academichic

Sources:

• Tank – Ann Taylor Loft
• Skirt – chopped from a J Crew Dress
• Leather Belt – from L.
• Stripped Belt – from another dress
• Sandals – H & M
• Pride Beads – Maui Street Fair
• Earrings – Gift from S.

Endnotes:

I warned you that due to my little yoga mat exercise I would be highlighting some pretty random parts during this round of DYB. Today I’m showing my hands some love.  I’ve always liked my hands, but would have never thought of them as something to celebrate on a style blog.  See, my hands are anything but ladylike.  They are large, tough, wrinkled, scarred, freckled.  I’ve had my nails manicured fewer times then I can count on my long, but less than slender, fingers.  I keep my nails super short and I often have dirt, compost, or paint under them. But, that’s just the way I like them!

I’ve never much cared for long nails and nail polish just doesn’t last on these busy hands.   I have a big scar on my left hand that I have had since I was 9 or 10 and every summer more freckles seem to appear all over the tops of my hands.  I have very deep creases in my palms, which sweat when I’m anxious.  See, these are not the hands of a lady, but I love them just the same.

When I told A2 I was going to highlight my hands, she smiled and told me she loved my hands, especially my short well kept nails that always reveal what I’ve been up to that day.  She said I needed to photograph my hands holding a coffee cup, because when she thinks of my hands, she thinks of them wrapped around a coffee mug.

Do any of your body parts carry stories, reveal your secrets, or specially mark you as you? Are you giving them a gold star this week?

By the way, I’m counting this as blue and white striped outfit #7 even though it’s a bit of a stetch.  I do have a striped belt and a striped bag, but it’s not the outfit I had in mind. It’s just been too hot to pull out all my striped items.  Don’t worry they will make it out eventually.

Sources:

Dress – Banana Republic Outlet (pre-pregnancy worn here)
Tank – Maternity, Target
Sandals – Target
Necklace – AE, years and years ago
Bag – Dots, bought in high school
Wooden bangle – thrifted

Endnotes:

In my last post, I embraced my pregnant belly as my ‘Best’ for Dress Your Best Week. But as I was trying to come up with my other ‘Bests’, I realized that I have to take a more wholistic approach this time around. Last year, when we picked our top five things to celebrate, I remember naming things like my legs, my hair, and my smallish chest. This time, those same aspects of myself have been distorted and changed by pregnancy.

My legs, which I loved for being shapely as well as toned and powerful from many miles of running, are still strong but no longer resemble the legs they used to be. I’ve gotten cellulite where there was none, they’ve been retaining water and looking and feeling puffy, and they no longer even accept the thought of being squeezed into heels. It’s all flats, all comfort these days.

My hair, which I always loved for being full and curly, is still full and curly but is now betraying me in that it’s gotten increasingly grey and I’m powerless to hide that. I started getting grey hair a few years ago and have consistently colored it as a way to hide that. Since being pregnant, I decided to skip the chemicals in hair dye and wait the nine months before getting another dye job. As those pesky wirey white hairs spring up all around my temples and forehead, I feel like I’m increasingly made to look older and more weathered than I am.

And, alas, that smallish chest that allowed me to easily fit into any top and not think twice about going on a run. Yeah…those changed about two months into the pregnancy and will likely continue to change (read: grow) as time goes on. Sigh.

I’ll spare you the laundry list of everything else that’s changed and will cut to the chase; perhaps this is what happens when you get older. Perhaps this is what happens to all women, regardless of whether you’re going through pregnancy or your body is just changing with the passing of time. Hopefully, as this happens, you realize that it’s not about pin-pointing that ‘perfect’ feature of your body but rather about embracing the whole and what it does for you. So I’m taking a much more wholistic approach here and celebrating my body in its entirety.

This same body that gives me a million and one reasons to feel frustrated also gives me just as many reasons to be happy and grateful. It’s been carrying my baby to almost full term now (and having had several friends for whom this has been a problem, I know not to take that for granted). It’s still propelling me forward on my bike, on walks, at yoga class, and in the pool. It’s healthy and resiliant and this, too, I know to value. And while it’s changing in many ways, in just as many ways, it’s still me. It’s still the same body that ran a marathon, that used to have a waistline, and that once long ago thought grey hairs and cellulite a thing of motherhood and adulthood. Well, here I am, on the threshhold of motherhood and certainly with both feet into adult life, so I might as well embrace all aspects of this stage. As my yoga instructor has us say at the end of each class, I bow down to the divine within me and I celebrate this body for all that it is.

Sources:

• Shirt: Splendid via Filene’s Basement
• Tank (under): Gap via thrift
• Skinnies: Anne Taylor Loft
• Shoes: Steve Madden via DSW

Endnotes:
It might not be immediately obvious from this photo what exactly it is I’m dressing. Like most people, I have a love-hate relationship with my hair. Instead of thinking about its tendency to poof out and curl in particularly annoying ways, I’m going to focus on the one thing that really makes it stand out: the color. I’ve been called everything from “copper top” to “fire bush” (by mean kids in high school) and my color has been described as anything from amber, auburn, red, or strawberry blonde all the way to chestnut and brown when it hasn’t gotten sun for a while. I like to showcase it off of turquoises, blues, and greens, which is why my striped turquoise shirt was perfect for this post.

My hair sticks out in my family too. I’m the only one with it in my immediate family, which was pretty confusing for my mom and dad when I was born, and to be totally honest, they still don’t really know where it came from. I’ve been teased for my hair and praised for my hair. I’ve never dyed it because I’ve always been afraid that it will grow back another color (crazy, I know). I avoided orange and red clothes for a long time because I was told they “clashed” with my hair. It wasn’t until I read Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins that I fully embraced my color as special. I actually get pretty defensive when people try to tell me I don’t have red hair. I’m positive I’m a redhead ;)

Robbins, also a redhead, has a character in this book who claims that “red hair is caused by sugar and lust.” He goes on to describe the flaming locks of the protagonist:

“…red being the color of emergency and roses; red being the prelate’s top and the baboon’s bottom; red being the blood’s color, jelly’s color; red maddening the bull, red bringing the bull down; red being the color of valentines, of left-handedness, and of a small princess’s new found guilty hobby. His hair was red, his cowboy boots muddy, his heart a hive of musical bees.”

Today I’m reveling in my color – whatever you call it, it’s mine.

Sources:

• Striped Tee – American Eagle
• Black Ponte Pants – Ann Taylor
• Studded Flats – Banana Republic
• Necklace – gift from sister L.
• Earrings – gift from S.
• Bangles – gifts

Endnotes:

For my first DYB contribution I celebrate my figure, my body shape.  I proudly dressed my wide hips, broad shoulders, and tiny waist.   However, after writing that post, I started to think about my laments about the J Crew models and the straight-line silhouette I couldn’t pull off.  And I remembered, this project is about celebrating the body you have. So, here you go, I might not look like Audry Hepburn, but I’ll be damned if that’s going to stop me from borrowing her silhouette!

I love belts and any other clothing trick that shows everyone that my waist is smaller than my butt/hips region.  But, I also like all-over stripes and stripes just can’t always be belted.  I think sometimes I convince myself I am celebrating my waist when really I am desperately trying to mitigate and hide my hips/butt/thighs.  I certainly don’t think there is anything wrong with using clothes to accentuate your best and in the process down play your “problem spots” and I will likely be back to belting tomorrow.  But, for today I am going belt-free and dressing my best differently.

I also want to give a shout-out to my hair.  As I’ve written before, a good hair-day can make my day and a compliment on my hair will make you my new best friend.  I put a fair amount of effort into my hair and if I get a quick glimpse of myself in the mirror, I’ll check my hair (rather than makeup, shifted necklines, etc).  I’ve been loving my new haircut, but it is much less predictable than my straight bob.  I have very little control over what it does.  So, today I am cerebrating a good hair-day that I couldn’t recreate if I spent all morning trying.  (Don’t you think it looks a bid edgier than usual?)  A.

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:

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:

• Shirt: thrifted
• Belt: thrifted
• Shorts: maternity consignment store
• Sandals: Old Navy

End Notes:

I don’t know about S., but on days when I’m just feeling really HEAVY from being pregnant, it’s nice to throw on something thin and light and floaty and just pretend that gravity has no affect on my ligaments.

Both A. and L. have worn their “short shorts” lately, and I have to say that I am really loving my own navy short shorts during this pregnancy. When I was pregnant with baby e. I wore maternity bermudas quite frequently. This time, however, I’ve embraced the shorter length especially because it allows me to play with some different proportions, like this one. Plus, I happen to like my legs in general and they seem relatively non-plussed by all the other pregnancy changes in my body.

Higher-waisted shorts, like the ones I wore last summer, are probably my preferred shorts silhouette overall, but I’m going to go ahead and say that over-the-bump maternity shorts sound like a bad idea. I’ll just wait for a while, thanks.

Sources:

Take #3:

• Striped Tank – American Eagle
• Shorts – Gap Outlet
• Hat- Banana Republic
• Sandals – H & M
• Earrings – gift from S.

Take #4:

• Pink Skirt – Limited
• Striped Top – Banana Republic
• Belt – Thrifted
• Grey Shoes – BR
• Earrings – gift from S.

Endnotes:

Here are takes 3 and 4 of my self-imposed stripe challenge.   I think takes 1 and 2 were both much better, but I am happy to finally get my hat on the blog.  Several months back, before it was sun hat season, E. and S. convinced me to wear this hat.  I wore it a few times before chopping my hair and then was hesitant to pull it out again after the haircut.  I’m not convinced it is the most flattering look, but it sure is practical!  I wore this outfit at an outdoor festival over the weekend and it was nice to keep the sun off my head and face and it hid my increasingly  post-rain curly/frizzy hair.

Take #4 looked better in my imagination, but I do love the bright color pairing and that I got to use my newly thrifted belt again.   I wore this for my first day of teaching summer school yesterday and then took the pictures after finding out the class was canceled due to low enrollment.  I just couldn’t manage a picture in which I didn’t look at least slightly dejected. Looks like I wont have as have many teaching outfits to show you over this summer, so hope you don’t mind seeing some writing duds!

A.

Sources:

• Tank: J. Crew
• Cardigan: Banana Republic
• Necklace: South Moon Under
• Shorts: BR Outlet
• Shoes: BR

Endnotes:
I wore this to our last day of faculty meetings on Friday, and now that those are done, my grades are in, and my comments are written, I’m not totally sure what to do with myself. Being a boarding school teacher is a funny life because you’re 24/7 for 9 months, and then when the kids leave, there is this big hole left behind. Not that I don’t have hundreds of hours of sleep to catch up on and hundreds of books I’d like to read this summer… and at least a dozen that I have to read… but I miss the students and I miss being in my classroom everyday. Talking to grown-ups all the time is not nearly as fun as talking to 14, 15 and 16 year olds. Especially when talking to grown-ups means faculty meetings and trustee retreats!

About the outfit, it’s pretty neutral: navy, mustard, putty, and my favorite olive studded flats. In summer (and fall, and winter, and spring) I especially like to wear bright colors, so this is a very subtle palette for me. Maybe I was thinking that I’d blend in to the surroundings at the faculty meeting? Either way, this outfit does get me thinking about our up coming Dress Your Best weeks (starting next Monday!) because it showcases something I’m very proud of: my muscular legs. Start thinking about what you’ll be showing off!

Sources:

• Cardigan: Target
• Cami: Forever 21, from last pregnancy
• Maxi: Forever 21, from last pregnancy
• Sandals: Old Navy
• Necklace: Hawaii swap meet

End Notes:

Notice anything different? Yes, I’m wearing my hair up. Or at least up-ish.

Thanks to your advice, I tried a modified version of the Real Simple tutorial for three low buns at the nape of the neck. Since I have a LOT of straight, slippery hair I need pretty significant length to make “real” buns. But, I loved this idea and I stood in front of that mirror for a long time with damp hair, some texturizing product, a few pins and some little hair bands to make something that sort of approximated that look. I just decided to embrace the spikes. It’s not the most beautiful hairstyle out there, but it fulfilled the purpose of getting hair off my neck with the added bonus of making it look like I had longer hair to start with. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself. I appreciated all the suggestions you had and will work on expanding my hair repertoire in the next few weeks!

I should say something about the outfit, but really…it’s purple and it’s mustard and I love this maxi dress and I added an old necklace so that you wouldn’t get too bored. The end.

P.S. Just three more outfits left to post in my self-imposed 15 for 15. (But that’s not too exciting since many of you will certainly be launching a 30 for 30 experience today ala Kendi…good luck!)