Bridge

You've seen a very similar outfit to this one before, but I had to post it again to show you this coat, which has been a lifesaver during our cold, rainy spring. What's interesting about this jacket is that although I bought it in 2005 (I remember because my sister was visiting at the time and helped me pick it out), it seems to get more and more current as the years go by. The bold, graphic floral print and mix of colors seem very fresh to me, and I've worn it a ton over the last couple of months. If I saw it in a store today I'd surely buy it all over again.

The jacket helped to brighten up this otherwise somber outfit. The colors blended perfectly with the deep purple pants, and helped to bridge the pale pink cardigan with the darker pieces. I hated having to take it off once I got into my office.

Jacket: Liquid
Cardigan: Anthropologie
Tunic: Audrey Cantwell
Pants: Rag & Bone
Shoes: John Fluevog
Jewelry: Metal Pointu

Tough but Sweet

Lately I've been getting a lot of use out of this beautiful leather jacket. Its open front and cropped length make it not quite winter-worthy, but it's the perfect outer layer for spring and all the way through fall in the mild San Francisco climate. I loved the way it looked over these light chiffon layers; it added just the right amount of toughness to the soft, feminine look.

Dress: Fremont
Skirt: Anthropologie
Boots: Timberland Boot Co.
Jacket: Skin Graft

Flashy

With this outfit I wanted to put together something that had sort of a 50's vibe. I thought the cuffed jeans were a good place to start, and the cropped cardigan, beret, and scarf were the perfect finishing touches. Not too overt, but it had the feel I was going for. My outerwear was my navy pickstitch coat from Tulle. As you may remember from way back in my Buyer's Remorse series, this coat was on my 'specific rules' list for quite some time: I was only allowed to buy another coat if it was a navy one. I found this one on a crazy sale for something like 12 bucks, and it's a great basic coat for mild winter days.

What's that on my hand, you ask? Oh, of course it's my Wendy Brandes for Frances swear rings! This outfit needed lots of flashy silver to give it some punch, and the rings fit the bill perfectly. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post, which spotlights the rings again and is the first installment in a brand new series I'm kicking off this year!


Cardigan: Old Navy
Striped hoodie: ??
Scarf: Banana Republic
Rings: Wendy Brandes
Jeans: Acne
Shoes: Tsubo
Coat: Tulle

Paddington Bear

Well, I'm back to the daily grind, and back to my regular office outfit posts. This one was inspired by a rainy day, as you can probably tell from the rain boots. Since the shiny boots have sort of a mod look to me, I chose this vintage 60's suit to wear with them, and added the hat so that I didn't have to worry about my hair going flat from the soggy weather.

As much as I love this multi-colored turtleneck sweater, I have concluded that no matter what I do, I will never be able to get that funky thrift store smell out of it. I've had it cleaned several times and have doused it with a vodka solution (which has worked for other items), but to no avail. I thought I had it licked the last time, but partway through the day I started to smell it again, and as soon as I got home the sweater went into the donation pile. So sad.

My featured outerwear is of course my red Tulle coat, which goes perfectly with the rain boots. For some reason I felt a little like Paddington Bear in this outfit, although I'm pretty sure his coat was blue and not red.




Suit: vintage
Sweater: thrifted
Belt: Red Dress Shoppe
Coat: Tulle
Boots: Aquatalia

Drop Waist

This is what happens when I let my outfit posts get ridiculously out of order -- I end up with the same garment appearing within just a few days of the last time it showed up. The horror! Actually, it's okay, because perhaps this will prove to Mark's dad that I actually don't throw my clothes away after a single use. Though he's a brilliant astronomer, he is apparently completely bewildered by my wardrobe, since I appear to never wear the same thing twice. Harry, I assure you that neither does my closet defy the laws of physics, nor do I throw my clothes away after one wear. Behold, here's the same shirt I posted last week! But since you're a scientist and may require additional data before you're convinced, I submit for your consideration this further photographic evidence:


















I've worn this shirt many times, in fact, and in a number of different ways. It struck me while looking at these photos that it has yet to appear without something layered over it; this is really due to the shirt itself. Because of the long length and vertical stripes, it elongates my already long torso. And as I've mentioned many times before, I don't really like tucking shirts in. Thus, a contrasting layer on top lessens the impact of that long line of stripes and brings my body back into proportion without having to jam all that excess shirt length into my skirt or pants.




Today's featured outerwear is this brown drop waist wool coat that I bought in Venice several years ago. This coat is one of the few drop waist items I own, another being the tunic shown above. I find that it generally isn't a very flattering shape for my figure, managing to magically hide all my best features while simultaneously highlighting the worst ones. But I think with both these items it's the shaping, the asymmetry, and the dense, structured fabrics that make this hard-to-wear shape work.


Tunic: Promod
Shirt: Promod
Skirt: F21
Tights: MP
Shoes: Born
Coat: some shop in Venice

Highly Functional

Today's featured outerwear is a coat you haven't seen before. It was custom made for me by designer Shawna Hoffman, who also made my fabulous convertible flight suit. This jacket also features Shawna's imaginative and highly functional approach to clothing design: the sleeves come off, and the two bottom tiers of the jacket can be removed for many different lengths and configurations. I originally saw this jacket at Ceiba Records on Haight Street, but it was in a size way too small for me. Assuming that several had been made, I asked about it over at Five and Diamond, but they told me that the one I saw was just a sample and the only one in existence, but that I could have one made to order. Months later, it was finally mine, and the fit is just perfect. There's also a leather version of this coat, but somehow I thought the dark denim was more unique. The back of the coat has corset-style laces, allowing the fit to be adjusted all over.

With this outfit I tried the long-socks-over-jeans-tucked-into-short-boots look again, this time blending the jeans, socks, and boots in a long unbroken line of indigo blue. On the top I layered a sheer floral over my All Saints mottled argyle tunic, and glammed up the whole thing with a sequined scarf. Overall the colors were dark, but the blend of patterns and texture kept the outfit rich and interesting.

Tunic: All Saints
Sheer top: Noa Noa
Belt, scarf: Urban Outfitters
Jeans: Joe's
Socks: Sock Dreams
Boots: Frye
Coat: Shawna Hoffman

Truly Toasty

For the next several days I'll be featuring the outerwear that I've been pairing with my outfits, since the weather has gotten really chilly here and coats and jackets have been much more of a necessity than normal. Today it's this beautiful vintage coat, which I've actually shown before. It was really cold that day, so I wrapped myself in layers of cashmere, tulle, wool, and fur for a truly toasty ensemble.

This outfit was something I had been wanting to try: a winter white look. Now, I don't have the sort of complexion that looks good surrounded by lots of washed out colors; I have olive undertones in my skin and pale colors tend to make me look, well, dead. So I modified the look somewhat and added this light brown scarf around my neck; the color is soft enough that it doesn't ruin the harmony of the rest of the outfit, but at the same time it frames my face with a warmer color that gives it a little life.

The beautiful leather half vest was custom made for me by one of my favorite designers, Tiina from Attila Design. I knew it would make a great starting point for my winter white look , especially since the contrast topstitching was a perfect way to tie in the richer brown color that I knew I'd need. The vest also helps bring shape to this bulky cashmere sweater, which otherwise tends to hide my waist. In the end, none of the colors was really white at all, and no two colors matched; I thought this was a more interesting way to approach the washed out winter look.

Dress: Lady Language
Sweater: Anne Taylor
Vest: Attila Design
Tulle skirt: Noa Noa
Shoes: Tsubo; a gift from Sal
Coat: vintage (via eBay)