San Francisco: Bring A Sweater!

I've been doing a bit of shopping lately; it began in preparation for my trip to France, which I will actually be just returning from by the time this post goes live. At some point it got very hot in San Francisco (ok, "hot" being 85F), and I realized I was going to be traveling somewhere even hotter and didn't own even one pair of shorts that wasn't either 'working-around-the-house' or 'Burning Man.' And come to think of it, I also didn't own very many lightweight, short-sleeved tops that were suitable to wear without a cardigan or some other upper layer. After all, I live in a city where our motto could be, "San Francisco: Bring A Sweater!"

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with this beachy, sun-drenched t-shirt once it starts to get cold again (which is probably 2 weeks from now), but fuck it. Layering it up with a denim jacket and scarf doesn't look so bad, now does it?

Scarf: Ralph Lauren
Shirt: Chris & Carol
Jacket: Tulle (thrifted)
Pants: Michael Kors
Shoes: Steve Madden

Surprise

I've been waiting ages to wear this dress. I found it for $9 at the thrift store, brand new with tags, just as we were heading into winter. Since this color is really only suitable for warmer weather, it lurked in my closet packed away with all the rest of the summery stuff that I boxed up to make room for my sweaters and wool skirts. I had pretty much forgotten about it in fact, so it was a nice surprise to open up the box and find a brand new dress waiting for me.

Cardigan: Anthropologie
Necklace: Dana LeBlanc Designs
Dress: Calvin Klein
Shoes: BC Footwear
Bag: Coccinelle

A Whole New Look

It was really only a matter of time before I started digging up older outfits, swapping in a couple of items such as these fab new boots and jewelry, and calling it a whole new look. I've actually done this quite a bit lately, partly because I'm at a new job and nobody has seen any of my past outfits anyway, so why not recycle the best ones? And partly because as crazy as it sounds, I actually want to get to work in the mornings and therefore don't linger as long over what I'm going to wear. One of the real benefits of maintaining a daily wear blog for so long is that I can search the archives if I'm pressed for time and come up with an outfit in a snap.

And hey, if you haven't already done so, please consider becoming a backer for fabulous designer Stacy Lomman's fall line. After successfully funding her last Kickstarter campaign, Stacy put on a great runway show for her spring "Biohazard" line, and has since been named a finalist in the 2012 Rising Star Awards. Not one to let the grass grow under her feet, Stacy immediately set to work creating her next collection, called Modern World. Being a huge fan of mod myself, I simply cannot wait to see the new line. The project is more than halfway funded, and every little bit will help Stacy to reach the finish line.

Dress: Aryeh
Jacket: B. Bella
Boots: Brako
Jewelry: Metal Pointu

A Dress for Any Season

I've done shockingly little (for me, anyway) shopping in recent months, mainly because of the consecutive large expenses of throwing a big wedding party and then buying a house. Moreover, because I'm much busier at work I have a lot less time to poke around on the internet and inevitably find pretty things to buy. This is undoubtedly a good thing; at my previous job I often felt that I shopped mainly out of boredom, and waiting for a package to arrive was pretty much the only thing I looked forward to there.

This dress is one of the only items of clothing I've purchased since May or June. The pattern in particular really appealed to me, because it can work for any season depending on what I pair it with. Pinks and soft greens would make it great for spring and summer, while jewel tones or burgundy will work for fall and winter. For this outfit I added the mustard yellow cardigan and burgundy socks to give it a fall look, but left my legs bare because the weather is still pretty warm.


Dress: eShakti
Cardigan: Anthropologie
Belt: a gift from Mom
Boots: Bata
Bracelet: Leslie Danzis

Mixed Up

This was my "last day of work" outfit, which tells you just how old this picture is. I feel it's going to be a long time before I'm truly back in the swing of blogging and can post at my former pace. For now I'm just happy to be posting a couple times a week.

The last week at the old job brought glorious weather, which lasted all through my brief time off and the first weeks at the new job. The seasons are all mixed up here; after a cold, foggy summer we get most of our hot sunny days just before winter starts to set in. So just when I started to think I wouldn't be able to wear my sandals again until next year, the temperature spiked to the 80's and 90's and has mostly stayed that way except for a few days of some crazy rain. This is a great time of year to be a plant.

Dress: Desigual
Cardigan: Solemio
Shoes: Steve Madden
Bracelet: a gift from my sis

Resilient

Here's another black and yellow combo, this time with brown as the intervening color. The belt serves as the transition piece that makes the brown and black work together; note how the antique brass hardware on the belt is in essence a repetition of the brown. I often deploy brass accessories in place of a true brown.

The cords are still hanging in there, and have proven to be more resilient than I imagined. I'm still feeling pretty lazy with regard to putting together really creative outfits, so I've been defaulting to pants quite often. Having a casual, non-denim pair in my wardrobe allows me to add a little variety.


Black top: Asos
Scarf: Forever 21
Belt: Chico's, thrifted
Bracelet: Leslie Danzis
Cords: Marlowe
Shoes: Fly London

Bumble Bee

Just look at that sweet little puppy face, will you? Spencer decided to give me a good pose this time. He's doing really well; he's starting to settle into the household and learn the daily routine. He's still a handful when he gets in his rowdy moods, running all over the place and randomly grabbing all sorts of stuff he's not supposed to have, but once he settles down he sure is sweet and snuggly. Once his injured leg is healed up and we no longer have to carry him up and down 2 flights of stairs every time we need to take him out, he'll be a lot less work. In the meantime I'm seeing a noticeable improvement in muscle tone in my legs, so I guess it's not all bad. Carrying 40 pounds of puppy up and down stairs is a great workout.

I've decided that I love black and yellow together, even though it's sort of a taboo combination due to the association with bumble bees. But it occurred to me awhile back that there really isn't anything wrong with looking like a bee; in fact, bumble bees are pretty darned cute. As Katie pointed out, most bees aren't even yellow anyway. Nevertheless, the easiest way to avoid bee comparisons, should you wish to do so, is to add an intervening color to break up the black and yellow. Here, I've added the long white tunic to separate the yellow cardigan and black pants, and then splashed in a little purple and green with the scarf. Brown can also make a great intervening color, as the cords did in this outfit.

Note that in this outfit, where I have large solid expanses of black and yellow, I separated the two main pieces with the intervening color (though I threw the black belt in to integrate the two halves of the outfit). In general the larger the blocks of color, the more you'll want to separate them if you're working with a difficult combo. Unless, of course, you think it's perfectly fine to look like a bee.

For more on difficult color combinations, check out this post from Sal.

Tunic: Asos
Ponte knit pants: Club Monaco
Cardigan: Anthropologie
Scarf: vintage
Belt: Red Dress Shoppe
Shoes: BC Footwear
Bangles: Amrita Singh

Ho-Hum

This was one of my ho-hum outfits from when I was still sick (I'm feeling better now). I've noticed that when I'm sick I tend to wear pants more often, probably because it's less work than dealing with tights and slips and all that. If we lived somewhere hot I'm sure it would be just the opposite; throw on a sundress and some sandals, and you're good to go. Out here it's almost never warm enough for that, so pants are the easier option because there are no additional leg coverings that need to be selected.

At any rate it provided the impetus to wear these cords again, which as you may recall are down to their last few wears. A careful examination of the nap proved them to be still wearable for probably a few more times yet. Next time I hope it's actual inspiration, and not illness, that brings them out again.

Top: Max Studio
Cardigan: Anthropologie
Necklace: Foxy
Cords: Marlowe
Shoes: Art Shoes

Bare Legs Weather

This outfit came together perfectly in terms of colors and patterns, but wearing tights with this skirt was an utter failure. Sure, it looks good, but the skirt fabric sticks so readily to the tights that even with a slip underneath it was a huge pain to keep the skirt from riding up my legs when I walked. I adore this skirt, but it is definitely only suitable for bare legs weather. And bare legs weather is NOT what we are experiencing in SF right now.

This cardigan has proven to be one of those "how did I ever live without it?" kind of items. This outfit is the fourth time it's made an appearance on the blog, but since I bought it in May I've worn it many more times for casual weekend or after-work outfits.

Cardigan: Anthropologie
Top: Sisley
Skirt: Sisley
Necklace: Dana LeBlanc Designs
Bag: Coccinelle
Shoes: BCBGirls

What Was I Thinking?

I loved how this outfit looked, but holy crap was it uncomfortable! I hadn't worn these jeans in quite some time, and after a couple hours of wearing them I remembered why: they're way too tight. They were way too tight when I bought them, but I foolishly listened to the sales girl who told me they're supposed to fit this way. So sad; the jeans are adorable but they have to go. What was I thinking, buying pants that are a good 2 sizes too small?

Top: Mica
Cardigan: Anthropologie
Jeans: Dittos
Necklace: glass shop in Venice
Shoes: Bettye Muller

End of an Era

Over the weekend I attended a baby shower, which depressed me. Baby showers always depress me, because they make me think, "Oh, there goes another couple, crossing over to the other side where I'll rarely see or hear from them, and when I do we'll no longer have anything in common." The baby shower typically ends up being one of the last times that the child-free friends really get to spend time with the woman who's expecting. I'm sure sometimes friendships can thrive between people with children and those without, or at least that's what I've heard, but I've yet to experience it so far in my life. People that have kids seem to get sucked into a dimension where only other parents can enter; the child-free must go their own way and make new, child-free friends to fill the hole left by the ones they lost.

It isn't that I'm not happy for my friends, it's just that there exists a divide between the childed and the child-free that's hard to bridge once the baby comes along. This particular couple is pretty special, so if anyone can buck the trend they can, but nevertheless the bummed out feeling that set in after the shower has stuck with me these last couple days. It's sort of an end-of-an-era feeling.

This was not my baby-shower-attending outfit; that'll actually go up next week. This was just another attempt at looking as summery as I could given the chilly weather we were having.

Dress: Aryeh
Cardigan: S
Belt: Red Dress Shoppe
Boots: All Black
Babgles: Amrita Singh

Tomato Red

For awhile I considered dyeing this tunic, and I'm really glad I didn't. While it's not the most flattering shade for my skin tone, I don't think it's really as bad as I initially thought, and paired with the bright white and yellow I think the outfit worked really well. The white and yellow softened the impact of the tomato red so that I didn't end up looking washed out.

The jacket is one I recently tracked down on eBay, and I just love how great it looks with my navy blue bag. A cropped, white denim jacket had been on my thrift shopping list for awhile, but after several trips to Goodwill yielded no results, I thought to try online. This one set me back just $15 and is new as far as I can tell.

Jacket: Banana Republic
Scarf: vintage
Tunic: Manuela Roth (Argentina)
Jeans: Joe's
Shoes: BC Footwear
Bag: Michael Kors 

Evolution

This dress is so adorable, and yet so hard to wear. It occurred to me the other day that the full, bubble-hem skirt is most likely the reason, so I'm thinking of modifying it to give it a standard hem; I've previously done this with a bubble skirt and was very happy with the results. I think the dress will also be lengthened by an inch or two in the process, which should make it easier to wear with heels; right now it's just a smidge short for my comfort.

There's no denying that our weather lately has sucked; we've had wind, rain, clouds, and cold temperatures (OK, 50's and 60's, but still -- it's June, dammit!). Dressing in a non-wintry way has therefore been somewhat of a challenge. I'm glad this springy yellow cardigan made it into my wardrobe, because it's brightened up more than one layered-up, warm ensemble.

There was really no way around wearing tights with this outfit, it was just that cold and wet. I tried lighter colored tights, but somehow they didn't work, so I resorted to my  dark and somewhat gloomy argyles. And since the dress is short and exposes a lot of leg, the boots were really the only way to temper all that pattern. If the dress were a little longer I feel like I could've worn this outfit with pumps or flats. Hopefully the next stage of this dress's evolution will allow me to wear it in a more summery way.

Dress: All Saints
Cardigan: Anthropologie
Belt: Red Dress Shoppe
Necklace: from a vendor in Prague
Tights: Sock Dreams
Boots: All Black
Bag: Michael Kors
Bangles: Amrita Singh

Peggy Bundy

Recently I decided I wanted a pair of thick, ponte knit leggings to wear as pants; this revelation was brought about after I wore regular leggings under a thin and exceedingly short white dress and spent the day feeling somewhat exposed. I tracked these down at Westfield Mall, and they're perfect: they have a zipper and button fly, and real pockets. They are completely, 100% opaque. By any definition they're pants. And yet. That's right, I felt somewhat exposed.

Don't get me wrong, I love the way this outfit looked, and I'd certainly wear it again. But the form-fitting stretchy pants combined with sky-high heels made me feel a bit Peggy Bundy for my current comfort level. That's ok; comfort levels can be adjusted. But until I get used to these, I think I'll stick to wearing them with upper layers that are a little longer. In fact, the short white dress will be just the thing.

Speaking of Peggy Bundy, I have a good story about her. A couple of years ago Mark and I were in a shop on Haight Street looking at steampunk/Burning Man-style clothes; I was trying on a gorgeous but pricey vest and another shopper paused to tell me how great it looked on me. The shopper was none other than Katey Sagal, who of course played Peggy Bundy. Obviously, I bought the vest!

Cardigan, top: Anthropologie
Pants: Club Monaco
Shoes: Pour la Victoire
Bag: Michael Kors

In other news, I walked into the Michael Kors store while I was in the mall and fell head over heels for this gorgeous navy blue bag. Along with yet another bag that'll make its appearance in a couple days, that's 3 new ones this year. Normally I'm much more of a shoe gal than a bag gal, because few bags really move me the way shoes do; in fact, I've sometimes gone 2-3 years without buying a new bag. So when I see one that really rocks my world, I snap it up. 

Convergence

I just loved the way the soft cream, yellow and black of these platform sandals matched so perfectly with the pattern of this skirt. It was another one of those serendipitous wardrobe convergences; I didn't buy the shoes to go specifically with the skirt, but it happily worked out that way.

Blogger had some issues last week and seems to have eaten a bunch of comments, so I apologize if yours was deleted.


Top: F21
Skirt: unknown
Jewelry: Betsy Johnson
Shoes: Pour la Victoire

Formula

This outfit is sort of a repeat, as I've worn this dress/tights/shoes combo a couple times before, but the colors just go so well together that whenever I pull this dress out I'm stumped to come up with a better formula. Sometimes there's just no messing with a good thing.

Since the middle panel of this dress is a see-through lace mesh, I always need to cover the midriff in order to wear it to work. This time I used the blazer to cover most of it, and filled in the rest with the scarf. It was fairly cool that day, so the velvet blazer and tights kept me warm, while the sandals and bright colors made it seasonally appropriate.

The outdoor location is the patio just off our dining room (which really isn't a dining room so much as a hatmaking studio). You've actually seen this location before, but it was with the ugly blue building next door in the background. I much prefer this angle.

Dress: Betsey Johnson
Scarf: vintage
Blazer: Victoria M. Ortiz
Tights: Foot Traffic
Sandals: John Fluevog

Cabaret

I spotted this sequined blazer in the window of a local boutique while I was riding the bus, and knew it needed to be mine. I've looked at many a black sequined blazer over the last year or so, but they've all been a bit too cabaret for my comfort level; somehow the dark silver sequins work better for me as part of a daytime ensemble.

For this outfit I left the blazer open for a more casual look. It fastens at the center with a single button, which makes the front tails drape down softly to a single point in the middle. I think the relaxed structure of the blazer, which drapes rather than having any structured or boxy tailoring, also adds to its casual vibe. 


Blazer: B. Bella
Dress: Aryeh
Leggings: Foot Traffic
Shoes: Pour la Victoire

Mixing Metals

I figured out what it is that bugs me about this dress -- the straps are just a little too far apart for my narrow shoulders, so they keep falling down all damn day. The problem is totally fixable, so before I wear it next I'm going to make the necessary alterations. Less of an issue, but something I still notice, is the fact that the buckles and eyelets on the straps are silver finish, while the buttons are brass. Normally I don't mind mixing metals in the least, but on the same piece it looks a little off. Luckily I know someone who has lots of metal hardware at his disposal, so I suspect this can also be fixed without too much trouble.

Dress: Fanplusfriend Garden
Shirt: Forever 21
Boots: from Scoop in Copenhagen
Bag: Coccinelle
Bracelet: Wendy Mink