True Colors

This week's Fashion Beauty Friend Friday questions were all about color...something pretty relevant to today's bright outfit! (Don't ask me why I have plastic monkeys sewn onto my skirt. It's actually work-related, I swear! (and ended up being quite worth it.)) Basically, the outfit started with my needing to wear the skirt. And if I was wearing bright monkeys on the skirt, I needed to color-coordinate --thus the red sweater and blue necklace. I was thinking about wearing red flats too, but that just felt like too much.


Details: black skirt, thrifted and DIY'd by me. Red sweater, thrifted. Red camisole, Express. Tights, HUE. Black oxford heels, Nine West. Necklace, gift.


FBFF Questions for 2.11 - Color War.
1. What color dominates your closet?
I've got a pretty balanced closet (actually, I organize it by color, so I can tell what colors I have very easily), though it's starting to lean more and more to black/gray/white/neutrals. However, I think the more interesting question for me is what colors dominate the things I actually WEAR on a regular basis. My regular outfits really become heavily dominated by black/white/brown, with some deep reds and blues, occasionally purple. I tend to go for more saturated shades; I'm not big on wearing pastel colors. I used to wear a lot more color... maybe that should be a goal for the spring, to get some of my bright-colored clothing out of the closet and into some outfits!

2. If money weren't an issue how would you change the color emphasis in your closet?
I'd add more accessories in bright colors...I won't necessarily wear a bright pink or yellow shirt, but I'd definitely do so in a belt, shoes, or a necklace!

3. What is your mantra about mixing colors?
I don't have many hard-and-fast rules, here. Black goes with everything. White also goes with everything. I prefer to stick with colors in similar tones - several shades of purple, for instance. I'm not so much a fan of mixing bright colors (though when I was a little kid, that was my primary style rule: wear really bright colors that "clashed" with one another.)

4. For you, how do you incorporate color into your outfits?
I mostly stick to one or two bold-colored pieces at a time, and tend to tone things down a bit with black, white, or gray. I have many more colorful skirts and sleeveless dresses than I do tops at this point -- a secret fear of mine is sweating (which is not an infrequent occurrence) and making dark sweaty underarm stains. So I'm really careful about what color shirts I wear, which I'm finding seriously limits the amount of color I wear.

5. Which blogger(s) do you think do a good job of incorporating color into their wardrobe?
Franca from Oranges and Apples always has amazing, bright color combinations! (If you don't believe me, check out the images on her FBFF post today...)
I really love Sal's color mixing. Bold, but chic and not over-the-top. Seeing her outfits inspires me to wear more color, especially in accessories.
Lyddie from Chic on the Cheap can really rock bold colors and fun combinations.
And Marie from The Joy of Fashion wears colors that just make me happy!



Interesting stuff to think about, and makes me want to try some more color mixing in the next couple of weeks - get out some of my less-worn clothing and experiment! This outfit's a start, with the blue and red in the same outfit...though paired with black. I also find intriguing how much in my answers I assume that "color" refers to bright colors in rainbow shades. Really, black and gray and white and brown are all colors too, so skilled use of colors could include outfits that mix shades of these, or even an all-black outfit with many different textures and layers. I would also include these in "colors," though that's not my intuitive definition.

Hope everyone's having a good Friday!

My New Favorite Vest

This was what I wore today, another work outfit for a day of meetings and demos. Today was sunnier and a little bit warmer, but I still ended up with a ton of layers...a dress over a shirt and skirt, and two pairs of heavy tights (my trick this winter for keeping my legs warm.). The vest was a late addition today... I was taking a bit of an easy morning and getting to the lab later than normal, so ended up stopping by the Goodwill on my way. I'm very glad I did, as I came across this gorgeous long gray vest...tailored impeccably, fits me quite well, was only $7, and may now be vying for my favorite clothing item. (And did I mention, it's Armani? I really some my thrifting luck today!) So the vest got added on when I got to work! I'm finding myself quite drawn to tailored items these days, which is an interesting style development...


Details: Sonia Rykiel blouse, thrifted. Brown Charlotte Russe dress, thrifted. Yellow skirt, thrifted. Gray Armani vest, via Goodwill. Tights, HUE. Brown oxfords, Aldo. Belt from thrifted dress. Earrings, Ebay jewelry lot.


Let's see, what else is going on? Still keeping up my morning workouts, which is exciting. I'm signed up for a 5K race in a month...now I know I can definitely run that far. Though I've never actually run a formal race, particularly not a road race, so it'll be a new experience for me. I think I'm going to want to get off the treadmill and start running more outside before then. If it ever gets any warmer!

Everybody Everywhere wears blazers!

So my outfit today is inspired by today's challenge from Everybody Everywear. Basically, the goal is to construct an outfit around a blazer, and wear it on February 8. I particularly wanted to join in on this challenge as I have a number of thrifted blazers in my closet that I never/almost never wear... I keep thinking they'll be a good piece, I see great outfits with patterned and colored and tailored blazers, and then I have difficulty actually making an outfit work proportionally on my body. I think part of it is because many blazers have well-defined, often padded, shoulders, and I have somewhat narrow shoulders and a curvy figure... so I haven't quite figured out how to make the proportions come out in a way I enjoy. Anybody have any suggestions? (Looking forward to seeing a range of ideas from Everybody Everywear, too!)


I went through a couple of iterations of blazer + dress, trying to find something fun, and was drawn to this summery jersey dress I'd thrifted a couple of months ago but hadn't worn due to its non-seasonal nature. Adding all the black pieces winterizes the outfit, but the dress may reveal how much I would like it to be spring, and soon, please! (An earlier outfit version had a cream blazer, too...) We had a couple of days of sunny 40 degree weather over the weekend, which was a tantalizing taste before we plunge back to 9 degrees and snowing tonight. These pictures are taken in a stairwell at my lab...lots of natural light, though quite gray since it's currently raining.


Details: Calvin Klein Dress, via Goodwill. Max Studio black blazer, thrifted. Black oxfords, Nine West. Tights, Ann Taylor Loft.


What else? Weekend was very, very busy with all day Saturday spent at the lab working on an electronic music event that my group was mostly responsible for (panels, demos, and a concert in the evening). Then Sunday we had to strike everything we'd set up for the concert. Sunday night involved my hosting a Jewish food/Super Bowl party with friends from lab, which may become a tradition. This involved making enough latkes and noodle kugel to feed 8 people for dinner, and ended up with enough leftovers for 6 people for lunch the next day...


Also, I'm trying something new with formatting to get larger images...what do you think?

Hope everyone's week is going well so far!

Friend Friday: jumping on the bandwagon

So recently I jumped on the Fashion Beauty Friend Friday (FBFF) bandwagon. Basically, each week Katy of Modly Chic posts a series of questions for people in the group to respond to as they want. Coincidentally, this week's questions are mostly about jumping on various bandwagons!

1. With all the blogging events out there how do you determine which ones to participate in and which ones to avoid?
I think it really comes down to which events inspire me - what drives me to do something creative or exciting. (Like the Thing-a-Day challenge, though I'm already a bit behind in that, or being part of Wardrobe Refashion.) Additionally, I've been trying to focus on what events fit my personal goals. For instance, though I love seeing everyone's 30 for 30 posts, I've got a closet full of items that I don't wear often enough and I'm trying to push myself into integrating the more unusual and bold pieces into my daily wear. I suspect that I could take 30 of my staple items and wear them in a variety of different ways -- but honestly, I'd rather be trying to take advantage of as much of my closet as possible. (In this way, I'm definitely fortunate to have had very cheap thrift shopping around!) Alternately, I really want to do the next Everybody Everywear

This thought process led to my deciding to join FBFF...I'd been seeing other bloggers answer each week's interesting questions and felt that it would be a nice push for me to be thoughtful about my style and blogging practices. And I've been loving the community aspect as well!

2. Be honest, have you ever jumped on the bandwagon of some blogging movement/event for the wrong reasons? How did that turn out?
Sure. Especially when I first started, it seemed that EVERYONE was on the other style blogging platforms - Weardrobe, Chictopia, Wardrobe Remix etc. However, the various picture-rating systems on some of those are not my favorite thing. I'm sure it's really helpful for new bloggers to get validation that others think they're "chic," (as it was any time someone commented on/voted on one of my photos), but took a lot of additional time. If I felt the need to post an outfit to tons of places, I often didn't end up posting anything at all! I still frequent Chictopia on occasion, but haven't really done anything on Weardrobe or Wardrobe Remix in ages.

3. How do you give your own flair to a blog event while still maintaining the general mission and purpose?
I suppose this partly comes from that previously-mentioned attempt at trying to only join in on events that are relevant to my personal goals for myself/my blog, so I can come up with content that's true to me.

4. When determining the best content for your blog what criterion do you keep in mind?
Right now, I'm still working on developing my own blog style and growing my personal voice. I do try to learn from the things I like or don't like in reading other peoples' blogs...for instance, I'm personally not a big fan of scrolling through dozens of pictures in a post, or giant pictures, unless they're really, really gorgeously done. So I try to keep the pictures in my blog fairly short and sweet.

5. While everything will not suit your blog, how do you try and support your fellow bloggers who are participating in something
worthwhile but not your style?
Just because I'm not participating in a particular blogging meme doesn't mean that I don't find it interesting to watch what others come up with! I try to comment on others' blogs as I can, and see what's going on.


In any case. Interesting questions to think about! Started this post early this morning, but now finishing late tonight...my group has been working very hard this week pulling together a day of panels/demos/performances tomorrow. So hopefully that all goes off well! And now for some sleep soon...

Day 2: Floral Hairpin

Today's "thing" is a floral hairpin made from an old thrifted cashmere top.  I just cut three sizes of circles out of the cashmere, and sewed a zigzag stitch around the edge to keep them from coming unraveled and put a slight ruffle in the edges. Then I stitched all the pieces together by hand and added a vintage button in the middle.  A bobby pin is attached on the back of the piece.

And the snow keeps coming down...

I wore this outfit on Monday, the one day this week where I could get away with cute shoes and not just snow boots. Tuesday it snowed even more, and all today we've been getting a lovely ice/snow/sleet/rain/"wintry mix." This outfit really started with the tunic top, which was Sunday evening's refashioning project. While cleaning up things last week, I had come across a number of black, gray, and red sweaters that I'd been keeping to refashion - some wool, some cashmere, some just acrylic -- all of which had issues like moth holes, seriously not fitting me, or being "I'm sure you can do something with this!" hand-me-downs from my family.


The body of a gray sweater of my brother's became the bottom. Then I took rectangles of fabric from two separate black sweaters, sewed a bit up one side to leave an armhole/draped sleeve, and sewed them to the waist with a zigzag stitch so edges didn't unravel. I attempted to leave as many existent hems and finished edges in place as I could! Then the middle seam was still pretty lumpy and not attractive, so I covered it up with a sash made from the sleeve of a red hole-filled sweater.


I'm pretty pleased with the result, though I think I still need to balance the sides a little bit and tack down the belt in more places around the waist. I especially like the open back, though it does require me to wear a tank top or something under it. But the whole piece was very comfortable!

Details: Sweater top, refashioned. Freestyle Revolution Jeans, thrifted. Black Roothy oxfords, Nine West. Tank top, Express.


And let me introduce you to my holiday-money shoes, deeply discounted Nine West oxfords. Ever do that thing where you put an item in your online cart and then leave it there while you try to convince yourself that you don't need it and should spend the money on something practical? Ever leave it there and keep debating for several days? Finally I figured that I really liked them if I kept coming back to them and having to try to argue myself out of them over again. And with a very good sale and free shipping, I think these were worth it! They're very comfortable, and I think I'll wear them a lot. Once the sidewalks dry out again, that is. Anyone else getting a bit tired of the endless snow?

Day 1 - Legwarmers

One of my goals with the Thing-a-Day project this month is to make items out of my large stash of fabric and thrifted clothing waiting to be upcycled.  Today's item is fairly simple: a pair of legwarmers from the sleeves of an old sweater, decorated with a few vintage buttons.  (The rest of the sweater went into making a tunic that I put together on Sunday.)