Skip to main content

Finding My Inner School Teacher

I did not intend to come off looking like a school teacher, or, for that matter, a student. Yet, after looking at my outfit, that's all I can think about. The geometric print on the ModCloth dress with the deep shade of blue did not help matters. Bright yellow colors can also be associated with school buses and number 2 pencils. I'm sure all of that combined together, helped to make me look like a grade school TA.



Not that I mind that look. In fact I think it made me look festive at today's holiday brunch.



This all started because I wanted to wear the cool vintage sweater I bought in Shimokitazawa while I was living in Japan. Shimoks, for short, is hipster central; there are underground record stores, closet-sized art galleries, and vintage clothing stores galore. This sweater was such a good buy because it has metal buttons, and actually closes. Really I fell in love with the pattern, which I know, for some, can be hard to match with.



A year later, after I came back from Japan, I bought this geometric dress from Modcloth. The dress by itself is very flattering. However, today was a tepid 19 degrees. Naturally I thought the sweater and dress paired with a long sleeve yellow shirt would go perfectly. Now the outfit matches, and let me just say I regret none of my fashion choices (not even that time in elementary school, when I went through a t-shirt and jeans all-day-every-day phase). Yet, this outfit may have been too matchy-matchy.   



Matchy-matchy is a word I use to describe when things look to similar, when there's no variable in color for your eyes to follow. Sometimes we just want a little of the unexpected thrown into our daily mix of the expected.



Does that mean this outfit doesn't look good? No. It just might not be something I'd want to wear everyday. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Floral Dress with Doc Martens

There’s nothing more fun than mixing and matching different styles! A summer trend I’ve seen from Autum Rain (@autumrainn) and other fashion bloggers is pairing a floral summer dress with Doc Marten boots. It’s a harmonious mix of sweet and tough, punk and girly. Today I’m going to walk you through the ups and downs of wearing an outfit like this around town. I actually wear my black Doc Marten boots often, even to work. A gift from my mother who was supportive of my punk-goth phase, I’ve worn these Doc Martens since I was twelve, making them officially twelve years old today. Since I first got them, these boots have gone through many fashion trends; paired with skinny jeans and a black shirt, they made the perfect emo outfit I wore in middle school; at sixteen I graduated to wearing them with floral skirts and black tights for a retro-grunge look; and now they are great for managing Boston’s snow covered, cobblestone streets. For the summer, most people don’...

Wearing a Maxi Dress When You're Short

Don't let the platform sandals fool you, I'm only 5 feet and 4 inches tall. In America, that seems like an average height for a woman. But when I shop I often have to wear petites. This is especially true now that I shop at higher-end stores whose target audience is young, working women. For example, I can't wear Anthropologie's regular sized clothes, even if they are my usual size. Then there's all those rules about wearing maxi skirts and dresses when you're short. You've heard the rules. "Wearing a maxi dress will make you look even shorter," they say. I also once heard someone say never mix patterns, but that rule has long since been revoked. Now I think it's time to make a motion to end this "no maxi dresses for short people" rule. I love maxi skirts and dresses, which is why I broke down and bought this off-white maxi dress from Clad and Cloth after months of seeing the dress in my Instagram feed. The en...

An Outfit that Embodies Fall

You probably think of high-waisted, white jeans as the perfect summer pant, easy to match with any floral top. But the great thing about white pants, is they're also great for the winter. Think of all those Fall L.A. vibes, where it gets chilly at night, but the sun stays strong in the afternoon. Now, imagine those pants with a comfy, cable-knit sweater. Voila! You've got an unconventional fall/winter outfit. The first time I wore this outfit to work, my boss—a New York socialite—told me, "you look like the type of person who vacations in the same spots as Audrey Hepburn." Of course, I took that to mean she was calling me cosmopolitan, classy, and pretty, aka Audrey Hepburn. However, I think what my boss was ultimately hinting at was that anyone who feels comfortable enough to rock white when it's 30 degrees outside, is a fashion risk taker. Taking risks pays off. I would be lying, if I said this outfit didn't take some careful planning. The sweate...