Tag: fashion

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Skirting Formal Keeping It Casual

This is more of a trick I use when I want to look put together, but at the same time casual. I love wearing a t-shirt under a blazer. Especially v-neck t-shirts as a nice shirt can really help you look put together. I think it gives a really casual vibe but if you're jacket is well tailored you can get away with it.

I also like wearing a t-shirt tucked into a pencil skirt.

Technically a t-shirt, even a v-neck, is not business casual. If people are sticklers it will be noticed and deemed unacceptable but I use best judgment when going this route. Business casual has sort of broadened though. And here in the US it is different from region to region. I am note sure how it is in other parts of the world, but I would guess that in the UK business casual would be a lot different than here in the States. Here it originally meant that business men could go without without a tie. But today, I think that offices obviously treat it very differently from that.

I love my Everlane shirts. I never put them in the dryer though. As far as fit, the U-neck shirts are TTS, but I found that I was more comfortable sizing up for the V-necks. Everlane has great customer service and I got hooked when I took advantage of their first-time buyer try-on program.If I recall they sent me a bunch of stuff to try on free for 3 days. But it may have changed since then. Now, hindsight being what it is, I would just take the plunge and buy a couple of shirts.

On most days my go-to outfit is a fitted blazer, tshirt, nice jeans and flat shoes that don't kill my feet.

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Me Casual /= You Casual

My co-workers all wear t-shirts jeans, yoga pants cardigans plus some casual footwear like trainers. Limited make up. A lot of people here just wear jeans all week long. Then only "dressing up" when they know somebody important is going to stop in that day.

This is not who I am.

I dress casual for me. And in a causal work environment that means in a manner that I feel comfortable with and am able to give my all.

Of course I don't wear heels at the lab, and footwear that doesn't leave me hurting at the end of the day is a must. I stay true to my style which is more dressed up that casual. That is to say I wear tailored trousers/culottes, shirts/blouses, and dresses that are a little less fitted/tailored.

I feel the need to dress up more to be taken seriously in my role.

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Transitory: High School Girl – College – Young Professional

Girls love to watch MissAlex for one simple reason (at least it is simple to me) she can rock even when she is wearing casual clothes. The answer is that these women spend hours getting prepped, turning and sucking in and bending, taking 100 photos, then filtering the good ones out. It's a full time job

When I moved from high school to college I realized that more than one thing was in transition. College is kind of the transition in fashion as well.

You get to go from high school girl to young woman in a few short years and you see yourself differently. Then one you finish you dress like the young working professional, all of this means you will be wearing different clothes.

Finding the right look — for me it comes down to three things — my body, material, and tailoring.

I realized that really fast fashion from shops like F21 and H&M, it just doesn't work for me any more — it is because of thin fabrics, lack of structure — but most importantly my body just didn't have the same perky, tight lines to make those clothes work. This is probably the biggest problem.

On top of that even if I could make them look good I have come to the realization that cheap materials look fine in the beginning and then after light use get stretched/shrunk out of shape, colors fade/dim, and just generally look "worn" after awhile. Okay, fast fashion I know what I am buying. But I am willing to pay attention to quality when I buy clothes and focus on better materials and quality.

Which is something that I had never done before. It is easy to fall into a pattern of unflattering sloppiness, even if that it is unintentional.

Back on to the topic of fashion bloggers, I actually prefer to look at models and seasonal lookbooks. I have my favorite brands and since it is a lookbook I know that they are models. For some reason it does not make me feel bad, nor do I try to keep up.

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Emily Gone Casual

After seven years watching Emily Gilmore wear elegant attire as she grew it is sort of a shift seeing her in normal every day clothing. In fact I would say as much as it is seriously revolutionary. And I am not sure that that is a good thing or not.

When I first saw her in casual clothing, I don't know, it bugged me. Which I felt was strange. Why would it?

I mean I get not wearing those suits that they put her in. For the majority of the show she always wore them, but still, there are at least a few steps in between them and t-shirt and jeans (I'm sadly in that category far too often). Why not dress down to slacks with a random blouse? That would work wouldn't it? Or if it absolutely has to be jeans then why not combine it with an fashionable cardigan?

For the most part though I am fine with it. ASP is being honest, and taking characters in new directions is part of that. I would find it worse when they chase cheap nostalgia as a means of drawing you in. I wasn't really worried that that would happen however. Once I stepped back. Let my personal issues die down I understood what ASP was doing. Emily is lost without Richard. She is no longer sure how to define herself and her clothes are a big part of that.

I see some people think it's too far away from what she used to wear, I was in that camp and I slip back in to it now and then, however, I saw it as something else: imitating Lorelai.

We've seen Emily lean on Lorelai when she doesn't have Richard – during his health scares during the original run – and I think this is more of the same thing. I had a love hate for those moments. And it is mostly love. But the emotions are there. They are so strong. Emily doesn't know who she is or how to dress and she looks to the closest person in her life, Lorelai, and what does she wear? Jeans and t-shirts. When you lose your husband of 50 years, that sudden change in your life is a like a full stop and casual clothing fits that change. So yes from a writing standpoint it makes total sense to me.

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What You Wear Defines Who You Are

I think growing up in a sunny warm state has made me see color and fashion differently. A lot of the places I have visited just got for some, jeans & t-shirts with basic colors. Or some darker shades of colors.

Here in San Diego you get a lot of vibrant colors of clothing. Though maybe not as much as places like Florida or the likes.

Yet, I still find it hard to find the right color of emerald.

Emerald green is so pretty.

But with greens it can be pretty tricky. It's really annoying the way that fashion industry gets fixated with a really narrow color palette. Because it is near impossible to find colors outside of that range.

It's just endless gutlessness of brands who are terrified to deviate away from what trend forecasters say that people want. How many pink shirts do I need? I'm so sick to death of blush/ pink.

I've never been into pink and I can just not buy pink things. But I'm so sick of seeing it and the fact that color options for clothes these days are cream, pink or black just makes me crazy.

I'm just bored of seeing insipid, boring colors everywhere and everyone thinking that they look so sophisticated and classic in boring colors that are going to date just like lime green and turquoise did.

Clearly this is an emotional topic for me.

One thing that I have begun doing, and this has been working well for me: I shop at thrift stores. There is a literal rainbow to choose from.

Many thrift stores will organize their racks by color as a unifying element for a ton of disparate styles, which makes the shopping experience fun and entertaining. And I get to look at a certain range of color!

When I'm thrifting, I seek out only my chosen colors as a way to narrow my focus and limit the overwhelm of choices. I grab anything in my best colors and my size, head to the mirror, and hold it up to see if I like it on me.

A quick binary of yes or no eliminates about half of the stuff I grabbed.

Then at other times I'll fiddle with the "yes" items to chose a few that are good quality, fit, condition, and filling a gap in my wardrobe.

Since $1 to $5 recycled clothing is perfect for guilt-free impulse purchases of fantasy styles it makes the experience extra rewarding. When I sort out my collection I will take them back to the Goodwill and donate them. This way they get double out of my purchase.

Like this I can feel comfortable selecting clothing which is my color, my size, but not my style. Other times I will decide to attempt an item in a color that I usually look terrible in by looking at all of the items in that color family and choosing one that is an okay shade for me.

For example, I own a thrifted cropped burgundy sweater in angora wool with embroidery and beading around the shoulders.

I would never buy such a thing new because angora is straight up unethical and that sort of detailing is a trend led design feature which clearly dates an item. But in this instance it clearly looks like it’s an 80s jumper, from the 80s.

So no problems with it looking dated because that is the one thing that makes it desirable to wear in the first place.