I love a good pencil skirt outfit, and I thought this combination of floral top, bold solid pencil skirt, bright shoes, and subtle statement necklace [can that even be a thing?] was a nice inspiration. Her ensemble was in a cheerful, summery palette, appropriate to her July 2015 outfit-of-the-day, but I decided to adapt it for this early fall season.
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| From apocketfulofpolkadots.com |
I started with a dark green/maroon floral top that I purchased on a thrift store outing with my mom--it's probably my most autumn-ish floral option. I decided that the red pencil skirt went well with the maroon flowers, and I stuck with red for the shoes as well. Rather than a small crystal necklace (which I don't have), I wore my hammered silver one. This was all well and good but I thought the outfit was just missing that something...oh yes, the near-obligatory top layer!
Dark green/maroon/black floral knit top (thrifted, Kohls), $2.50/wear
Red skirt (JCP), $2.38/wear
Red buckle flats by Me Too, $2.14/wear
Black open weave cardigan vest (Kohls), $1.84/wear
Hammered silver necklace (JNY), $2.06/wear
Outfit total: $10.92/wear
With the addition of a cardigan vest, this outfit went from Good to Great. Man, wouldn't that make a great book title?
Also, I only realized when I saw the photos that I'd mixed a silver necklace and shoes with gold buckles. Luckily, mixing your metals is a recurring recent trend (I found articles on this topic from 2008 through 2016) so no worries.
I thought this dusky bunny would make a good accessory to my outfit. Do you think he could be convinced to ride on my shoulder like a parrot in a pirate movie?
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| His answer: All the nope. |
In other news...This is a good list of universal fit challenges for women's clothing. I particularly struggle with the first two:
(1) Dresses [and I would add skirts as well] meant for an office environment that are too short. I am on the tall side of average, not a giant, and I run into this all the time. I have several dresses and a few skirts that I have to reserve for (our admittedly long) tights season because they are definitely too short. I hear people complaining about this on blogs all the time.
(2) Jacket sleeves that are too tight. I thought maybe that was just me because of my massive guns (hah but also not) but apparently it's a common problem.
Do you have any fit problems that weren't on the list?
Re: yesterday's post title--Poisonous Pokemon in My Bathroom: Ever since Robert caught two poisonous Pokemon in our bathroom over the weekend, I have had this phrase, sung in a particular way, stuck in my head. Be glad that it is not easy for me to share this (poisonous?) ear worm with you. It's a bad one.
7 comments:
"Plus size garments that are too long in the...rise." All the yes. I think some of these pants are meant to be worn at what's called the 'natural waist' (i.e., high up like in the olden days), but if I pull my pants up that high, I look like Tweedle Dee. There's really only one location on my body that a trouser waist can go without either looking or feeling terrible - the indentation that is under my belly, not above it - so I need pants to fit correctly when worn there.
The bunny is looking at us like - are you serious?
Tam, hah, the Tweedle Dee look is not a good one!
Mom, poor bunnies, having to deal with such ridiculous humans.
My biggest "universal" fit problem is the plunging necklines. If there is a way that I can arrange a top so that my boobs are actually hanging out the top, I'm not getting it. (I may be exaggerating, but still. There's also the leaning-forward problem. I think sometimes you're supposed to wear yet another shirt underneath or something).
The too-tight sleeves seems fairly recent (last ten years?). They really think everyone has stick arms?
And yet also the giant arm holes on sleeveless things. Though I could often take care of the plunging neck line and giant armhole problems by just taking up the shoulders a couple of inches.
I used to have real problems getting tops that were small enough. Extrapolating back, I sometimes calculated that I wanted a size negative 4 or something ridiculous. (Again, my added cushioning is helping me now.) I could wear kids' sizes, but not long-sleeved ones; the sleeves were too short. Except sometimes on boy's shirts. Why can't we just have a large range of sizes? I can see why they're trying to make it so regular sized people can actually fit into regular sized clothes, but I did also like being able to wear clothes that fit.
Not on the list:
One-piece swimsuits that are too short. I have a small torso, so if *I* think it's too short, wouldn't everyone? Or maybe our boobs are supposed to be hanging out the top and/or our butts are supposed to be hanging out the bottom? Uh, no, thanks. Once I bought a size 3 dress and a size 12 swim suit on the same day. (The dress had a flaired skirt, so I could buy for my waist size.) How do regular-sized people buy swim suits? Ugh.
Bra sizes. They say you get the number by measuring under your boobs and adding 4. So, 28 + 4 = 32 = a real number found in stores. Victory is mine! Then measure around the biggest part of your chest, and for every inch bigger than your number, increase it a letter. So for a 32, 33" = A cup, 34" = B cup, etc. My chest measurement used to be 30", so that's what, negative B? I really did stick out, though!
Getting both the waist and the hips to fit/not being allowed to have a small waist. Now that I have a lot of extra padding I don't need on my waist (and only a little extra padding I don't need on my hips), it's much easier. But in my early 20's, I noticed that even teen boys (co-workers at K-mart) had the problem of not being allowed to fit clothes to their small waists--they could tuck a pricing gun in the back of their pants.
Debbie, I hear ya on the plunging necklines. This is especially ridiculous when it's on something summery, when you don't want to wear a camisole under it or a scarf over it because of the heat, that is clearly made for work.
Too-tight sleeves is crazy--it's not like people have gotten more stick-like arms over the last 10 years.
It's been too long since I've bought a one piece swimsuit to comment on that--I'm glad that it's now so easy to get a non-bikini two piece so you can size each part independently (and avoid the shortness problem you mention).
Bra sizing is impossible. I have given up on trying to figure out my own sizing. I just go to Nordstrom and let the nice saleswoman figure it all out.
My days of bemoaning the small waist issue are also past me, but that was such a hassle in my younger days (until about 5 years ago). I wonder whether teenage boys still encounter this issue or whether that was a product of the horrible pants people wore in the 80s.
Hmm, pants used to be tight in the late 70's and early 80's. Now they are crazy baggy. I can't help imagining that if a guy tucked a price gun in the back now, it would just fall all the way through.
Hah, now there's a mental image.
Yeah, I hadn't thought about it, but modern-style pants are looser in the waist than they were back in the day (though they seem tighter in the hips and legs).
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