academichic

 
22 June 2009 – Monument Rock, originally uploaded by academichic.     

Sources:

All remixed:

• Blue dress – H&M 
• Black sandals – Target 
• Hat – Target 
• Sunglasses – H&M

Endnotes:

One of the highlights of today’s drive was our stop at Monument Rock in Kansas. We spent most of the day driving through Kansas, which I can sum up in one word – flat – and we battled temperatures hovering at around 100 degrees all day. (1979 car = no air conditioner!) Then, after much flatness and many cows, lo’ and behold these breathtaking chalk formations in the middle of fields of nothingness. Stunning! At 70 feet tall and over 80 million years old, they have an eerie way of making you feel quite small and insignificant. But in a good way. If you’re ever in Western Kansas, brave the four mile gravel road drive and go see these beauties!

 

22 June 2009, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

All remixed

• Maroon Tee - BR
• Navy Walking Shorts - J Crew
• Green Flats – BR
• Wooden Bangles – Gift from S.
• Earrings – Gift from E.

Endnotes:

A couple weeks ago, E. told of a story of her evolving relationship to shorts.
I came around to the walking shorts pretty quickly.  After puberty, I never really felt comfortable in short shorts because of my proportions.  I wore longer cargo shorts or hiking shorts while in college but these never managed to look very chic. When Bermuda or walking shorts became popular for women under 50, I was all over it! I have several pairs now that I spend the summer rotating through.

I still haven’t figured out a way to wear them with heels and dress them up like both E. and S. do so beautifully.  But, I do think this top, with its rich color, high quality fabric, and interesting neckline, paired with  my shiny green flats take this outfit up a notch!  -A

Bangles from S., originally uploaded by academichic.

Earrings, originally uploaded by academichic.

20 June 2009 – Gallery Opening, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

All remixed.

• Black tunic: worn backwards, gift from brothers
• Gray skirt: Target
• Red wedges: Naturalizers, from DSW

End Notes:

A friend’s work was included in a local juried exhibition, and my husband and I went out to show our support at the Saturday evening opening. As I’ve mentioned before, choosing what to wear to an art opening is fraught for art history grad students. There is always a sea of all sorts of fabulousness at these events and I wanted to remain true to my own relatively understated style while still making a statement. I stuck with a classic black, gray, and red color palette, but rather than simply trying to gussy up my jersey pieces with lots of sparkly jewelry I wanted to play with interesting shapes and proportions that would make the whole look more appropriate for an evening out.

S. has worn some of her dresses backwards before and I wondered if I could do something similar with this black tunic. The pleated, scooped neckline became a sexier scooped back, and by unbuttoning the small row of buttons that created a keyhole in the official “back” of the top, I ended up with a new, split neckline. And, rather than wearing the tunic over pants or shorts, I tried it out over a skirt. This is a really unexpected proportion for me, but I love the kind of drop-waist flapper vibe it creates.

As the bump gets bigger, it seems like the ways I can wear items also grows increasingly limited. So I was thrilled to get a little bit of my experimental creativity out in this look and I’m encouraged to look at some of my other maternity gear in new ways. After all, with only four weeks or so left I might as well squeeze out all the wear I can, right?

20 June 2009 – Gallery Opening, originally uploaded by academichic.

         

21 June 2009 – On the Road, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

• Sunglasses – H&M, remixed 
• Scarf – thrifted 
• Dress – Target ($3 clearance find two years ago!) 
• Orange gladiators – American Eagle, remixed a ton 
• Purse – garage sale find from yesterday

Endnotes:

Today was out first day on the road. I took the advice of our many readers who commented that I should wear a scarf “Old Hollywood” style as a way to protect my hair in the convertible. Since many of you mentioned names like Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn, I did a quick search before leaving to get a visual aid of how this scarf style should look. And indeed, this way of wearing a head scarf has been coined the “Grace Kelly” and looks like so:

And success! This way of covering my hair has proven more successful than my previous methods (head band, baseball cap, floppy hat, bun) and I am happy to report that five hours of open road later, I still have hair to show! I used two bobby pins to keep the scarf in place, slathered on plenty of sunscreen, and enjoyed the breeze.

 

We recently received this email from a soon-to-be grad. student:

I am going to be a senior in college in the fall and am starting to look at grad schools. Next week, I have an appointment to tour a campus and meet with someone in the department I’m interested in to get more info on their program. They don’t offer tours especially designed for prospective grad students, so I’ll be doing the tour with prospective undergrad students. It’s a pretty causal tour and the meeting I have is with an advisor in the education department. I have no idea what to wear. I want to look nice but not too dressed up. I’m also on a pretty tight budget, so I can’t really go out and spend a ton of money. Any suggestions?

While it’s not always easy to give someone advice on what to wear without knowing that person’s individual style, we have chosen some of our favorite outfits that we would wear for a similar situation. We hope these will provide a starting point for our reader to feel inspired in making the most of her existing wardrobe or knowing what key items to invest in.

» Read the rest of this entry «

  

20 June 2009 – Garage Sale Saturday, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

All remixed but embroidered top:

• Blue tank – Hanes 
• Embroidered top – from Romania years ago 
• Jean skirt – Urban Outfitters 
• Sandals – Birkies 
• Tote – Target 
• Coffee mug – Bixby’s Cafe in Duluth, MN

Endnotes:

As I mentioned last Saturday, one of my favorite Summer activities is going to garage sales on weekend mornings. Fortunately, my fiance T. share this same passion and that’s how I know we’re a match made in heaven. We have the same stamina and persistence when it comes to digging through other people’s trash in order to find what we’ll deem treasures. 

What are some of your favorite summer time activities and what do you look forward to come weekend? S.

 

A fellow grads student wrote and asked us to address the possibility of looking stylish while wearing a backpack:

In a few weeks’ time, I will be a grad student myself and will have to make the daily trips to the campus. My laptop will now always accompany me and, unfortunately, it is too large to fit into a tote bag – and way too heavy for me to carry it over one shoulder, especially with the added weight of books, notes and other necessary paraphernalia.

How can one look stylish with a backpack? Seems impossible. Please help! :)

We certainly understand the need to carry what feels like your entire life around in a bag!  S. has posted about her bag of choice and E. and A. will eventually share theirs too.  While none of us carry backpacks, we all agree we would carry one of these fabulous totes.

» Read the rest of this entry «

  

19 June 2009 – Coffee Date, originlly uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

On S (all remixed but dress!):

• Dress – Ann Taylor, thrifted in San Fran recently!
• Yellow belt – J.Crew 
• Yellow bag – Garage Sale find 
• Black cardi – thrifted
• Sandals – Target 
• Bangle – Big Lots 

On Erika:

• Top – Anthropologie 
• Skirt – J. Crew 
• Sandals – Merrell 
• Pearl necklace – Gift from parents 
• Sand bracelet – Souvenir from South Korea 

Endnotes:

Today I got to have a coffee date with one of our lovely readers, Erika, who’s also a fellow PhD in the Humanities. Erika’s hometown happens to be the same city in which T. resides – and what a happy coincidence for me because I got to spend a wonderful afternoon with her at one of the local coffee shops. We had a great time chatting about everything from philosophy to skirt lengths to cycling in Paris and body dysmorphia in dogs. Unfortunately, Erika returns to the city of her current university and I’ll be forced  to once more spend my days reading and working, instead of pleasantly chit-chatting about the consequences of riding bikes the wrong way down a six-lane street in France or about the aesthetic appeal of Hamilton, Ontario (not much!). 

Then, Erika allowed me to exploit her wonderful sense of style for our site:

         

After a well spent couple of hours, I had to take off since T. and I had plans to attend a work-related function for him. Since today was spent meeting Erika and then T’s colleagues, I figured it was the right time to pull out the other item I thrifted at the Haight Street Goodwill in San Francisco on my recent trip there: this bright pink halter dress. For a summery color mix, I added a mustard yellow belt, my new favorite yellow bag and, of course, Nerp.  

Thanks, Erika, for a great coffee date! S. 

    

19 June 2009, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

• Orange bauble necklace: F21, remixed
• Cork bracelet: don’t recall, remixed
• Green jade bead bracelet: gift from S. from San Francisco
• Green shirt: H&M
• Belt: borrowed from my husband
• Jean skirt: ON Maternity, remixed
• Flower sandals: KMart, ages ago, remixed

End Notes:

Throughout this pregnancy, color mixing has been the style element that has remained the most “me.” There are so many garments and silhouettes that I just can’t wear right now, but, thankfully, the ability to play with color combinations remains accessible.

A few days ago it was yellow and turquoise, and today it’s blue-green and orange. Yum. To me, these are both fairly summery combinations — they’re all blue-skies-and-sunshine or oranges-on-trees or tropical-fish-in-tropical-seas — and I started wondering if there are certain color combinations I eschew depending on the season.

I don’t really think there are, actually. I loved it, for example, when A. wore purple and brown in the spring without looking like she should have been dressing for fall. But I do think that there are certain combinations that we associate more with one season or another. Pink and brown seem springy to me, and purple and navy do tend to conjure up images of fall or winter.

What do you think? What are some color mixes that say “summer!” to you? And do you wear them at other times of the year?

Flower Power Sandals, originally uploaded by academichic.

Orange Bauble Necklace, originally uploaded by academichic.