An Outfit (Deconstructed)...

After last week-end's initial assault on the closet (and subsequent goodwill-bound pile of cast-offs), I'm now moving into a phase II with my wardrobe, honing in on the things I haven't worn in a while but am still loathe to part with.

The fine-tuning is the hard part (it's easy to do a first pass/toss), as it requires more discipline that I'm usually accustomed to showing in matters of clothes. It requires some level of ruthlessness and lack of sentimentality even.

But I want to get this process right. I want to open my closet and love everything in it (and more important, I want to open my closet and have the desire to actually wear everything in it). Imagine one of those women who is incredibly stylish and consistent and sort of seemingly effortless...say, Sofia Coppola. You know she has a laser-focused closet -- In another words, I bet she doesn't have some totally ill-suited colorful print frock hanging in there (unworn) just because she went through a phase where she "thought" she should be wearing more whimsical clothes. Right? Right?

I thought since I was digging deep here, I'd use my outfit posts to "test-drive" some of the pieces in question... (kill two birds with one stone if you will). The oldie but goodie (I think) in this ensemble is the Miu Miu top/dress thing I got a few years ago at one of 4510's crazy amazing sales. It's unique, with some cool seaming on the sides, but it's not necessarily easy. The cut makes it interesting but somewhat challenging to wear, so it's languished in my closet for the past year.

But today I'm bold, and the top comes out of hiding...I'm feeling like this one might be a keeper. We'll see how the rest of the day goes.

The Details:

• Top -- Miu Miu
• Skinny Cords -- Gap
• Shoes -- Chie Mihara
• Necklace -- Vintage
• Clutch -- Clare Vivier
• Josie's Dress -- Liberty of London for Target

An Outfit (Deconstructed)...Some Newness

I haven't done an outfit post in a while and thought it would be fun to start pulling together ensembles with some of my new acquisitions (especially in light of the fact that I'm now keeping such good track of them and all)... In this instance I'm sporting the Valentine's gift from hubby (sweater) + new jeans and new (vintage) bag.

This was also my attempt to determine how many different shades of brown(ish) I could combine at once without spontaneously combusting... I managed to fit in twig and chestnut and caramel and gold.

I'm living on the edge here people.

The Details:

• Sweater -- J. Crew
• Necklace -- Laura Lombardi via Pretty Mommy
• Purse -- Vintage Coach via Dear Golden
• Jeans -- Gap
• Shoes -- Prada

Some Outfits...(Being Constructed)

It's no secret that, for the most part, women dress for other women... And given the fact that I'll be headed to Alt Summit in less than a week (a design/blogging conference that will be packed with, yep you guessed it, women), my brain is stuck in a sort of sartorial overdrive.

I have pretty much been thinking about outfits non-stop.

And despite having a closet full of perfectly good clothes that very few (if any) of the women I'll encounter next week have ever seen, I have been lamenting the fact that I have "nothing to wear" for days. But matters of the closet are rarely logical. My poor clothes, I put so much pressure on them...the expectation that they'll make me feel a certain way or impart importance on a particular (possibly totally un-important) occasion. That's a lot to shoulder for a swath of cotton.

After much consternation and a little bit of shopping, I *think* I have things figured out. (I had to get a head-start on the process, as I have a work trip from Sunday-Tuesday evening and then leave for Alt the very next day...oh who am I kidding, I am a major advance packer...it's an illness.) I laid out all my outfits with shoes and jewelry and whatnot (+ calling cards and books and magazines and my camera...the whole enchilada) and am feeling pretty good about how things are shaping up. I also think I can get it all into a carry-on suitcase, which is key to the whole enterprise since I never check my luggage.

We'll see how it goes next week. Wish me luck!

p.s. -- Just wondering...does this "what to wear" stuff make you guys crazy too or is it just me??

* a few of you have asked for details of some of the things in the photo...here goes:

• clutch on chair -- Clare Vivier from Pretty Mommy
• gold and colored thread necklace -- Madewell
• black necklace -- JCrew
• gold brass necklace with gold chain -- Laura Lombardi from Pretty Mommy
• Striped shirt -- Chance
• Grey t-shirt dress -- C&C California
• Shoes -- Both JCrew (tan heels, black heels)
• Bangles -- Kathryn Bentley, House of Harlow, F is for Frank, Ariel Gordon
• Scarf -- Missoni from Gilt Group

An Outfit (Deconstructed)...

Ok, so here's the equation for this week's outfit:

skinny black pants I spent most of last fall searching for + an extremely old striped top (proving that striped tops can indeed last forever) + dream shoes + "the" trench coat + a gift from an incredibly lovely friend...

And if feels somehow fitting that this is my first "outfit deconstructed" of the new year, given how many times I've regaled bored you with tales of my longing for the trench coat (here, here, here and here) and the black pants (here and here) and my fondness for the striped shirt (here, here, here, here, here oh and here too).

Hey, I'm nothing if not consistent.

And then there's the necklace, which I have officially dubbed the "nice necklace"... Why, you ask? Well last year I purchased this necklace for myself from Michelle's fab shop. I wore it every day. Literally. (It's a totally wearable necklace, I'm telling you.)

About a month into the love affair with the necklace, Millie was sitting on my lap playing with a little pair of candle wick cutters (as a side note, it's NEVER a good idea to let your three-year-old play with candle wick cutters...just sayin'), and she impulsively reached up and used the cutters to slice through the chain of my all-time favorite necklace.

Apparently she couldn't help herself.

She was crushed, I was crushed, heck even Audrey was crushed, so she tried to "fix" the necklace by tying the two pieces of chain into a big balled up knot, which, well...pretty much jacked it up even more.

Cut to the week after Christmas, and the lovely Michelle is in town visiting family for the holidays. We meet up for a coffee and some girl talk (and here's where I say that Michelle is amazing in person, I am truly smitten), and I recount my necklace mishap, knowing as a fellow mom of a toddler, she'll find it chuckle-worthy. And then yesterday I receive a mysterious package from the lovely Michelle, with a sweet little note, and, wait for it, another necklace.

Seriously, fantastically nice, yes?? I'm telling you, this year, it's shaping up to be a good one friends...

The Details:

• Trench Coat -- Gryphon via Gilt
• Striped Top -- Old Navy
• Pants -- Gap
• Shoes -- Celine (stalked for six months and then scored at 70% off!)
• Necklace -- Laura Lombardi via Pretty Mommy

An Outfit (Deconstructed)...

I haven't done one of these posts in a while...truth is I've been a bit disenchanted with my closet of late. Nothing in there is very inspiring. I'm bored with my clothes. Does this happen to you?

But in the past few days, the tides have turned a bit. And it's been due to, wait for it... the bangs (or the "fringe" as my friends in Australia and my bestie Karey refer to them).

Yes, the bangs are causing me to look at my closet in a new way. The pieces I always reach for when I'm getting dressed somehow skew differently now that the bangs are in the picture. I'm now digging into the recesses, trying new combinations, wearing things I haven't worn in ages (but have somehow mercilessly been spared from my Goodwill rampages), like that ancient black jacket above...it literally had dust on the sleeves. Sad.

Bangs as a "wardrobe refresher." Who knew.

The Details:

• Jacket -- Vera Wang for Kohls
• "Slummy" T-Shirt -- Alternative Apparel via Pretty Mommy
• Jeans -- Gap
• Wedges -- Martin + Osa (I miss that store...)
• Necklace -- Madewell
• Bracelets -- Madewell + Vintage

p.s. Madewell is fast becoming my new favorite store for jewelery.

p.p.s. Notice how the bangs are slowly becoming side-swept...the full forehead action didn't last long did it?

An Outfit (Deconstructed) ...

You know this quote, yes?

"Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes."

Henry David Thoreau

Well, I've never been able to quite get the hang of that one...

No, I pretty much always *think* I need new clothes. Especially when I'm going somewhere that feels a little "out of my wheelhouse", say...a special event, a somewhat fancy place, dinner with a group of people I've never met. The irony is that in most of those situations (especially that last one) all of my existing clothes would be perfectly acceptable, given no one in attendance would have ever seen any of them before. But I'm not exactly reasonable when it comes to pressure dressing.

The dress in these photos was a result of one of those semi-crazed, event driven, sartorial quests. We had a party to attend that was:

• not in my wheelhouse
• at a somewhat fancy place
• and filled with people I'd never met before.

Clearly I needed something new to wear...

So I snapped up this number from Anthro, paired it with those Marni heels (which I had yet to wear) + a fun necklace and proceeded to the living room to hang with the girlies a bit before we had to leave. After about five minutes in the get-up, I decided I was uncomfortable, didn't feel like myself, and had to change immediately (never mind that we needed to leave for the event in approximately 2.5 minutes). So I ended up throwing on a black dress that I wear all the time (this one to be exact) and calling it a day. Upon returning to the living room, Audrey remarked that she liked my earlier outfit tons better, and when I asked her why, she said (and I quote), "it's more colorfulish and patterny and not so black."

Umm...ok. I still wore the black dress.

But I couldn't return the one from Anthro. I loved it. Love. I loved it's patterny-ness; I loved the quilted bodice; I loved the pockets. I just figured I needed to wear it under less pressure, to something low-key, no big thing. So a couple of months later (and in decidedly cooler weather) I tried again and threw it on for a date night with hubby. I dressed it down with tights and a cardi (which, for me, was the trick). And now, just like that, it's officially in the rotation.



The Details:

• Dress -- Anthropologie
• Necklace -- Urban Outfitters
• Cardigan -- J Crew
• Tights -- Wolford
• Wedges -- Old Navy

An Outfit (Deconstructed) ...+ The Clothing Swap

in a somewhat unprecedented move, I am including my head in this photo so you can see my newly "bleached at the ends" hair. After all my incessant yammering about ombré hair, I thought it only fair to show you...

So this week's outfit is a pretty basic enterprise...it's a sweater dress...over jeans. (Dress over jeans, whoa, I'm stepping out of my comfort zone here friends.)

But this particular outfit is post-worthy (I think), as it serves three purposes:

1. I obtained that sweater dress in the clothing swap I hosted last weekend, and a few of you have asked for more details about said swap...
   
2. I'm wearing my (current) two most favorite necklaces, and I had to show them to you...
   
3. And finally, my besty Karey recently suggested I share more of my "everyday outfits", and this particular combo is a good representation of what I wear about 80% of the time. (Yes, I always wear heels of some sort...unless I'm at the beach. I can't help it. It's my thing.)
   
   
   

Ok so first the clothing swap party...I would highly recommend doing one, as it was incredibly easy to pull-off and (most important) really fun. Here's how things went down...

• I invited 15 of my friends (mostly Audrey's school friend's moms whose daughters also happened to be on the father/daughter camping trip) and asked them to each bring five-seven items of clothing or accessories that (and this is key) they still loved but no longer wear. These weren't pieces destined for donation, rather they were those things hanging in your closet that you can't bear to part with for some reason (you paid a lot, you love it in theory, etc...) but just never seem to wear.
  
  
• I also asked everyone to bring an adult beverage + a little snack to share with the other ladies. Little kids were invited too, so I made a few pizzas + a fruit salad and juice for the littles to nosh on, but adult food was pretty much covered by all the contributions.
  
  
• When guests arrived (I had them bring their clothes already on hangers) we displayed everything in the dining room. I had a rolling rack for the hanging items, and all the jewelry, handbags, scarves, etc...were laid out on the table for perusing.
  
  
• We then drew numbers 1-15 from a bowl and got to "shop" for one item from the dining room in order of our numbers lowest to highest. Once everyone picked an item, we started over, but this time we went in reverse order, giving everyone a chance at the prime goods. After a few rounds like this (and a few glasses of wine) it became a bit of a free-for-all... And it stayed surprisingly civil given all the good stuff up for grabs. Anything left over at the end of the evening went into a donation bag for our local women's shelter.

My haul included a fantastic black dress from Anthro and the Madewell sweater dress from these photos... Oh and it's possible I may have cheated a bit and took both items at once. But I'm not saying for sure.

I'm bad like that...

The Outfit Details:

• Sweater dress -- Madewell
• Jeans -- Gap
• Shoes -- Max Studio
• Circle necklace -- Bosquez
• Bead necklace -- Laura Lombardi
• Bangles -- F is for Frank, Ariel Gordon + vintage

I Have Shopped (Just a Little...)

So it occurs to me that I never really gave you a recap of my August spending hiatus, and since I’m about to tell you what I have purchased over the past few weeks, it seemed fitting to first tell you how my period of “non-purchasing” went…yes?

There was something especially fruitful about taking a 30-day shopping “time-out” right before a time of year when I traditionally want to re-think my wardrobe completely. The hiatus afforded me a chance to really evaluate my closet and put some serious thought into what I would buy for the cooler months. I also used this time when nothing new (well almost nothing new, alas it was not a perfect hiatus) was coming into the house (or in this case, the closet) to do a ruthless clothing purge…ideally in the manner of all those “how to clean out your closet” dictates in the magazines..

I followed all the rules and made the requisite “keep”, “toss”, “donate” and “mend’ piles…and let’s just say I tossed/donated a lot. I also took two pairs of heels to the cobbler for a little freshening up, had two handbags repaired and managed to find a slim black blazer with the tags still on it (!) lurking amidst the detritus in my closet. I should note here that “slim black blazer” happened to be on my fall shopping list, so major score.

Once the purge mission was accomplished, I made a list of what I wanted to buy to “fill in the gaps”. I put a lot of thought into this list friends, as my budget was small, so I wanted to be very intentional and get things I could wear with what I already had, and most important, that I would want to wear to death. In other words, the basics.

Topping my list were the skinny black pants I’ve mentioned ad nauseum. I had a very specific idea about what I wanted to accomplish with these pants (which was basically to shamelessly copy this outfit, oh and this one too)...the trick was finding the right pair. I was also looking for a new pair of slightly funky shoes that I could wear to dress up jeans and t-shirts for the weekend and a new taupe cardigan, as the one I’d been wearing for the past year was ratty and threadbare and apparently an embarrassment to Audrey (her words).

Last on the list was a super-functional, utilitarian tote (despite the fact that I have a closet full of perfectly acceptable bags...I know, I know).

The good news is I stuck largely to my list...I tend to get distracted by shiny objects and go off the reservation when shopping. My only “slip-ups” were a couple of Tucker for Target dresses that I literally tackled another shopper for, a striped sweater from UO (man what is it with the stripes?) and that necklace I’m sporting in these photos (totally didn’t need it, but spotted it on my friend Sara and was obsessed).

Ok there may have been a couple more necklaces but I'm not saying for sure.

So without further ado, here’s what I got -- all also featured in the pics above...

• Black Slim Cropped Pants – Gap
• Black “Slummy Tee Dress” – Alternative Apparel
• Black Blazer – Banana Republic
• Taupe Cardigan – J. Crew
• Necklace – Forever 21
• Shoes – Max Studio
• Bag – J. Crew "Jericho"

So do tell…what’s your fall shopping strategy, what are you guys buying this year?

An Outfit (Deconstructed) ...

Remember when I said I wasn't a ruffle girl (or something to that effect)?

We'll I was delusional, as a quick scan of my archives revealed that out of the nine total "outfits deconstructed" I've posted thus far, six of them involved ruffles of some sort (at the hem, on the sleeve, at the bodice).

That's like a 2/3 rate of return on ruffles. Clearly I don't know myself very well...

So I'm not going to say anything on this post about how I rarely wear color and that I'm more of a neutrals/black clothes gal and that this blue is a stretch for me, because saying that might result in a parade of Punky Brewester-esque outfit posts sporting me in mis-matched rainbow striped socks.

Oh and I peeked in my closet last night and counted four (!) tops all in this exact same shade of cobalt blue... So it's settled, apparently I'm a blue girl and a ruffle girl.

After all, admission is the first step.


The Details:

• Blue/Ruffled Tunic -- Anthropologie
• Necklace -- Anthropologie
• Bracelet -- Thrifted
• Jeans -- The Gap
• Shoes -- Givenchy

An Outfit (Deconstructed) ...

I stepped out of my comfort zone a bit for this outfit...

I'm normally not so much a belt girl, much less a belt + three necklaces at the same time girl, but when you "borrow"* your six-year old's dress to wear as a top, you're allowed to throw caution to the wind, I think...

*As long as we're talking about borrowing, I should say that I borrowed (or shamelessly stole, whatever) the "kid's dress as top' idea from the far more stylish (and tinier) than me Christine. Only she wore the kid's dress as, wait for it... a grown-up dress. And she rocked it.

The Details:

• Tank (kid's dress) -- CHAKRA
• Belt -- Madewell
• Necklaces -- Thrifted
• Skirt -- Thrifted
• Wedges -- Old Navy

An Outfit (Deconstructed) ...

This is not a special outfit.

No, there’s nothing particularly fantastic about it... in fact, (in the interest of complete transparency), if I spotted a girl on the street wearing this outfit I probably wouldn't take a second glance at it. But, it’s worth posting here solely based on how much this outfit (seriously) underscores the relevance of my August hiatus.

(Or how much I need to take a break and reassess my closet before I buy another. single. thing.)

Case in point, notice how strikingly similar the top I’m wearing above looks to the black dress in my last outfit post. It’s not the same, I promise...The other one is a black dress with ruffly sleeves and a slight v neck. This one is a black tunic with ruffly sleeves and a slight boat neck.

See totally different.

There’s also the fact that I’ve almost purchased this top from Madewell (which is pretty much exactly the same as the top I’m sporting in this week’s outfit) no less that three times this summer… So it appears I have a thing for black tunicy tops with big ruffly sleeves. I've admitted the obsession, now it's time to move on.

Thanks. I feel better now.

The Details:

• Black top/dress -- Thrifted (no tag
• Black skinny jeans -- Gap
• Wedges -- Target
• Necklace -- Homemade

An Outfit (Deconstructed) ... Date Night Edition

For the big date night with hubby last Friday, I pulled a Jenna Lyons and planned my outfit around my shoes...(Albeit I didn't let the girlies pick them out, but still.)

In fact I was so smitten with the shoes that the rest of the get-up was honestly a bit of an afterthought...

I ended up wearing a black dress that I scored on Gilt that had big fluttery sleeves, which gave it a sort of Studio 54/70's vibe. I felt between the sleeves and the shoes there was a lot happening, so I just added on a simple necklace and bracelet...

Pretty low-key and comfortable overall, but still a little festive. Which is really the best possible combination, no?

The Details:

• Dress -- Love Sam (scored on Gilt)
• Shoes -- Pollini (on sale from 4510 and similar to these and these)
• Necklace (same one that I broke and then knotted up from last week) -- Martin + Osa
• Bracelets -- F is for Frank bangle
• Clutch -- Marc by Marc Jacobs