Making All the Effort

What I Wore: Here and There

Old Navy buffalo plaid shirt
Pants, NYDJ (via consignment); shirt, Old Navy; jacket, LOFT (via consignment); necklace, J. Crew Factory; shoes, Tory Burch (via Kijiji); bag, MbMJ (via consignment)

It seems to be all the rage nowadays to call yourself an introvert, but the sucky thing about actually being an introvert is that, some days, you just want to crawl into a hole and hibernate for a couple of decades. And the mostly-awesome-but-sometimes-enormously-exhausting thing about kids is that, well, they’re always there. And they need you to be there too. Physically and mentally. I am luckier than most when it comes to child care, but even so, some days … I’m really, really tired. And I really, really wish that life came with a pause-and-be-hermit button.

What does that have to do with my outfit? Well, I still need to get dressed on those days, and sometimes I make an effort, and I end up with an outfit that looks like I made an effort. Other days, I end up with an outfit that … doesn’t. This was one of the latter. But:

i_tried

[I should probably embed this into every post.]

Sometimes, I also try for a do-over. Like so:

Phillip Lim for Target dress
Dress, Target; shoes, Tory Burch (via consignment)

When you hit on a combination that works (more or less), it’s nice to have the option to be lazy and just tweak a few things here and there, as opposed to putting together a whole new outfit. Is this one an improvement on the original? Eh, let’s call it a toss-up.

Rainy Day

What I Wore: Self-Explanatory Title

Boden floral blueberry dress, navy hunter boots
Dress, Boden (via eBay); cardigan, J. Crew Factory; trench, Gap; boots, Hunter; bag, MbMJ (via consignment)

It was a grey and dreary day, so I decided to make wear my own rainbow. That, by the way, is only 37% sarcasm, because I sometimes dress with the ethos of a grade-schooler. But, listen, this outfit got 5 whole likes on Instagram, at least two of which I’m almost certain were from actual, live humans, and that makes it a total win (by my practically non-existent standards). So, hah!

All kidding aside, can we talk about my cardigan? You may have noticed that I have eleventy million J. Crew Factory Clare cardigans; my very first one is about a year old, so I figured this might be a good time for a little review. Obviously, I like the fit a lot. They do have 3/4 length sleeves, which some people hate but are a must-have for me – I have an irrational dislike for full-length sleeves, especially on crew-neck knits (they end up feeling suffocating). So, quality. Brand-new, the hand-feel is nice. Not, like, cashmere-nice, but nice enough. However, one year out, I’m starting to see wear. That may not seem bad, but keep in mind that I have a lot of these cardigans, and consequently none of them get a ton of wear; we might be talking 2-3 times a month, tops (except for the black, which gets more wear). I also hand-wash them (though not after every wear). I think, when all is said and done, that these look good for about a year, and then start going downhill. With that said, I would still recommend them. They routinely go on sale, and I don’t think I’ve paid more than $15 for the majority of them; at that price, I think they’re a decent deal.

Mustard, Plaid, and Navy

What I Wore: Sunny Day

Adriano Goldschmied Stevie slim cropped cords
Pants, Adriano Goldschmied (via Kijiji); shirt, J. Crew Factory; jacket, LOFT (via consignment); shoes, Tory Burch (via Kijiji); bag, Target

This was one of those thrown-together-in-30-seconds-or-less outfits that turned out … kinda cute. At least, I thought so at the time. It was a bright, sunshiny day, and my winter-addled brain may have suffered a temporary, joy-induced malfunction, leading me to overestimate the cuteness factor of this whole thing. To be fair, every time I type out “mustard” in a blog post, I suddenly feel like I need to start questioning my sartorial choices.

Anyway.

At the first glimpse of sun, plus flats-friendly sidewalk conditions, I immediately pulled out my AG Stevie slim cropped cords. I’ve been waiting to wear these since I bought them last fall, in a Kijiji-deal-of-the-year situation. They are sooo soft and comfy, and totally worth the $20 I paid for them. Did I mention they were new? Did I also mention that I subsequently went to Anthropologie to look for more pairs, and had a bit of an ugly cry when I saw their regular price? That, my friends, is the downside of being really, really, ridiculously good looking* at finding bargains; you come to have impossible-to-meet price expectations. I know, I know. Don’t y’all whip out your tiny violins at once.

* I could not resist a reference to the best movie about fashion of all time.