Style Imitating Art: 1909 Vogue Cover
What I Wore to Work Today: Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Dress: Target, new
Belt & Necklace: Target
Shoes: Payless
Librarian For Life & Style chose a Vogue magazine cover from November 1909 as the inspiration piece for Style Imitating Art. I wore my new gray dress for a classy feel, adding black accessories and a necklace with round rhinestones as a nod to the peacock feather eyes.
I ordered this dress in both gray and black with the plan to keep whichever I liked better. I ended up keeping both — I figured at $23 each during a sale, it was worth it.
Birthday gift shopping: One for you…
What I Wore to Work Today: November 25, 2015
Dress: Dillard’s Clearance Center, new
Shoes: Payless
For a gentleman’s birthday I wanted to buy him a nice tie, something classy and sophisticated and confident. I asked the internet how much a nice tie like this costs. Oh. Uh. That’s a lot of money. So I went to Dillard’s Clearance Center to dig through the piles of no-returns-or-refunds merchandise to find the quality tie I knew could be there somewhere. They didn’t have the dark garnet tone-on-tone tie I had been envisioning (the closest had an obvious defect in a spot that wouldn’t be hidden) and I bought two perfectly fine options instead.
I also swung by the petites section and walked away with two items, including this Calvin Klein dress. Who’s classy and sophisticated and confident now.
My hemlines at the office are usually longer, this dress might be a one-and-done situation.
So many jeans
What I Wore to Work Today: November 20, 2015
Cardigan, tshirt: Target
Jeans: American Eagle
Shoes: Payless
I bought six pairs of jeans from American Eagle Outfitters over the past year and yet another pair has been sitting in my online cart for a month. They’re buy-one-get-one-half-off and I don’t need two more jeans (I don’t need any more), so there it sits, looking at me and waiting patiently for me to make the purchase.
Breaking news! My American Eagle shopping cart is empty! The specific jeans and wash I wanted are no longer available and disappeared from my cart. Instead of taking this opportunity to cherish the gift of freedom and run away without looking back, I am checking out the other possibilities to fill that very specific situation when I want something between “jeggings” and “skinny kick boot”. Like the Hi-Rise Skinny Jeans. I am weak. With American Eagle I found jeans that I like and that fit me reliably and there’s more space in my jeans drawer. The internet tells me that American women own seven pairs on average. I am slightly above average!
My AE inventory, in order of buying them:
- Hi-Rise Jegging – black
- Hi-Rise Jegging – some sort of blue color I don’t remember the name
- Hi-Rise Artist Flare – dark indigo
- Kick Boot – dark clean indigo
- Hi-Rise Jegging – storm dark (so I can keep my other pair in the Work/Nice category)
- Skinny Kick – dark Atlantic
Dressed for a wedding
What I Wore to a Wedding: November 14, 2015
Dress: Macy’s?
Shoes: Payless, new
Clutch: Gift
These shoes were part of a shoe-buying spree last year and I don’t think they’ve appeared on the blog because I rarely wear them. Turns out they’re not particularly comfortable and they’re a little too high for work, and I still haven’t purged them because What If I Want to Wear Them One Day. Yeah. It’s a thing. I’m working on it.
Lots of casual Fridays
What I Wore to Work Today: November 6, 2015
Blazer: Goodwill
Tshirt: Target
Jeans: American Eagle
Shoes: Payless, new
As I post these old pictures it seems like I was wearing jeans to work all the time last fall. The business casual dress code hasn’t changed at my office, I’m guessing that I was leaving work early enough for daylight pictures on Fridays, so the casual Friday jeans are overly represented. My jeggings (jeans that are stretchy and tight like leggings, wut!) still felt new and exciting and I was having fun wearing them out in public.
It took me years to get on board with the skinny jeans thing. I still don’t own any actual leggings. Or yoga pants. Give me another year and I’ll hop on board those trains too, just in time to be embarrassingly outdated.
These shoes look awesome and feel terrible.
Back in the fall
Here I am wearing clothes to work some more. I wear clothes every day that I go to work. Sucker for routine, I guess.
What I Wore to Work Today: September 23, 2015
Blouse: Xi
Pants: Limited
Belt: Target
Shoes: Payless
What I Wore to Work Today: October 1, 2015
Sleeveless top: Target
Pants: Old Navy, new (same as the red pants posted yesterday, except these are petite and those are regular)
Belt: Target
Shoes: Payless
September styles
And now we’re on to September, when I had moved into my house and hadn’t decided on a spot for pictures yet. At my apartment the balcony ledge was the perfect height and distance from the wall for self-timed photos. At my house I’ve been using the recycling bin as a tripod so far.
What I Wore to Work Today: September 15, 2015
Dress: Ann Taylor
Jacket: TJ Maxx
Belt: Target
Shoes: Payless
What I Wore to Work Today: September 21, 2015
Blouse: Limited
Pants: Old Navy, new
Belt: Target
Shoes: Payless
34!
Happy 34th birthday to me! Now that 34 sounds even older than 33 (it’s almost into the next age bracket of 35-55 on surveys!), I’ll get to enjoy even more conversations like this one at the fabric store cutting counter last week:
Me: 1 yard of these two, and half a yard of the batiks, please.
50-something Clerk: Ok. What are you working on?
Me: A project with my quilt guild.
Clerk: [pause] So you’re learning to quilt, huh?
Me: Well, not really, I’ve been doing it about 8 years. I do consider myself a beginner, though, definitely not an expert or anything.
Clerk: You must have been really small when you started then!
Me: I was in my mid-twenties.
Clerk: Oh! I thought you were still in your teens!
My new response when somebody tells me that I look 15, or they thought I was 23, or there’s no way I’m 34 haha stop lying now tell us your real age for real this time, is going to be silence. Nothing. I’m not agreeing with them (“Haha I know”) or apologizing (“Yeah, I’m sorry, everybody says that”) or pretending like they’re the first person to say it (“what?? that’s weird, everybody always thinks I’m older than my age”) or responding as though it’s a compliment, which can go on awhile (“thank you, that’s so kind of you to say!” “You really do though!” “How nice, thank you!” “No, I’m not trying to be nice, I really thought you were in college” “Aw, thank you, I’m flattered!” “I’m not trying to flatter you, I’m just saying the truth, you look really young” “You’re too sweet, thank you!”).
Instead, it will be nothing.
“Oh my god no way I thought you were 20!”
“….”
Happy birthday to me!
What I Wore to Work Today: Friday, October 23, 2015
Blouse: Ann Taylor
Camisole: Target
Pants: Banana Republic
Shoes: Payless, new
Office Temps: Team Cold
What I Wore to Work Today: July 2, 2015
Jacket and blouse: Xi Clothing, new
Skirt: Ann Taylor
Shoes: Payless
I keep this blazer at work as an option when I get a little chilly. I love when it’s cold — too cold is so much better than too hot! This issue picked up steam (ha!) over the summer when various thinkpieces garnered attention (Washington Post, New York Times). I’m firmly in the Let’s Make It Cold camp. If I were too cold, I’d have only myself to blame with these skirts and bare legs and sleeveless tops.
Now it’s July!
What I Wore to Work Today: July 1, 2015
Blazer: Ann Taylor, new
Dress: Macy’s?
Belt: Target
Shoes: Payless
Hey look I was still wearing clothes to work in July! This was back before I started wearing basically the same thing to work every day when I had a lot going on at the office and travel every weekend and moving preparations and assorted things that drained my interest in thinking about my daily clothes.
This blazer was new around this time. It’s a textured navy blue material and worth the expense so far.
