Z is for Zigzag

Hooray, my 26-day fashion challenge is finally at an end, and I couldn't be more in the mood for a celebration!

I went all out with the most zany pants in my collection, but the word of the day wasn't zany—it was zigzags.

The pants are well-endowed in the zigzag department, but never stop at one item if you can theme your whole outfit!

I found a shirt that matched the colors in the pants (not difficult since every color is in the pants!) and dressed it up to be a better version of itself, using the drawstring from the hood (let's face it; who actually ever used the hood on their hooded sweaters?) to make it into a trendy lace-up V-neck. But in keeping with my theme, instead of using two laces in a crisscross design, I used just one one in a zigzag all the way across the neck.

I couldn't resist putting my hair into a zigzag part, which I last remember seeing around the time I graduated high school—but apparently it's trendy again, just in time to put the finishing touch on my Z-day look!

Speaking of finishing touches, if you look closely, you can see the real icing on the cake: the zigzag shaped earrings that I manufactured just for the occasion!

Y is for Young

If you follow fashion writing, you are led to believe that thirty is a magical age, at which you suddenly become an old woman. After 30, your body is disgusting, and you should dress to be invisible. If you wanted to have any fun with your clothing, you better have done it in your 20's, because before 30, being tasteful is optional; after 30, it's mandatory. Such is the takeaway from countless articles purporting to explain what you should and shouldn't wear at various ages.

I have a lot to say on the subject of policing what people wear – mostly critical – and some day I'll get around to writing my long-planned soliloquy on ageism in fashion.

Today, you'll just get the short version—a sort of real-life protest against the oppression of dressing for one's age.

I've selected an outfit made from various elements that have been written off as inappropriate for women over 30 (which I am). Today (and actually many days, according to the exhaustive lists of things no self-respecting 30-year-old should don), I'm dressing "too young for my age," and I'm doing it with pride!*

Before (backwards mirror shot)

The first thing I absolutely had to wear was my new T-shirt with the giant word "YAY!" screen printed across the front (getting the most bang for my buck with another Y-word). Not only did one article ban screen printed shirts for mature women (I can't even begin to see the logic in that one), and another one prohibit "message" shirts, but I literally picked this shirt up from a kids' shop (it's the second of two pieces that I mentioned getting from Fab Kids—the other one being a tutu, which was of course on a no-no list as well). This shirt fit me pretty well, except across my oversized shoulders, of course! I had to do a quick mod, slitting the sleeves up the center and turning them into flutter sleeves, which made the shirt even more fun, in my opinion.

There's nothing too youthful about my jeans (though apparently in some not-so-distant past, jeans were considered the exclusive province of the young as well), but the shoes under them check any number of boxes, as "costume shoes" were decried in one list for the above-30 set, and there's little more costumey than a pair of 5-inch-high glitter platform wedges.

At this point, I still didn't think I'd achieved a convincingly "young" vibe, so I had to resort to hair, makeup, and accessories to finish the job.

Though pigtails surprisingly didn't make it into any of the lists I found online, they are pretty much the quintessential little-girl hairdo, so I somehow scraped my very short locks into two ponytails. I chose gold roses for my earrings because I wanted something gold (to go with the shoes and printing on the shirt), but still a little playful.

One of the publications I read also claimed that older women should not wear blue eyeshadow. They did not explain why, but guess what I put on my eyelids! Blue! I also wore bubble-gum pink lip gloss and sprayed myself liberally with my most juvenile Paris Hilton perfume.

When I wore this outfit out to dinner, no one gave me the side-eye and told me I was dressing too young, but as soon as I took off my coat, a bartender exclaimed how much she loved my shirt and wanted to know where I got it. So while it may be totally inappropriate for an adult over 30 to wear hot pants, fishnets, tube tops, miniskirts, bodycon dresses or any number of other things, you're never too old for Yay!

*I will admit that the first outfit I chose for today's theme was so extreme, I ended up looking like a caricature of a teenager circa 2001. As much as I advocate dressing for one's self and not for some arbitrary set of rules, I still didn't have the guts to sport my gaudy and slightly revealing outfit for dinner with my boyfriend's family (though I would have totally risked it if we were just going out alone). So I toned it down to what you see here. Moral of this story: sometimes you can't always break the rules with pride, even if you support it in theory.

X is for X-mas

 

Thank you, endless holiday parties, for legitimizing my excessively seasonal outfit choice today!

There's nothing explicitly Christmasy about it, just a lot of green and red, which ordinarily I wouldn't wear together.

The whole reason for the outfit's being is the shoes, which I purchased on eBay for around 10 dollars. I was so excited when I saw such unique shoes at such a unbeatable price! There were many color choices, but I went with green because I had been wanting some green flats. I neglected to consider how being emblazoned with a huge red flower might diminish the coordinate-ability of the shoes, but once I got them, that problem came perfectly clear. I've owned the shoes for a couple of months and only today finally was able to wear them.

I happened to have a green sweater that almost perfectly matches the green in the shoes, so I wore that, along with a pair of dark jeans because it's Friday (lately, in kind of a backflip, I've been all about wearing jeans at the office whenever possible. I guess it gets old trying to make skirts work in winter)!

Red jewelry rounded out the outfit—I wore an embellished metal bracelet and a crimson beaded necklace. My favorite subtle touch was the millefiori earrings, which I've had for ages but usually only get out at Christmas time.

Bonus! In the evening, I went to another party—a holiday gala, where I kept the green and red theme, but toned it down for the more sophisticated occasion.

A black dress with a burgundy bodice provided the red (I also saw fit to choose a dress with X's in its construction), while my pale green clutch bag (and my hair) provided the green. Wishing my green and red to be so subtle as to almost go unnoticed, I went minimal with my jewelry, only wearing a tiny peridot necklace and even tinier stud earrings. Sorry, they're so subtle you can't really appreciate them in the picture, but in my haste to get ready, I forgot to get any closeup shots.

You my loyal readers, are the only people to ever see this outfit, because the venue for the holiday gala was so cold that I never took off my coat the entire night! What a waste of a beautiful X's for X-mas dress!

W is for Winter White

After doing Fall Florals for F-Day, it was only natural for me to do Winter Whites for W-Day.

What makes winter whites different from regular old whites? Though you'd be hard-pressed to find "winter white" defined in the dictionary, there is a pretty strong consensus among the people who use the term that "winter white" refers to a color that's simply off-white. I like to include very light greys in my definition of winter white, but if you consult Pantone, the foremost authority on colors, you'll see they have given it to a very far-off-white shade of ecru.

Really, though, any white you wear in winter has to be winter white! And if you wear it with furry boots, it's as wintry as it gets! These boots are the last of my three Black Friday shoe purchases, and I waited with extreme impatience for W-Day so I could finally wear them. There's little I love so much as a furry boot in winter!

The boots really do fit the definition of "winter white," but the pants are just your average, everyday, pure white (and miraculously so, since I've worn them enough times that I'd expect them to have a stain or two by now).

The tank top is a nice creamy Pantone-approved winter white, and the cardigan, is, again, a "normal" white. I wore a white lace bracelet, and, to further support my "winter" theme, a pair of snowflake earrings.

V is for Velvet

Ah, finally, after that day of dressing like the Woman that Time Forgot, I was free to cast off my artifacts and embrace a current trend! Not just current, but blazing, smoking hot (and also warm!)

It's velvet!

Every fashion publication from here to everywhere has been hammering into my head that velvet is the fabric of the season. Fortunately, they started said hammering way back in the summer, giving me plenty of time to stock up on two new velvet dresses from Swap.com and a skirt from the thrift store (in addition to the blue dress I've had forever—I'm such an early adopter!).

Today, I'm wearing the first of the new dresses—a highly ornate velvet shift with slightly flared sleeves, in black and various shades of red.

Had fate not intervened, that would have been the extent of my velvet getup, but then I found the JustFab Black Friday sale. I filled up my cart with my olive ankle-strap flats, one more mystery shoe which I'm sure you'll see soon, and these burgundy crushed velvet sandals. They also came in blue, which I wanted so bad, but since I've somehow filled up my closet with red things this year, I thought the burgundy was a more sensible choice. I figured I'd wear them for a more formal occasion (where sandals make sense, even in the middle of winter), but then V-day came around.

Nothing would have given me greater pleasure than rocking a velvet sock boot (they're everywhere!), but alas, I haven't found one in my price range yet. So it was velvet sandals or bust. I tried them with tights and I tried them with thigh-highs (even for the sake of fashion, I won't sacrifice my toes to the gods of winter!), but eventually I decided sandals over knee socks was the cutest (although admittedly unconventional) way to finish off this outfit.

An Aside: Were you, like me, an avid fan of The Velveteen Rabbit when you were a kid? Did you ever wonder just what the heck velveteen is and what makes it different from velvet? And, for that matter, what velour is? Well, wonder no more, because I did the research for you! Most of the answers I found were quite confusing, which is why I felt like this answer on Quora (which admits that they "defy categorization") was the most satisfying. Basically the only thing that's constant about any of it is that velveteen is made from cotton, feels stiff, and has a short pile. As for the others, anything seems to go, so, in my expert opinion, you are safe referring to any shiny-ish fabric with a short furry pile as either velvet or velour, and no one would be able to contradict you unequivocally.

U is for Unfashionable

Apologies for the blurriness—
attempting to manually focus on a person who isn't there, while your camera's LCD is
obscured by the pile of stuff it's precariously perched on, does not make for a great shot!

I struggled to find an outfit for the letter U, since its usage seems predominantly limited to the less pleasant words in life—words like ugly, unkempt, unclean, and underwear. Also unfashionable. I call myself the "Unfashionista," so it stands to reason that at least some of my clothes would be less than trendy. As long as you look good in it or it makes a statement, I'm always in favor of wearing something a little outdated or just plain odd.

But have I ever assembled a whole outfit out of the outdated and odd? Well, as a matter of fact, I did just last week, for my "Quirky" outfit. While that ensemble was calculated to include my most outlandish clothes and accessories in the goofiest combination possible (while still trying to look semi-sane for my employers), today's will be focused on clothing that was once stylish but has gone out of favor, or has never really been in favor at all!

I started with the shoes. These shoes have extra-long pointy toes that are certainly not trendy now, but were for a brief period during a time when I wasn't paying attention to fashion. More on the intricacies of toe lengths in my footnote (get it?) below!* They also have kitten heels, which are always a topic of hot contention among the fashion set. Oddly enough, while these shoes would have been solidly "unfashionable" a year and a half ago, the tides are currently turning in their favor, with more and more kitten heels and longer toes making an appearance.

The pants, on the other hand, are no one's definition of stylish, and might never have been. They are a short-legged, slightly flared (boot cut), grey corduroy. They're also by Faded Glory, a bargain brand of dubious distinction. My former housemate abandoned them in 2012, and they've been, since then, what I wear when I want to be comfortable and warm, but never when I want to make a great impression! Their stumpy legs aren't a great pairing with the elongated shoes, and neither is brown + grey a particularly popular color combo, but in this case it was perfect, because the next unfashionable item on my list was my cardigan/duster/sweater coat that just happens to be brownish-grey!

This style of ruffly sweater seemed to enjoy a lot of popularity right in the middle of my organic market days (I had a coworker who wore one pretty much constantly), but presently it's all about clean lines, oversized silhouettes, and a slightly masculine vibe. That doesn't stop me; I wanted a knee-length cardigan, so I just bought this sweater (used) a few weeks ago!

Under the outmoded sweater is a plain brown camisole. I don't think basics like this will ever go out of style; the only reason I chose this particular garment is that I needed something to tie in with the brown shoes.

Next, jewelry. I have heard through the grapevine that the statement necklace is dead—and you only have to look through a few pictures of stylish people to realize this is true; anyone worth their fashion salt has already moved on to delicate metal pieces and chokers. But, oh, those heady years of huge colorful plastic-and-metal necklaces will live on forever in my memory...and, let's not kid ourselves, in my day-to-day style. I'm going to wear my statement necklaces from now until eternity! But now, at least, I'm ready to admit that they are unfashionable. Especially when their curiously bright colors clash so strongly with the muted tones of the clothes around them. 

Related note: this fashion challenge has had me wearing a whole lot more plain old browns, blacks, beiges, and greys than I would like, but I guess it's natural to gravitate to neutrals when you have to continually create cohesive themed outfits out of all the unrelated separates you have in your closet.

So there you have it. A 4-piece outfit assembled exclusively from the embarrassingly out-of-date. It pained me a little to step out entirely clad in history's rejects, but, I did it (paradoxically) for fashion!

---

* Ready for a digression? Here you go: As I have recently mentioned, I have never been into shoes with long toes. Even when I was a kid, I had a strong aversion to women's pointy-toed shoes. That might have been a bit of my mom's influence, since I think she also opposed them, though perhaps that was more for comfort reasons than stylistic ones. My own opinion on pointy toes was that they just added inches to the end of your foot, making it look long and ridiculous (more recently I discovered that pointy toes can be very artfully designed to end just past your real toes, and I don't have the same distaste for these more subtly pointed toes—in fact, I now even recommend them for when you want to look sophisticated). Since I already had a bit of an insecurity about the huge size of my feet (which, at an 8.5 - 9, are actually perfectly average, even downright dainty relative to my height, which is slightly above average—but insecurities do not listen to reason), the last thing I wanted to do was wear shoes which made them look even bigger. So when pointy toes gave way in the late 90's to monstrous clodhoppers, I was an enthusiastic adopter! The overall proportions of a huge platform completely disguised the length of my foot, making me feel like I had small feet. In fact, I loved chunky shoes so much that I wore them well into the era when they were no longer stylish. Apparently in the early-to-mid-2000's, really long pointy toes were once again at the height of fashion (I judge this based exclusively on promo shots for the 2004 Mean Girls movie), but I totally missed that! Fortunately, I still got my chance (whether I wanted it or not) to rock the saber-toe look when a friend's sister gave me a pair of hers from what I assume was that era. I was about to re-donate the long-toed foot-pinchers when it occurred to me that they might be the subject of a very interesting craft project. So I kept them around, and all of a sudden, they were the perfect shoe for my U-day! End of digression.

T is for Tutu

This tutu has a backstory. Not a very interesting one, but I'm going to tell it anyway, because how else would I fill my whole post up with unnecessary narrative?

There's this website I shop from called JustFab. When I joined them (they operate on a membership system, albeit one that you don't have to pay for as long as you remember to "skip" every month), they only sold shoes, but they keep expanding their operations. A few years ago, they suckered me into joining their newish (then) "Fabletics" site for workout clothes with an offer of 5$ leggings (their regular prices are definitely too expensive for a monthly membership, but the leggings are the best pair of athletic pants I've ever owned). More recently, they started their "Fab Kids" line, which as you might be able to guess, is for children's clothing. With no kids in my life and no intention to change that, I had zero interest in buying from Fab Kids, but they kept emailing me special offers, until finally they made me an offer I couldn't refuse: my first outfit free! I'd only have to pay 4.95$ shipping. 

Well, I've worn clothes from the kids' department before (one of my favorite coats ever was a girls' XL), so I checked to see whether their size range could accommodate my adult frame, and it turned out that it could! So I joined Fab Kids. I figured, at 4.95$ for 2 garments, even if the endeavor was a complete failure, I'd have a nice new outfit to donate to a clothing drive at hardly any expense.

Fab Kids allows you to save a profile for the kid you are shopping for, so I invented myself a "daughter." Her name is Fern, she is 16, wears a size XXL, and is now the proud owner of a Fab Kids skirt and T-shirt.

Today, I'm wearing the skirt. The website referred to it as a "tutu." I usually reserve that word for a skirt with a little more volume, but it was made of tulle, so it fits the T-theme regardless of what you call it.

I paired the tutu with my glittery purple shirt, purple earrings, and purple shoes. The look is a little overly festive for a typical Monday (shall I say it's "too too?"), but it's the holiday season, so I can just say I'm wearing it to yet another workplace party.

EDITOR'S NOTE: All links to shopping websites in this post contain my personal referral link! If you do decide to shop from any of these websites, we both share great benefits if you join from my personal link.

S is for Stars & Stripes

Fashion Dog never misses an opportunity to be seen in pictures.

S-Day came just in time for me to finish a small alteration on the new black-and-white striped tunic I picked up at a rummage sale over the summer. So S-Day had to be stripes day!

Unlike argyle or lightning, stripes are common enough that I'd feel a little pitiful only wearing one item to represent them, but oddly, I didn't have anything else in my wardrobe stripey enough (Well, I did have these knee socks, but they were just a bit too crazy for an everyday non-quirky outfit)!

To make up for the weak presentation of stripes, I picked another S-word to round out the day, and, logically, since I have a lot of stars in my clothes, (not to mention "stars & stripes" are a pretty common pairing thanks to the American flag), that pick was stars. 

So it was no struggle to find a pair of star earrings (pictured in selfie below) and a pair of star boots.

If you haven't figured it out by now, my photographer is,
frequently, the same friend who's obsessed with the Miami Dolphins,
and today he quite coincidentally wore a striped shirt
to match both his his team's colors and my theme!

You can't see them in the complete outfit, but when I first got dressed, expecting a relaxing day at home (but turning out to be a crazy day of brunching and drinking and excessive photographing), I wore a pair of Christmas socks, expecting them to be my sole (get it?) footwear option of the day. They are, in fact, the crowning glory of this outfit, featuring both stars and stripes at once!

R is for Refashioned

Every element in my outfit today is refashioned in some way.

The blouse is my most recent project, created from a men's work shirt.

The pants I got in somewhat unwearable condition from the kids' department at the thrift store. After re-coloring the faded knees and moving the button for a better fit, they have served me well many a time.

The boots are a new refashion and still haven't been posted on this blog! They started as a pair of mid-calf slouch boots, but the fake leather began peeling after only a few wears. While I tried to disguise the flaky spots with paint, soon even that wasn't enough to keep them presentable, so I decided to cut off the slouchy tops and turn them into ankle boots. The entire process will be documented in a future post, now that they've had their big reveal!



Lastly, the earrings – not that you can see them in any detail since my photographer always forgets to zoom in, but I guess we can't complain about free labor – are the ones I made from a geode. Strictly, they aren't "re-fashioned," just "handmade" ... but since the chains used in them came from a different piece of jewelry, I guess they can kind of count!

Q is for Quirky

First off, cut me some slack for this highly subjective theme today. Q is a hard letter, and quirky is hard to pull off! 

What exactly makes an outfit quirky? Half of what I wear is, to some extent or other, what I would call quirky. That's part of my personal style—it's what makes me the Unfashionista!

So how do I distinguish a whole outfit as being so quirky that its quirkiness actually stands out as the theme? Well, mostly it's in calculated repetition. Wear one thing that's quirky, and it's just an accent...wear everything too quirky and it's a hot mess! 

Somewhere in between is something "quirky but worky" (as in work-appropriate—sorry, I just couldn't resist the cheesy rhyme). It's the outfit that makes people go, "Huh, that girl is quirky!"...but not go, "Yikes! That girl is fired!"

To succeed, I went with a bunch of off-the-beaten-path outfit elements, but made sure they were color coordinated! As such, I have a rather unusual outfit (I hope) that still looks put-together (I hope!).

Starting from the bottom and working our way up...

1. Boots - Boots in any color other than brown or black are an anomaly, so I'm hoping my green boots stand out from the crowd. The gratuitous laces and (also green!) fur trim should help give them an air of the over-the-top. If that wasn't enough, they have ridiculously long pointed toes. I'm not a huge fan of shoes with long toes, but when I bought these, I made an exception because the rest of them was so magnificent in so many ways!
2. Skirt - The more colors, the quirkier—that's what I always say! Tons of colors splashed all over a black background in a riotous design has to take it a step beyond. Not to mention that midi skirts of this shape and material tend to be the province of frumpy eccentric old ladies!
3. Tank top - The reason I had to wear a tank top is the sweater over it, which I'll get to in just a minute. When I was looking for the perfect tank, I almost went with a plain black, but fortunately it occurred to me to try this one in a shade of olive green to match the boots. As soon as I zipped the sweater over it, I knew it was the right choice. Not content to just skim my waist and go unnoticed, it flares out like a second skirt in the way of a strange – dare I say quirky? – outsized peplum.
4. Sweater - Not just any sweater of course—this one happens to be olive green to go with the tank top and boots, and cropped to waist-length! Who wears a sweater that covers only half their torso? Someone quirky, of course!
5. Pin set - Now we're getting to the jewelry. Jewelry is the area in which a quirky dresser can really shine, as you can take any crazy thing and make an accent piece out of it. In this case, I've chosen my "squirrel clutching for acorn" conjoined set of brooches debuted in "Squirrels love pink." Not only is a squirrel a pretty quirky animal in and of itself, but attached to its food source, it takes on an entirely new level of bizarreness, plus (best bonus of the day!) Quercus is the scientific name for the oak tree (from whence come acorns, were you not aware)!
6. Earrings - Not much can outdo a squirrel-acorn combo, and while I was tempted to wear some of my biggest, most outlandish earrings to finish off this look, I recognized that even quirky people must exercise some measure of good taste. I rarely wear big earrings together with any other piece of statement jewelry, but I wasn't about to miss out on my last opportunity to inject quirk into my look. I went with a small set of hedgehog earrings. Not many people walk around with hedgehogs dangling from their ears, so I feel this was a balanced way to keep my earrings discreet but still unusual.

 

So what do you think? Quirkier than normal, or Unfashionista as usual?

P is for Pleather

My purple pleather pencil skirt has exceeded all my expectations. I thought I'd wear it once or twice as a novelty, but instead, I just keep finding new ways to style it as a wardrobe staple!

Today, I took advantage of its very vinyl nature and used it as the foundation for a pleather-themed outfit! The only other pleather garment (with its faux-crocodile trim) in my closet is, fortunately, a top, but it's brown, and I wasn't sure how it would coordinate with the purple skirt. Turns out, I needn't have worried—the two pieces made a lovely couple!

There was only one problem: the high waistline of the skirt showed very clearly through the thin tight fabric of the shirt! This flaw was a blessing in disguise, because to hide the visible lump, I was inspired to find yet another pleather piece—a wide elastic belt which not only smoothed my contours, but also added an unexpected bit of flair to the look!

The waist tie that is a fixture on the shirt (pictured here) looked pretty silly dangling out under the belt, so I had to work some magic, weaving it in and out of its moorings, to keep it from showing. The belt also has a tendency to ride up, so overall this is a pretty finicky look that I wouldn't want to repeat on a regular basis—but it's fine for a fashion challenge.

To round out the look, knee-high boots served to keep my legs warm and add to the total amount of pleather in this outfit.

O is for Over-the-knee

Today's outfit is all about the boots. Big, tall, in-your-face, over-the-knee boots. I've had a thing for over-the-knee socks and boots for a couple years now. But this year, I decided to make a concerted effort to acquire a solid collection.

There are the black ones that I've had for so many years, they've developed holes in the toes (I've worn them slouched for my blog before, but never in all their thigh-high glory); the brown ones I sang the praises of last fall; another brown pair given to me by a friend (tricky to wear, because you can't bend your legs in them, but I vow you'll see them some day!); the black fur-lined ones (which really aren't thigh-high, though sometimes I unfold the top and try to pretend they are); and now, finally, these beauties.

 

 

There's so much to love about these boots. The metal studs remind me of my "rockstar boots," which I loved but which wore out a few years ago. The price was only $6.99 at the thrift store, minus at least a 25% discount, making them an unbelievable bargain.

And finally, they are the tallest boots I've ever had! I was planning to wear over-the-knee socks under my boots, so O-day would not be a one-garment wonder, but the boots were so tall, they completely disguised my socks.

O is for "Oh, well."

I paired the boots with dark clothing and simple pewter earrings so that nothing would overshadow the shoes. After reviewing a few of my photos, I realized the "zipper baby" was none too flattering, so I unzipped the extra-long cardigan for a few more shots. Which way do you think it looked better?

 

N is for New

 
I skipped alphabet dressing yesterday, because literally the only time I set foot outside my house was when I went to fetch my dog who had escaped the fence. It was a Sunday PJ day for me! But now that it's Monday and back to the daily grind, I'm back to my fashion challenge!

The thing about a fashion challenge (at least for this one) is that you tend to keep using your old clothes, because they're the basics that work in a lot of looks. Since I've started this challenge, I haven't been able to wear anything new (except that one time I tried to make a single sweater carry the whole theme).

Today I decided enough was enough, and I was going to make my whole outfit out of stuff that's new! 

The shoes were a Black Friday deal from JustFab (actually not much of a deal; I paid 4 dollars more than I usually do for flats, but as I keep saying, I think I need to invest more in flat shoes...plus I needed to get my total up to qualify for free shipping).

The skirt and sweater were hand-me-downs (still new to me!).

The necklace was a recent purchase from eBay, which intrigued me with its 3-D layering.

 

 

The proportions of the skirt, shirt, and shoes are a little unflattering, but hey! I got to wear four new things in one outfit, which might be a new personal record!

The making of the jogger pants

It wasn't too long ago that I took the plunge into athleisure and wore jogger pants in public for the first time. Funny thing about jogger pants—I've never liked them. When I was a young un-unfashionista of around 8-11 years old, I wore almost nothing but coordinated sweatsuits. I wore them because they were comfortable, and because they were given to me, and because that was about all I had to wear. But I hated the way they looked. I hated the way the legs bunched up at the bottom with their stupid cuffs. When straight-legged, uncuffed athletic pants became the norm in the 2000's, I was thrilled beyond belief.

But now that tapered-leg joggers are the "cool" kind of pants, I felt like I must change with the times. Today's joggers are a little more slim-fitting and clean-lined than the bulky sweatpants of my youth. If not exactly gorgeous, at least they're slightly less hideous, so decided I'd give them a fighting chance. The only problem was, I wasn't about to spend my hard-earned money on a pair of ugly pants, even if they are fashionable. I was going to make my own!

Fortunately, I have quite a collection of leisure pants, including a pair of dark grey sweats that would be the perfect candidate for jogger-conversion!

I lopped a few inches off the bottom of each leg.

Next, I played around with how much width I wanted to remove from the bottom, pinning the excess fabric once I'd decided.

I reattached the bottom portion, making it much narrower than it had been originally. It had only one seam, so I put that at the back of the leg. I left the remaining leg fabric intact because I wasn't exactly sure how much I wanted to remove yet.

After a couple of try-ons, I determined the amount of tapering I wanted the leg to have, then sewed a seam up the back of the leg to achieve the effect.

In the end, I got this oh-so-stylish result!

Since my joggers are the closest thing to sportswear I'll ever sport, I felt I had to do something suitably athletic to model them:

Jumping for joggers!

M is for Metallic

Saturday was a special day because I got to wear two outfits — one for running errands in the morning, and one for a party at night — and both of them fit my theme of metallic!

In the morning, I went mostly with gold. I already did one whole outfit for gold, but there's plenty more gold where that came from! I wore my gold embellished flat shoes, my gold tunic sweater (not pictured, but you've seen it before), gold hoop earrings, and over it all, a copper trench coat.

In the evening, I went for another kind of metallic—silver. My purple dress with the metallic threads seemed perfect for a semi-casual holiday party. Working in as much silver as possible, I also wore silver glitter shoes and silver earrings. I even got my makeup into the action, with metallic purple eyeshadow and silver tips on my lashes.

I had intended to wear a silver scarf as well, but in my haste to be on time, I forgot it. Oh, well, live and never learn.

L is for Lightning

Still recovering on Thursday evening from my interminable cold, I put minimal effort into finding an outfit for the last day of my week. I rejected "Lace-up" (too casual for work), "Lace" (been there), "Leggings," (done that), "Layers" (too complicated), and finally settled on "Lightning," as it would give me an opportunity to finally wear a piece of my new winter clothing, which I haven't done since I got them out of storage last Sunday!

The piece in question was a pastel orange sweater with a light grey lightning bolt on the chest. I had gotten it last spring in an effort to diversify my wardrobe with more orange and more graphic sweaters. 

Since I have hardly anything else that's orange and nothing else with lightning on it, I was lightning-quick about putting together the rest of the outfit. A pair of grey pants, coordinating grey shoes, and coordinating orange earrings, and I was ready to go to bed! What is L-Day, if not an excuse to be lazy?

Since this Fashion Challenge has encouraged me to get quite silly with my pictures...

Blinded by the lightning!