Halloween Challenge

Day 5:  Add a Hat or Scarf (on Your Head) -- 10/31/14

Even though Halloween would actually have been a great opportunity to pull my Tyrolean hat out of storage and wear it to work, I totally didn't think of doing that.  (All hats other than my baseball caps and keep-head-warm-in-endless-winter hats are in a box in our Harry Potter storage room under the stairs because we don't have enough closet space for everything, so it's an out of sight, out of mind situation here.)

As far wearing a scarf on my head...uh, no.  There are numerous women at work who wear headscarves for cultural reasons, and I am just not going to be that clueless white woman in a costume on Halloween that is an act of cultural appropriation. Even if I don't mean it as a costume or an act of appropriation...well, it's on me to not be an ass in this way.  I just don't think I'm going to wear a head scarf to my job ever.  (A scarf around the neck is just right for me.)

(Note: Wearing a traditional German hat is something I would totally feel comfortable with, given that I actually have German heritage and Germans are not exactly a marginalized group in our culture.)

So I substituted my own Day 5 challenge.

Personal Challenge: Wear Halloween Colors

October 31 is pretty much the only day you can wear black and orange together, straight up, and not look totally ridiculous.  (You might look kinda ridiculous but 1. it's Halloween, so kinda ridiculous is appropriate and 2. you look kinda ridiculous in a festive way, which is fun and 3. the holiday color combination is clearly intentional and that helps a lot.)  And I had just won the Goodwill jeans jackpot the previous weekend (seriously, I found like 6 pairs of jeans that all looked great so I had to narrow it down to my favorites because I do not need 6 more pairs of jeans, even after I had donated about 4 pairs of jeans the same day) and bought a pair of very nice, hardly-worn, deep black jeans that were perfect for a casual Friday that was also Halloween.

Black t-shirt (Walmart)
Orange cardigan (thrifted, Eddie Bauer)
*Black bootcut jeans (thrifted, NYDJ)
Black ankle boots (old)
Lion charm necklace (thrifted)

Verdict:  I finally broke the jeans psychological barrier at work!  I don't plan on wearing jeans all the time to work, but I think I will add "nice jeans" to my Friday options.  So far, my "nice jeans" collection consists of these black jeans and a pair of blue trouser jeans I bought at the same time (which I will debut next Friday).  I might want to add a pair of skinny jeans to my wardrobe to wear with tall boots, but these two pairs are plenty to be getting on with.  As for this specific outfit, I will probably never wear it again, but I enjoyed it as a comfy festive Halloween outfit that was not a costume.  (I actually did not see anyone at my workplace in a full costume, though one woman in my department wore an orange Halloween-themed sweatshirt/sweater with black jeans and I saw a couple of people in cat-ear headbands and the like.)