looks to be from the 70s and 80s. I haven’t found out much more yet, but I am fascinated by the history of objects I find when I’m thrifting, so I love little “mysteries” like this.


Aug
2018

Thirty Eight

categories: Life

I turn 38 today. That’s not as momentous a number as 30, or as unsettling as 36, or as exciting (one hopes) as 40. Over the last few years, I’ve been getting into the habit of thinking of myself as a year older as soon as January hits; so, by this point, I have been mentally referring to myself as a 38 year-old for more than 6 months, which makes my actual birthday feel rather anti-climatic. I’m spending the week at home with my kids and husband, which is nice but not particularly conducive to deep reflection. Age is just a number anyway, right?

But I thought it would be fun to commemorate this otherwise unremarkable birthday on the blog by looking at how my style has evolved over the last 4 decades. Join me on a journey back in time, won’t you?

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This is one of my favourite childhood photos; I don’t have any memories associated with it – I don’t even remember how old I was or where this was taken – but it so perfectly encapsulates my childhood. My parents insisted on cutting my hair short (despite my vociferous) protests for most of my early years; I seem to recall the rationale being that it would grow back thicker – a very Eastern European kind of rationale, but sadly one that my experience has disproven. The only tangible result was that, for years, strangers assumed I was a boy. One of my strongest childhood memories is of nightly prayers asking for long, blonde, curly hair like the heroines of my favourite fairy tales. Alas.

My style at the time could be best described as Soviet Block Tomboy Chic. I wore a mixture of homemade clothes and hand-me-downs from relatives in Western Europe. Since my female cousin was younger than me, most of those hand-me-downs came from my male cousin. I don’t remember caring too much about day-to-day clothes, but I was fascinated with grown-up clothes; I would beg my grandmothers and mom to let me dress up in their dresses and high heels, but it was a game more so than a form of self-expression. Oddly, I grew up thinking of myself as a tomboy, but I was always fascinated by older (teenage) girls – they seemed to know things I didn’t about being a “woman”, and I was desperate to find out their secrets, so that I, too, some day would transform from an ugly duckling to a swan.

My teenage years were deeply traumatic for a variety of reasons, so my transformative moment never really came. (At some point, I simply gave up waiting.) Not surprisingly, I haven’t kept a lot of photos of myself from that era; this was before the invention of the selfie, so there weren’t that many photos to begin with. I did manage to dig up a few less embarrassing ones (it’s all relative, though) so you could see the next stages of my sartorial journey.

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After moving to Canada, my parents scraped by for a few years on minimum wage jobs so money was tight. My clothes came largely courtesy of thrift stores and the occasional K Mart or Mariposa splurge. Thrift in the late 90s was a different beast, at least in my experience. The middle picture above is a good illustration of what you might typically find in a thrift store back then: crappy plaid and 70s corduroy bell bottoms. Let me reassure you that I was not really into grunge at any point; I just didn’t really have a lot of choices.

Let’s fast forward a few years to my mid-twenties. Post-law school, I moved out on my own, and began living the single girl life in downtown Edmonton.

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The picture on the left is so quintessentially mid-2000s “going out” wear, isn’t it? I’m pretty sure that’s a Forever 21 top, and those are definitely boot-cut polyester pants from Suzy Shier. As a baby lawyer, I wasn’t making much money, and fast fashion was as fancy as I could get – and it did feel fancy after years of shopping at Walmart. Clearly, though, my sense of style was pretty much non-existent, and certainly it was not a means for self-expression.

I’ll pause here to say that I still have the skirt I’m wearing in the middle photo. I bought it on sale at the Gap sometime in the early 2000s and for many years, it was the nicest piece of clothing I owned – it was silk, and it came from an “expensive” store; never mind that it wasn’t really in style then, or any time since. I’ve never been able to part with it because it was a kind of memento of a certain time in my life. I decided to wear it again this past weekend on a dinner date with my husband; it was a nice nostalgic moment. I’m not sure that I am now the person I thought I would be when I first bought this skirt, but I would like to think that my younger self would not be entirely disappointed with how things have turned out in our life.

The last decade of my sartorial adventures has been pretty well documented on this blog, so I won’t bother to recap it again. In a nutshell, the trajectory has been one of discovery (of the idea of personal style, of the fashion industry, or style as a form of self-expression), experimentation, and self-acceptance. I would like to say that I am completely indifferent to others’ opinions, but while that’s not entirely true, I think I have a far healthier relationship with external judgment than at any other time in my life. At 38, I am the most comfortable I have ever been — in my own skin, and in my clothes. And that’s a pretty good place to be.


Jul
2018

Ask Me Anything, Instagram Edition

categories: Trifles

If you spend any amount of time on IG, then you’ll probably be familiar with the new “Ask a Question” feature on IG Stories – everyone and their mom is using it. For once my apps were updated – sidenote, but am I the only person who forgets to update more than once every six months and then wonders why everyone else has much cooler filters/features/whatevers? – so I jumped on that train right quick. Being “with it” feels so good! Anyway, I didn’t get a ton of questions but I did get some, which was more than I was expecting, and while I did my best to answer them in the Stories format, I thought they might be well-suited for a longform response. And here we are! Your IG questions, answered.

What advice would you give to a newbie thrifted who right now is just “buying” things?

We’ve all been there. Or, at least I have. When I first got into thrifting, I was super excited to find any brand name clothing that fit me; I was pretty indiscriminating in my purchases. After a while, my scarcity/FOMO mentality started to evolve as I came to realize that there WILL (usually) be other great finds out there – so if a piece of clothing doesn’t fit as well as I like, or doesn’t fully suit my aesthetic, or generally isn’t at least a 8 out of 10 for me, it’s a pass. Doesn’t matter what label it is, or how cheap. But it takes a while to get there, if only because it may take you a while to figure out what you like, what works best for your body, your lifestyle, etc.

My advice is to take every thrift trip as an opportunity to learn. Learn about brands. Learn about fabrics. Learn about cuts. Learn what works on your body, and what you want to see reflected in the mirror. [For me, my current aesthetic is somewhat divorced from the platonic figure-flattery ideals, which then requires a different analysis than merely “does it fit well?”] Don’t be afraid to experiment. Making $5 mistakes is not the worst thing, especially if you have the option to re-sell or consign the things that don’t end up working out. You are not contributing to the fast fashion cycle in the process, so there’s that.

Do you often purge your closet to make room for new stuff?

I feel like this answer goes hand in hand with my response above. And it’s “YES”. I am constantly editing my closet, and I usually do 1-2 large purges every year on top of that. For me, at this stage of my life, it’s all about tweaking rather than overhauling. I have been a stable weight for a few years, I’m not planning major career changes, and I have my personal style finally figured out (for now, at least); all of which to say, my lifestyle needs are fairly well defined. I don’t buy as many “new” clothes as I used, but I still probably buy more than the average bear. Part of that is a process of upgrading – replacing pieces as I find new ones that better encapsulate my new style. Part of it is just the fact that I like variety. My closet will never be static, because I like having new pieces to rotate from time to time.

To make it all work with my spatial constraints, being a pretty ruthless editor is necessary. I do keep an overflow closet, which I use to “archive” pieces that don’t currently work but which I am not prepared to let go just yet. These tend to be pieces that are special or unique for one reason or another – things I couldn’t easily find again if I later decide that I want them again. But I also regularly edit that closet as well.

What part of Edmonton do you mainly focus your thrifting on?

I live on the south side, so that’s where I thrift most of the time. The key to thrifting “luck” is going often, which I try to do. I usually thrift once, sometimes twice a week. That’s only feasible because I have a couple of stores that are a 10 minute drive from my house, which is where I end up going 80% of the time. I might visit a couple of other stores (westside Goodwill, and Whyte Ave VV) once a month, just to see if I’m missing anything. Because I go to the same stores regularly, I can usually keep my visits to under an hour – I know the layout well, and I can scan things pretty quickly.

I was also asked what my favourite Edmonton thrift store was, and the answer is the Goodwill on Gateway Boulevard/Calgary Trail. It’s a combination of convenient location, best prices (for a chain thrift), and quality of finds.

Fave heels and shoes you own?

This was a tough question because I could talk about shoes all day; and, really, the answer depends on the occasion, weather, etc. Generally speaking, based on style and comfort level, for heels I like Manolo Blahnik, Stuart Weitzman, Ferragamo and Jimmy Choo. I think J. Crew makes (or used to make) surprisingly good shoes at a lower price point (wait for a sale).

For flats, I really like AGL as you guys know. The most comfortable flats I own are AGL.

On the less pricy side of things, I’ve had good experience with Louise et Cie, Sam Edelman, Cole Haan, and Calvin Klein (basic pumps).

What made you transition from wearing more flats than heels?

This was a follow up question to the one above. The reason is a combination of my style changing – loafers and oxfords suit the Prince and Adventurer personas better than heels, for the most part – and getting older. My foot joints hurt more now, and flats are obviously more comfortable.

Do you plan your outfits, and how far in advance?

The short answer is “yes” and “monthly”. The longer answer is that I only plan my work outfits; because I’ve been working from home more often lately, a month’s worth of outfits means anywhere from 15 to 20. It takes me 10-20 minutes to brainstorm the outfit ideas, and about an hour to prep and photograph everything. Occasionally, I will scrap an original idea and re-shoot an outfit if it doesn’t look good as good in photos as it did in my head. (Every outfit I post on IG is worn in real life.)

I’ve talked about this before, but I like outfit planning because it reduces the amount of time I spend in the (workday) morning getting ready. Because I have a month’s worth of outfits ready, I can easily adjust what I wear on any given day depending on the weather and my plans. I use Stylebook to record my planned outfits, but I also have the photos as a guide to remember what to wear.

I don’t plan casual outfits in the same way, though I do record them in Stylebook because I am trying to keep my wardrobe usage stats as current as possible.

Got more questions? Leave them in the comments!