Layering and the Perils of DIY Fashion Blogging

On Wednesday I photographed my outfit before I went off to a lecture (see below left).  I've been trying to play with layering with sweater material, which can be tricky.  I tried this before back in January with the same dress, but I wasn't that pleased with the result.  This time I layered a brown long-sleeved tee under the red dress that you've seen here at least once a month before.  I am also displeased with constantly wearing my wellies and I've thought about wearing the shoes I'd like to wear with my outfits, but this is actually what I am wearing to slog through snow, slush, and puddles of grossness.

dress:  Anthro/Moth via eBay (remixed here and here)

wellies: Carpelli via Marshalls (remixed a million freakin' times b/c of weather, ugh)

earrings:  same boutique where I got the brown/red/purple scarf

          Left: long-sleeved brown tee:  LOFT                        

sepia floral tights: Anthro/Eloise (remixed)

scarf - H & M (remixed)

gold floret necklace - gifted MIL (remixed)

hat: GAP - gifted MIL

Right: brown cardi: Ann Taylor (remixed)

    brown tights: Assets/Target 

scarf:  World Market (remixed)

choker - Accessorize UK (gifted years ago)

When I saw the photos the next day I liked the palette (red, brown, teal) but not the result.  SME also said I looked school marmish. There was a Jumper Effect of my layering. Avoid this at all costs.

 

Then, on Thursday, I got ready to attend an event, but didn't photograph before I left the house because I was running late. So, I grabbed my camera and left the house. The event in question was a silly party in the office of a senior scholar.  Before long, I had imbibed multiple PBRs and was wearing a glow stick like a halo on my head.  I helped clean up and then... I FORGOT MY CAMERA! I realized this when I was on my way home. A colleague assured me it would be safe on Senior Scholar's Desk.  Safe, of course, but that's not what I was panicking about:  What if Senior Scholar wanted to return the camera to its owner (me) and had to look through the photos to find out who the owner was?  SS would be sure to discover about 15 photos of me posing in the red dress (I was having trouble with the flash and blurriness on School Marm Day).  Needless to say, the Thursday Outfit never got documented, I skipped out on Friend Friday, and I forced SME to drive me to school at 8:30 on Friday morning so I could recover the camera before Senior Scholar looked through them.

I was still unhappy with the School Marm outfit, however, so I re-styled the red dress for a performance I attended last night. The scarf is essential to this outfit (and to keeping me warm). Compare with a shot sans scarf:

The weight of this scarf (and not the lighter teal one) actually lays against the fabric, separating the top of me from a fuller skirt. Not only does it bring everything together in terms of color, but without a belt, the scarf makes the shape and proportionality more appealing. 

How about you?  Have your outfit photos ever been discovered? If so, by a senior scholar or a boss?

The Balancing Act

When my husband saw what I had put together here he said to me, "Wow, that is so conservative." The way he said it made me feel like I was dressing for a luncheon with the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute to discuss why we need to ban the Vagina Monologues from college campuses. Instead, I was just dressing for the weather and for teaching/meeting with students.

1. Sweater - Limited via Marshalls (remixed)
Trousers - Talbots (same here in black)
Boots - Ann Taylor Loft (remixed)
Pearls - Gifted (16th Birthday from Dad)

Pearls are an accessory I had to grow into. I received them for my 16th Birthday from my dad and wore them, maybe, once every two years until the end of college. There was always something so stuffy, WASP-y, Country Club seeming about them. They didn't fit into my style in high school and college, which ran the gamut of appropriate attire for attending a Tori Amos concert, circa 1999--Daria/Angela Chase to early Alice in Anthro-land (tights, embroidered/printed A-line skirts, and well-heeled maryjanes). I think it was when I started attending weddings that I began to wear pearls for and then, gradually, began to incorporate them for the classroom, meetings, and conferences.

2. Sweatercoat - Charlie + Robin/Anthro (remixed)
Earrings - Same now-defuct boutique in KC that I bought these earrings at last decade

I love the black three-quarter sleeved sweater, I like how black looks on me, but when paired with gray and pearls, I yearn to add something more textured and colorful against it. That's where the purple ruffled sweatercoat comes in. It balances out the conservativeness.


I've been thinking a lot about the black + gray pairings, especially, because I'll be going to a major conference for my field in a few weeks. I'm sure to see a lot of it there.

3. Shakespeare (looking regal against my sweatercoat & accessories)

Do you also seem to play a balancing act with your sartorial and accessory choices? Are there any pieces you wear to work that almost seem to require another particular type of piece--either to even it out or to add something? I think I might wear the Twinkle Twinkle Dress this weekend when I give a response to a paper on lyric poetry--if I do that, I already know that I'm going to have to pair it with pearls, small earrings, a brown cardigan, plain tights, and the brown maryjanes. In other words, the dress will need to be toned down for the tone of the event.

Over the Weekend

First of all, I want to thank you all so much for your comments yesterday about our interview!  M.'s status was approved and he is now a conditional resident.  We'll have to submit more paperwork in a couple of years, but I'm glad to have the better part of an expensive and time-consuming process out of the way.  I love my husband, but I've been pretty tempted to use using this for leverage when it comes to household chores and deciding who goes to pick up our takeout and dry cleaning. 

We went out on Saturday night to a party at Ann Underfunded Humanity's place, and it was a great time.  I had intended to take some photos of the party, since a few stylish academics were about the place, but once I had a glass of wine in one hand and a plate of food in the other, that ship had sailed.  In fact, I only remembered to get photos of my own outfit after we got home that night.¹  So these were taken with the nighttime profile setting on my point-and-shoot.

 1. Yellow Dress - Signature by Robbie Bee (remixed)

Black Dress - Y Boutique (remixed)

Shoes - Ann Klein (remixed from my wedding)

Belt - From another dress (remixed)

Purse - Harrods (gift and remixed)

I also feel compelled to come clean about something goal-related.  Over the weekend I was supposed to run a half-marathon, but I decided not to the night before the race.  I've been having a really hard time getting in my long training runs and even some of my shorter runs in as I deal with this last round of revisions before my defense and the chaos of finishing up the semester at the small liberal arts college where I've been a visiting faculty member this year.  I decided to remove running from the list of stressors for the time being.  I'll still run when I feel like it and to relieve stress, but I won't feel anxious or guilty because I only ran 2 miles instead of 12.  Right now I just don't need anything else causing me anxiety or guilt even if it means not meeting my goal of running three half-marathons this year.

What tactics do you have for dealing with stress? How are you doing with your goals or New Year's resolutions?

Dress Challenge Day 3

I spent most of the day working on my dissertation at home, but since a couple of friends came over to join M. and me for what we call a "Think Tank" I felt inspired to shower and dress¹ before they arrived at 10am.  Think Tank is a concept that I got from a friend of mine who is a professor in another discipline.  The general idea is that everyone works on their own project but at the same time in blocks that are about an hour long with 5-10 minute breaks in between and a longer break for lunch.  Sometimes people share a few paragraphs of writing for feedback or use one of the blocks to read over someone's chapter manuscript or an article they hope to publish.  The breaks serve as an opportunity to get up and stretch and share progress on how things are coming along.  The format doesn't work for some people, and everyone has to be disciplined enough (or at least have one person who is bossy enough) to make sure that the breaks don't get too long, but it has been a tremendously productive way of working for me when I'm able to attend one or host one of my own.

 1. Dress - Shabby Apple (remixed)

Shirt Dress - Target (remixed)

Magenta Tights - We Love Colors

Boots - ??? (gift and remixed)

By the end of one, though, I'm usually mentally exhausted, and I definitely was yesterday.  I was feeling better but still a little dodgy, so I decided not to go out and socialize with an even larger group of friends afterward.  However, I did reward myself for so much productivity with time on the couch with my husband and some episodes of LOST.

Layering Lessons: What Not to Do

So, my dear readers, this is not really a post at all related to academics, but it is related to learning and it's about what I wore to a party with a bunch of other academics.  So I consider it fair game.  Last night I went to a holiday party (it was actually a Christmas carol sing-along party at thechemist-coture's and I hope he will blog more about it soon), and I thought I was so clever and cute because I layered a dress over a button down and a skirt.¹  This outfit was a great idea in theory, but in practice it failed, failed, failed.  Here's why this outfit didn't work and what I know not to do in the future:

  The dress (Red Dress Shoppe), which is amazingly cute is also very thin, and thus, unfortunately, wrinkles quite easily.  This became a problem because the skirt that I layered underneath it has a lot of textured details on it, and it also wrinkles easily.   I chose the skirt because of its detailing at the bottom without fully considering the issues that the raised textures on the rest of the skirt might cause.....
The shirt which I bought several years ago in the Junior's dept. is a little bit too short, so it kept coming untucked and that also created some lumps.

Of course, none of this was immediately apparent when I was checking myself out in the mirror, as I got ready to go out.  I noticed the issues with the shirt after some tomfoolery and fun.  However, it only become apparent that this outfit didn't really work when I saw the pictures that I had M. take of me when we got home.  I would wear something like this again, but I have learned some lessons.  I would choose a slightly longer shirt, and I would wear a skirt without raised textures for layering underneath.

1. Dress - Red Dress Shoppe

Skirt - Miss Chievious (Filene's Basement)

Shirt - Quizz (Filene's Basement)

Tights - Target

Boots - John Fluevog (remixed)

Beads - Thrifted (remixed)

My earlier more successful layering attempts made me perhaps overly confident.  Like most everything else in life, there's a bit of a learning curve with layering skirts, so I don't feel too terrible about my botched layering attempt here.  My singing abilities, though, are another story....  I pity the other people at the party for having to hear me sing far more than I do for them having to look at my outfit failure.

Have you ever had a failed layering effort?

The holidays are upon us!  What are your weekend plans?

'bundle, v.

Perhaps you love the Oxford English Dictionary like I do.  If you do, you might already know the many meanings of the word bundle, but then again you might not.  According to the OED, the word has several definitions:

1. trans. To tie in, or make up into, a bundle. 

b. To ‘fagot’ bar iron for the purpose of welding it together.

c. To wrap in warm, heavy, or cumbersome clothing, etc. Usu. in pass. and with up.

2. fig. To collect, to gather into a mass. (Usually with up or together.) Obs.

 3. intr. To pack up one's effects in preparation for a journey; hence, to go with all one's luggage or incumbrances. Of a number of persons: To go precipitately and in disorder, ‘all in a bundle’ (cf. 4): chiefly with in, off, out; also used with sing. subj. and in extended use.


4. trans. To put or send (persons or things) away, in, off, out, etc., hurriedly and unceremoniously. Cf. ‘pack off’, ‘send packing’.

5. intr. To sleep in one's clothes on the same bed or couch with (as was formerly customary with persons of opposite sexes, in Wales and New England).

I have taught a time or two about the Puritan practice of bundling.  I've bundled up all my possession to move numerous times.  I've tied things up in a bundle here and there.  I might have sent a person off unceremoniously a couple of times (although I didn't know until now that I had bundled them - ha!)  I've never welded anything, but perhaps I can make up for that by bundling up in warm and heavy (although hopefully not too cumbersome) clothing until Spring.

Yesterday I woke up to the first snowflakes of the season falling down here.  Snow is pretty to look at, but less glamorous for commuting and trudging around two campuses.  I wanted to stay warm and snug, but I also wanted to wear my new wrap dress from Target.  So I decided to layer dress on top of dress and over the knee socks on top of thick sweater tights.¹  With my snow boots, a winter coat, and the scarf that my friend made me, I was all set to brave the elements.  I have to say though I was glad that the snow didn't stick.  I was also glad that my outfit made me feel snug and warm throughout the day, although I'm not sure that it was as stylish as my first effort at layering dresses.

1. Wrap dress - Target

Purple dress - Target

Sweater tights - a tight boutique in Madrid

OTKs - Target

Boots - Rocket Dog (gift from my fiance)

Necklace - Etsy (gift from my fiance)

I feel like wrap dresses are hard for me to wear because of the way my body is shaped.  How do you style wrap dresses?  How would you style this dress in the future?  Also, am I the only person in the world who finds rings annoying to wear with gloves?

Two Dresses for the Tweening

It's almost the end of the term.  Thank God!  To celebrate the fact that Ann Underfunded Humanity doesn't have to teach any more 7:30am classes, she and I (both wearing red coats) went yesterday evening to see that movie about sparkly vampires.  Apparently the flash on my camera also makes Dr. Watson/Jude Law shine like diamonds:

The sparkly Jude Law looks like he's going to bean me with his walking stick.  Perhaps it's because I really have nothing good to say about New Moon (in either book or movie format).  I know many of you, dear readers, are fans, though, so I won't go into my screed against co-dependency or tell you about how I consider myself to be on Team Victoria.

Instead I will tell you about how I layered two dresses.  In a fit of madness I bought this Kensie Girl plaid shift dress¹, but I feel a little self-conscious about wearing it.  It's just a tad too short for my comfort level for daywear, so I tried my hand today at layering, putting a shirt dress over the little shift, to get a little more material onto my thighs.

1. Shift dress - KensieGirl

Shirt dress - Target

Shirt - H&M

Sweater Tights - H&M

Boots - John Fluevog

Necklace - Gift

Ring - from Salamanca Spain

Now, I'm no expert on layering dresses, but S. of Academichic is, as is Audi of Fashion For Nerds.  The latter put together an awesome tutorial on how to layer skirts on her blog yesterday.  I only saw it after I got dressed, but I think the results of my outfit were ok even so.  I love how the plaid just sort of peeked out from this neutral-heavy outfit.  Inspired by them and by the desire to take some of my spring and summer wardrobe into the depths of winter, I might be trying out layering some more in the future.

Have you tried layering two dresses or two pieces of clothing that you wouldn't have normally thought to wear at the same time?  Were you happy with the results?

Weekend Wear

I love the weekends! I really like relaxing my rule about no caffeine consumption after noon (during the week, I risk serious nighttime jitteryness if I drink coffee after about 2pm). I revel in the freedom of being able to structure my Saturday and Sunday how I want to. I love talking to my mom on the phone every Saturday morning and having brunch with my fiance on Sundays. I also am really happy to reconnect with the more casual side of my wardrobe on the weekend.

Yesterday I cowgirled up for a day of class prepping and grading and an outing to interview a cake vendor and to have lunch with my fiance, my man of honor, and his husband afterward. I wanted an outfit that was comfy and casual, but that also looked put together. I don't like looking like a slob when I'm meeting with vendors. Yesterday was rainy, windy, and chilly day here, so I went with a layered look on top and skinny jeans tucked into tall boots on bottom.* I was snug and warm and felt chic as I tasted cake, as I walked my dog, and as I wrote a lecture about East Asia and the spread of Buddhism.

Do you dress differently on the weekend? Do you tend to keep an entirely different schedule on the weekend then you do during the week? Do you rely on the weekend to catch up with your own work outside of your teaching and service responsibilities or do you take advantage of the weekend to catch up on blessed sleep and to catch up with friends?

*I'm happy that the skinny jeans and boots look seems to still be in fashion -- although I would probably still wear it the look anyway. It's really practical for gross weather and has such an effortless kind of sophistication to it.