Clovember: Casual boywatch outfits
Got some message from Livejournal to say that my last post had been viewed by so many people it had made the top 200 list! Bizarre. That seems very unlikely to me (to the best of my knowledge, only a fraction of my Friends list are still active on LJ, and I can't think why people who've never heard of me out in LJ land would discover and come flocking to that post), but hey. It does remind me that I've long wanted to set up a style blog, and while I currently have close to no time, I have, finally, passed the point where I wasn't feeling psychologically robust enough to put up photos of myself online.
I am, however, mildly worried that I've set the sartorial bar a bit high for myself so far this Clovember. I do tend to dress with more care when I know I'll be posting my outfit, but I'm not always garmenting it up in heels and swirly skirts. See here some casual sloshing-about-with-small-children wear!
I've more or less thrown in the towel on proper jeans with heavy denim and minimal stretch. Skinny jeans of that description don't seem to flatter me nearly as much as stretchy jeans-style denim leggings, so I figure I might as well be comfortable. These are Levis. Levis do seem to work on me more often than other brands, possibly because my body struck a deal with them in the 90s when they were the undisputed Denim King (I buy your brand, you cut them to work on me for the next few decades, OK?). The white T-shirt is Talbots, which does almost everything in petite sizing. Given the money I spend on alterations, clothes that fit without them are almost worth paying the currency conversion mark-up and postage from the US (though less and less so as the Australian dollar plummets). The waterfall cardigan in its friendly sugar brown is, in fact, Brown Sugar, who sometimes have interesting stuff, albeit in sizing which needs quite a bit of reconstruction to work on someone my height.
Then there's this:
Same jeans with Western-style belt bought in the US somewhere (home of the Western!), knee-high and rather pricy La Canadienne block heeled boots I bought through Zappos because they kindly provide details about shaft height and width on their website (in the last ten years, most knee high boots have become too tall and loose around the calves for me), plus one of my small collection of checked shirts (Summer Weight Category). I do love a checked shirt. In fact, I have something of a penchant for the Urban Cowgirl look, and can be tempted further down this road into the world of cowboy boots and bandanas with little provocation. I draw the line at cowboy hats, though. Hats on me need to be big at the crown (berets, newsboy caps, broad-brimmed hats with scarves tied around them to bulk them up); anything that's too narrow around the head makes my face look weirdly pear-shaped and bottom-heavy.
Last of all, here is what I'm wearing today, for cheery but not particularly glamorous activities that include caring for two small children, inspecting a possible investment property (on which more another time) and the writers' meeting due to start any minute:
Yes, the fern-print black trapeze T-shirt returns, this time with an older pair of shorts that fit less well than my recent purchases but match the fern quite well. You can't really see the hat (with matching scarf tied around to bulk up the crown, as described above) or earrings in the main shot, so have a close-up with hair pushed back:
Hmm. Glancing around at the usual grimy shambles of my house, I think some hasty pre-writers' meeting tidying and cleaning is in order. 'Til tomorrow, Clovemberists!
I am, however, mildly worried that I've set the sartorial bar a bit high for myself so far this Clovember. I do tend to dress with more care when I know I'll be posting my outfit, but I'm not always garmenting it up in heels and swirly skirts. See here some casual sloshing-about-with-small-children wear!
I've more or less thrown in the towel on proper jeans with heavy denim and minimal stretch. Skinny jeans of that description don't seem to flatter me nearly as much as stretchy jeans-style denim leggings, so I figure I might as well be comfortable. These are Levis. Levis do seem to work on me more often than other brands, possibly because my body struck a deal with them in the 90s when they were the undisputed Denim King (I buy your brand, you cut them to work on me for the next few decades, OK?). The white T-shirt is Talbots, which does almost everything in petite sizing. Given the money I spend on alterations, clothes that fit without them are almost worth paying the currency conversion mark-up and postage from the US (though less and less so as the Australian dollar plummets). The waterfall cardigan in its friendly sugar brown is, in fact, Brown Sugar, who sometimes have interesting stuff, albeit in sizing which needs quite a bit of reconstruction to work on someone my height.
Then there's this:
Same jeans with Western-style belt bought in the US somewhere (home of the Western!), knee-high and rather pricy La Canadienne block heeled boots I bought through Zappos because they kindly provide details about shaft height and width on their website (in the last ten years, most knee high boots have become too tall and loose around the calves for me), plus one of my small collection of checked shirts (Summer Weight Category). I do love a checked shirt. In fact, I have something of a penchant for the Urban Cowgirl look, and can be tempted further down this road into the world of cowboy boots and bandanas with little provocation. I draw the line at cowboy hats, though. Hats on me need to be big at the crown (berets, newsboy caps, broad-brimmed hats with scarves tied around them to bulk them up); anything that's too narrow around the head makes my face look weirdly pear-shaped and bottom-heavy.
Last of all, here is what I'm wearing today, for cheery but not particularly glamorous activities that include caring for two small children, inspecting a possible investment property (on which more another time) and the writers' meeting due to start any minute:
Yes, the fern-print black trapeze T-shirt returns, this time with an older pair of shorts that fit less well than my recent purchases but match the fern quite well. You can't really see the hat (with matching scarf tied around to bulk up the crown, as described above) or earrings in the main shot, so have a close-up with hair pushed back:
Hmm. Glancing around at the usual grimy shambles of my house, I think some hasty pre-writers' meeting tidying and cleaning is in order. 'Til tomorrow, Clovemberists!