Acid wash denim cut-offs … at my age? Never say never, I guess. I bought these shorts as a joke, mostly. I’m planning to hit up the Sonic Boom concert in September with a couple of girlfriends, and decided that if I’m going to relive my early twenties (the last time I saw a concert of any sort was circa 2004), I might as well dress the part. And, um, this is what Manic Pixie Dream Girls wear these days, right?

Having bought the damn thing, I decided to take it for a test drive, as it were, to see if I could pull it off without looking (and, more importantly, feeling) ridiculous. A family trip to Old Strathcona and the river valley seemed like as good an opportunity as any, especially on a beautiful, hot Saturday afternoon. And you know what? I never noticed before, but it seems like everyone is wearing short-shorts these days. This pair is pretty comfortable, all things considered*, so I really had no reasons to feel self-conscious. Never say never, indeed.

* And those things are that I found them in the “juniors” section at Winners for $14.

This outfit couldn’t get any more basic: a dress, a denim jacket, sandals. But there is beauty in that simplicity, or at least some kind of style kismet. Eyelet and denim; red, white, and blue. Classic.

This dress is just the cutest thing, and if it’s a little bit young – well, we’re all allowed to be young at heart, especially in the summer. I love that it looks so much like separates, but is an outfit-in-one. I like it so much that I’m even willing to overlook the fact that it’s 90% cream coloured, which is normally bad news bears in our neck of the toddler-inhabited woods. So far, I’ve managed to keep the sticky hands away. #success

I hate taking pictures in bright sunlight, but needs must – and it feels a little ungracious to complain about nice weather. So … I hope you’ll forget my squint-avoidance subterfuges. Look, I managed one decent photo! #success

I’m breaking a cardinal rule of fashion blogging by showing an outfit I’ve worn before. The. Exact. Same. Outfit. Give or take the shoes and bag. And I’m giving it to you in photo overload to boot. Here’s hoping you guys have short attention spans, or forgiving hearts.

The truth is that I rarely re-wear the exact outfit (unless we’re talking about dresses), and I blame the blog for that. I’ve been (style) blogging for 5 years now (omg, that’s equal parts impressive and embarrassing), and I got into the habit early on of mixing things up to “keep things interesting”. Don’t get me wrong: I use the same outfit formulas over and over, but I usually try to switch up the pieces every time. And it’s fine. That’s part of the creative aspect of dressing up that I love.

But you know what? I’m getting to a point where, if I find an outfit that really, truly works for me, I just want to … keep wearing it, without changing a single damn thing. Groundbreaking, I know. It doesn’t make for good blog fodder, no doubt, but I feel like it’s actually an achievement. After all, the goal of all that experimenting was to hone in on and refine my style, right?

Call it mission accomplished.