30 x 30: Three

Adriano Goldschmied Stevie cords; J. CRew loafers
addXX

A big file I worked on before my mat leave was finally (and successfully) wrapped up, so the responsible senior partner invited me to join the rest of the team for celebratory drinks. An evening with adults? With adult talk, and adult beverages? Minus kids? Yes, PLEASE. I will even dress like a grown-up.

I had planned on wearing a dress for that purpose, but the weather conspired to botch my plans. Again. Whatcha got against me, Mother Nature? Humph! So, instead, I went with a boring but classic combo of sweater + button-down shirt. Snooooooooooze. At least I looked relatively presentable and professional … until the wind decided to re-arranged my coiffure, gratis.

Why, Mother Nature, why?

Hey, let’s look at my manicure!

Bracelet, Swarovski
Bracelet, Swarovski

30 x 30: Two

YSL Besace bag; Mel jelly flats
Skirt & cardigan, J. Crew Factory; top, eBay; shoes, Mel; bag, YSL (via consignment)

I know. I’ve shown you this exact outfit before. And umpteen variations of it. Chalk this up to my “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach to dressing. So style, much fashion. But check out my cute new jelly flats:

Mel jelly flats
Mel jelly flats

I’m an 80s kid, but I grew up in a Communist regime, so my 80s were not like your 80s. Let’s just say that there are a few pop culture references missing from my mental archives. Because there is nothing I love more than useless information, I have retroactively filled in some of the gaps, but jelly shoes are still a relatively new phenomenon to me. I’ve been avoiding them for the last couple of years because the idea of wearing plastic on my feet struck me as atrocious, and I had no nostalgic memories to offset the squickiness.

And then I saw these Mel flats. They are, like, aggressively adorable, no? The flower reminds me of Chanel’s famous camellia, and the beige is a nice versatile colour, though it does blend in with my irremediably pasty skin making my feet look vaguely creepy-mannequin-come-to-life-esque. Ok, I’m not selling these very well, am I? Bottom line: I love them, I bought them. They’re fairly comfy. Minimally weird feeling. Only $13. I stand by my choices.

30 x 30: One

What I Wore: Two Weeks Ago, Hah

Joe Fresh striped dress
Dress, Joe Fresh; cardigan, J. Crew Factory; shoes, Old Navy; bag, MbMJ (via eBay)

This is such a cute dress – only $24 at Joe Fresh! pockets!! – and it really doesn’t deserve to be buried under this cardigan. But, them’s the breaks. I am hopeful there will be one day out of the next 30 29 when I’ll be able to wear this dress on its own. In the meantime … cardigan.

Oh, and also … unintentional mixing of black and navy. I’m probably hideously behind the fashion times on this issue, but I hate pairing dark navy and black because they just end up looking like mismatched shades of the same colour. A lighter navy and black? Yes. What’s happening here? Nope. No. Nooooo! This personal fashion low happened because (a) I wanted to wear this dress on a day that required tights, and (b) after getting dressed, I realized that I didn’t include my navy flats in the 30 x 30 line-up. D’oh! And sigh. So Adina of me. Anyway, I didn’t feel like messing about with my chosen clothes on the very first day of the challenge (how failure-riffic would that be!), so … there you have it. Mind-numbingly boring explanation and everything.