Burnt Blazer

They call it a blazer, but it's a lie, because it can't handle the heat! I decided to iron the collar of this forest green blazer because it just wasn't folding right, and the instant the iron touched it, the fabric melted! 

It left a shiny mark that was impossible to ignore or cover. I liked the fabric and felt sad about losing such a nice garment to such a senseless accident, so I decided I might cut it up and make it into a skirt.

That was almost 3 years ago (I last wore the blazer in spring 2015). I've carried the remains of the blazer around with me from house to apartment to house, and never got motivated enough to make it into something new. Then this fall, faced with a bitterly cold office and a shortage of clothes with sleeves, I suddenly became very interested in layering with cardigans and blazers. I pulled this one out of storage and thought I could make it useful again, not by converting it into something completely different, but simply by removing the damaged collar.

After I finally set to work, I finished this 3-year project with remarkable ease!

I marked where I wanted the new edges with a line of pins, and then cut off the collar and the lapels, leaving just a half-inch for a hem.

Deciding how to protect the raw edges was the hardest part. The fabric was thick enough that it would become bulky if I made a standard hem. Eventually I decided to just wrap it with bias tape. I didn't have any tape that matched the color of the blazer, so I went with a complementing navy hue.

I felt it would go quicker and produce less bulk if I just glued the bias tape on, so I did. In retrospect, it did not go quicker, because I had to wait for the glue to dry over the course of two days, one for the glue on the front side and one for the back.

But finally I was ready for the last stage, which was turning the now-taped seam under and sewing it down.

I tried to keep the seam as close to the edge as possible, so it wouldn't be too noticeable. Here's how it looks on the inside.

And here's how it looks on the outside!

The finished product is fair to middling. The lapels tend to gape open, revealing the bias tape underneath, but fortunately it's a fairly analogous color, so it looks more like a deliberate accent than a mistake (I hope!).

In any case, it's good enough for me to wear it to work again, so I did, putting a slightly less dark green T-shirt underneath, tucking a pair of black skinny pants into a pair of black knee-high boots, and finishing it all off with my grape jewelry set!

The Unfashionista's Official 2017 trend report

Ahhh, dear readers! It's that time of year when the one person who declares herself entirely unqualified to talk about fashion spends an entire post telling you what's been fashionable for the past year!

This year, I'll divide my list into three classifications: Shoe trends, Clothing trends, and Ornamentation trends.

Shoe trends

I noticed my observations were pretty heavy on the shoes this time around (related, perhaps, to the excess of shoe shopping I did this year which resulted in 1/5 of my shoe collection being acquired in the last six months, and causing it to spill over out of its dedicated closet and into two other areas of my bedroom).

Slides and more slides

From chunky pool slides in the early months to pointy-toed flat mules come fall, the slip-on shoe was big this year. While I had my good fun with furry slides, I restrained myself from purchasing more than one pair because it seemed like they were already on the outs by the time I got them. Flat mules, while still mostly the province of fashion bloggers rather than "regular people," seem to be growing in popularity. But I myself just don't feel like getting any. I always found backless shoes to be a hassle, and the silhouette doesn't really do anything for me.

Ankle straps and lacing

While open-faced lace-up shoes graced my list of 2015 shoe trends, this year I found that around-the-ankle ballerina-style lacing took a front seat. In a similar vein, I've seen a lot of ankle straps. I appreciate how ankle detailing can make or break a trouser length, but straps and laces are hard to work with. After acquiring a couple shoes of this ilk and learning how difficult they are to get on and off (imagine re-lacing your shoes once every hour, as I do to keep myself fit at the office!), my enthusiasm for the lace-up trend is waning quickly.

Sock boots

Boots that are so soft and tight-fitting that they might as well be socks, that's what sock boots are! I'm still kicking myself for finding an overknee sock boot in the thrift store two years ago, and letting a lady talk me out of getting it because it basically looked like a shoe with a sock attached. If I'd gotten it, I could have very cheaply preceded the wave of sock boots that are now the coolest thing since snow. I've gotten a few sock boots this year, most of which I haven't worn yet, but I adore them compared to the alternative, which is the rapidly encroaching oversized slouchy boot.

Clothing trends

There wasn't a lot that really caught my eye in terms of clothing this year. Much of it is basically an extension of trends I mentioned in the past, but I'll briefly summarize a few I noticed.

Statement sleeves

Statement sleeves, which includes the bell sleeves I first noted at the beginning of last year, and expanding to lots of upper-arm bulk and ruffles as well, are still getting bigger—figuratively again, but I wouldn't mind if they did it literally too. I would get a huge (figurative) kick out of a resurgence of floor-length sleeves as seen in the Middle Ages, regardless of their impracticality!

Holey jeans nouveau

While holey jeans were pictured in my fashion review of 2014, I have, unbelievably, never actually featured the trend on its own! Perhaps it's because it has been at least somewhat popular for just basically ever. This year, however, holey jeans were worn in a way that I've never before seen: the enormous gaping holes were decorated from beneath with fishnet tights (again, mostly by fashion bloggers, not the general public). While it's not really my cup of tea, I have to admit that this might be the one way of wearing trashed pants (with something cool underneath!) that I would consider trying.

Shirts with attached chokers

Not too surprisingly, the choker trend of last year made it into clothing this year, with shirts that had built-in chokers at the neckline. This was far from a huge trend, but it's something I've never seen done before, so I felt it was at least worth mentioning.

Ornamentation trends

Ornamentation was where it was at for 2017. While silhouettes didn't vary much from last year to this one, I noticed a lot of commonality in terms of how things were decorated.

Themes

One interesting motif this year is the cactus. I didn't see it a ton, but just often enough to notice it. Stars, a more common embellishment in general, seem to have appeared much more often. To some extent, this may be my penchant for stars that calls me to admire them whenever I see them, but I feel like they were more popular globally in 2017. This was also, definitively, the year of the unicorn. While I am proud to say I loved unicorns before they were cool (for proof, see my Halloween costume from 2012, or the unicorn socks I was wearing in 2010), 2017 was the year unicorns reached market saturation ("unicorn hair" and the "Unicorn Frappuccino" are just a few of the relics of this year's unicorn frenzy). A number of unicorn-themed garments and accessories made their way into my ultra-low price range the past few months, which must mean the bubble is about to burst.

Embellishments

As far as 3-dimensional decorations go, it was small fluffy things all the way. I saw a preponderance of tassels and fur pom poms, especially on shoes and jewelry. I can take them or leave them, and have so far managed to leave them.

Definitely the number-one trend that defined 2017 for me was embroidery, mostly of the floral sort. While it started with a couple of shirts and bras with embroidery patches popping up frequently in my eBay searches, it grew to appear just about everywhere! In addition to being the defining trend for 2017, it's also my favorite, although, being my thrifty and crafty self, I have refrained from buying anything embroidered, in favor of making my own. This has caused me to be a little late to the party, but I'll get there! I promise!

Future trends

Every year, I usually express a couple wishes/predictions for the year ahead. This year, I'm putting my money on flip flops—not beach sandals, which will always have their place (at the beach!), but thong-style sandals (preferably with a platform) to be worn for more everyday and semi-dressy occasions. Dress flip flops are currently totally passé. I was buying heavily discounted pairs in 2011 (sure sign of a decline in their popularity), and had completely eliminated them from my collection by 2016...so that means it's surely time for them to come back! Shower slides were really popular in the late 90's, and flip flops came a few years after. And guess what's pretty popular now? Shower slides! Guess what's coming next! This is not to say I think flip flops will actually rise to ascendancy by the end of 2018, but that it's a good time to stock up if we find a bargain, so our future selves can be ahead of the curve!

Ultra Violet

I am trying to start a tradition. For my first outfit of every new year, I will try to prominently feature Pantone's color of the year. This has proved to be a challenge, since on New Year's Day, I pretty much always feel like wearing nothing more than a warm sweater and some stretchy pants, which does not make for a very blogworthy outfit. Nonetheless, I wore a "Greenery"-esque sweater for 2017, and this year, I'm breaking out the Ultra Violet.

I did not wear it on New Year's Day, because that day was reserved for a pajama brunch, and knowing what you know about my pajama collection, I'm sure you'd understand why I prefer that outfit not get memorialized in photos. But for January second, my triumphant return to both the office and the wearing of nice clothes, after a lazy week-and-a-half holiday, it was Pantone Time!

I had purchased this shirt from Swap.com several months ago; it is one of the many articles in my closet that I haven't yet worn, and I was pretty darn thrilled when I learned in early December that the color of this year was such a perfect match for something new and exciting I already owned. I held it in reserve for the glorious day when it would feature in my first blog post of 2017.

Sadly, when the time came to actually accessorize the shirt for its moment of fame, I found that I didn't have anything else exciting enough to go with it. I wanted to look professional for my first day back to work, so that meant jeans were not an option. I reluctantly chose my slightly-too-large grey slacks to be the unassuming backdrop of this featured color. Fortunately, I have some amethyst jewelry that goes pretty nicely with the shirt, so at least my Ultra Violet outfit was not a one-piece wonder. 

But still, I wasn't content with just a solid purple shirt and an interesting necklace. I wanted a bit of glitz and glamour, which came in the form of my mirrored silver boots. They might be a little too "ultra" and might steal the spotlight from the purple which is the main event, but, hey, it was my first outfit of the new year! I needed it to bring down the house!

Popping daisies

A year and a half after I first started, I'm still making a concerted effort to bring more orange into my wardrobe. It's been slow going, especially when it comes to shoes. I finally found a pair of suitable orange sandals at the thrift store over the summer, and with great effort, these "sienna"-colored boots at JustFab. Sienna, as it turns out, is less orange in person than one might imagine by looking at it on a website, and I found that it didn't go well with most of the outfits I tried.

But finally I discovered a shirt that complemented rather than clashed with the boots.

It's a very cheerful sweater with orange and yellow daisies reminiscent of 60's pop art. The orange of the petals is subdued (almost, dare I say, a salmon hue?) but it works as a slightly more pastel variant of the color of the boots.

Since I was already channeling the 60's, I decided to wear my oversized yellow earrings which remind me a little of mod fashion.

 

Frumpiness fix

At the beginning of the day that I wore it (I'm a little behind in posting, so that was not today!) this outfit was one of my ordinary old work outfits that are so unremarkable, I never give them a moment's second thought. Even if the colors are bright and fun, the individual elements have been worn enough times that they no longer excite me. The one new part of this outfit was the pink cardigan, which is a fairly recent acquisition. Unfortunately, the long-line cardigan combined with the calf-length skirt to create a total appearance that was shapeless and dowdy. High-heeled shoes usually help make a midi skirt more flattering, but the chunky heel on these ones might have hurt more than helped.

I wasn't going to blog this outfit at all, except that midway through the day, I discovered a styling trick that improved its appearance so greatly, I had to share it!

Looking at my blocky shape in the mirror, with the cardigan billowing out around me like an extra 20 pounds of flesh, I suddenly realized that I'd look more streamlined if I just defined my waist. I tied the dangling front parts of the cardigan around my midsection, and the improvement was instant! Suddenly I felt proud of my appearance again!

Tie baggy clothes around your waist to create a knotted belt and a more streamlined silhouette! 

Spring for the Solstice

I love dressing in spring colors out of season! It's one simple way to boost my mood, even when the weather is depressingly wintry and cold as an icebox outside.

Today's outfit, which just happens to coincide with the winter solstice, is a study in springtimey motifs.

I started with a pale green shirt that I got months ago and haven't worn yet. I tried it on last week and was absolutely horrified by how short, tight, and low-cut it was. How it passed my initial review when I first got it, I had no idea, but it was way past the return period now, and I was going to have to make it work. After giving it some thought, I realized I could raise the modesty factor by layering a camisole underneath it, which made the neckline a little more appropriate for work. It's still tight, but with all the wrinkles of several layers of fabric filling it out, it looks less like a skin suit. I like the way the camisole peeps out at both the bottom and the top, adding more pops of springtime hues.

For the bottom half of my outfit, I chose a midi prairie skirt bursting with pastel colors and floral shapes.

Navy being the darkest color in the skirt, and me wanting to exercise at least a modicum of restraint, I decided to go with navy blue for my shoes. I considered wearing a new pair of slouch boots, but ultimately decided that the boots looked too bulky when combined with the skirt, so I went for a more streamlined look with some (also new!) pointy-toe pumps.

To round out the look, I couldn't not wear a ridiculously vernal butterfly jewelry set!

It might be the first day of winter, but that's not stopping me from celebrating in springtime style!

Asymmetry Serendipity

The heat is broken in my office – again! – and it is totally the wrong weather for a sheer blouse, but I don't care! I've been so bored of my clothes since it got cold this fall (even all my new boots failed to cheer me up), that I'll brave the cold without (much) complaint, just for the opportunity to wear something new and exciting.

New and exciting is, today, a sheer brown blouse with pink, yellow, and teal paisley accents, and just a hint of metallic thread. This top is probably my favorite of my recent acquisitions from Swap.com (get a discount on your first purchase by using my referral link!), which included the (Millennial!) pink pants I'm wearing as well.

I basically picked out the pants because they went well with the colors in the top, but as soon as I put them on, I discovered another benefit: the lace accent on the right hip was positioned just so to peek out from below the higher side of the shirt's asymmetrical hemline. The pants only have the lace on one side, so how fortunate was it that both asymmetrical pieces happened to be asymmetrical in just the right way? That's what I call a lopsided win!