Half and Half

One of the earliest Style Tips I shared in my blog was "Never wear a shirt that is the same length as your skirt. It will make you look short." Replace the "shirt" and "skirt" with the more generic "top" and "bottoms," and you have an all-purpose rule that you can live by!

And yet, I'm blatantly breaking that rule today...because, I've found a new tip that supersedes this rule and completely changes the game! But before I reveal it, a story.

Yesterday, I didn't have much time to plan today's outfit. I was out celebrating my boyfriend's birthday and running errands for most of the day. By the time I got home, I was too tired to do anything more than grab a shirt and some pants out of my closet and crawl into bed.

But when I woke up in the morning, I realized my mistake. I'd chosen a long pair of pants that I could only wear with high heels. After walking around all day on my wedge boots on Friday, and spending much of Sunday in 5-inch stilettos, my metatarsal bones were barking! There was no way I was wearing anything but flats today!

Unfortunately, the only pair of trousers that both matched the shirt, and was short enough to wear with flats, was my trusty old cigarette pants...which are exactly the same length as the shirt! Code violation!

What to do, what to do? Well, the obvious solution was to just wear the combo anyway and stop worrying about it. So I'd spend a day at work looking slightly dumpy. Worse things have happened.

But fortunately, a better answer occurred to me. I'd use my shoes to visually elongate my legs! Normally, I do this by putting on a pair of high heels, but since heels were off the table for today, I'd have to apply a couple of useful principles, which I'm now sharing as a When your shoes are the same color as your pants, they will visually continue the line of your legs and make them look longer. In a similar vein, shoes with a pointed toe will make your foot look longer. Combine the two and you will have legs for days!

I've historically waffled on the topic of pointed-toe shoes. On the one hand, they do look more elegant than round or square toes. On the other hand, they pinch, and also make your feet look longer, which is usually not desirable. I eventually did decide to buy some this year, which was fortunate, because sometimes (like when you are wearing awkwardly short pants), longer feet is just what your look needs!

In holiday style

 
Friday was the my department's holiday party. This was not just any ordinary gathering, however—this year, the entire group was invited to the White House for 2 hours of bowling! This presented a number of challenges in terms of what to wear.

1. It was the White House, so wanted to put my best foot forward. I'd have to dress a little more upscale than I usually do for work.
2. There would be bowling, so I'd have to wear clothes that didn't impede my mobility.
3. We'd be riding Metro there and walking from place to place, so I had to wear Sensible Shoes.
4. We might be spending a good bit of time outside after the party, so also had to wear something warm.
5. The outfit had to be festive and seasonally appropriate.

Wow—upscale, sporty, walkable, warm, and festive all in one outfit? With so many criteria to meet, it's no wonder it took me an hour and a half to pick out what to wear!

After trying on every red thing in my closet, this is what I came up with: an almost all-black ensemble with Christmasy accents.

After I so thoroughly enjoyed my sheer star top last fall, I decided to get another one with a winter snowflake theme. For the holiday party, I wore the snowflake blouse with almost the exact same outfit as when I wore the star top, substituting fur-lined quilted boots for the simple unlined ones, and a full-length camisole instead of the cropped one. I even wore a similar style of earrings, but this time I went with red.

Hanging from my badge is the squirrel puppet I won during the games.

After the party, I was very flattered when a stranger saw me on the staircase and commented, "That's a hell of an outfit." If I do say so myself, I have to agree. My outfit had a holiday theme, but it wasn't overdone. The black-and-white palette and relative formality of the silhouette seemed to hit just the right note of respectability for the venue. The knee-high wedge boots were a good compromise between elegance, warmth, and walkability. The length and looseness of the skirt was ideal for bowling in.

Once we were safely past security, I felt like it would be a great idea to cut loose and project a more fun-loving image! So underneath my boots, I wore my snowflake knee socks! I was really delighted when I realized how well they worked with the look. In the end, I met all my criteria and even managed to work in a surprise element of fun!

The bowling shoes just happened to perfectly match my outfit!

The bowling party, unfortunately, wasn't quite such a success. It turned out not to actually be in the White House, but the Executive Office Building next door. The bowling alley ball return was broken, so only three people in our group got to throw a ball before it jammed up permanently. At least I got a fun photo shoot out of the misadventure.

Bonus picture!

The bowling party was the second of two holiday parties this week. For the first, which did not involve any prestigious government buildings, I felt safe wearing a more casual and colorful outfit. Here it is!

Sweater / boots

 

So, I needed to get that hideous picture of me in curlers and pajamas off the top of my blog, and what better way to do it than with a pair of exciting new boots?

 

I've been seeing a lot of sweater cuffs on boots this year, and I'm here for it! When it comes to boots, the fluffier and cozier the better! Usually the sweater portion comprises a thick knit band that just peeks over the top of the boot. I've never seen a boot where the entire shaft was a sweater...until now!

These boots, at 14 dollars from Swap.com, are one of the more expensive pairs of secondhand shoes I've bought in a while, but I figure a warm, ornamental boot that goes all the way up the calf is worth its weight in...uhh...leather and acrylic! I didn't know they were real leather when I bought them, but they are, which means they'll have a much longer lifespan than synthetics and will probably be a great investment.

As a bonus, they even have a swath that looks like zebra print, which, among other animal prints, has been all the rage this year! I'm always excited when the un-trendy, anachronistic clothes I shamelessly wear happen to hit a couple of modern notes.

Naturally, I wore my sweater boots with a sweater sweater! Although my favorite part of the outfit was naturally the footwear, one of my colleagues stopped me in the hallway to admire my necklace, so altogether, I guess today's look was a success!

Tatterday

Yesterday morning, I awoke to the sound of my dog tearing my bedside slippers to bits. My dog tears a lot of things to bits, so I couldn't pretend to be surprised that my slippers were the latest victim. I couldn't even really be mad, because those slippers, in the year that I'd owned them, had uglified to the point where I was just looking for an excuse to replace them. Thanks, Kodiak, for giving me the reason I needed. I set the slippers aside, got dressed, and vowed to clean up the mess he'd made of them when I got home.

Then, I went to work. And started thinking.

Up until that point, I thought I knew what I was going to wear for the last day of my Week of Wordplay Fashion Challenge. I actually had two options, of which I was planning to pick one at the last minute, depending on whether I went out or stayed home on Saturday. But on Friday afternoon, it suddenly occurred to me that the stay-home option didn't quite match the pattern of all the other words in the series. The other days had all been pronounced almost, but never exactly the same as the actual word. Here I might replace a vowel sound with a slightly different vowel sound, or there I might replace a consonant with a similar one.... But never had I used a perfect homophone, and I wasn't about to start now! That meant my original candidate for a lazy Saturday's theme ("Sadderday,") was too identical to the actual word for my strict rule-making conscience to abide.

"Sadderday," in case you were wondering, would have just been my usual homebody uniform of mismatched loungewear, last night's makeup, and unkempt hair—in other words, a pretty sad image. What I came up with for a replacement, though, was pretty much the same, but even sadder: Tatterday! Not only would I wear clothes that are mismatched and sloppy, I'd wear clothes that are downright tattered! Starting, of course, with my chewed-to-pieces unicorn slippers.

For the rest of the outfit, I used my flannel cat pajamas. These duds, probably almost 20 years old by this point, have definitely seen better days. Last year, a huge rip opened up in the back of the left shoulder. I thought they were a goner, but I couldn't bear to throw away such a historical artifact when the rest of them was still perfectly serviceable! Instead, I removed the front pocket and used it as a patch, attaching a scrap of it to the inside of the hole and sewing over both layers with a reinforcing grid of stitches.

Unless you're looking closely, you'd never know that this PJ top was once in veritable tatters.

By now you must have guessed that I did, indeed, stay home today (I actually have plans to go out for Repeal Day in the evening, but I could not think of a way to work that into my weekly theme, and besides, by then the day will be almost over!). But you're probably wondering what the theme would have been if I had actually decided to get dressed. Well, in that case, I would have gone with "Caturday"—which, conveniently, works with these cat pajamas as well. Two Saturday themes in one outfit! I truly outdo myself!

And with that, my Fashion Challenge is over, and none too soon! As much as I enjoy a good daily test of my fashion mojo, I'm a bit tired and ready for a break. You know what they say, "Seven days of puns make one weak!"

Flyday

 

Friday has thus far been the hardest day of the week to get a clever name for. While all the other days boasted multiple possibilities, there was only one variation on "Fri" that made even a slight amount of sense for my clothing collection: "Fly."

Back in July, when I came up with "Flyday", I had no shortage of aerial creatures in my wardrobe, with huge flocks of bird dresses and bee sandals, so I had infinite possibilities for a flight-themed outfit!

Now that it's winter (in weather, if not in scientific fact), my clothing collection sings a much sadder tune, with not a single winged animal in sight. Sure, there are other things that fly – Superman, kites, airplanes, UFO's, boomerangs, dandelion fluff, clouds, the Fickle Finger of Fate...but I don't have any of those on my clothing either! In order to make today's outfit, I had to dig around in my "Transitional" clothing storage tote until I found something with wings. The first suitable garment I uncovered was my pink butterfly poncho. Not a bad choice, considering I had wanted to blog about it last season but never got the chance.

This poncho was the second of two that I had gotten at the same time and needed to improve upon with a little bit of stitchery. Just like the first one, I cut the neck hole larger and finished it with some lace hem tape. Unlike that one, I decided to make the neck opening perfectly circular instead of oval, which accidentally made it much too big! To fix it, I pinched together two points on its perimeter and sewed them together. The resulting loop of excess fabric can be tucked to the inside, or folded over on the outside and secured with a pin—a convenient way to add another butterfly to an outfit! Sadly, my antique butterfly brooch lost a wing around 11 this morning, turning what had been the focal point of my top into a shabby embarrassment.

I thought this was a misfortune, but it actually enabled me to meet the theme in a more metaphorical way, as it forced me to make some adjustments to my look "on the fly." Since I could no longer close my poncho with a cute butterfly pin, I used a safety pin hidden on the back side. This left more room for butterfly jewelry, so I traded my tiny stud earrings for some huge silver butterfly danglers (I'd brought them to work with me just in case). I always feel happier when wearing statement earrings, so the day was not a total loss.

The theme was "Flyday," not "Butterflyday," so I kind of wanted to include other things that fly instead of just sticking to Lepidoptera. But I played around with some bird jewelry and found that the total effect of so many barely related animals looked more like a "Flying Circus" than any cohesive unit. Even adding too many butterflies launched me into tacky territory, so I limited myself to the aforementioned earrings and just one bracelet. I did make sure to wear pants with a fly, so I guess that counts for something!

A final challenge: while trying on the poncho last night, I quickly realized that it was no match for the dry air of December. It grew more and more staticky with each passing minute. Since I had a whole night before I needed to wear it and was confident it would dry quickly, I soaked it in a bowl of water mixed with hair conditioner, then laid it out to dry on the floor. That did seem to help somewhat with the static, but I still had to spray it liberally with water throughout the day, to keep it from clinging to my clothes. I feel safe to say that, unless you're in a Fashion Challenge, you should save the chiffon for summer!

Fursday

Ah, the theme that made me push this whole Fashion Challenge back by half a year—it's Fursday!

Obviously, you can't have a Fursday without fur, and you'd be crazy to wear fur in the summer. So, after coming up with the theme no later than July, I bided my time, ruminating for months about exactly what furry pieces I would wear when that distant Thursday finally rolled around.

As luck would have it, the furry piece of my dreams practically fell into my lap on my most recent Swap.com [referral link] run. I finally found one of those faux-fur vests that I'd been coveting for so long that I'd basically given up on the idea. This one was not quite as shaggy as the original inspiration, but it was only $3.60, and since I knew I'd be able to use it for this upcoming themed outfit, it seemed a sensible enough investment.

As even more luck would have it, the faux fur on the vest happened to very nicely complement a pair of fur-lined boots I have in my collection. I never loved these boots as much as I thought I would when I bought them, and since I acquired quite a few pairs of brown boots over the past year, I was ready to kick these kicks to the curb. But not before they get to play their role as the second titular piece in my Fursday outfit!

The clothes I wore to complete my fur boots and vest were simple and unobtrusive. I wanted to go with colors that can naturally be found on animals' coats. Black was prohibited, as I've worn black pants almost every day this week, but dark brown worked, and the ivory sweater provided a nice pale contrast to the darker shades of the rest of my clothing.

The final touch in today's look has no fur itself, but does picture a furry animal. When I was looking around for mammal-themed jewelry, I was pretty astonished at how little I actually have. My collection is chock-full of birds, sea creatures of all types, and even the occasional arthropod...but the representation of fuzzy land mammals is almost nonexistent...and almost exclusively limited to cats. Last night I made a note to self, to scour eBay for new and exciting animal accessories, but in the meantime, I did find one unworn cloisonné pendant in the patchwork form of (of course!) a cat.

Weddingsday

It's finally here, the concept that started it all! It was earlier this summer (May 22, to be exact,) when it occurred to me that "Weddin'sday," would be a splendid punny title for a blog post. Before long, I had constructed the bones of an outfit to go with the theme, and before much longer, I had realized that a whole week of day-name homophones would make for a fun Fashion Challenge! One of the homophones I had devised would work much better with winter clothes (telling you why would spoil the surprise, since it's coming up tomorrow!), so I actually postponed the challenge for several months, refining my ideas until I'd come up with the multi-day masterpiece you're in the middle of witnessing!

But it all began with a simple lace dress. I've been searching for a pure white dress for ages (just in case I ever get invited to an all-white party, which is my dream), but they're apparently hard to come by—and more so when you insist on your dress being an appropriate length for work (because if I never get invited to an all-white party, which I probably won't, I still want to be able to wear the dress somewhere!). When I saw this dress on eBay, I thought I'd found the one. Unfortunately, a trick of photography made me think it was much longer than it actually was—when it arrived, I could see I was never going to be able to wear this dress in the office unless I put pants under it.

So put pants under it I did! With a white lace dress on top and black pants on the bottom, I looked like I was trying to be both a bride and a groom at the same time. That was a rather bizarre notion, and I ran with it!

I wore a black blazer (er, "suit jacket") and ornamented my lapel with a floral brooch (we'll call that a "boutonnière"). I wore off-white lace bridal shoes, which were just a tad darker than the dress. I topped off my hair with a white headband (about as close as I can get to a veil at work without raising eyebrows) and my ears with blue chandeliearrings. Nothing particularly nuptial about those, but I just really didn't want to repeat my austere ears of yesterday! In any case, they can count as my "something blue."

 

 

This Fashion Challenge would not exist if it weren't for Weddingsday, but I don't feel this outfit is my best showing. I think the real winners of this week are going to be tomorrow and Friday, so let's just say I'm glad the wedding is over and it's time for the honeymoon to begin!