Spotlight On: Back to School Clothing Swap (Part II)

Posted on | October 1, 2009 | 1 Comment

Last month we did a spotlight post announcing a Back to School Clothing Swap in Boulder Colorado.  As promised, we’ve asked co-hostess @gwenbell to write a follow up post, including  a how-to.  If you are planning a similar event, let us know – we would love to do a spotlight on it!

How to Hostess a Clothes Swap

It was a pleasurable evening of wine sipping, clothes swapping and laughing. Liz (http://lizfranco.com) and Sarah (http://sjoystudios.com) flew in from the West and East Coasts, respectively, and together we greeted our guests as they started coming in. The event lasted about two and a half hours and we had about twenty-five women join us.

Your Co-Hostesses @sarahjbray @srslyliz @gwenbell, originally uploaded by gwen bell.

Liz Waits for Guests, originally uploaded by gwen bell.

Thank you for joining us!, originally uploaded by gwen bell.

Sorting, finding, originally uploaded by gwen bell.

@4580 hosted the swap, originally uploaded by gwen bell.

Spotlight On: Back-To-School Clothing Swap

Posted on | August 26, 2009 | 5 Comments

Gwen explains how the clothing swap works:

You show up with those items of clothing needing a new home (you know the ones I mean, the ones in your closet that you bought and thought you’d love but don’t) (it stands to reason that if it was once rad to you it might be rad to someone else).

You come ready to have fun. You try on clothes, swap, remix your wardrobe with some ultra-fashionable ladies.

To find out more about the event, including how it works, how it got stated, and who it benefits, check out Gwen and Liz’s sites.  While unfortunately none of us Chics will be able to make it to this fabulous event, we will be covering it here on Academichic so be sure to check back for a full report on what promises to be a fantastic evening of fashion, clothing, and fun and latter for  a DIY post on how to organize your own clothing swap.

19 June 2009 – Coffee Date

Posted on | June 19, 2009 | 6 Comments

  

19 June 2009 – Coffee Date, originlly uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

On S (all remixed but dress!):

• Dress – Ann Taylor, thrifted in San Fran recently!
• Yellow belt – J.Crew 
• Yellow bag – Garage Sale find 
• Black cardi – thrifted
• Sandals – Target 
• Bangle – Big Lots 

On Erika:

• Top – Anthropologie 
• Skirt – J. Crew 
• Sandals – Merrell 
• Pearl necklace – Gift from parents 
• Sand bracelet – Souvenir from South Korea 

Endnotes:

Today I got to have a coffee date with one of our lovely readers, Erika, who’s also a fellow PhD in the Humanities. Erika’s hometown happens to be the same city in which T. resides – and what a happy coincidence for me because I got to spend a wonderful afternoon with her at one of the local coffee shops. We had a great time chatting about everything from philosophy to skirt lengths to cycling in Paris and body dysmorphia in dogs. Unfortunately, Erika returns to the city of her current university and I’ll be forced  to once more spend my days reading and working, instead of pleasantly chit-chatting about the consequences of riding bikes the wrong way down a six-lane street in France or about the aesthetic appeal of Hamilton, Ontario (not much!). 

Then, Erika allowed me to exploit her wonderful sense of style for our site:

         

After a well spent couple of hours, I had to take off since T. and I had plans to attend a work-related function for him. Since today was spent meeting Erika and then T’s colleagues, I figured it was the right time to pull out the other item I thrifted at the Haight Street Goodwill in San Francisco on my recent trip there: this bright pink halter dress. For a summery color mix, I added a mustard yellow belt, my new favorite yellow bag and, of course, Nerp.  

Thanks, Erika, for a great coffee date! S. 

    

10 June 2009

Posted on | June 10, 2009 | 9 Comments

10 June 2009, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

All remixed except bangles

• Blue Cami – Gap
• Brown Cami- Gap
• Skirt- Thrifted, originally from F21, altered by me
• Belt- BR Outlet
• Bangles – San Francisco Souvenir from S.

Endnotes:

The weather is still pretty hot and humid here so tanks and skirts or sleeveless dresses are dominating my wardrobe these days.

I’ve written a bit about the role of accessories in my wardrobe and asked for your feedback as well.  Many of you mentioned building outfits around an accessory, most often shoes it seems.   I received these lovely bracelets from S. as a gift from San Francisco and knew I just had to wear them right away.  This outfit was built around these beautiful wooden bangles:

Bangles from S., originally uploaded by academichic.

The skirt I am wearing was a little (impromptu and hasty) DIY project; I cut the top off of a thrifted dress.   I wore this piece as a dress back in March and wrote about my many problems with it, not the least of which was that it was just too short for my comfort level.  I literally took a pair of scissors and cut right above where the elastic empire waist used to be.  It now has to sit pretty high on my wist to be the right length, which means, I end up with an unsightly bulge around my middle.  It also, rather unflatteringly, bubbles out form the elastic, giving me a large puffy rear!

I still love this pattern and am not yet giving up and turing it into scrap for another baby onesie.  But, I need help form all you creative readers out there.    Any ideas?  Here is its current iteration, in the raw:

DIY, in need of more DIY, originally uploaded by academichic.

22 April 2009 – Contradictions

Posted on | April 22, 2009 | 15 Comments

   

22 April 2009 , originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

• Jacket – J.Crew 
• Blouse – thrifted, remixed 
• Jeans – thrifted 
• Sandals – Target, remixed 

Endnotes:

Browsing though A.’s J.Crew catalog last night while watching Biggest Loser, I noted a common thread throughout their spring line; it’s all about juxtaposing contradictory fabrics (silk, cotton, jeans, chiffon, etc) and contradictory registers (casual, business, evening, etc) for a seemingly incongruous look.  For example, model and Goodwill Ambassador Liya Kebede is wearing the casual ‘boyfriend’ jean with an evening clutch and an embroidered top.  Another image shows her sporting a sequined evening skirt paired with an oversized grey cotton tee.  Yet another contradiction is created between the torn and faded jean with a business-casual cardigan and jacket combo. This latter image was the inspiration for my outfit today.

I would never have paired this old and torn jean of mine with my elegant evening jacket and this blouse. I tend to dress within one register and don’t mix seemingly contradictory items, so this look was definitely new to me. I think it works for a day of meetings, a coffee date with a friend, and my last class as a student in my graduate career! Were it a teaching day, I might not be as bold with the torn jean, wanting to set myself apart from my students a bit more than this look allows. But overall, I like this bit of rogue fabric and register mixing inspired by J.Crew’s spring line, and like A. yesterday, am surprised to find myself pulling off a look I’d normally only admire in the pages of their glossies but would never envision on myself. S.

  

textures/patterns, originally uploaded by academichic.

17 April 2009

Posted on | April 17, 2009 | 9 Comments

  

17 April 2009, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

• White cami – old 
• Pearl necklace – J.Jill, remixed 
• Pale pink top – TJMaxx 
• Skirt – thrifted, remixed 
• Sandals – Target

Endnotes:

The week is coming to an end and so is our “feature your best” module. However, I hope that that the idea behind this module will continue on – that we here at academichic and you, the lovely readers, will continue to celebrate what it is that we/you love about our/your bodies and continue to think of fashion as a way to showcase those features, rather than hide the less appreciated ones. 

To finish my list for this week, I present you with my wild mane. While we both envy E. for her thick, straight, glossy, and pretty much always-perfect -with-no-work-or-product-whatsoever hair, A. and I have more of a love-hate relationship with our locks. My hair is  wild, curly, with great frizz-potential, and until recent years I have had no idea what to do with it.  Now I celebrate its fullness and volatility. I wear it curly in the summer when I can’t stand the heat of the blow-dryer to straighten it, and I wear it straight in the winter, when the heat of the dryer and straightener feel so good.  Often I pull it back, but sometimes I let it fly in a state of crazy inbetween-ness of neither straight nor curly nor any particular style at all. S.

  

17 April 2009, originally uploaded by academichic.

15 April 2009

Posted on | April 15, 2009 | 11 Comments

15 April 2009, originally uploaded by academichic.

The Traveling Scarf!, originally uploaded by academichic.

9 April 2009 – Elongating Lines

Posted on | April 9, 2009 | 8 Comments

      

9 April 2009, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

• Grey tank – Hanes 
• Teal ruffle neck top – Target 
• Necklace – thrifted remixed 
• Jeans – DKNY, thrifted, remixed 
• Red pointy pumps – thrifted, remixed 

Endnotes:

For today’s discussion on Proportions, I’d like to share one more muffinage-reducing, torso-elongating trick. I am 5′5 and 1/2 (yes, that half is important) with average length legs and a short torso. * Because my torso is also pretty up-down, without much of a waist indentation, I run the risk of looking a bit like a square on top. 

To remedy the box-top problem, I ‘borrow’ a bit from my legs to extend my torso. So I basically do the opposite of E., who ‘borrows’ from her torso to extend her legs. 

I do this torso-lenghtening from-the-leg-borrowing maneuver by wearing shirts and tops that hit just mid-thigh.** This creates the illusion of a more evenly balanced top and bottom portion, while the longer line of the top also adds to the illusion of length and slimness on top. And for me, anytime I am emphasizing length over width around my midsection, I know I’m doing something right.  S.

*This is somewhat difficult to detect with the silhouette because my upper thighs touch, making it look like my legs end much sooner than they actually do. If you’ve been working with your own silhouette, make sure you take this into account!

** This works especially well with longer pants over heels, because the borrowed part from the top of the leg is then added right back at the bottom of the leg. 

     

Necklace detail, originally uploaded by academichic.

Post Script: On Monday, I talked about the beauty of the skinny belt in creating a waist for me. Because I have a short torso, I noted that a wider belt stumps my upper body even more, resulting in the little desired impression that I have a head sitting on a belt over two legs. (So I’m exaggerating just a bit…). But following a reader comment on wider belts, I’d like to add that I have found one instance when I actually like the wider belt on me: When using it to break up or cinch the waist of a dress! Because it is breaking up the long line spanning from the neckline to the seam of the dress, and not the much shorter distance of my torso, a wide belt can be just the ticket!  See example below:

    

Seeing Spots, originally uploaded by academichic.

6 April 2009 – Proportions

Posted on | April 6, 2009 | 11 Comments

6 April 2009 , originally uploaded by academichic.   

Sources:

• Grey cardi – thrifted 
• Print top – thrifted 
• Black woven belt – thrifted 
• Black skirt – Old Navy, remixed 
• Yellow beads – were my grandmother’s 
• Grey wedges – Report, via Solestruck.com

Endnotes:

I’m for all intents and purposes what traditional body shape literature calls an ‘apple’. I carry my weight around my midsection and when I gain a few pounds, my arms and legs remain thin, but my waist width takes off (i.e. I gain massive muffinage).

The way in which I’ve found what works and what does not work for me, is by experimenting, experimenting, experimenting. Did I say experimenting? For example, I thought the belted cardigan/jacket/dress look would NEVER work for me, but decided to try it (and to try several belt widths) and have come to actually love what it does for my shape. 

By a methodology called “trial and error”, I have realized that the skinny belt works best for me in creating a slimmer waist line. Because my torso is fairly short, a wider belt tends to stump it even more, but a skinny to medium width belt pulls in the garments I’m wearing to create the illusion of a more defined waist: See today’s outfit, as well as here, here, and here. I also belt fairly high, at the narrowest part of my body. 

And stay tuned for more muffinage-minimizing tips throughout this week!

   

Details, details, originally uploaded by academichic.

25 March 2009

Posted on | March 25, 2009 | 4 Comments

     

25 March 2009, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

• Navy jacket – Forever 21 
• Lacy décolleté top – TJMaxx 
• Trousers – Banana Republic, remixed 
• Red-orange shoes – Matisse, thrifted 
• Earrings – made by me with vintage necklace beads 

Endnotes:

I guess shoes is the theme of our posts today. The reason I’m less reluctant to say good-bye to my winter boots is right here: I present you with more evidence of how good the shoe-thrfiting fairies have been to me. I got these puppies this past weekend,  along with the orange corduroy dress, in exchange for items sold at a consignment store. 

    

Shoes!, originally uploaded by academichic.

They’re putting a little extra pep in my step as I head to campus for a rather long day today. I am very excited though – an event I have been organizing with a colleague for quite some time is taking place on campus today. I hope there is a good turn-out for it and that it triggers some great discussion. Wish me luck! S.

    

Lacey layers, originally uploaded by academichic.

   

Earrings by moi, originally uploaded by academichic.

Contextual

Three feminist PhD candidates at a Midwest university, on a crusade against the ill-fitting polyester suit of academic yore.

Funding

Fellowships

Contact

Curriculum Vitae

Networking

Image Appendix

Subscribe to our feed

Search

Admin

• Log in
• Wordpress
• XHTML