Details: Club Monaco turtleneck, Escada dress, Rebecca Minkoff belt, Aldo shoes (all thrifted)

Thoughts: I thrifted this vintage Escada dress years ago (circa 2017) but it’s been hanging in my archive closet for a long time. It’s a beautifully made and cut dress, but despite being seemingly plain, it’s anything but. The detailing makes it special but it also makes it a challenge to style. The good news is that I’m on something of a 70s kick at the moment, so I’ve got more ideas for this than before. Starting with this outfit, which is pretty simple but quite effective, if I do say so myself. Key details: the striped turtleneck adds a funky, modern touch; the belt perfectly complements the dress details; and the loafers keep the whole look from being too serious.

Details: Toni T dickie, Ralph Lauren vest, Pendleton blazer, Esprit belt, Icone pants, Ferragamo shoes (all secondhand)

Thoughts: I love the colour palette-inspired pattern mix of the vest and blazer — it felt very satisfying. I’m finding khaki/tan pants to be one of the most versatile options when I’m doing one of these prep-coded looks. Technically, this pair is more camel in tone, which was an intentional choice on my part when I thrifted them. I have a light khaki pair already, so adding this one to my wardrobe expands my colour-matching options. Some palettes work better with a cooler-toned neutral (i.e. my other pants), others with a warmer-toned one (i.e. these pants).

Details: Dries Van Noten dress (eBay), Nanette Lepore blazer (thrifted), J. Crew shoes (retail, old)

Thoughts: Here’s another dress I brought back from the archive closet recently. Even if I don’t wear it constantly or even consistently, I know this is a piece will have have for the rest of my life. Especially now, with the news of Dries Van Noten’s retirement, I am so grateful to have the chance to experience a little piece of his artistic genius for myself. This dress was actually part of his SS 2014 runway collection, which is very neat. Can you believe it’s 10 years old? Still looks and feels amazing. For this outfit, I wanted a subtle pattern mix and decided to pull the yellow from the dress print via this cute little jacket. I still felt like the outfit needed a bit more contrast, so I added the fuchsia flower pin. I hope Mr. Van Noten would approve.

Details: Babaton top, Marni shirt, Max Studio pants, Rafael Alfandary necklace (all secondhand)

Thoughts: Even more subtle pattern mixing! It’s been a long time since I’ve done a “column of black” outfit, and technically it’s not solid black, since the pants are pinstriped. The goal was to do a very simple, casual, comfortable outfit — the pants have an elasticized waistband at the back, so while they look dressy, they’re actually just glorified sweatpants — but add just a touch of glam. The silk shirt (cut like a jacket) and the bold necklace did the trick.

Details: Etro shirt, TSE sweater, Fossil belt (all thrifted), J. Crew jacket (retail old), Banana Republic pants (retail), Coach bag (Poshmark)

Thoughts: I’ve worn different versions of this outfit several times, only changing up the sweater and the belt … and it works like a charm every damn time. Having done a mustardy yellow and a burgundy before, I thought it would be interesting to go to the other end of the colour spectrum and choose a cool colour. This teal green is a lovely complement to the mahogany brown of the pants and bag.

Details: vintage sweater, Icone pants, American Apparel coat, Tommy Hilfiger bag, Office London shoes (all thrifted)

Thoughts: Hopefully this will be the last time you see snow in these photos until next winter, but here’s one last hurrah for the past season. This sweater was one of its MVPs, for sure.

Last year, I wrote about the importance of sensory rituals in my life, and recently I added one more to the list. I started wearing perfume again. It had been many years since perfume was a part of my life; I fell out of the habit of using it regularly sometime in my mid-30s and then stopped entirely during the pandemic. As of last year, I had only two perfumes: a bottle of Hanae Mori Butterfly I bought sometime in 2017 or so, and a large bottle of Replica By The Fireplace I got in 2019. To give you a sense of how much I had been using perfume in the last 4 years, both bottles are still more than half full. But this hadn’t always been the case. A lot of memories have been surfacing lately of perfumes I used to wear when I was in my 20s and early 30s; for a while, I was obsessed with the idea of a “signature scent” – or, rather, a series of them. I think that had a lot to do with my search, at the time, for identity. Perhaps that explains why, after a certain point, the idea faded away; by my late 30s, I wasn’t searching anymore – I had found what I was looking for. Me.

But back to the present. Thanks to a confluence of factors, perfume came back into my life. For Christmas, my dad gave me a bottle of perfume he’d picked as something my mom would have loved to wear. It’s not something I would have chosen for myself – a heady gourmand fragrance, rather too sweet and rich for me (Lancome’s La Vie Est Belle) – but the gesture meant the world to me, so I started to wear it from time to time, especially on occasions when I went to visit my dad. It has grown on me a lot; I just have to spray it sparingly so it’s not overpowering. There are days when it feels comforting, like a warm hug. My mom’s last perfume was the eponymous Chloe — I still have her half-full bottle

My sister-in-law is a big perfume fan, and that gave me more opportunities to experience some new fragrances. Well, some new and some old. One old perfume, in particular, brought back a lot of memories. Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue was one of the scents of my 20s – as I’m sure it was for a lot of us Xennials who came of age in the late 90s and early 2000s. I hadn’t worn it in decades, but smelling it again at my sister-in-law’s house, I fell in love with it all over again. It’s about as different as it gets from By The Fireplace (the closest thing to a signature scent I’ve had in years) and evokes completely different sensory experiences, but in a good way. I hemmed and hawed over whether to buy myself a bottle, mostly because of the price. Perfume is so shockingly expensive these days! And I wasn’t sure if it was something that would ultimately bring enough joy into my life, considering it hadn’t been a part of it for years. What ultimately tipped the balance was something I found at the thrift store. Of course! It wouldn’t be an Adina story if thrifting didn’t come into it somehow.

Thrifting has been increasingly hit and miss lately. I’m going to write a separate post about that because I have a lot of thoughts. Truly special finds are getting more and more rare, but the thrift gods were smiling on me the day I ran into a ¾-full bottle of Acqua di Gioia perfume. The beautiful bottle, and a quick sniff, convinced me that $15 would be money well spent. I was not wrong. Though a classic, ADG is a perfume I’d never worn before, but I fell in love with it on the spot. Smell is a very personal experience — we all smell the same things, but they evoke different thoughts and feelings in us — but that being said, to me, ADG evokes a water nymph and also 90s minimalism. I love its freshness. As I was to find out later, it’s classified as an “aquatic” fragrance. It turns out that I love aquatic accords. (Think of accords as chords in music — several individual notes make up an accord, and several accords make up a perfume.) You know what’s also an aquatic? Light Blue. That made up my mind for me. It was time to bring it back.

Can you guess what happened next? I joined the fragrance community on Reddit to learn more about different types of notes and accords, and also to look up some of my other old favourite perfumes. What can I say? I’ve never been able to resist a rabbit hole. And perfumes are a TOTAL rabbit hole! But a somewhat dangerous one – there are so many scents out there, and so many of them sound appealing, there is a lot of temptation to want to try everything. After a few trips to Sephora and Shoppers Drug Mart, I quickly realized that I had to be careful when reading other people’s descriptions of their sensory experiences with scents; everyone’s nose is very different. I am very particular about the stuff I like, and there are many things I don’t like (read, a lot of the current most popular fragrances). I also have no interest in spending lots and lots of money on perfume (which is VERY easy to do!). What I decided I wanted to do was create a library of curated scents that boost my mood in different ways. And I’m looking to the past to inspire my choices because I want perfumes that hold memories and, thus, evoke strong emotions.

As you may imagine, aquatics are an important part of my library. Generally, they are considered spring/summer scents, but I enjoy wearing them whenever I want to feel uplifted and energized but in a, like, relaxed way not an over-caffeinated way. Smoky and woody scents are perfect for days when I want to feel cozy and/or a little mysterious. Gourmands are for special occasions or days when I want to feel a little bougie and ultra feminine. I am also a fan of “clean” scents – think white floral and citrus accords – but I have yet to add a permanent spot in my growing collection (I have a small sample of Lazy Sunday Morning but, while lovely, it’s not “the one”). Speaking of which, for the most part, I am focusing on bringing back some of the favourite perfumes of my youth. It has been something of a challenge, as many of them have been discontinued; finding “dupes” aka scents with a similar profile is very tricky because, as I noted, everyone experiences perfumes differently, so you can’t always trust that if someone says “this reminds me of that”, it will hold true for you as well. Still, reading perfume reviews on Fragrantica and Parfumo, with a view to planning future acquisitions, is currently one of my favourite pastimes. I have made so many notes! I have about 5 or 6 perfumes on my buy list currently, but I’m planning to go slowly and do a lot of research before committing to any big purchase. I might do a couple of cheapie blind buys though … the element of surprise has its attractions.

As for my current ritual? I love deciding every morning which perfume I will choose, much in the same way I love deciding which tea I will drink that day. (I’ve added a few more teas to my rotation too! They also smell divine.)  Or, I suppose, like deciding what outfit I’m going to wear. There is the act of choosing and the act of enjoying the choice, both of them pulling me into the moment and the sensual joy of the physical world.

Details: H&M top (retail), Ralph Lauren vest, InWear blazer, BDG jeans, vintage belt, Dooney bag (all secondhand)

Thoughts: Guysssss! This is it! I finally found my palazzo jeans — the style I’ve been hunting for nearly 2 years. They were worth the wait, I love them so much. This one is called the BDG Puddle jean. I think there might be different versions with the same name, though, because the one’s I’ve found on Poshmark under that label look different. Why am I looking for another pair on Poshmark? Because my daughter also loves them and has been trying to steal this pair ever since I found it. Yes, friends, a new era is dawning: my daughter is starting to wear the same clothes as me. Sometimes literally. She’s not quite as tall as me (yet!!) but her inseam is almost as long as mine *cries in long-torso-short-legs* Anyway, the jeans are amazing. As is this wide wale corduroy blazer/jacket. I haven’t had a proper black blazer for a while, but couldn’t resist this one. I’m currently obsessed with corduroy, and I’m also really leaning into a 70s academia vibe — this blazer is perfect on both counts. I’ve been wearing it a lot lately … as you will soon see.

Details: Ralph Lauren skirt, sweater & shirt, Silverado jacket, Nocona belt, Laredo boots (all secondhand)

Thoughts: The weather has been so up-and-down lately, it’s hard to know how to plan outfits from day to day, but I always try to take advantage of warmer temps whenever they grace us. This outfit being a case in point. I am so excited for spring (and summer) and all of the layering possibilities, especially in Trailblazer mode like here.

Details: Club Monaco turtleneck (retail, old), Ralph Lauren sweater & jacket, Cleo skirt, Coach bag, Office London shoes (all secondhand)

Thoughts: I call this my Escape to the Country outfit — IYKYK. I love this earthy colour palette. Words I never thought would come out of my mouth, because I used to be the kind of person who only had 2 modes: black or rainbow. I still love bright colours (summer will prove that) but it’s true that I have been drifting away from black lately — especially heavy doses of black. Brown and brown-adjacent shades seem to fit my current aesthetic much better, and are also probably more flattering to my colouring. I’ll never swear off black completely, but I’m enjoying my Brown Period quite a lot … even if it sounds so, so wrong, lol!

Details: J.Crew shirt, Pitlochry sweater, Ralph Lauren skirt, Paloma Picasso belt (all secondhand)

Thoughts: Speaking of brown, hah! I loved this sweater-skirt combo, with the peek of blue to liven up the browns. The belt was the perfect extra touch. It’s a tricky one to wear because of the chain — though the chain is what makes it special — but it worked here because the skirt has no belt loops to interfere with it.

Details: Ralph Lauren shirt, Pendleton blazer, H&M pants, Gap belt (all secondhand)

Thoughts: I enjoyed this simple pattern mix a lot, not least because it features some of my fave colours. I’ve come to appreciate the versatility of khaki/tan pants as part of the Ivy-adjacent aesthetic of the Historian. I guess there’s a reason why they’re a classic. Light-coloured trousers make it feel like a spring/summer ensemble, even with a darker jacket. Taking notes for later in the year.

Details: Tahari shirt, Ralph Lauren sweater, Twik skirt, InWear blazer, Gap belt (all secondhand)

Thoughts: I had to go into the office a few weeks ago, and this was the outfit I chose. I wanted something a little preppy but not too buttoned up. The skirt and blazer are both wide wale corduroy and, while not an actual matching set, go together very nicely. The chambray shirt was the right choice to balance out the classic cable knit sweater. I don’t like wearing very bright colours to the office, but I also want to keep my personal aesthetic in the mix, and an outfit like this represents a good balance for me.

Details: Club Monaco turtleneck (retail, old), Everlane sweater, InWear blazer, no label skirt, Sonoma belt, Coach bag (all secondhand)

Thoughts: Fall 2010 is one of the Ralph Lauren runway collections that lives rent free in my head. It’s a huge inspiration for the Bohemian avatar. It featured lots of muted, earthy colours; frothy floral silk dresses and skirts; and contrasting textures. I have been looking for one of those maxi dresses or skirts for years now. No luck. Recently, I found this vintage (unlabelled) skirt at the thrifts, which has a similar vibe even though it’s less floaty (and not silk, alas). I decided to get it as a placeholder for the time being. It’s also reversible, with a small ditsy floral pattern on the other side. To achieve the RL vibe, I paired it with a cashmere sweater and my trusty corduroy jacket. Gimme all the textures!

Details: Everlane turtleneck, Pitlochry sweater, BDG jeans, Nine West jacket, Dooney bag (all secondhand)

Thoughts: I think it’s appropriate to bookend this outfit roundup with another palazzo jean fit, featuring a couple of other fave pieces including this Shetland sweater and my beloved leather bomber jacket. I wasn’t kidding when I said I was feeling a 70s kind of vibe. Dig it?