Outfit secrets, and blogger inspiration

Notice anything about this outfit?

How about this one?



Did you notice I am wearing trouser jeans? This pair from Gap, to be precise.

I haven't had a pair of trouser jeans since Forth & Towne, and those were more of a wide-leg. I am crazy about the look of these straight legs!

My husband wears jeans regularly to his business casual environment, even though they aren't allowed. His secret is that he wears a jacket and tie, or a very nice shirt and gorgeous tie, so everyone's attention is focused on the upper half of his body, and no one even notices that he is in jeans. It's worked perfectly for eleven years; hasn't been busted yet!

So that's what I did with the two outfits above, and no one noticed. I was only working in the office those days, no travel, so if I did get caught it would only be by the people in my department. Hee!

The second outfit, with the silver-grey tee under the striped blazer, was purely inspired by this fabulous look from Small Fabric of My Life. I wish my top had the same drapiness of hers, but overall it did work; I just have to be careful when I am posing that the stupid little zipper pull isn't sticking out through the top. UGH.



You can't see the poking zipper when the jacket is buttoned, but it was much too hot for that nonsense. :)

These dresses continue to get a workout this summer. They're so easy when it's too hot to wear clothes, but you know, you still have to wear clothes. :)



And now it's time to get ready for work again. Is it vacation soon?

Summertime Outfits

It's funny, I'm still wearing the same dang black and/or dark pants that I wear during the rest of the year, but I am doing my best to make them summer-ified.

For example, going with an all-white look on top.



Black Gap straight leg pants, brown peeptoe Clark shooties, white Loft tee and white Loft Outlet cascading cardigan.



What really made this work for me was the chunky smoky necklace. Can't believe it has lasted this long; I bought it at Loft a few years ago, and removed almost all of the extra crap on it so it is just the stones and gold.



I also have been scooping up as many summer blouses as I can find. My friend J and I bought this same pink-and-orange sheer blouse from Loft Outlet last month. I debated keeping it, but I just love the colors too much to give it up!



That is my Rebecca Minkoff bag that has been getting a tremendous workout since I got it in April. I've switched out to clutches or a casual crossbody on weekends, but the Minkoff is definitely my everyday bag this year. Love it.



(Mental note: watch that it doesn't buckle funny around my waist and make me look larger than I am.)

I am also in love with my Donald J Pliner bronze sandals (as seen in above shot). I got them last year at Nordstrom Rack; Hubby and I had gone downtown to celebrate our anniversary, and it was so abnormally hot (it was October, for cryin' out loud) I frantically picked them up on Michigan Avenue off-season. Now that the braid has softened and broken in, they are crazy comfortable, and I just adore their chunky chunkiness.





Another summer look I have been embracing is the striped blazer. I love the one I got from Lands End (on sale now in stores!) and have been wearing it at least once a week. It's great in a business casual office; we're supposed to be in business attire when we go to meetings but no one else in our new company does the same. So I often throw this on over a dressy top and pants and look more professionally dressed than anyone else in the room.

This outfit is more business casual.



(Yes, that is me taking a photo in my mirror. Horrors! But I really like this outfit and wasn't sure if I could get outside in time to get a shot.) I like that this is also kind of monochromatic: grey Gap straight pants, pale blue Loft tee, and navy striped blazer. The silver-gold pendant necklace added to the casual vibe, and the orange Clarks sandals gave it a contrasting pop of color.

Oh, hahahaha, right I did get outside but it was kind of a disaster. Very windy!





I perservered and got one good shot.



This outfit is remarkable only because I got busted by the neighbor just as the timer started going off. As evidenced by my panicked expression and fast approach to the camera. LOL!





Target top and aqua cardigan. I think I will try this one again with my new WHITE PANTS.



Gap finally made my beloved modern bootcuts in white. I snapped those babies up the moment I saw them. Wooohoooo! I haven't owned white pants in years; it's so hard to find the right ones, that aren't too sheer or too tight or too cheap. I definitely like these!



The top is also Loft from last year (boy, I did not realize how many of those I have!!) and I've never quite been able to find the right bottom to bring out the lovely snakeskin print of it. Now I realize it just needed some white pants. :)



You may have noticed in several of the above shots that I have a lot of bracelets on. I tend to wear them more in the summer, which is kind of counter-intuitive. They get warm on the arm in hot weather -- but in cold weather, I'm more bundled up and the metal gets too cold!

This was just this Friday. A hot pink Old Navy top, new navy Gap modern bootcuts, olive wedge Clark sandals, an arm of bracelets, and a new long silver pendant necklace I picked up at Loft Outlet on my shopping trip with J. (See what I mean about needing the pendant to be longer than the boob shelf, J? This way it doesn't bounce when I walk.)

I also tried Angie's suggestion of half-tucking the top, and I think I liked it. 



Heh, and here is a perfect example of the striped blazer raising the level of the outfit. It was too hot to put on outside, but I sure wore it for my meeting that day!




So that is what I have been wearing so far this summer. Does it spark any ideas for you? Any suggestions you have for me?

Heh, now that I am looking at this, I also realize it is time to look at my calendar. Methinks I am due for a haircut!

Where did this week go?

Is it just me, or somewhere around late Wednesday, Thursday do we enter some kind of sci-fi time tunnel and pop out on Saturday morning, rubbing our eyes and all confused about how we got here?

Ok, just me.

I always have such good intentions about the end of the week, where I think I am going to catch up on appointments I need to make, comment on all the blogs I have saved in my Firefox tabs throughout the week, maybe even make one last recipe on my list (since we're usually tired of my Sunday foods by then). But then chaos hits, usually at work, and on Friday morning I am reading Helen's and Shelley's regular Friday posts and wondering why my plans have been laid waste and I am disheveled and disorganized.

The good news is, at least I looked good on those days!



I ran out of ideas for the clothes from my sister, but I decided it was high time to pull out some winter favorites and enjoy them. I'm not going to a lot of meeting these days, so it's hard for me to be inspired enough to go for the dressier side of business casual when I am at my desk all day. So my pretty dresses and skirts are getting forgotten. Until Thursday, when I wore this.

The dress is my lovely ponte knit from Nordstrom with the lace pattern. It's fitting a little looser these days, HURRAY. I returned to my old foolproof formula for dressing and added a long cardigan; it's not quite a boyfriend style but it covers my dupa nicely. Black Target tights and my mushroom platform stretch boots from Franco Sarto finished the outfit.

It made me happy.

Also making me happy is my new office; I have added lamps all over it instead of using the fluorescent overheads, and while it still needs one more light so it doesn't feel too dark, it's so soothing and quiet it makes the stress flying out of my inbox in my computer more manageable. I am  waiting for the maintenance person to come hang all my boards and art and then I will take photos for everyone.

What made you happy this week?

Optical Illusion

I don't have much to say about this one, I just really liked this outfit from Wednesday.



On the days that I've been skipping (see: Tuesday), my outfits have pretty much been like the one above: straight-leg pant, long cardigan, heeled bootie, layering top and either a long pendant necklace or a scarf. It's a look that covers all the parts I want covered, and gives the optical illusion of making me look leaner than I am right now.

In contrast, we have the outfit I wore on Thursday.



I finally managed to wear the button-down under a dress! (Hrm, the collar appears be tucked under more than it should have been.) I've worn this dress before, but most of the pattern was covered up under a cardigan. I am really in love with the pattern -- up close, the top part makes my shoulder line look stronger than it is -- but looking at the whole thing like gives me pause. Maybe that wasn't the right belt?



On the plus side, it had some really nice flow, and I loved the grey tights and black Vince Camuto boots with it. On the minus side, it is not nearly as slimming as Wednesday's grey pants and gold cardigan combo.

I am trying to make my peace with that -- do all outfits need to be optical illusions, or can I live with the fact that sometimes I just look heavy? I don't know the answer. I see other bloggers wearing their curves and shapes with pride, and I am torn between envying them their freedom, and silently re-dressing them so they look slimmer in the camera. ("Oh, that would be perfect if you lost the belt!") It's a vicious circle; as confident as I am about who I am, I feel more comfortable in my clothes when I think I am fooling the world in an optical illusion outfit. Then I feel bad for copping out like that, that I should be proud of myself no matter what size I am. But I'm not, and I don't want to be this size. So I change back into an optical illusion outfit, and I stop beating myself up.

See what I mean by a vicious circle? Oh, the terrible things we do to ourselves with negative self-talk sometimes!

Anyway, I worked another optical illusion to my advantage yesterday. This was dinner:




We ordered salads and pizza, our weekly too-tired-to-cook meal.  (How do I know it's weekly? The delivery guy complimented the way we redecorated the living room. He has been to our house enough times that he noticed the change. Yep!) So I dumped the salad out of the container and put in a nice big bowl, and I put the pizza on a smaller plate. And it worked; I ate the half the amount of pizza I normally would!

It also occurred that I probably need to stop fighting the weekly pizza ritual so much, and find ways to work it into the Foodstyle so it is a regular indulgence instead. Repeating the trick above will be a good start, and replacing the salad with a healthier one will be a second. I don't like their salad anyway. I bet if I mix up a bag of chopped lettuce and veggies the day before, when I have cooking energy, I could dump it into a bowl just like I would if I bought the bag at the store. Hmmm, that would work!

What tricks do you have for including unbreakable habits into your meals? Any optical illusion outfits you like to wear?

A Working Woman's Guide to Leggings

(My favorite outfit of all time.)

My friend J asked me to do a primer about leggings in the workplace. It took me a long time to warm to the idea of leggings at work, and there are only a few circumstances where they are appropriate, but it is possible to wear them in the office, provided you use a little discretion and grace.

Caveat: all of this depends on what kind of office dress code you have. Mine is business casual, and when we are in the office at our desks, it tends to be on the looser end of business casual. When we travel out to the sites or for meetings, we step it up a notch, and for exec-level meetings, it's a suit.

Here are the guideleines I use for leggings:
1. Never ever wear them at a executive-level business meeting.  Just, don't.
2. Cropped leggings are a possibility in the summer, but I have only worn them when I knew I was doing something before or after work that required them. Otherwise they just look goofy.




3.  Long leggings are best, in dark colors. I have black and brown.




4. Wear them with a dress. They say they can be worn with tunics, but not to work. I've tried, and it just didn't look right.



5. Dresses that are too-short otherwise can get a new life when you pair them with leggings, but a regular length dress is best. The idea is to wear them almost like tights before it's cold enough for tights.



6. Wear them with flats, or sandals in the summer. It's the really the best way to wear flats with dresses without looking frumpy.



7. You can wear them tucked into boots, which I have done, but I don't see the point. Why didn't I just wear tights? To me, leggings are seasonal: spring and fall, when the weather is just between tights and bare-legged temperatures. Coincidentally, that's also (ballet) flats weather!




8. My favorite look is monochromatic. I think it's because there's that break at the ankle where skin shows again, so it's not the same as head-to-toe black in tights and boots.



9. Contrast is okay, but tricky. Angie at YLF said once to pull in that darker color up top somewhere in the outfit, and that makes a lot of sense. See? The left has that repeating color, the right doesn't.




10. Don't be afraid of patterns on top, especially if you use rule #9. The left outfit is missing dark on top, the one on the right has better color flow all the way down.



I hope this was helpful to you! Are there any tips that you use for leggings in the office that I may have missed? Do you have an office where they can be worn?

Angie has posted about leggings many times over the last couple of years. If my guidelines are too strict for your office, check out what she has had to say!

Team Straight Leg

Follow-up on my last post:
1. Hurray for the resounding approval of my new bag! As you will soon see, it has already been put into rotation, so I guess it's a keeper. :)
2. I am still laughing at RoseAG's comment: Isn't that gunmetal jacket the one with documented color-coordination issues? Ha! Spoken like a true fellow IT project nerd. :) And yes, yes it is. I should know better by now, but I keep trying with that one!

 Monday was rather a boring day, sartorial-wise. I did some closet rearranging, and am making a concerted effort to remix my new pieces with my older ones as much as possible. I feel like this summer it was all new, new, new, probably because it was all new dresses and my awesome sandal collection. This season I'm trying for more of a balanced approach. For now.



I am officially in love with this cozy knit long sweater from Old Navy. I remixed the white sleeveless tank with the bow, also from Old Navy, but this time swapped in a black stretch belt instead of the self-belt. The grey pants are Ashley Stewart, which I bought last spring but never really cottoned to, and the shoes are my grey tweed Ann Taylor Outlet flats.

I like being able to work in rarely-worn pieces like the pants and shoes, and I love when they work together.




I think I need to re-evaluate the hem on those pants, though. I'd rather be able to wear them with heels than flats. Hmm.

The best part of the outfit, of course, was the new Coach bag!








Yeah, it's a keeper.

Tuesday was another remix, and the debut of my new True Straight Leg pants from Gap. I wish I could wear these pants every day. Oh. My. God.




This was another version of a cream top (my Lauren Conrad tee with embellished horizontal lines) with the cream Gap sweater, then adding a sweet pink and brown floral infinity scarf (a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law) to break it up at my face. The shoes are brown suede BOC heeled clogs from DSW, a favorite find from last fall and available at DSW again this year. I guess clogs aren't totally done yet!

But the real star of the outfit are these new pants. Angie asked yesterday if readers were Team Wide Leg or Team Bootcut, and my answer is that I am Team Straight Leg. It is hands-down the style that looks best on my body shape. I'm not a small woman, in any way, and my legs are my best asset; the larger I get, the more pronounced my pear shape gets at my hips, but then it quickly thins out from my knee down. So a bootcut tends to look like a mermaid-shape on me, and makes my hips even bigger. And a wide leg...well, it looks like Monday's shots. Kind of shapeless and everything is the same size as my thighs and hips. Not my best look.

Skinnies, too, pose their own problems; their streamlined shape is actually too pronounced for my legs, and I look like an ice cream cone. But straight legs have all the virtues of a skinny (highlights my lower legs) but in a less pronounced way.







Truthfully, all of my "skinnies" are really straight legs: the NYDJ ponte pants, my old Kut from the Cloth jeans, etc. But these new ones are really the best of the bunch. The fabric is a great heavy stretch, which keeps its shape but still has some nice give to it. They feel exactly like Banana Republic's Martin Fit pants did a couple of years ago. I am IN LOVE.

Lastly, in case you were worried I have been going way too neutral lately:



I am still me!