academichic

Sources:

Bike tee – J.Crew
Cardi – free from swap
Skinnies – ON Maternity
Loafers – Michael Kors, thrifted
Bike – 1969 Raleigh Sports
Helmet – Nutcase

Endnotes:

It’s no secret that I’m somewhat bike obsessed. Ok, maybe a little more than somewhat. So you won’t be surprised to see that one of my favorite tees is one with a graphic print of a bike on it. I got this shirt on clearance at J.Crew at the end of last summer, only to open one of my gifts on Christmas morning and find that my mom had gotten the same tee for me at J.Crew as well. I guess she knows me pretty well. Having two of this one very loved t-shirt makes me willing to stetch one out and turn it into a maternity top.

And speaking of J.Crew, have any of you seen this recent article regarding a picture in the J.Crew catalog that’s apparently causing quite a stir? The image in question is one of J. Crew creative director Jenna Lyons and her young son engaging in a supposedly questionable activity… painting her son’s toenails pink. According to the news article, social conservatives are calling the piece “transgendered child propaganda.”  (The implications here being also that transgendered people should be shamed and not embraced). The claims range from suggestions that the young boy will need psychotherapy to recover later in life to accusations that J.Crew is exploiting the youngster to promote their “liberal, transgendered identity politics“. A bit much, right?

{image source}

We’ve talked in the past about how fashion is a powerful tool in perfoming gender and identity, be it in terms of race, sexuality, class, or ethnicity. We’ve also talked about how these accoutrements of fashion are used by adults to enforce gender performance in young children. This article is a perfect example of our culture’s obsession with visibly marking children as either male or female, feminine or masculine. The binary that shall not be disturbed.

As my husband, the feminist, pointed out – what if it had been black nailpolish on the little boy? Would that have caused as big of a stir? What is it about pink that is especially prickly when it comes to men adopting it? And what if the image had shown a little girl dressed in a baseball outfit? Would that kind of crossing of traditional gender boundaries have caused such an aggressive response? Even within culturally imposed gender norms, some boundaries are clearly more flexible than others.

To credit my husband with one more astute observation – that little boy is growing up with his mother greatly involved in the fashion industry. He likely observes her work with fashion much of the day. Nailpolish, an accessory, is just an extension of her daily work accoutrements. He most likely just wants to be a part of his mother’s life and involved with the things she’s passionate about. His wanting his nails painted should more likely be viewed as an extension of his love for his mother and his desire to share in her interests and activities. It’s sad that such a sweet demonstration of mother-child enjoyment is being demonized like this. Jon Stewart agrees with me, he also had a few things to say on the topic.

Perhaps you don’t agree and are oppsed to little boys wearing pink nailpolish. If that’s the case, I’d love to hear why that is. I welcome discussion from all perspectives on it and I hope that my making it clear where I stand on this debate doesn’t discourage others who disagree to chime in with their response. What is your take on the J.Crew image and the consequent media response to it? – S.

Sources:

Paisley top – dollar clearance at consignment store
Red-orange cardi – Zara many years ago
Skinnies – ON Maternity
Loafers – Michael Kors, thrifted
Earrings – made by me
Bike – 1970s Peugeot Mixte

Endnotes:

It feels like Spring is finally coming to my corner of the Midwest and it’s been great in terms of wearing lighter layers and – finally – shoes that aren’t boots! It’s so nice to just pull on a pair of jeans, a top, and a cardi and hop on my bike to ride to campus. The last time I wore this paisley top, I pulled off some bold pattern mixing with a striped cardigan. This time, I worked off the specs of red in the design and added a bright red-orange cardigan.

It’s funny to look at these pictures and think that I do not look very pregnant at all. While in other pictures, my belly looks huge. I’m now 24 weeks pregnant, over half way there. The last time I brought up the discussion of pregnancy in academia, a very lively discussion ensued, which you can find here. In that last post, I mostly talked about the reactions of colleagues and ‘superiors’, while today, I’d like to just briefly talk about my students’ reaction to my growing belly.

I noted last time that I thought my students were wonderful. They’ve asked lots of questions and showed much interest in talks before class. But once class starts, I haven’t noticed any difference in the level of concentration and ability to stay on topic. I’ve heard academics talk about how the pregnant body can be a source of distraction in the classroom, but I’m not sure how this would play out. I’ve really enjoyed my students’ thoughtful questions and comments and I’ve been happy to share little details about the baby with them. But once class begins, we’re business as usual. And I’m definitely very visibly pregnant ‘in real life’ now, no matter how deceiving these photos look.

Just like last time, I invite you to share your observations, experiences, and comments on this topic. Have you been the inhabitant of a pregnant body in the classroom? What were your experiences with this? S.

Sources:

Red cardi – free from swap
Dress turned tunic – Old Navy
Jeggings – TJMaxx
Flats – Joseph Seibel
Necklace – Earring turned pendant
Bike (below) – 1969 Raleigh Sports

Endnotes:

I’ve been wearing a lot of Jeggings on weekends and on non-teaching days. I never thought an item composed of the words ‘leggings’ and ‘jeans’ would enter as frequently into my vocabulary as it has, but given the comfortable fit and forgiving waistline, it’s become a staple in my casual preggers wardrobe.

These pictures were taken last Friday, which is my one non-teaching day of the week. I spent the day first cycling to my midwife appointment, then wasting a bit more time enjoying the warm weather and biking around our downtown, until finally settling into a coffee shop for some dissertation chapter revisions. Jeggings were a perfect fit (literally and metaphorically) for the kind of day I had. I paired them with a summer dress turned pregnancy tunic and comfortable flats and was good to go.

Have you embraced leggings or jeggings as part of your wardrobe? I think it’s great that these items are making a comeback because I loved them as a kid in the 80s/90s and I love them yet again as an adult. But I do have to add that I would never wear them as an alternative to pants while teaching or doing anything that would require me to look professional and I also only wear them paired with tops long enough to cover my bum.

What’s your take on the leggings/jeggings trend? – S.

Sources:

Dress – thrifted and chopped by me
Jacket – thrifted
Belt – thrifted
Necklace – thrifted
Shirt underneath – AE, hand me down
Boots – Dillards
Bike – ’69 Raleigh Sports

Endnotes:

The inspiration for this outfit came while flipping through the last issue of Lucky. The magazine started this fun feature on the last page of each issue, showcasing ‘mom style icons’. (For more, check out My Mom, the Style Icon.) In the March issue, a sassy 70s mom is pictured sitting on the hood of a Renault along with her daughter – the reader, who submitted the photograph.

The outfit is comprised of simple yet eye-catching pieces: a printed navy sheath dress, a fitted brown turtleneck, brown boots and belt, and a pendant on a long chain. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had the pieces in my closet to recreate my version of this look.

So I pulled out this newly thrifted and altered dress and added the brown accessories and called it a day. I love it when I don’t have to stare at my closet in the morning, trying to decide what to wear. We recently had a Weekend Workshop in which we showed how we derive much of the inspiration for our outfits, many of which come from looks we spy in magazines and on TV and then try to recreate using what we already own. As I’m getting bigger each week, I’m really hesitant to add anything new to my closet, not knowing how much wear I’ll get out of anything at this point. So I’m constantly on the lookout for little snippets of inspiration that allow me to get creative with the things I already own (and still fit).

Where do you find your inspiration? Is your mom one of your style icons? ~ S.

Sources:

Scarf – Banana Republic, same one as styled by A. here
Trench coat – my grandmother’s from the 70s
Top – Anthropologie, hand me down
Skinnies – Old Navy Maternity
Loafers – Michael Kors, thrifted
Earrings – gift from A.

Bike – 1969 Raleigh Sports

Endnotes:

It’s Spring Break! And the weather is actually playing nice and making me believe that Spring is coming. Most of our snow has melted and I was actually able to get away with loafers and no socks! While my mornings so far have been happily spent in sweats and pj’s while I sit at home writing my dissertation, I have been getting dressed for brief sojourns out of the house in the afternoons. And this has been my go-to look for break: comfortable jeans, some kind of top, a lightweight Spring scarf, loafers or flats, and my favorite spring jacket – my grandmother’s trench coat.

As a nod to Braid Wednesday, I’m also wearing my hair in two braids wrapped around my head. I usually cross the braids over at the nape of my neck and then bring the ends upwards, pinning them with bobby pins on top of my head…

And if Spring isn’t ready to arrive in ‘real life’, it’s certainly arrived in my wardrobe and in my house. I’m finding myself drawn to floral prints and Spring-inspired accessories (like these tiny bird earrings I’m wearing) even more than usual. T. and I are getting our garden ready and our little seedlings are growing like crazy by the windowsill indoors. We can’t wait to transplant them outside and start our first garden and I can’t wait for bare legs and bike rides without a coat and for summer dresses that will be especially indulgent to my growing midsection.

What are you looking forward to this Spring? S.

Sources:

Blazer – MaxMara, hand me down
Striped sweater – Gap, thrifted
Jeans – ON Maternity
Boots – Banana Republic
Necklace – thrifted
Bike – 70s Peugeot Mixte via Craigslist

Endnotes:

E. is not the only one embracing stripes during her pregnancy. It seems like stripes are everywhere this season and after seeing the lovely Miss James rock them all the way to the end of her pregnancy, I became convinved that they were not to be eschewed just because of that extra belly roundness. In fact, how cute is this…

{image courtesy of Bleubird Vintage}

I’ve also been restocking my patterns because I’m really liking the rich effect of pattern mixing as of late. Although I wear a lot of pattern and don’t shy away from loud or bold prints (E. and A. have joked that I have a bit of a 70s couch aesthetic when it comes to pattern choosing), I don’t often brave the mixing of those. I’ve been clipping lots of pattern mixing images to my desktop inspiration folder and am looking forward to getting more adventurous with pattern this year. A sneak peak into my inspiration file…

{Clockwise from top: Dear Baby, Rockstar Diaries, Lucky Magazine}

It seems that stripes work particularly well with florals, as these clippings demonstrate. Since I own a fair share of florals, this should be a cinch. Do you mix patterns? How do you go about making sure the final result is interesting and rich without seeming overwhelming and dizzying?

On a more serious note, I’d just like to express my great sympathy for all those affected by the Tsunami that hit Japan this morning and then made its way to Hawaii and is continuing towards the coast of California. My heart goes out to everyone in those areas and I’m saddened by the loss of so many lives already. May you and your loved ones stay safe! ~ S.

It was so much fun to revisit my academichic posts from this past year to select a few favorites. It was especially fun since the majority of them came from my time in Europe and looking back on the outfits triggered memories of exciting days spent in Germany, Romania, or Austria. As my year abroad was spent researching my dissertation in the archives of the Bavarian State Library, my outfits for that time period were decidedly casual and low key. I wore a ton of jeans with flats and used scarves and accessories to spruce things up a bit. This type of outfit also doubled wonderfully for travel and sightseeing since it was comfortable and practical for many miles on my feet (see Picture #6 for example, taken in Cluj, Romania).

I was also influenced by the styles seen on the streets of Munich, branching out from my look back home and trying a few new trends such as the short over tights with boots look (Picture #4) or the skinny jeans with heels (Picture #3). I also loved hitting the thrift stores in Munich and added quite a few eccentric vintage pieces to my wardrobe while there, such as this awesome Mod dress (Picture #5), this crazy ‘couch patterned’ 70s shirt (Picture #3), and the little boy’s Tracht vest (Picture #1) seen above.

I still spent much of the year in dresses and skirts as they are comfortable to me, and I figured out that the majority of them are easily made bike commuter friendly (no excuses not to bike to work there! just see Pictures #8 and #9).

I was also thrilled to attend the weddings of a few good friends this summer, which provided the best excuse to get dressed to the nines. I loved wearing this sleek black dress with the bright red and orange pashmina I picked up in Romania to a black-tie wedding in Romania in May (Picture #7). And my favorite wedding outfit I wore to A and A2′s wedding reception in September; this gorgeous green silk halter dress with a beaded neckline and very mermaid-ish feel to it (Picture #10).

Well, and this was it, the last year of pre-pregnancy dressing and pre-baby body :) I can’t wait to see how my style evolves as my baby bump grows. As great as this past year was, I am really excited for this year to come. – S.

Sources:

• Plaid button down – Zara in Germany
• Purple cardi – H&M
• Skinnies – Old Navy Maternity
• Boots – Dillards
• Bike – Mongoose

Endnotes:

Hi everyone! Happy New Year! I hope 2011 is getting off to a good start for you! I bet you didn’t expect me to come back so soon but after my half year sabbatical, I’m once more on the cusp of some major changes and new projects, which have prompted me to return to academichic for a series of posts I’m very excited about…

… maternity posts!

I’m thrilled to announce the news of our baby, due in July of this year! As soon as I found out that I was pregnant, the other Chics and I talked about my return with some maternity wear posts and I was excited to contribute to the dialogue that E. had started while chronicling her pregnancy on this site almost two years ago. She announced her pregnancy in her very first post on academichic (Jan. 2009) and blogged about everything from dressing a changing body, to retaining a sense of identity during this time of flux, to balancing pregnancy, and then motherhood, with work in academia. I loved following E’s journey on here (as I’m sure many of you did) and I would love to continue that line of dialogue during the coming months of my pregnancy.

I’m now at 12 weeks (just finishing my first trimester) and feeling pretty good. I’ve already switched to elastic waistband maternity pants and I love them. Honestly, I don’t know how I will ever be able to go back to regular waistband clothing. I’m going to try to make most of my existing wardrobe transition into maternity wear and, barring these and two other pants bought from Old Navy Maternity, I hope to reign in maternity spending and to make do with my current closet and thrift store additions. (Stay tuned for a DIY on skinnying maternity jeans found at Goodwill!)

I’m looking forward to talking about pregnancy style and motherhood in academia on here and I will be posting in more detail on cycling, running, and staying fit during pregnancy on my other site: Simply Bike. Join me there as well if that’s something that is of interest to you. I’m very excited about this little ‘nugget’ and I can’t wait to share this journey to motherhood with you!

Sources:

• Navy button down – H&M
• Blue skirt – $1 consignment store sidewalk sale
• Belt – H&M
• Boots – Banana Republic
• Bike – 1968 Raleigh Sports
• Pin – Campus event some time ago

Endnotes:

Yesterday was National Coming Out day in the US and my co-blogger A. wrote a powerful post on why it’s important to come out – as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or as an ally. So I spent yesterday coming out as an ally. I wore my ‘ally’ rainbow pin all day, while teaching and while running around and getting things done on campus.

Now I know that coming out as an ally is an entirely different thing from coming out as any of the other identities making up the LGBTQIA acronym. But given all the recent events and tragedies related to campus and school bullying, I think it is all the more important for straight as well as queer adults to show their ‘ally’ presence. We need to show students that we support and embrace all the different identities present on campus and in the schools of our communities.

I really enjoyed reading the comments on A’s post from yesterday and I was particularly struck by Katie‘s comment that said:

“On the one hand, I love that there’s a National Coming Out Day. On the other, it really bothers me. It bothers me because because the whole act of coming out reaffirms the notion that “straightness” is the default to be expected. And that coming out is a step that has to be taken (and taken on by the individual most effected), rather than simply being who and how a person is. As you mention yourself, coming out is not a one-time process: the person who comes out has to keep doing it, again and again”.

I understand exactly what Katie is saying and I agree that there is a sad side to the whole Coming Out Day celebration. Ideally, there would be no need for such a day. Ideally, we would all be equal – isn’t it sad that ‘being equal’ is a utopian dream? – and no one would need to come out because there wouldn’t be a mainstream identity from which a rupture or departure were necessary. But as Katie and A. both noted, a queer identified individual is forced to come out and to do so repeatedly, constantly calling attention to zir so-called ‘otherness’.

I know that as a straight identified female, I cannot begin to understand what it means to occupy this queer location in our culture. And so, once more, I recognize that coming out as an ally is an entirely different action. But I want to pick up on this point made by A. and Katie both – that coming out is a process that has to happen again and again.

And I’d like to encourage all the allies reading this post to also see their ‘coming out’ as a continuous process that needs to happen over and over. It is not enough for your friends and family to know you as an ally. It’s important to reenforce that message of equality and solidarity in one’s public community as well as within one’s personal life.

I now teach on a much more conservative campus than the campus of my graduate career. And I was a bit worried about how my rainbow pin might be perceived. But in light of the tragic events affecting young people in our communities, I feel that it is precisely on these more conservative academic grounds that a message of inclusion and support needs to be spread. So I came out as an ally yesterday and I will continue to come out as an ally for as long as a ‘coming out’ is a reality for certain groups of people in our heteronormative society. S.

Sources:

• Blouse – gift from mom
• Black skirt – thrifted
• Skinny belt – BR, gift
• Shoes – Antonio Melani
• Bike – 1968 Raleigh Sports
• Helmet – Nutcase

Endnotes:

So I got the job, but now what? Sartorially speaking, that is. Along with questions of how to properly dress for an interview, it might be interesting to discuss how one dresses after the interview – once one has been hired and arrives at the institution in question.

I would love to open this topic up for discussion since I know that many of our readers are already at the faculty stage of their careers. I surprised myself by noticing that I was dressing according to a much stricter self-imposed dress code once I found myself working as ‘Lecturer’ and not ‘Graduate Student T.A.’. I have always been of the mind that dressing professionally instills a sense of decorum and formality in the classroom and, given that I look somewhat young, I have used a more formal dress code to set myself apart from my students and to garner authority…

Since formality and professionalism means different things to different people, I can only offer what these ideas meant to me. As a graduate student, it meant dressing in a way that many undergraduates might deem as ‘dressed up’; skirts, dresses, heels, and slacks. But once the semester began and I found myself establishing my personality in the classroom, the rapport with students unfailingly changed towards a more relaxed and convivial one. Thus, by the end of any given semester, it was not unlikely for me to start mixing in a pair of jeans or jean skirt with my more professional wardrobe choices for a look that was still work appropriate but decidedly more slack in its formality…

This semester, however, while teaching under the more austere title of ‘faculty’, I find myself gravitating towards more professional and somber looks – tailored skirts, fitted and tucked-in blouses, solid colors, or more ‘serious’ prints. I didn’t plan on making this switch but have just found myself instinctually reaching for these items, while saving my more signature ‘whimsical’ looks of florals, jersey dresses, and flouncy skirts for non-teaching days on campus. (On another note, can we discuss my obsession with the Little Black Skirt – putting these collages together made me realize that I may need an intervention).

A typical outfit for me these days…

My thoughts on this are twofold:

- As a graduate student you inhabit a somewhat hybrid space between faculty and undergraduates. While some may want to dress more somber and professional to visually push themselves into that former category, I’ve always found an advantage to letting students see that I am not so far removed from where they are. This kind of connection has often lead to a wonderfully collegial yet still respectful atmosphere in the classroom, which was then reflected in my less formal sartorial choices.

- The institution and context matters! The institution of my graduate days and the institution of my current employment are vastly different places with different cultures and student bodies. Not only do I inhabit a different category in my career now, but I am also doing this in front of a very different classroom crowd. As a result, I feel like I have to enact my professional persona in a slightly different manner. The institutional culture and student body will likely affect how you present yourself, I can see that in my case it has definitely made a difference.

I would love to hear from others who have made the move from graduate student instructor to faculty member on how you have sartorially negotiated this change. Did you notice a difference in your approach to dressing for work? How much of that do you attribute to your change in academic position and how much do you chalk up to a change in institution? S.