academichic

Sources:

• Dress: Motherhood Maternity
• Necklace: consignment store
• Sandals: Jeffrey Campbell

End Notes:

One guess as to what I’m celebrating as my “best” today.

All that’s changed in the past year, of course, as I’m come to really, really love stripes. Maybe I’m just a late-bloomer like that. And now look, I’m wearing stripes when seven months pregnant. ALL OVER MY BODY.

As S. has already expressed, the rapid changes that your body goes through during pregnancy can be emotionally trying. It’s hard to see a body that you know transform into something that you don’t always recognize when you catch glimpses of yourself in a window or mirror. Being pregnant a second time is a different ballgame in the sense that I have some expectations of what could happen…but no guarantee that things will be at all the same. My hips are a little more sore, my face seems puffier to me, and chasing a toddler around while also carting pregnancy weight is exhausting.

But this time I also have the benefit of knowing what comes next: a child to cherish and nurture.

So I adore this dress. I love that it hugs all of my pregnancy curves. I love that it’s graphic and modern. I love that it makes me feel hip and proud to be pregnant. This isn’t a dress that everyone will love (either on themselves or on me, for that matter), but it’s helping me dress my best with a little sense of humor and a whole lot of confidence.

Sources:

• Button-down – swapped
• Belt – gift from Mom (Anthropologie)
• Skirt – J Crew
• Tank – Banana Republic
• Flats – DSW
• Earrings – Gift from S.

Endnotes:

As I said, after my yoga mat body scan, I had a list of things I love about my body, both big and small.  An intimate, funny, hopeful, and reflective list that I will try to remember to keep mentally close to me.  A list I am here publicly vowing to recreate whenever I’m not feeling my best.  While I won’t be sharing the whole (very personal) list with you, I am planning on highlighting some of the parts from that list.  But, for my first DYB contribution, I want to celebrate my body shape as a whole.

As my proportions silhouette reveals, I have a small waist, wide hips, a big butt and thighs, and broad shoulders.  I am an hour glass.   While this is indeed a “classic” silhouette and does fit many Western ideals of beauty, it is not currently a very popular body-type.  By that, I mean you won’t find too many hourglasses in the pages of J Crew.  Most contemporary clothing is made for a straighter line.  So, more vintage or classic silhouettes often look great on me. Yet, there are all sorts of rules out there for my body type that don’t match up with these looks.  Because of my broad shoulders, I’m not supposed to wear puffed sleeves.  A larger bottom half should not be clothed in white.  Full hipped women aren’t supposed to wear fabrics that stick out from the body. I’m sure there are others!  Well nothing about me is straight (pun intended) and I’m not all that great with rules, so…

I’m wearing puffed sleeves and a skirt that is full, white, and made of crisp stiff cotton and I am loving the way my body looks – broad shoulders, wide hips, small waist and all!

What body shape rules do you break?

[This is my fourth blue and white striped outfit -- three more coming!]

Sources:

• Sports-bra Tank: Nike
• Shorts: Brooks
• Socks: Smart Wool
• Shoes: New Balance
• Watch: Timex Expedition

Endnotes:
Today I am paying homage to my legs, and while I certainly like how they look when I’m wearing a skirt and heels, I absolutely, hands down, feel like I look my best when I’m in my sports clothes. I suppose it is because I’ve always been an athlete, and for most of my life I’ve been on a team. I played soccer and lacrosse through high school, lacrosse for two years in college, and on various adult league teams since I graduated. I feel comfortable and confident on a field, which (most of the time) translates to feeling confident in other arenas of my life. I’ve met some of my best friends through sports and even played co-ed flag football in grad school to meet people outside my department. Unfortunately, in 2008 I tore my ACL (a ligament in the knee) while playing flag football and had to have surgery to repair it. More than anything else I was terrified at the thought that I wouldn’t be able to play sports any more, or at least not to the level that I wanted. So my appreciation for my legs is three-fold. I love how they look, I love what they do, and I love what they represent – my ability to overcome adversity.

After about 9 months of rehab I began running again, and since then, with A.’s encouragement as a training partner, have completed a half marathon, full marathon, and most recently a 10k (with my friend J.W.). I’m aiming to run another half marathon in the fall. So, THANK YOU legs, for all that you have done and continue to do — and you look darn good while doing it, if I do say so myself!

Sources:

Above:
Dress – thrifted
Earrings – made by me
Yellow flats – Target last summer

Below:
Maxi skirt – AE
Tank – Maternity, Target

Endnotes:

For this take on Dress Your Best I am highlighting a body part that I would have never considered ‘my best’ in the past. In fact, I have written before about how my torso and midsection is what I tend to camouflage or visually alter through clever use of waistlines and belting. I do not have a naturally slender waistline and I spent many years feeling self-conscious about my midsection. But now that area has taken on new meaning as it’s been growing and housing a baby.

While dressing a pregnant body is not always as fun and ‘cute’ as the media and pop culture make it seem, it does offer a new way to approach getting dressed. Yes, clothes may not fit and finding something to wear may be somewhat of a challenge on most days, but the reason behind that are cause for celebration rather than mourning. So these past months, I’ve been embracing my midsection and celebrating my belly, not caring that it’s made my wardrobe shrink to a few viable dresses and tops at this point, nor that it obscures the view of my feet, nor that it causes endless challenges when looking for a comfortable position in bed. I love it for what it’s doing and what it represents to me now.

Of those few dresses that still fit me, I wore the one above to our baby shower this past weekend. It was a wonderful event and could have only been made better by having had more out of town guests able to attend. And notice those fun little tissue paper pompoms hanging from the tree? Long time readers may remember them from E’s baby shower with her first baby that A. and I co-threw with another friend. A. and I made those pompoms way back then and I was delighted to see them resurface in celebration of my upcoming baby (yes, they’re the very same ones, carefully saved and preserved by A.). If you want to see how we made them, check out our easy tutorial here.

There were many similarities between the shower we threw for E. and her husband N. two years ago and the one that was thrown for T. and I this past weekend. The main ingredients: a relaxed atmosphere, a co-ed group allowing us to celebrate with all of our friends and partners, easy but delicious backyard food, fresh flowers as decor, and small details that betayed the love and thought that went into the planning. If you want to read our tips on throwing a backyard baby shower, take a look at our post here.

Are you currently pregnant or have you been pregnant at one point? Would your belly have made it into a ‘Best Five’ list were you to Dress Your Best?

Sources:

• Skirt: cut from a dress
• Top: Forever 21
• Belt: thrifted
• Sandals: Jeffrey Campbell

End Notes:

It’s a delight to kick off our third annual Dress Your Best week(s) with something that I usually do not find so delightful: my asymmetrical face.

Most of my past choices for DYB weeks have been features that have generally aligned with western social codes of attractiveness (being tall, having a visible collarbone, etc.) or aspects that I’ve come to embrace over time (skin tone, freckles, etc.) but I wanted to start off this year’s DYB by highlighting something about my body that I STILL struggle to accept gracefully.

I have a crooked face. The whole right side of my face is a little bit bigger than the left. My eyes and eyebrows are different shapes, even my cheeks crinkle differently from each other when I smile. Ever wonder why I’m such a big fan of the swoopy bang? It helps add some bulk to my left side. Oh, crooked face, you have given me no end of grief when I’m applying eye make-up. Sometimes I’m ashamed of you and want to stand a certain way in photos to give the illusion of symmetry. Sometimes I tend to smirk when I smile so as to make you appear purposeful.

But today I’m pinning my bangs back and wearing a shirt with a neckline detail that draws attention to my face. It may be a little lopsided, but it’s mine and I need to own it.

Thanks to the many lovely people who have told us that they’ve already started the Dress Your Best challenge! Even if you are not publishing your outfits or list of Top 5, we’d love to have you on our roster. Are you dressing your best over the next two weeks?

NFS Vintage
My Outfits and Stuff
Miss Ris
Seamstress Stories
Modest Typewriter Vintage
Cara’s Closet
The Other Emily
Lemonade
A Day in the Life of… Me!!
Be Fabulous Daily
14 Shades of Grey
Some Things I Have Made
From Diamonds to Vows, to Where We Are Now
Fashionflirt’s Blog
Narrowly Tailored
Dressing to the Nines
Teaching Days
Delayed Missives
Her Own Two Feet
The Auspicious Life
A Handful of Dust
Striped Socks Play Ping-Pong
Forever Out of Place
Looks & BooksRenia Grows
Promises Like Pie Crust
Cafe Le Shay
Interrobangs Anonymous
Stumble into Style
What if No One’s Watching?
Bodies Out Of Place
Cingria 2.0
Mad Dress Game
Ajnabieh – the foreigner
Putting Me Together
Highly Irregular Style
Undergrad Fab
Four Seasons One Wardrobe
Now For Then
Adimpleate
The DayLeigh
Becca Obergefell
Knotted Tales
Emma SueAlice
The Queen of Wanderlust
Embracing Your Inner Cupcake
Number 2137
Between Laundry Days
Hoop Skirt
Eek!
Reading In Skirts
The Life Academic
Bright Side Dweller

{All images are of others from last year’s DYB challenge}

I was so excited this morning to see how many of you are already agreeing to participate in our Dress Your Best 2011. Of all the fun projects we have done on academichic.com DYB is by far been my favorite. It was so powerful to read all of the contributions last year – to read self-affirming, celebratory, love letters to your body!

Last night I was laying in bed thinking about what body parts I would choose to highlight this time around. To be honest, it took me some time to even remember which parts I had celebrated last year, and then quite a bit longer to come up with new ones. I lied there doing a mental scan of my body and noted how quickly and easily I could still identify the things I would like to change about myself. I went to sleep feeling unsatisfied with my body and disappointed with myself for having such feelings. So, after my shower this morning I lied out on my yoga mat and tried the scan again. This time really taking the time to think about every body part and what it was I did or did not like about it. I thought about what each of these parts have done for me. It was easy for example to remember that my thick thighs had carried me thousands of miles including across the finish line of 3 marathons. It took a little more time to re-consider my wide hips and imagine that some day those hips will likely allow me to carry and birth a child with more ease. I thought about my toes, my finger nails, my freckles, my knees and that space behind my knees and soon my list of thinks I liked was long, funny, and in some cases incredibly personal. I’m still not sure which parts I will highlight through dressing over the next two weeks and I certainly won’t be sharing my list with the world, but I will mentally hold it close to me and refer to it as needed.

I’m thinking I may have to repeat my body scan exercise every once in awhile. I encourage each of you to give it a try too!

A.

We are so excited to be reintroducing one of our favorite “challenges” at Academchic: Dress Your Best Week. In order to spread out the love, we’ll be hosting DYB for the next two weeks, and we hope that many of you will play along.

Particularly in the midst of shorts, tank top, and swimsuit weather, we often focus on minimizing parts of our bodies or downplaying characteristics that we don’t like or feel self conscious about. Do my thighs look big in these shorts? Does this shirt show my wobbly arms? Do these jeans make me look short? Does that swimsuit conceal my midsection? In order to bend our minds in another direction, we are purposely setting out to get dressed with the intent of to showing off our best – big or small chests, eyes, hips, lips, legs, arms, freckles, you name it – rather than minimizing our worry spots.

This idea all came about two years ago during a Fashion 101 on Proportion and was a big hit last year with many fellow bloggers participating as well.

For the next two weeks — June 20 – July 1 — it will be Dress Your Best weeks 2011 at academichic.com. Intrigued? Want to participate? What body parts do you love, no matter how big or small? Have great legs? Fantastic ankles? A graceful neck? Please leave a comment on this post telling us that you’ll be dressing your best, and we will also have chances for you to link directly to your blog or send us your pictures for our “Round Up” series at the end (see Round Ups 1, 2, and 3 from last year). Please click below for more info about getting involved!

» Read the rest of this entry «

We’re finishing off our round-up of your fantastic participation during Dress Your Best week. (Don’t forget to check out parts 1 and 2!) Some of the most powerful posts we read were ones that situated their bodies in time and space.

For example, many of you looked past pure aesthetics in favor of praising your body for what it can do. Strong arms, anyone? This especially hit a chord with runners, cyclists, and dancers, who praised their strong legs for carrying them so many, many miles. These are bodies that move, amazing in their corporeality.

On the other hand, for someone who tends to get too caught up in function, celebrating her body purely for its form was a pretty big deal too!

We were also reminded that bodies have histories and that sometimes the parts you value the most are the ones that serve as markers of triumph over past struggles. Does your nose connect you to your family history? Have you become more confident in your body as you’ve gotten older? Did you read the stories behind  Tania’s hair, Sarah’s back, Sara’s curves, or Julie’s legs? How about Andie’s eyes, Becca’s “bewbs”, and Katie’s smile? These are bodies mixed with emotional histories, bodies themselves shaped by time and perceptions of these bodies shaped through experience.

Did dressing your best make a difference? Was it something of a struggle to find and acknowledge five things you love about your body? While it may be difficult to literally dress to show off your hands or lips or cheekbones, owning your “flaws” and taking them on as a challenge can be an empowering thing. Maybe it meant recognizing that casual clothing can still highlight your body or discovering a favorite brand that always seems to show you off best. Or maybe it meant truly dressing just for yourself last week.

Sadly, “body griping” has become a commonplace practice in “female bonding.” Replacing that with body positivity isn’t going to happen overnight. But we hope that DYB week allowed you to recognize bonds with others — seeing beauty in shared traits and in differences — and that (even if you have to write a letter of apology to your body first) this little paradigm shift of dressing your best has proven itself valuable. We certainly enjoyed it.

Finally, we were thrilled to see several bloggers spread the message of Dress Your Best by translating our manifesto and contributing their bilingual lists and making this project available to a broader audience outside of the Western world. Thank you!

A huge “thank you” to everyone who participated. We were moved, inspired, and excited by you.

In Part I of our Dress Your Best Round Up, we recapped the various approaches you all took to the DYB challenge, focusing on oft-overlooked body parts or celebrating your frame or proportions as a whole. Another trend we noticed among participating blogs was an awareness of how social norms have shaped the ways we perceive our bodies. Many of you emphasized the constructed nature of these societal standards, refusing to accept them as “natural,” and you instead foregrounded and embraced the ways in which your body or clothing style fell outside those narrow parameters.

We tip our metaphorical hats to those of you who laid claim to legs with scratches and bumps, pale legs, a strong but not flat tummy, and a fluctuating-but-sturdy belly. Or just celebrating your butt without feeling the need to qualify it.

Some of you took on the very notion of femininity, arguing that body-positivity and dressing “mannishly” are not mutually exclusive. Or that muscular legs and a strong jaw are attributes to be celebrated not apologized for.

And certainly that ever-shifting social phenomenon of the baby bump deserves to be showcased, right from the get-go!

Interestingly, two attributes that received quite a bit of praise — breasts and hair — are also body parts that are at the center of millions of dollars of advertising campaigns. It was thrilling to read how so many of you have come to embrace the particulars of your cup size or hair texture and color as an intrinsic part of your bodily identity.  Whether you know them as your breasts, bosom, girls,  bust, ta ta’s, or boobular area all shapes and sizes were celebrated. A+ for A-cups, indeed. And no matter how much you may have wrangled with it in the past, hair — wavy with natural highlights,  long and thin, or with massive curls — featured frequently as a body part that contributes to your overall sense of self.

Up next: bodies in time and space. How our experiences shape our bodies and our perceptions.