A Sartorial Disturbance in the Force

Not Very Good--Sunday, 8/23/15

Focal item:  beige/white/coral floral skirt

This is another outfit that turned out quite different from my original idea.

You see, in a moment of insanity, I'd purchased a strange cardigan that, well, reminded me of a Jedi costume.  See what I mean?  The wide sleeves, the tie at the waist. 

Ann Taylor has much to answer for

Now, I don't do any Star Wars cosplay [and you know, if I did, I would totally be Han Solo, wearing a normal long-sleeved shirt and a vest anyway--who would you be?], so the applicability of such a garment to my life might seem minimal to you, but I somehow convinced myself that I could make it work in my daily wardrobe.

In this belief, I was mistaken.

I tried wearing it with a full skirt and a long T-shirt tucked in, and it was so, so wrong.  This combination caused a strong disturbance in the Force noticeable to individuals with only the teensiest bit of Force-sensitivity.  Yoda is going to be pissed at me for a long time because this colossal disruption biased the sentinels' testing of potential initiates and lead to dozens of Jedi younglings being admitted to the Academy who do not genuinely have the potential to develop even rudimentary control over the Force.  He's not a dude who likes his time wasted in this manner.

Created on http://www.yodaspeak.co.uk

I did not photograph this horror for fear that the image would foster the emergence of Dark Jedi who make the Sith seem like extremely benevolent Boy Scouts.  I do not want this on my conscience.

So I put away the Jedi Cardigan of Doom for Goodwill donation, untucked my shirt, and put on a normal t-shirt knit cardigan and a sparkly scarf.

And behold, an outfit that is entirely Force-neutral. 

Coral short-sleeved T (Target), $2.33/wear+
Beige/white/coral floral skirt (thrifted, Target), $1.67/wear+
Cream knit cardigan (Kohls), $1.33/wear
White polka dot scarf (Target), $7.12/wear
Gold captoe flats by Anne Klein, $1.08/wear

Outfit total: $13.53/wear

I'm glad that I wore this skirt in a way that was notably different from the last time, even though there are some commonalities (the same shoes, a coral top).  This time I matched the gold on the shoes to the gold polka dots on the scarf instead of gold buttons on the top.  It's the little things.  Me, they please me. Yeesssssss.

In other news...It's been a busy weekend for me with Work the Wardrobe planning because we have only about 6-8 weeks of bare leg weather left until the onset of autumn in earnest.  And since the WtW Challenge ends in mid-April, I cannot count on any bare leg weather between autumn and the end of the Challenge.  So I've been organizing and prioritizing bare leg outfits (i.e., skirts without tights and pants with gold/etc. flats that I will never wear with socks) to wear.  For some of my items, this is the last chance to wear them before the end of the challenge.

I now have outfits planned and photographed for the next 2 weeks!  (I wanted to get ahead by a week because next weekend is all about editing and prepping state fair rabbit photos.  It is going to be insane.)  And I have another 4 weeks worth of detailed outfit ideas organized.

I also spent some time doing preliminary outfit idea generation for the fall and winter months, using my WtW Challenge spreadsheet to help me figure out what items in my wardrobe I haven't yet worn. 

Because of the way I count outfits as I put them together, I estimate that I have about 80-90 outfits left to plan from scratch before the end of the Challenge. 

Here are the counts of items that have not yet made it into any of my planned outfits:

Long-sleeved tops/shirts: 31
Cardigans: 14
Pullover sweaters: 8
Jackets/blazers: 5
Vests: 8
Scarves: 11
Necklaces: 10

I was a bit worried that I'd have more tops/shirts left to use than I had outfits left to design, but I'm actually in really good shape.  Even if I wore the tops/shirts and pullover sweaters separately, that gives me 45 tops to incorporate into 80-90 outfits.  (I have planned outfits for all the dresses now.)

Of course, some of the outfits I plan on paper don't work out when I try to put specific items together (see: Jedi Nightmare outfit), so I end up switching out some of the items or starting over with a different idea altogether.  But I'm feeling good about the margin for error that the 45 tops to 80-90 outfits gives me.

So that was my weekend, living at the intersection of fashion and data geekdom.  How did you spend yours?