Sources:
- Top – made by me from an old t-shirt (tutorial coming soon!)
- Skinnies – S.Oliver
- Yellow pumps – Gianni Bini
- Necklace – thrifted
- Tiny bird earrings – gift from A.
Endnotes:
Today’s outfit highlights and celebrates a conglomeration of my favorite parts: My shoulders, clavicle, and chest.
I don’t quite know why I like my shoulders, I don’t have particularly strong shoulders and they don’t remind me of anyone in my family, but I’ve always found that I liked the way strapless, halter, or low-cut tops looked on me. Added bonus: my small/medium chest makes it easy to wear strapless or spaghetti strap tops without fear of not having enough support for the girls. Being a solid B cup (sometimes C – don’t you wish bra sizes were more consistent across the brands?) also means that there is a somewhat limited amount of bouncing when running and I’m never worried about having to strap them down with super sturdy sports bras when exercising for fear of hurting myself or someone else with them.
Top detail + Clavicle love, originally uploaded by academichic.
Yellow Shoes, originally uploaded by academichic.But here’s the thing: while I am a fan of the smaller chest and am perfectly happy with my decided lack of a cleavage line, it’s all very subjective and personal. I love that Christine celebrated her chest for Dress Your Best week and praised it for its unexpected ‘endowed-ness’ on her small frame. This has been one of my favorite things about reading all of your posts for Dress Your Best Week – seeing how within this large group of people, we chose so many overlapping items to celebrate, yet we often celebrated them for very different and even opposite reasons. I think that this kind of plurality expresses much more accurately the diversity that is the female body than the models often seen scampering across the runway. And I can’t put it any better than Chelsea did when she articulated why she’s been enjoying this exercise:
From the women whose favorite parts I can relate to (being tall, small waisted, large-calved, for example), I am gaining more love for my own parts that sometimes I overlook. From those celebrating aspects of their bodies that are completely different than mine (being petite, dainty feet, piercing eyes), my own definition of beauty is expanding and evolving and I’m becoming more aware of how beautiful we all are in our own ways, and how I can unabashedly admire someone else’s different physical traits, without coveting them or feeling inadequate when comparing them to mine.
13 May 20101, originally uploaded by academichic.
I had to laugh when this post’s title came up in the RSS feed! (I struggle to fill an ‘A’, and that’s fine with me.)
Never a truer word spoken! I am feeling much the same lately and can admire a girl for being utterly gorgeous and having features I don’t have without feeling any envy. We’re all different and that’s the best thing ever.
That quote from Chelsea is one of my favorites to come out of DYBW (and style blogging in general, when I think about it). I have loved this week of blog-reading and blog-writing, so thank you (all three of you) again for organizing it.
Your shoulders look fantastic, especially in a strapless top. You look confident and elegant and strong.
I LOVE that shakira quote!
I wanted to thank the three of you–and every other blogger who participated–for such a positive week of posts! I’m not the first to say this, but it is so wonderful to hear women praising their bodies, publicly.
Yep, Chelsea’s quote is incredible. And oh my gosh, you’re right, we have the SAME body! Weird…
I love the strapless shirt and skinnies. Such an effortless warm-weather look!
I’m late commenting, but you look gorgeous in this number. I love how you chose to highlight your clavicle/chest/shoulders!
And I’m beyond humbled by your quoting my booty post :) I just am so appreciative of you and A and E for starting DYBW because it really is such an important piece in the movement for self-love. If we can love ourselves and show it, then we start to love each other more and value our differences (instead of being scared by them). So yeah, thanks for starting this project… it is amazing!