Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Get Set ...


It started last night and continued throughout today: one disappointment after another.


Last night, when I got home, there was a "form letter" from LLBean waiting for me.  It informed me that LLBean had to cancel my back order, "due to unforeseen circumstances".  This isn't the first time that this has happened to me, with LLBean.  Disappointment number one.


I have this annoying habit of building outfits around "yet to be acquired" pieces of clothing.  The annoying part of this habit is when, for various reasons, I can't actually acquire the "yet to be acquired" piece of clothing around which I have built an outfit and I have to say goodbye to the outfit (at least for the time being, but, sometimes, forever).  This is what happened with the LLBean item: I built an outfit around an item that I expected to acquire. Then the item slipped out of my reach.  Goodbye outfit.


Then, about mid-afternoon today, disappointment number two.  A disappointment that I had already suffered some months ago was brought back to life.  While suffering the disappointment anew, I realized that I haven't quite gotten over it.  Frankly, I don't seem to know how to move on.


Finally, after work, disappointment number three and disappointment number four.


It all started innocently enough.  I was going to go shopping for a brown tie, solid or patterned.  I went into one store, then another.  Before I knew it, I was laden with many clothing items, all except the brown tie that I had set out for.


I can't say that I regret any of my actual purchases.  But I am disappointed that I still don't have a brown tie.  And I am disappointed that I lost sight of the aim of the shopping trip (although I looked for a brown tie in every store that I entered).


My sweater is Zara, taken from my closet.  My scarf is American Apparel, dug out from my accessories collection.  I am wearing a Gap dress, Hue socks and Frye boots.  I am carrying an H&M bag.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Get Ready ...


Sometimes I am soooo cliche, which is very bizarre, since, most of the time, I can't remember a cliche to save my soul!  There you have it: cliche challenged but still cliche!


Last night, I ordered some stuff from a new (to me) seller on Etsy.


The sellers on Etsy that I have purchased from have all been ones that I have been introduced to in the blogosphere.  With one exception (I think), all of them even maintain their own blogs.  Usually, I become a regular (more or less) reader of an Etsy seller's blog, then I venture to their Etsy shop.  So, when I eventually purchase from their Etsy shop, I feel like I know them and trust them to deliver the goods (so to speak).  Of course, the reality is that you can never really know someone from their blog and, even in the blogosphere, there must be marketing, whether conscious or unconscious, so when I buy from a blogger's Etsy shop, I really don't know that they will deliver the goods.  (Positive feedback with respect to the shop helps somewhat, but can I really rely on it?  Do all Etsy shoppers leave feedback (I know that I am guilty of not leaving feedback).)


All of which is to say that, when I shop a new Etsy store, even though most of me thinks things will turn out great, a little part of me still worries that I have just thrown away some money.  I guess with my latest shopping venture on Etsy, time will tell (fingers crossed though)!


With one exception (my bag, which was purchased this Spring/Summer), everything that I wore today came from my closet.  My dress is H&M, my vest is Zara, my scarf is Old Navy, my boots are Aldo and my bag is H&M.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Summer Has Returned


I am getting my wish for some more hot Summer days.


First of all, I have to say that my wish coming true is quite surprising to me.  My wishes rarely, if ever, come true.  Of course, it could be someone else's wish coming true.  I can't imagine that I was the only one lamenting the end of Summer.  I may just be getting the benefit of someone else's wish coming true.  However, the banal reality is most likely that the "return" of Summer is no one's wish coming true.  It's just what it is.  In any event, my wish wasn't so much for the return of Summer as for the opportunity to wear some more Summer outfits before I had to wear any Fall outfits.


Speaking of Fall outfits, on my way home yesterday, I passed by a window display of Fall clothing that I hadn't seen yet.  I actually stopped and looked at it.  Now this may be because the stores were already closed and there weren't many people about, so I felt comfortable gawking at a window display.  I usually glance at window displays while walking past them.  I rarely (if ever) stop to look at, much less examine, them.  I was so taken by the clothes (and maybe more so by the colours of the clothes -- drab olive green) in the display.  My first thought was how hard it was going to be not to shop for new clothes.  I then forced myself to look at the display more critically.  Yes the clothes and the styling were nice, but, really, most of the clothes, and a good deal of the styling, weren't up my alley.  And, if I wanted to recreate some of the looks in a way that was up my alley, didn't I already have most of the necessary clothes in my closet (I certainly have a lot of drab olive green Fall/Winter clothes).  Finally, and here I will admit to being slightly mischievious, wasn't there still online and vintage/thrift shopping left, for those pieces of clothing needed to recreate some of the looks that weren't in my closet?


I am wearing a Zara sweater taken from my closet.  My dress is vintage, purchased from Sally Jane Vintage on Etsy.  My pin is from Trove.  My socks came from my sock drawer and my boots are Frye. My bag is from H&M.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Utilitarian Clothing, Utilitarian Bag


The outfit that I wore today was very similar to the outfit that I wore last week (to visit the fair).




Last week I wasn't very happy with my outfit.  I guessed that this was because my hair had failed me during the day.  A bad hair day turned into a bad outfit day.


This week, while I wasn't necessarily overjoyed with my outfit, I wasn't exactly displeased with it either.  I got my hair trimmed and coloured today, so that helped matters somewhat.  But, overall, I decided that it was an utilitarian outfit and, as such, perfectly okay.




Looking back at last Saturday's outfit, it too was a utilitarian outfit and, as such, bad hair aside, it was perfectly okay.  Today, I am prepared to record last Saturday's utilitarian outfit.




And since I am on the topic of utilitarian wardrobe items, here is the very utilitarian bag that I carry around with me most weekends.  I never realized, until today, just how wide it is.  I very nearly disappear when I am wearing it.  As a bonus, the bag is waterproof, in the event that I ever have the urge to jump in the lake.






shirt: Gap, mens
tshirt: Gap, mens
shorts: Old Navy, mens
belt: Gap, from my accessories collection
socks: Hue
shoes: Nine West, from my closet
bag: Seal Line, from my accessories collection

(Last Saturday, I wore cropped jeans from H&M (from my closet).  My belt was from Gap (from my accessories collection), my socks were by Hue, from Macys, and my boots were Frye.)

P.S.  This weekend is the last weekend before my shopping prohibition kicks in.  Admittedly, I feel like I should do some last bit of shopping tomorrow.  Of course, there is still Tuesday for shopping as well -- Monday is full of other planned activities.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow



Towards the end of Winter, I made the (what in retrospect seems rather bold) statement that I was not a jeans girl.  Did I ever prove myself wrong today.



I don't think that I have ever worn so much denim at once.  Maybe it's a fashion faux pas (unless one is wearing Ralph Lauren).  Maybe days, months or years from now, or maybe even tomorrow, I may look back and think, "What was I thinking".  But, today, I am really loving it.




And speaking of today -- and of yesterday -- here is my beloved bag worn as a backpack.  This is how I wore the bag when I first got it, many, many moons ago.  When I recently got it back (from being repaired), I wore it as a shoulder bag for a while.  While I liked that way of wearing it, eventually it became too heavy to comfortably carry it that way -- I have a tendency to want to carry with me everything that I might need if I had to hop on a plane (or train) on a moment's notice -- so I reverted to the knapsack way of carrying it.  Maybe I am a vagabond at heart not just in style!


jacket: Gap, from my closet
shirt: Gap, mens
vest: Gap
pin: ?, from my jewellery box
jeans: Old Navy, mens
belt: Gap, from my accessories collection
socks: ?, from my sock drawer
boots: Fluevog
bag: Roots, from my accessories collection

Vagabond Chic

Yesterday, while trolling the blogosphere for new (to me) personal style blogs, I came across some photos from a fashion editorial in the April 2010 issue of Fudge, a Japanese fashion magazine (for girls, according to its website).  I first came across the photos on Rosemud, where they were sourced from Clever Nettle.  According to Clever Nettle, the editorial was titled "Wandering Trip" (featuring new American traditional clothing by Ralph Lauren).  Immediately after seeing the Ralph Lauren Spring/Summer 2010 ready-to-wear collection, I put it in my inspiration book.  Early in Spring, I styled an outfit based on the collection (click here to see it).  The fashion editorial from Fudge reminded me of the collection.  In fact, I could say that the editorial really brought the collection to life for me.  It really made me fall in love (again) with vagabond chic.  I say "again" because reviewing my ever growing inspiration books/files -- which I have been keeping since I left high school -- I note that vagabond chic -- or street urchin style -- or hobo chic -- has been a recurring theme since time immemorial, i.e., since I started keeping an inspiration book/file.  In any event, here are the photos from the editorial.






Thursday, August 26, 2010

Pangs Of Guilt



I feel as if the Summer days are numbered.  The mornings and nights are getting chillier and chillier and the midday temperatures have been dropping by a degree or two each day this week.  A tiny part of my insides are screaming, "Nooooo"!  There are so many Summer outfits that I still want to wear before I have to start wearing Fall outfits.  But, in the words of Doris Day, "Que sera, sera"!


I have already said that, for a couple of weeks now, on the weekend, I have been selecting about six outfits for the coming work week.  Up until this week, this has been working quite well and making the task of getting dressed in the mornings simpler.  This week, though, things have fallen apart.  I did select six or seven outfits this past weekend for this work week, but I think that I selected too many "business-y" outfits (certainly more than I needed for the work week) and I certainly didn't factor in the progressive cooling weather.  That's the bad news.




The good news is that, because things have been falling apart this week, I was presented with an opportunity to wear my new old lime green plaid dress and my gathering-dust Fluevogs.  Yay!


Yesterday, more or less on a whim, I purchased two indigo blue striped chambray shirts.  As soon as I left the store, I had pangs of guilt and thought that I ought not to have purchased them.  I tried them on last night, with some hopes I think that I wouldn't like them or that they wouldn't fit right so that I could return them and assuage my feelings of guilt.  That didn't happen.  They did fit okay and I did like them (particularly when I instantly constructed two all denim outfits around them).  The feelings of guilt are still there.  I am hoping that, with time, the guilt will fade, particularly as a shopping prohibition is just around the corner.




jacket: JCrew, from my closet
sweater: Zara, from my closet
dress: vintage, from Sally Jane Vintage on Etsy
pin: ?, from Trove
socks: ?, from my sock drawer
shoes: Fluevog, from my closet
bag: Jeanne Lottie, from my accessories collection