academichic

The weather swings in academichic central lately have been crazy, swinging up from the fifties to the nineties in a matter of a few days. Which means my wardrobe choices have been something like this:

Sources:

Cold:

• Cardigan: Target
• Tank: Old Navy Maternity
• Skirt: Old Navy Maternity
• Wedges: Naturalizers, via DSW

Hot:

• Hat: Banana Republic
• Scarf: gift from S.
• Top: thrifted (and worn backwards)
• Shorts: consignment shop
• Shoes: Target, thrifted new
• Clutch: c/o Crystalyn Kae (don’t forget to check out Crystalyn and other independent boutiques through our boutique consortium!)

End Notes:

S.’s post on sharing — or not sharing — maternity clothes also brought to mind a recent reader question about what to bring to a clothing swap, that is, how do you decide what clothes to give away or exchange?

I love it when I go to a swap and people have brought clothing that is still a) in great condition, b) not obviously dated, and c) is accompanied with the giver’s desire to find someone who really looks GREAT in that article of clothing. When I’ve culled through my closet, either for swaps, for donations, or to simply pass along to a friend, I am pretty ruthless about putting anything that I haven’t worn within the past year into a “consideration” pile. If something is still essentially new — I bought it on clearance and wore it once but then never again — I might first consider putting that up on eBay to make a few bucks. But, most of the time it’s something that either doesn’t fit my body quite right or a different silhouette that I attempted to integrate into my wardrobe but just didn’t work out. In that sense, I guess I tend to think of clothes-swapping as an opportunity to right my past shopping wrongs, rather than simply a means of cleaning out my closet.

I was delighted to see S. wearing that turquoise top in her pictures! That top got the cut from my wardrobe because it was just wishful thinking and a lot of tugging that kept that empire waistline tucked below my bust. Since I knew that my torso length was unlikely to shorten during future pregnancies, it was time to let that top go. Now we both win! The deal is, clothes-swapping can actually be a humbling experience — to go back through your closet and acknowledge that you did not make the wisest choices. But it can also be incredibly fulfilling when you can be happy to see someone else looking like a million bucks in a garment that didn’t really do much for you.

Ultimately, I think a lot of these questions relate back to the notion of building a versatile, workable wardrobe that does what you want and says what you want it to say. Although these hot and cold outfits are fairly different from each other, I do think that they give some insight into how my style has changed a little since my last pregnancy. I’m a bit more daring with trends — shorter shorts with a draped top, for example — and I’m finally on board with stripes. I’m a hat lady now, too. On the other hand, the brightly colored shoes are still a big part of my repertoire, and I don’t see myself swapping those out any time soon!

How do you decide what ends up in a swapping pile?

Sources:

On J:

• Academic Regailia – a Midwest University

On A:

• Dress worn as skirt – Gap Outlet
• Navy Ruffle Tank – Gap
• Belt – Old Nanvy
• Grey Pumps – Banana Republic Factory Store
• Earrings – F21

Endnotes:

Last week our Midwest University celebrated commencement and I was there to watch our special guest poster J. receive his masters.  J. has been a kind of little brother to me these past two years (he has also been called my adopted son) and so I was quite proud of him.  I’m very happy for his accomplishments but will miss him (and his fabulous style) terribly when he moves away from Academichic Central in a few short weeks.

Commencements can be a funny thing to dress for.  There are proud patents in their “Sunday best” and many students in casual duds.  It’s a formal celebratory event, but it takes place outside in the sun and, in our case, involved quite a bit of walking.  So, I opted  for a casual summer dress and my comfy suede peep-toes.  I dressed things up a bit  by layering a ruffly tank over the built-in tank of the dress. I was dressed up enough for the two ceremonies but cool and comfortable enough to walk across campus a couple times and downtown for a celebratory meal.

J. had quite the snazzy outfit, as is to be expected.  Unfortunately, we didn’t really think to capture what was under his regalia.  He wore the pants and shirt from his Banana Republic interview suit with owl cuff-links and a purple and fuchsia bow tie, which happened to match his celebratory drink perfectly!

Sources:

• Dress: Ann Taylor Loft, lengthened by me
• Obi belt: from another dress
• Patterned wedges: Kenneth Cole, via DSW
• Necklace: Figs and Ginger, Mothers Day gift

End Notes:

An extra look from the weekend, making a delayed appearance…

The last time I blogged this dress, it was a solid — and extremely comfortable — gray. Since then, I decided that I would get more wear out of it if I lengthened it a tad to make it more amenable to biking and sitting on the floor with my toddler. I had another jersey dress in my donate pile that thankfully had a similar skirt fullness, so I just cut off a good wide band from the purple dress and stitched it on to the bottom of my gray dress. As an added bonus, I get to claim that I’m participating in the world of color blocking.

And here is my super secret tip for making all jersey outfits feel more polished: accessorize or layer with a non-jersey fabric. Here, a raw silk obi helps elevate an otherwise shapeless and relatively plain dress. But adding a silk or woven cotton scarf, throwing on a structured jacket, or topping everything off with a woven vest could have a similar effect. I am all for as much jersey as possible, but sometimes, when I need that extra bit of put-togetherness, a non-jersey accessory offers a simple solution without compromising comfort. How do you dress up your jersey?

Sources:

Top – Olian, via consignment store
Skirt – Liz Lange Maternity, via consignment store
Tank – BE Maternity
Red wedges – vintage Etienne Aigner, thrifted
Bangle – H&M years ago
Earrings – made by me
Sunglasses – my husband’s
Bag – Dots, back in high school when I worked there :)
Bike – 1970s Peugeot Mixte
Helmet – Giro

Endnotes:

Well, you may have noticed that I’ve been somewhat sparse around here lately. A variety of reasons are to blame for this: First, I’m done teaching and so I no longer have to dress up for work every day. Add to that the fact that as my belly’s growing, my wardrobe continues to shrink, and the fact that most days my activities consist of writing at my kitchen table, taking my dog on walks on the nearby trail, meeting friends for walks, or going to prenatal yoga. For all of these aformentioned activities, I’ve been happily donning comfortable workout shorts and my husband’s t-shirts (I’ve outgrown most of mine). So as you can see, not really blog-worthy material.

But the truth is that I wouldn’t want it any other way. It’s been a busy academic year and I’ve still got a heavy writing load to tackle before the baby is due (along with finally getting her room ready, something we’re just now getting started on), so it’s a relief to be able to slow down and take it easy on other fronts. I love being able to just get up and stay in comfortable sweats all day if I’m only going to be walking my dog, writing from home, or lounging on the patio reading. Life is all about ebbs and flows and this is definitely my time to enjoy the ‘ebb’ of being a stay-at-home pregnant woman.

As you can see, I did get dressed yesterday as I biked to my 30 week doctor’s appointment. And it was fun to pull our this funky print shirt that I found on my consignment shop trip with E. a while back, which feels way to fun to waste on a day of dog walking and backyard lounging. I also wiggled my feet into shoes other than Birkenstocks (but let me tell you! It was hard getting that buckle fastened. I almost gave up. It wasn’t that they didn’t fit, it was that in order to put them on, I had to bend down and clear this huge belly that made it nearly impossible to reach the clasp and fasten it). And so I did enjoy a day of looking polished and presentable. But today I’m happily back to cut off (maternity) jean shorts, a tank top, those easy to slip on Birkies, and my backpack as I bike to the library for an afternoon of writing. Right after I go walk my dog in decidedly non-red wedge shoes. ~ S.

Sources:

• Cardigan: Target
• Tank: Old Navy
• Skirt: thrifted maternity dress, cut into skirt
• Belt: Old Navy
• Shoes: Steve Madden
• Bracelet: gift from A.
• Book: Making Face, Making Soul / Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color,” edited by Gloria Anzaldúa

End Notes:

I seem to have reached my nerdiest plane of wardrobe inspiration yet. I’ve been working with Gloria Anzaldúa’s edited volume, Making Face, Making Soul / Haciendo Caras for the past few days, and it was still sitting on the dining room table when I sat down for breakfast this morning. “I really like these colors together,” I thought. “I should wear them.”

This is a fairly loose interpretation of the book cover’s color scheme (largely because I don’t really have anything in that yummy deep purpley magenta that still fits) and I doubt that anyone I see today will exclaim, “Hey, you look JUST LIKE the cover to Making Face, Making Soul!” Still, it makes me happy to be wearing a kind of secrete homage to a book full of writings that I love.

Anyone want to join me? If you’re inspired to create a book-cover outfit in the next week, leave a comment or send us an e-mail (chic at academichic dot com) of both your book of choice and your sartorial interpretation. We’ll feature submitted outfits the following week.

I leave you with one of my favorite methodological mantras in the book, from Maria Lugone’s contribution to the volume, “Playfulness, ‘World’ Traveling, and Loving Perception,” a moving and accessible essay about adopting an attitude of playfulness in order to know other women’s worlds:

Playfulness is, in part, an openness to being a fool, which is a combination of not worrying about competence, not being self-important, not taking norms as sacred and finding ambiguity and double edges a source of wisdom and delight.

Sources:

• Coral cardigan: Banana Republic Factory (from last post-partum)
• Striped tank: Target
• Belt: thrifted
• Skirt: Mimi Maternity, via eBay (from last pregnancy)
• Orange pumps: Dolce Vita, via solestruck.com
• Necklace: Figs and Ginger, Mother’s Day Gift from husband N. and little e.

End Notes:

There’s a lot of almost-not-quite sentiment wrapped up in this outfit. I wore it when proctoring my students’ final exam on Monday, meaning that my semester is almost-not-quite over as I’m currently wading my way through stacks of blue books. Then there’s the color combination of a coral cardigan and orange shoes, almost-not-quite matchy matchy or clashy clashy. (Incidentally, I like that I managed to wear the same shoes on both the first and last days of this academic year.)

Even this cardigan is an almost-not-quite. It almost-not-quite fits me when I’m a year post-partum. It’s too big on top and falls at an awkward length on my torso, meaning that I cycled it out of my rotation. But when I’m preggers or just-post-preggers, it hits just below my new, higher waist and provides adequate space for uh, newly ample bust. Behold:

Back to my theme. I am almost-not-quite halfway through a draft of the first chapter of my dissertation. I almost-not-quite have a new baby. And I definitely have some other big changes happening on the home front, and we’re currently in the almost-not-quite of those transitions. In the midst of all this, my husband and little e. gifted me with a sweet little necklace for Mothers’ Day this past Sunday, a reminder to cherish the right-now-very-definitely.

Husband N. found it at our local craft alliance, a silver necklace by Figs and Ginger, with three birds on a branch. As little e. tells me every time he sees the necklace: “Mama Bird, Dada Bird, and E-E bird!” It’s a precious, wearable encapsulation of our (now limited) time as a family of three, and as much as I am ecstatic to welcome a new baby into our home there will always be something beautifully special about little e. making me a mama for the first time.

Clearly, our clothes and jewelry can be so invested with memories and significance. What memories do you wear?

Sources:

• Shirt (tunic): French Connection
• Skirt: Calvin Klein outlet
• Belt: mom’s
• Shoes: Tahari via endless.com
• Necklace: Gift

Endnotes:
I believe that one of the most fun things in life is twirling around while wearing a very full skirt. This skirt lends itself to playful swishing, swooshing, and all out spins. I had wanted to wear this shirt/tunic again, and I realized that the teal and lavender of the shirt would look great with this skirt and obi belt.

I’m sorry I haven’t been writing very lengthy posts lately, but much like everyone at this time of year, I’m crunched for time as the academic calendar winds down and tests, papers, and projects roll in my door. Sometimes a bright, sun-shiny top, or pop of color, or comfortable stand-by is what gets me through. Other times a full, fancy, almost bustled skirt will do the trick and I can twirl, twirl, twirl myself right into a happy mood. It makes me think I’m a carefree kid again – not like I was exactly twirling around as a kid all the time – but again, too many cotton commercials have conned me into believing that I wore cute summer dresses and spent lazy afternoons rolling down grassy slopes and swinging around to see my skirt flutter around me. Even if it didn’t happen, isn’t it ok to dream? As Miriam Toews put it in her beautiful novel A Complicated Kindness, “The stories that I have told myself are bleeding into a dream, finally, that is slowly coming true… Is it wrong to trust in a beautiful lie if it helps you get through life.”

What do you all think? If we’re talking about more than mixing up your memories, is it wrong to trust in a beautiful lie if it helps you get through life? What “lies” do you believe in?

L.

Sources:

• Top: thrifted new, Target
• Necklace: Old Navy
• Jeans: Old Navy Maternity
• Wedges: Kenneth Cole Reaction, via DSW

End Notes:

While I may not have watched the royal wedding, I did have a conversation or two about the millinery confections adorning women’s heads at the event. Relatedly, a couple of folks sent me links to the pregnant Victoria Beckham’s outfit for the day, including comments like “Egads, the SHOES!” and “Is she actually pregnant?”

In a very, very loose way (pun intended), today’s outfit is for you, Victoria. See, I’m doing the drapey thing and I’m doing the boatneck thing and I’m even doing the very tall heels thing (and though you beat me by three inches or so I’d submit that my cork wedges are far superior in comfort to your eight inch platform stilettos). Although this shirt is not my usual bump-hugging fare, I am appreciating the drape for its more subtle approach, and by wearing it backwards to create a scoop back effect I’m even adding a little bit of sexy into a day to day look.

While it’s a simple look overall, I’m tricking myself into thinking that it’s far more glamorous given its point of inspirational origin. Now what I really need is an awesome fascinator…

Sources:

• Cardigan – Banana Republic
• Tank – thrifted
• Belt – Gap
• Skirt – Gap
• Wedges – Kenneth Cole Reaction
• Earrings – Island souvenir
• Bangle – Gap Outlet

Endnotes:

I feel like this is a very me outfit – I’m wearing my favorite wedges, my workhouse cardigan, by beloved full pinstriped skirt, and of course, stripes are the one pattern I wear a fair amount of.  But, I have to admit, this outfit was totally inspired by E.  I loved how she paired her vertically striped skirt with her horizontally red and white striped top and finished the look off with heels and and a cardigan  As soon as I saw it I knew I would be recreating it soon.

I thrifted this red and oatmeal striped tank with a ruffle detail last month with this outfit in mind.  I think it even mimics the fun detail E. added with the flower earring as broach.

I of course stuck with a mix of neutrals and added a belt to make it a bit more me, but I did add a yellow bangle as another nod to E.’s style. I even captured some wind blown shots, though nowhere near as glamorous as E.’s Marilyn Monroe meets Nike of Samothrace.

Thanks as always for the inspiration E.!

How about you readers, do you so unabashedly copy your friends’ style?

Sources:

• Dress – Banana Republic
• Tank – J Crew
• Necklace – made from an earring bought in China Town, SF
• Earrings – Banana Republic
• Wedges – Kenneth Cole Reaction, via DSW

Endnotes:

The sun has finally come out for more than an hour!  I’m celebrating with open toed shoes! It’s still very humid but I’ll take it.

I bought this dress on super sale in the Fall and have worn it several times, but just never managed to capture a picture of it.  It’s a great simple dress in a lovely shade of grey.  Jersey dresses make life easier.  They are comfortable AND polished and they make getting dressed in the morning quick and painless – just add shoes and accessories.  That being said, not all jersey dresses work for me and I won’t wear any jersey dress with out wearing my spanx.  In comment on one of E.’s jersey dress posts reader Holly asked about our use of shapewear when wearing jersey.   I can’t speak for the other chics, but I love my spanx and my knock-off spanx and am not comfortable in a jersey dress without them.  Jersey shows everything!  For this dress I wore my thicker knock-off spanx I purchased at Target a few years ago because I really wanted a smooth line but wasn’t worried about the dress being too tight.    What about you?  What kind of shapewear do you use and with what garments?

For my little pop of color in this neutral palette I wore my neck jade-colored pendant.  I bought this pair of jade earrings from a street vendor just outside China Town in San Francisco.  I loved the shape and color and thought they would be a great addition to my short-hair earring collection.  Unfortunately, they are way too heavy – they stretch my earlobes (which I’m worried could have permanent effects).   So, I just removed the earring hook and strong the pendant on a silver chain…voila I have a new statement necklace!

Ok, one more day of classes!  I can do it!  Hope the semester is wrapping up nicely for all of you!