academichic

Sources:

• Sequin sweater: DKNY via Beacon’s Closet
• Cardigan: Ann Taylor Loft Outlet
• Jeans: Old Navy Maternity
• Shoes: AM via DSW

End Notes:

First off, my prayers and thoughts are with the thousands of people affected by the tornadoes down South, especially in Alabama and in the Tennessee Valley, near my alma mater. My sisters-in-law are having to cut their semester short because of the damage, but I am so thankful that they are safe.

That in and of itself is a reason to celebrate and added an extra degree of joyful sincerity to my welcoming of my own last day of teaching yesterday. I elected to commemorate the day by dressing down and rocking my disco mama shirt. I think few things say, “Students, I’ve enjoyed teaching you this semester. Best wishes on the final exam,” like a striped sequined shirt. Plus, I was like a mobile dance party any time the sun hit my sparkles just right. It was a big hit with my students…and with little e.

As S. expressed earlier this week, sometimes it’s hard to remain inspired when it comes to dressing a changing body while also juggling a host of other commitments and expectations. I definitely slipped into style doldrums on occasion during my first pregnancy, and this time around I’m trying to have a really good sense of humor about dressing a body that seems to be different every single day (or at different points during a given day). Case in point, I embraced my inner disco ball, emphasizing the bump with shimmering horizontal stripes and accepting the fact that I would call attention to myself all day. After all, one does not frequently see a glittering ball of a pregnant woman on a university campus.

Do you express a playful or humorous side of yourself on occasion through your wardrobe? How do you do so?

In last year’s Fashion 101 on tights, I offered an example of how merely switching out tights could change the entire appearance of an outfit. This year, I thought I’d try out the same idea again, but with a different dress and shoe combination.

(As an aside, I really love the substantial ponte knit and demure shape of this little gray sheath, but it’s significantly shorter than what I usually wear. I don’t think I’ll be teaching in this dress until I let the hem down, but even for running about town over the weekend I felt…abbreviated.)

In any case, onward. The photo above shows the gray dress paired with gray tights. The monochrome scheme does mitigate my hem length issues, and I love how the browns of the belt and boots warm everything up. A touch more interesting than wearing black tights, but still cool and simple.

Next up, patterned tights. Meh. This is probably my least favorite look, not because I don’t like my patterned tights, but because I think they were the wrong value for this medium gray sheath. I think a darker patterned tight would have worked a little better, no?

Given my love of grellow, I definitely wanted to try pairing this soft gray dress with punchier saffron tights. I love the idea of these tights in theory, but sometimes when I wear them I get a little self conscious about maybe looking like I have Muppet legs. Here, though, I think they work well with the warm cognac boots to create a little bit of punch without breaking up my leg line too harshly.

I think this gray and red combination is one of my favorite iterations. Maybe it’s because I feel like I’m channeling some Tania from What Would a Nerd Wear and her “gred”. There’s something classic but fresh and the tights look purposeful, not like a tacked on afterthought.

Finally, blue tights. I was prepared to not like this…but I really do. I don’t usually think of cobalt as being a “spring” color, but there’s a lot of it around this year and I think it’s a little unexpected with the gray and navy.

Do you have a favorite?

Sources:

• Necklace: “Mirari” by Orno Jewelry
• Bracelets: gift
• Ring: gift
• Sweater: Theory via Off 5th
• Yellow tank: J. Crew
• Blue dress (as skirt): Even via Off 5th
• Belt: mom’s
• Tights: Target
• Boots: vintage Charles David

Endnotes:
Hip hip hooray for jewelry week! I have been known to base whole outfits around a single piece of jewelry, wear my favorite pieces when I’m in an especially stressful situation, and to add serious bling to a summer dress. This outfit falls into the first category in that the colors were inspired by the Islamic mosaics and Moorish architecture that also inspire designer Carla Smiley in her Orno Jewelry line.

Smiley, originally from Lebanon, studied architecture in Canada before she designed her first line of silver jewelry. For this ensemble, I started with the necklace that my sister got me for Christmas and then built from there (pun intended). I first came to love these bright geometric mosaics when I encountered a mihrab niche in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC). The bright blues, turquoise, yellows and greens appealed to my eye. For this look I knew I wanted to wear multiple shades of blue and my yellow tank, but the layering that this outfit took on was unplanned. I put on my blue dress, then the tank over it, then tucked the tank into my obi belt so that the dress was now a skirt, and then put my sweater on top to hide the sleeve of the dress/tank and voila! The red tights also made a triad and I couldn’t resist. I actually got a “whow” on this in the dining hall today. I told the person I took that as a complement.

I finished off the outfit with two more pieces of jewelry that are vaguely architectonic. The bracelets, which look very modern in their stark lines and solid weight, are from Santa Fe. The ring, a gift from my sister, is from Peru.

As you can tell, I love jewelry and over the years have collected many necklaces, rings, bracelets, and recently pins. I also am a “beader” and have several necklaces that I strung myself. Be sure to come back on Friday for our give-away surprise and Saturday for my Weekend Workshop on how to make a necklace hanger! Check out more academichic baubles on Flickr. Enjoy the rest of jewelry week!
~L.

Happy Birthday E.!, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

• Tank: J. Crew
• Belt: J. Crew
• Black Skinnies: Anne Taylor Loft
• Shoes: Steve Madden via DSW
• Bangle: Accessorize
• Chalk: Prang Hygieia Assorted Chalk

Endnotes:
Happy Birthday E.! I hope you’re soaking up the sun and surf out in Hawaii with your family to help celebrate your special day! In E.’s honor I used my new colored chalk to make my own little slice of paradise in my classroom (seriously, if you still have a chalk board in your room you MUST try this chalk, it’s amazing). Unlike my attempt to pay homage to A., this outfit for E. came together like clockwork (although my jumping pose took a few tries!)

Happy Birthday Levitation!, originally uploaded by academichic.

I found this mustard yellow top, one of E.’s favorite colors, and immediately knew that I’d wear it for just this picture. One thing that E. has taught me is that staying away from supposedly off-limits colors based on your skin tone or hair or whatever is nonsense.

Embellished Mustard Tank, originally uploaded by academichic.

Another part of my wardrobe that is 100% thanks to E.’s encouragement is my love for skinny pants. She was the first of the three of us to find our now ubiquitous black pants from Anne Taylor, and without her help psyching me up and making the style work for me, I never would have been brave enough to make my “athletic” body embrace this trend. Plus, thanks to all her experimentation and commentary on proportion and elongating or shortening different ratios of leg-to-torso, I now know how to “raise” my own waist with belts, or tucking things in, or wearing higher waisted trousers. Finally, patterned flats.

Patterned Flats, originally uploaded by academichic.

I knew I wanted these to be part of my outfit for two reasons. First, because E. sports some pretty fab pattered shoes (and these ones too) and secondly, because E. is never afraid to wear heels to add on to her already impressive height. While tall girls have been told to wear flats and short girls have been told to wear heels for eons, I support her challenge of these norms and happily wear flats despite being “petite” (aka, under 5’4”). If E. can wear heels, I can wear flats!

My attempt at an "E" pose, originally uploaded by academichic.

Nevertheless, all this is to say that what E. has really taught me is to love and enjoy myself for all that I am. She is comfortable in her own body, confident, stylish, intellectual, witty, and hard working. E. definitely proves that fashion and brains (and a rockin’ sense of humor) can go hand in hand! It was from watching E. and A. dress for classes and department functions that I was bitten by the style bug myself. E. always looks so pulled together and adds some trendy too. She is classy, but a little edgy. And beyond having terrific fashion sense and taking joy in daily dressing, E. (and husband N. too) has shown me great generosity and kindness. Thank you E. for your friendship and guidance over the last few years. Much love and Happy Birthday! xo L.

P.S. how do you do that jumping thing so well???

9 November 2010 – Grellowvy, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

• Cardigan: NY&Co, edited by me
• Navy tank: Target
• Belt: thrifted
• Skirt: Target
• Wedges: thrifted
• Pearl ring: vintage, grandmother’s

End Notes:

Day 2 of 30 for 30.

If gray+yellow is grellow, then can my favorite gray+yellow+navy be “grellowvy”? Or “nagrellow”? Or “gravellow”? Basically, whenever I pull out a gold/mustard/yellow-orange garment out of my closet, my hands grab navy as an accompaniment. It’s practically compulsive at this point.

I would promise you that I won’t wear this mustard cardigan again with navy during the rest of 30 for 30, but I don’t know if I can handle that kind of color reassociation therapy right now.

9 November 2010 – Grellowvy, originally uploaded by academichic.

2010 Academichic – Miss Bling Bling, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

• Blue dress: Banana Republic Outlet
• Orange-yellow scarf: Ferragamo via Filene’s Basement
• Orange-yellow Bling: gifts
• Purple belt: American Apparel
• Purple flip-flops: Nine West

Endnotes:
First, I wanted to voice how much I will miss S! She, E, and A, have worked very hard on Academichic and I am so happy to be a part of this fine group of women!
The title of this post comes from the catcalls of the street vendors in Florence who would entice the foreign students to buy umbrellas, pashminas, or anything with the David on it by yelling “Heyyyyy Miss Bling Bling” as we walked by on our way to school. Somehow I managed to leave Florence with only one pashmina, one umbrella and an apron with David emblazoned across it – all of which have since been lost – but “Heyyyyy Miss Bling Bling” remains my favorite attention getting phrase. This has been a hectic week since I’ve recently moved into my new apartment and have been busy unpacking, assembling furniture, and generally nesting. Despite the inevitable stress of a move it does present an opportunity to assess what things you have and what things you can give up – this orange-yellow rhinestone S-shaped pin was a definite keeper worthy of “Miss Bling Bling” distinction and deserving of a prominent place in my next outfit. It also perfectly matched this citrine ring.

2010 Academichic – Bling!, originally uploaded by academichic.

Additionally, orange-yellow has split complements of blue and purple, both of which are easier colors for me. This blue dress is probably too short to be work appropriate, but hey, it’s still summer where I am, and I don’t start work officially until August 30th! I have paired this bright blue primarily with black in the past, but that’s the great thing about the color wheel challenge – it has really made me expand the range of colors I’m wiling to combine and to think far outside the safe confines of a neutral pallet with occasional splashes of color. It seems to me that this whole exercise has been one in basically just going with it – “it” being showy, close, or seemingly opposite color pairings. Rather than the neat and clean matching with which I was brought up, the last four weeks have been dedicated to pushing myself to be a little off-kilter, break with the usual and do something on the edge.

2010 Academichic – Miss Bling Bling, originally uploaded by academichic.

For some reason the idea of a slant-rhyme comes to mind as an example of something that takes reading aloud, speaking and articulating the words, to really make sense and function as a rhyme. Likewise these outfits needed to be aired, tried out, messed around with in order to broaden my horizons more generally. I think after this I’ll be more likely to think of these kinds of complements and pairings in my everyday attire. But back to this outfit. Once I’d found the pin I knew that I wanted to wear it with this orange-yellow scarf and purple was brought in with the belt and shoes to complete the split complement.

2010 Academichic – Blue-Yellow/Orange-Purple, originally uploaded by academichic.

As reader GingerR asked after E’s post from August 16th, “I noticed that your outfit contains a very small percent of the start color. Any thoughts about how the proportions of color should be balanced and what that does to the quirky effect?” I think personally I’ve been more obvious in my blocks of colors because of this challenge, and so for the sake of fulfilling the color wheel module of the week some of my outfits have had bigger color elements than they might otherwise. If I were to do a redux of this outfit I’d probably ditch the scarf and showcase the pin — maybe placing it directly on the belt for maximum contrast or string it on a simple chain to wear as a necklace. I loved the scarf and pin together, but I would likely wear those two with more neutrals in order for them to have the most pop. I think the proportion of colors should be one or two as dominant and one as accent – mostly because it is hard to equally incorporate that many colors into one outfit without looking like a Kandinsky painting run amok. But that being said, it’s really up to you and what you’re comfortable with or what effect you are trying to achieve. What are your thoughts on proportions of colors? Has this challenge made you think differently about unusual color combinations? What pairings have you come up with?

30 July 2010 – Complements, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

• Top: thrifted
• Cardi: Target
• Shorts: Ann Taylor
• Ring: c/o Lala B Jewelry
• Sandals: Jeffrey Campbell, via Rue La La

End Notes:

In the last few days I went to New York, sans camera, for a whirlwind two and a half day dissertation research trip. I overlapped with A. for half a day, came home, and am now about to embark on a road trip to somewhere-in-Oklahoma for a family reunion with my in-laws. I will say, though, that take-offs and landings (and the very long lead up to both wherein you are not allowed to have tray tables down or lap tops out) is prime outfit-planning time.

I really struggled with putting together a complementary color scheme though, which is a little unexpected since I have worn them before, even when it’s not part of a challenge week. For some reason, though, I was really having a hard time. I think part of the problem was that I initially wanted to stay away from saturated complementary colors and instead play with complements in softer hues: lavender and yellow or peach and blue or something like that.

But you know what? Let’s be honest, I’m a saturated color kind of girl, and I know that I can wear mustard and royal purple well separately…so why not together? I’ll tell you why. Purple and gold are pretty quintessential school colors. Eep. No one wants to walk around looking like a college mascot. Still, I think the ruffles on the purple top and the play of proportion with a longer top and cropped cardigan, keep things from looking too school spirit-y.

La La B Ring, originally uploaded by academichic.

Jeffrey Campbell Sandals, originally uploaded by academichic.

Plus, school mascots don’t wear chunky rings and cutout wedge sandals, right?

Is there a color combination you now avoid because it brings back memories of school colors? Or rival school colors, I suppose.

30 July 2010 – Complements, originally uploaded by academichic.

17 May 2010, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

• Yellow cardigan: Banana Republic Factory
• Saffron tank: Banana Republic Factory
• Olive belt: thrifted
• Skirt: Banana Republic factory
• Patterned wedges: Kenneth Cole Reaction, via DSW

End Notes:

It’s been raining for days on end at Academichic Central, so today I decided to make my own sunshine and bring back out the yellow that I gushed about on my final day of Dress Your Best week.

(Speaking of, we have a series of round-up posts from DYB week coming soon! We continue to be so delighted by how many folks participated, but next year I want to hire a work study student to do all this data organization for us. Ha!)

As I put this outfit together today, I started humming Jack Johnson’s little ditty “Reduce, Reuse Recycle.” Indeed, I did reduce outfit-making anxiety by reusing and recycling items and combinations from previous outfits. This whole silhouette, for example, is very close indeed to the turquoise top, woven belt, and cream skirt that I wore last week. (Yup, I do own the same skirt in two different colors!) And I’ve worn these patterned wedges with this very skirt and saffron top combination. And, yes, I’ve paired this yellow cardigan and saffron top together before as well. Not so many originality points today.

Wedges, originally uploaded by academichic.

Then again, perhaps I could argue that the privileging of originality is a western construct linked with the masculine notion of the male genius and that by foregrounding the repetition and derivation within my wardrobe choices I am inhabiting a third space of style consciousness. Whee! Can you tell my semester is over and I’m on my one week break?!

What role does “originality” play when you’re putting together an outfit? Do you feel guilty reusing past combinations or do you embrace it?

17 May 2010, originally uploaded by academichic.

19 April 2010 – A Pocket Full of Allergy Meds, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

• Dress: self-made from Target tank top and Heather Bailey fabric (tutorial coming soon)
• Belt: Old Navy
• Ruffled cardi: Ann Taylor
• Wedges: Naturalizers, via DSW
• Earrings: gift from husband
• Allergies: courtesy of spring

End Notes:

The best thing about floral print fabrics is that they don’t have pollen. Folks, I am enduring the worst allergy season I’ve ever had, and so even though I finished sewing this dress last week and planned to post it as my weekly floral venture…blogging did not happen.

19 April 2010 – A Pocket Full of Allergy Meds, originally uploaded by academichic.

I have been loving the tank+skirt dresses that have been appearing this spring, but between my height and my long torso-ness, off the rack dresses were predictably too short in length or too abbreviated in torso. I figured that sewing one couldn’t be too hard, and the added bonus was that I got to pick my own floral fabric (this fun little number is “Nicey Jane Picnic Bouquet” print from Heather Bailey.) I’ll have a tutorial up shortly, but suffice to say, this was really quite easy to make, even for a touch-and-go sewer like me.

And it has POCKETS. Who doesn’t love a skirt or dress with little hidden pockets? All the more places to stuff tissues and allergy medicine, right?

A Useful Pocket, originally uploaded by academichic.

I vacillated for a little while over whether or not I wanted to make a faux-two piece dress. After all, I wondered, wouldn’t it be more practical to just make a skirt that can be more easily mixed and matched? And, this isn’t the least bit nursing friendly.

But…seriously, how wonderful to throw on just one piece. Also, this was darn easy to sew and I didn’t have to worry about elastic casings or zippers. Also, I never have to worry about becoming untucked every time I sit down or when I’m on my bike. And, as baby e. grows older and nurses less, it’s sometimes nice to wear something that’s just fun and not dictated by practicality. So maybe I’m rationalizing, but I’ve already found it to be surprisingly versatile in styling potential. You’ll be seeing more of this dress, I’m sure.

19 April 2010 – A Pocket Full of Allergy Meds, originally uploaded by academichic.

Now excuse me while I go chug a quart of water and blow my nose…

12 April 2010, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

• Tie dye scarf: courtesy of Nepali by TMD Designs
• Top: Old Navy
• Skirt: self-fashioned from a pair of undergrad jeans
• Belt: borrowed from another dress
• Orange pumps: Dolce Vita, via solestruck.com

End Notes:

Today’s outfit was — I think — a good example of how little pops of color can liven up an otherwise neutral ensemble of basics. I borrowed this seafoam green belt from another dress, to break up the gray and denim, and then added two different shades of orange, a red orange for the shoe and a yellow orange with the scarf. At first I was so proud of myself for doing a split complementary color combination, but then I consulted my color wheel and realized that it’s not, really. Actually, it doesn’t fit that neatly into any of the color combination modules we explored before. It does, however, kind of remind me of a Cezanne landscape painting, and I can run with that.

(Paul Cezanne, The Bay from L’Estaque, c. 1886, oil on canvas)

And while the outfit still worked without the added swath of yellow-orange:

12 April 2010 – without the scarf, originally uploaded by academichic.

…I really do prefer it with this really lovely bamboo scarf that the generous folks over at Nepali by TDM Designs sent us. I’m loving the lightweight, organic bamboo fiber and the fresh citrus color that’s perfect for spring. Plus, as both Winona’s guest post and the most recent issue of Lucky Magazine showed, tie dye is another spring trend, and Nepali by TDM Designs continues to be spot on both in style and socially responsible business practices.

12 April 2010, originally uploaded by academichic.

(We’ll have an opportunity for you to win your very own tie dyed bamboo scarf from Nepali by TDM Designs very soon, so keep your eyes peeled!)

You may be waiting for me to announce that I have yet another lingering high school misgiving about tie dye’s return to style but…surprise! I’m actually pretty excited. I have great memories of making shibori (basically Japanese tie dye) t-shirts at junior high sleep overs, and I’m tempted to see if my skills remain intact enough to make a shibori tank top or some other such garment. Yes, it’s my Japanese hippie side coming out to play.

12 April 2010 – back, originally uploaded by academichic.