modern love

All apologies for the absence of posts ~ in the past two weeks we've packed up our studio and moved from London back to San Antonio, whereupon I immediately skipped over to Albuquerque to attend the wedding of one of my dearest high school friends, leaving P behind to clean and tidy. Suffice it to say, outfits and photos haven't been all too much of a priority for either of us, at least until now, but a wedding is obviously something special and naturally should be treated as such. 

  The outfits in this post are actually out of order, as I wore this one to the Day-After-The-Wedding Brunch, but I was able to get more pictures of it so it goes first.  I threw this on in the fifteen minutes between waking up and leaving my parents' house to have a pre-brunch coffee with one of the bridesmaids ~ a timeline that included feeding my mother's dogs (that's Monty gazing adoringly at me) and cleaning up one of their overnight accidents.  It's the kind of outfit that I felt very glad to have pieces in place that I could just grab and go (two of which I acquired the day before the wedding after being stood up by said bridesmaid ~ thanks Amy!).

 Which two, you ask?  Why, the shoes above and the shirt below, of course!  (The key pieces, naturally.)  I cannot adequately communicate to you the limitations of shopping in Albuquerque, so I was more than a little nervous when I set out to find a top to go with one of the skirts I brought to potentially wear to the wedding.  I did find a top (though I ended up going with a different outfit) but I also found quite a bit more, largely due to the spectacular sale going on at Ann Taylor Loft (40% off regular priced merchandise and 50% off sale items ~ INSANE).  To be honest I haven't been inside an Ann Taylor in over ten years, and this was my first trip to Loft, but I ended up taking about a million things into the dressing room and having to rationally talk myself down on the number of things to purchase.  I've had my eye out for a summery wedge to help ease me back into the world of heels, and these shoes fit the bill perfectly (in more ways than one).  They're also a shoe that would never have made it out of the box if P had been there (partly because he doesn't like gladiator-styles and mostly because he hates gold) but his absence allowed me to indulge myself, which paid off in compliments from my friends at brunch.

 Between the beautiful print and folded neckline this top was a no-brainer.  The material is cotton and silk, and while I normally avoid the latter during summer for reasons of being a sweaty mess, the mix here is lightweight, slightly slinky and very breathable, plus the elasticized bubble hem keeps it breezy and comfortable for the high desert.  I'm a little less optimistic about wearing it in Texas' super-humid heat, but we'll see ~ I may have found my new summer fabric.

Now the accessories (please forgive my self-indulgent tableau ~ I have a lot of time on my hands here).  The sunglasses I wear pretty much all the time, and the bag I grabbed on sale in Heathrow because I had two suitcases as carry-ons for the flight home and wanted something to stash my book and lip balm in at my seat.  I'm liking it far more than I planned to, which doesn't bode well for future purchases.

Finally, a quick snap of what I wore to the wedding, taken in the bathroom at the reception.  Not ideal, I know, but I was kind of in a rush on the way out.  I had no idea ahead of time what I would end up wearing so I brought five pairs of shoes, two skirts, two dresses and a couple tops, then went out shopping for more when I landed, but this was actually the outfit I had in mind all along and I'm really glad I went with it.  Pretty and comfortable and great for a few hours of intense dancing with some of my favorite friends.  The wedding was amazing, the bride was beautiful (the norm for her) and so much palpable love you couldn't cut it with a knife.  Also the requisite wedding-party hook-up to make us all proud.  I'm not usually a wedding person, but this was far and away the best I've ever been to.  And I am so excited for the lovely couple (who should be off to Cancun any minute now).

(Outfit #1-Brunch: vintage Sunglasses, Loft tank, Seven stretch straight-leg jeans, Loft wedges, Longchamp bag, heirloom jewelry; Outfit #2-the Wedding: old Tahari top, Diane Von Furstenberg skirt, old Marc by Marc Jacobs flats, Hobo International clutch, pashmina from Istanbul, Frank Gehry for Tiffany Torque ring and earrings, James Avery bangle and Pianegonda ring)

always off time

This was sort of a last-minute-grab-and-go-I'm-late-for-lunch-and-my-hair-is-still-wet situation.  The original outfit I had in mind was shelved on account of potential puddles which sent me scrambling for ideas on my way out the door.  Isn't it convenient that the closet in our sardine-tin dorm-studio happens to be right in the entryway*?  Changed shirts, grabbed the nearest cardigan and then had to step back to pull the door open.  And run out.

So, right.  The cardigan is giant ~ something like an extra large, but for things like this I never really think that matters ~ and the t-shirt is super, super-soft with this lovely asymmetrical hem that keeps me from mooning people whenever I drop something (which is practically every other minute).  It is also, as you can see, very loose and roomy and thus very accommodating for my lunch of linguine and clams.  P left the restaurant early which enabled an undisturbed pop-in at the charity shop next door, of which he was the primary beneficiary.  But that's his story to tell.

(Mom's old sunglasses, Target scarf, Vince cardigan, Romeo + Juliet Couture tee, Seven straight leg stretch jeans, Coach purse, Movado watch, James Avery bangle, Navajo bracelet)

*five square feet of closet doors, main door and bathroom door = almost a hallway

London Laundry Day

(Calvin Klein Collection blazer, Calvin Klein t-shirt, Seven A-Pocket jeans, Camper Pelota shoes)

Having to live with a wardrobe that fits into a duffel bag necessitates regular trips to the laundry room. I try to do laundry on the same day every week to avoid a deficit of clean clothes. Of course, sometimes events completely out of control occur and my planned trips to the laundry room with my blue Ikea bags overflowing with clothes don't quite happen on the day I had planned. So I have the problem I had this morning: none of the t-shirts in my regular rotation were clean. No worries, I thought, I'll just dig out a plain white undershirt and wear it instead. Let it be said at this point, and as you can see in the pictures adjacent to this post, the shirts that I choose for this purpose are clean, white, and free of any random stains from my adventures in our mini-kitchen. However, this ad hoc clothing choice never fails to annoy my co-blogger who feels that this clothing option is unsatisfactory. Personally, I feel that the white t-shirt and jeans combo is classic. I'm not the Fonz, and jumping a shark tank in the parking lot of Arnold's isn't in my skill set, but I can see why he was always thought to be so cool in this attire. Thumb through any fashion magazine today, or even over the last fifty years or so, and I'll bet that you will discover at least one picture of the jeans and white t-shirt combo. It is timeless American style. I have paired my jeans and tee combo with a cashmere Calvin Klein Collection blazer. This is the first piece of non-LL Bean clothing that I ever ordered off of the Internet. The picture doesn't really do justice to the rich shade of the jacket, or its soft texture. What got me to take a gamble on this blazer was its clean design. Notice that unlike most blazers, it has no outside breast pocket, buttons on the cuffs, or back venting. It is a bit longer than a standard blazer, but that adds to its style. My favorite feature, though, is the pocket on the interior seam of the jacket. If it weren't for the zipper pull, you would not notice the pocket inside. So even on days that I can't find a better shirting option, the blazer spiffs-up the Calvin Klein v-neck tee beneath it, even though it came in a pack with eight of its brothers from Costco.

Click to check out the zipper in the seam

Defending my tee

There were some good things about the 90s.  Grunge finally killed off hair bands, the internet transformed the world, and Martin Scorsese made Goodfellas.  The same decade also had its failings.  Vanilla Ice tried to sample Queen, the internet transformed the world, and Kevin Costner made any number of crap movies that should forever reside in the "Steal Me!" bins at Blockbuster.  A far more tragic phenomenon, in my eyes at least, was the complete takeover of the workplace and casual trouser market by Dockers.  I know they had a Levi's pedigree, and that led many people to believe that they were cool -- a way to flout the stuffy dress code without wearing 501s to work.  And since their introduction in 1986, can anyone name an item of clothing whose brand name has become synonymous with the item itself?  I must tip my hat to the folks who managed that ad campaign.  "They're not just pants.  They're Dockers."  Having said that, if you happened to be a male who wasn't a little pudgy, the fit of the Dockers themselves left something to be desired.  Those damn pleats.   How could anyone think that those looked good?  When I had to conform to the workplace casual attire of my old office, I instead opted for tropic-weight, flat-front wool trousers and a button-down oxford shirt.  You can't imagine what a tempest in a teacup this started.  I was actually accused of being a snobby dresser.  "How could anyone not like Dockers?"  I was asked.  But I made money, and was right more often than my co-workers about fluctuations in oil prices, so I was left to my own sartorial eccentricity -- although people often wondered how I could possibly be comfortable wearing "those clothes."  The chino therefore has always been a gap in my wardrobe that I never thought I would fill.  Then I found these.  Seven For All Mankind has cotton twill trousers that fit similar to their jeans and provide a happy medium between jeans and dressier trousers in my closet.  They still have a style similar to jeans that might make them inappropriate for your place of work, but what genius in HR decided that Dockers somehow ARE appropriate?

Target shirt, Paul Smith tie, Seven jeans, Adidas shoes, Gap belt, RayBan Wayfarers

rainy days and mondays

We picked up a celebratory pizza on Monday in honor of the bank holiday and P booking our tickets home (29th June!).  Things are going to be crazy between now and then, so we need all the joking and good humor we can get, but I'm so excited I can barely contain myself (clearly).  I can't wait to be reunited with our pets (especially my big dog!) and I won't mind having access to my full wardrobe again either.  I love London so much and I know the second I'm gone I'll miss it, but I've been really homesick this year (no clue why) so I'll be happy to be done with that.  I guess I'm just ready to move on?

Eugenia Kim for Target Striped Equestrian Hat, Target scarf & long-sleeved tissue tee, Dad's army shirt from Vietnam, Seven straight leg stretch jeans, Cole Haan flats, Ciao Bella pizza

I find ostentatious, posed shots on fashion blogs annoying. Nothing will make me click an escape faster than a pastel-clad "model" that is casually leaping into the air. This doesn't happen in my neighborhood. This isn't the Mary Tyler Moore show. None of us would have been fodder for Herb Ritz's lens and I don't want to give the impression that these pictures are anything more than what they appear to be. This is a simple shot of me snapped in transit to the British Library. I am not about to do a soft-shoe routine. London is a great place to experiment with different looks because no matter how you choose to dress, you won't draw disparaging looks from passers-by. Today I am wearing a dark-wash pair of seven jeans, a cool tie that I found at the paul smith sample sale and my well-traveled onitsuka tiger sneakers and wayfarers. It's a very simple style. The tie jazzes up the oufit, and if you look at the detail shots you will see why. Not bad for a piece that was less than $20.

Zoom on this picture and check out the detailing. Notice the phases of the moon in the pink ring surrounding the moon and stars in night sky.

If you haven't been to London, one of the nice things about this city is the ubiquity of public parks. They make the grime and air pollution almost bearable.

(Banana Republic shirt, Seven Floyd jeans, Paul Smith British Collection tie, Gap belt, Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 sneakers, RayBan Wayfarers)

exam week

Sometimes an encouraging shirt and sentimental jewelry can make all the difference.

(Gap for Whitney Biennial shirt designed by Kerry James Marshall, Seven for All Mankind straight leg stretch jeans, heirloom jewelry)