So, this was a pretty ballsy colour combo, but I always tend to forget just how bright this J. Crew coat is. You know what else was really bright? The sun. We woke up to a half foot of fresh snow that morning, but it turned into a sunny (and relatively warm) day by the afternoon – and the reflection off all that snow was blinding.
Naturally, I deployed my blogger tactics:
Oh, hey, bag! Fancy seeing you there.
But, really, I was squinting up a storm. I’m sure you guys can handle a beady stare, though. Here it comes:
OK, fine, I’m squinting
On second thought, maybe I should stick to staring over my shoulder at the terribly interesting thing not actually happening over there.
Dress, Joe Fresh; blazer, J. Crew Factory; shoes, Stuart Weitzman; bag, Marc Jacobs
Last week, it seemed like it was Valentine’s Day every day. All over my IG feed and Bloglovin, peeps were dressing and prepping and decorating seemingly forever. Now, it may be the fact that I was really not in the right frame of mind (the kids have been sick a lot lately, and I’m in the middle of a extra major file), but I’ve never felt more out of sync with the Zeitgeist, so to speak. Am I the only person who doesn’t get the big deal about Valentine’s Day? I don’t even mean in a but-what-about-the-poor-singletons way. (Although I feel your pain, singleton friends. I managed to be single for Valentine’s Day for the first 26 years of my life.) But if you take away the consumerist aspect – if you’re too damn busy to bother with candy, and flowers, and dinners, at that particular time – what’s left of the whole production? /rhetorical question
Anyway, this is all by way of unnecessarily long introduction to the explanation of my outfit. I wore absolutely nothing thematic last week at work. Forget pink; not even a little bit of red. Part of it had to do with my general apathy about VD (see above), and part of it had to do with work. I don’t know how to say this without sounding obnoxious, but sometimes working in a professional capacity in a fairly conservative office is not conducive to fashion blogging gimmicks, like thematic outfits. It’s just too … cutesy. I think a subtle nod – a red accessory for VD, a bit of plaid for Christmas – is probably OK, but I wouldn’t go any further … if I were to go there at all. I don’t know, maybe I’m over-thinking it.
blue, black & grey all the way
Back to the outfit. As much as I’m sticking to subdued colours and simple outfits lately, I’m really enjoying subtle print mixing (as a way to add a bit of interest) and playing with the little details …
necklace via consignment)
… that probably no one but me notices. I am easily amused.
Pants & shirt, J. Crew (via consignment); cardigan, J. Crew Factory; shoes, J. Crew; bag, Louis Vuitton (via consignment)
… is still dire, as you can see. That sheepish look on my face says it all: I wore horribly-fitting pants to work, and blogged about it. In my defence – and I definitely feel like one is needed here – it all went down on a day I was planning to leave the office early, and I only realized just how poorly those pants fit too late in the game. As in, 5-minutes-before-I-had-to-leave-the-house late. (It wasn’t worth changing my outfit and being late over it, when I was going in for a short day anyway.) My old BR Sloan pants are also loose, but not like this. Yikes.
I mean, behold:
um … yikes
Clearly, in addition to a black pair of work pants, I also need a burgundy one. Because, “saggy pants ass” aside (don’t ask, and don’t look at my Instagram either), I really, really liked this outfit. I’m telling you guys, there is something about the black + white + accent colour combination that can’t be beat for sophistication. At least, can’t be beat in my books. This week. [Let’s call that wiggle room in the event that I come down with a bad case of the grandma florals next week.]
I guess I better write another “Dear Banana Republic” letter …
