V is for Velvet

This vintage velvet dress always elicits compliments. It is the most supple shade of purple and perfect for a cold and gray Valentines Day. Thanks for the love, Loves!

Favorite Winter Dress

Dottir

Lula

This dress is insane. It's basically a full body sweater so it's super cozy and warm, but it's also knit with metallic gold thread, so it's fancy? It's not terribly flattering either. It's bulky and the white and gold shades wash out my complexion, but when we hit this part of winter, all I want is this dress.

Ode to Experimentation

The following outfits are experimental. While I love experimenting with clothes, it hardly ever results in a perfect outfit. Here are a few examples of what I consider to be flubs:

Dottir

I've had this sweater dress hanging in my closet for over a year now and this is the first time I've worn it. I find the design of this dress to be a little baffling. It's a heavy knit, turtle neck mini dress with cap sleeves. In what climate is this appropriate? I also find the bright orange color to be a little overbearing. Yeah, you heard me right. Overbearing.

I decided to try it out by layering the dress over my trusty, long-sleeved slip dress, some sweater tights and leg warmers. This worked out ok to keep me warm, but I think I overdid it with the colors. If I wear this dress again, I might swap in gray tights for the blue to tone it down a little. 

Lula

Here's another dress that I'm wearing for the first time. I like it a lot layered with this vest, but next time I should rethink the tights and shoes. These red tights were old, with busted out elastic and I spent the entire day pulling them up to my waist where they belong. They are now in the trash, so I have no choice but to wear different tights the next time I try this outfit. As for sandals in January...I don't know, we all make mistakes.

Jovy Rockey

How many turtlenecks are too many turtlenecks? I think the answer might be two.

Catching Up 4/4

This post is the last of my old outfit drawings and I'm excited to post more drawings soon that showcase my current style.

Handmade by Kristina

Poppy

I love these earring that I'm wearing! My friend Kristina made them out of shrink film, but they look like sea glass. They're super elegant and go with everything, especially this outfit.

Lula Vintage

This dress is one of those garments that has never lived up to it's imagined potential but I continue to hold on to it and wear it anyway. My main problem with it is that it's too tight in the bust. Every time I put it on, I have to get my husband to zip me into it and then I spend the entire day with a limited ability to breath. When I take it off, I exclaim "I'm free" and I vow never to wear the dress again. 

It is cute though...

Poppy

This one is a sure fire winner. I've gotta get this skirt back into rotation immediately.

Poppy

I don't know what crack I was smoking when I wrote that these vintage earrings came from Urban Outfitters, because they most certainly did not.

Lula Vintage

This all beige outfit reminds me of my Grandmother and I'm pretty sure I kept saying that all day while I was wearing it.

Catching Up 2/4

For the entire year of 2017, I've been tired. It seemed that all of the energy that I used to have for anything in my life was completely zapped and anything I had left was used in an effort to stay afloat. So here I am posting outfit drawings from nearly a year ago. Hey, they're still relevant, right?

The following outfits illustrate to me the feeling of hygge, which I try to embrace when all of the days are so damn cold and dark.

Poppy

Ooh, this sweater is lovely. It's very soft and warm and it's sweaters like these that make the winter months bearable.

Lula Vintage

Sorel boots and a gigantic sweater. Everything about this is bliss.

Blanket scarves...are those still a thing?

Liz Carlson Art & Illustration

I do believe that this day was crazy cold and that's why I wrapped my body in sweaters. All of the sweaters!

Lula Vintage

This outfit makes me wish I was at a ski lodge. I don't ski, but I do like to drink hot toddies by a fire.

Festive Holiday Style

Here's to layering! I love this white dress, but it's oh so summery and the neckline is a bit low for work-wear. To get around those two hurdles and wear this dress to work in December, I layered the dress with a sleeveless, mock-turtle neck swing dress that is the same length and voila! Instant coverage from the cold and the oglers. This is also a bold combination when it comes to pattern mixing. The red plaid combined with the star burst pattern is a lot to take in and my coworker said that I looked like Punky Brewster but I decided to take that as a compliment.

I wore this for a a performance with my choir at the Fitzgerald theater. This is the second time that I've worn this dress and the second time that the dress has ripped in the armpit. I was able to patch the tear up the first time, but it might be torn beyond repair at this point. I must have a larger upper body than the average 60s woman because this is where my close fitting vintage dresses always get torn. So sad.

I had been envisioning this outfit ever since I bought this skirt at My Sister's Closet last year. The skirt is made out of a heavyweight velvet fabric and the bottom half of the skirt is adorned with many embellishments. It's very lush and beautiful, but it's not entirely versatile. It's a winter party skirt and that's about all it is. This skirt reminds me how much I dislike ugly Christmas sweater parties because I don't want to wear ugly clothes to a party. Never have, never will. I want to wear this skirt, dammit! And I don't have many opportunities. While I still have not had the opportunity to wear this skirt to a Christmas party, I chose to wear it out to dinner with my in-laws and to see my husband perform with Nicholas David at the Pantages Theater and it was just lovely.

On this particular Sunday, my husband and I were invited to a number of Holiday parties. I know what you're thinking. "Why didn't you wear your damn skirt, Anna?" Well, I put the outfit with the skirt on and while I was still in my house, I couldn't stop shivering. It was so cold this weekend that the people of Minnesota were advised not to leave their homes. But we're hearty Minnesotans and we had plans, so I changed my outfit to what you see here and I think it's perfect. I've got on many layers of silk and wool and I even threw on a fur stole under my coat for extra warmth and glamour. In my opinion, this outfit was even better than my fantasy Christmas party outfit. It's still got the richness that the velvet skirt has, but it's warm and cozy and comfortable too.

This is what I wore on Christmas after spending the day cooking for my family. I thought it would be nice if we got dressed up and enjoyed the delicious beef tenderloin that I had prepared. My husband, however, had other ideas. I had to fight him tooth and nail to put pants on. This is my life, people.

I don't know why, but I always wear black on New Year's Eve. I also always wear a fur of some kind. And glitter! Lots and lots of sparkly glitter!

Ode to Pattern Mixing

I love clothing with fun patterns. I also love to mix patterns when building outfits. Not everyone knows how to do this successfully. I'm not even sure if I know how to do this successfully, but I do know how to dress fearlessly and through trial and error I am able to achieve some bold and successful combinations.

My Sister's Closet

This outfit might be slightly ridiculous, but I love it. This was when I was unapologetically wearing scarves in my hair a la Little Edie. If your hair can't make you feel glamorous, cover it up with something that does. This is why I love hats and scarves. I haven't gotten into wigs, but If I had the funds to buy natural looking wigs, I would be all over it.

Urban Archaeology

Here's a fun dress from the 80s that has been altered to fit like a babydoll dress. I love the print. It's like hounds tooth meets Three Men and a Baby. Seriously, wasn't their apartment like an 80s bachelor's wet dream? I'm not an 80s bachelor, but I'm into it.

Go Vintage

7 months later and I still can't decide if this print mix works or not. The dress and sweater are the same colors, one of my favorite combos, kelly green and navy blue. The two different prints are variations of each other. In theory, I think this looks good, but in reality it kind of gives me a headache, which is a bummer because I have yet to find a successful outfit for this cropped vintage sweater that I love so much.

Lula Vintage

I Like You

This dress is so unique and classic at the same time. I bought it this fall and have been having fun pairing it with different shirts underneath. This was my first attempt at styling the dress after I bought it. I played up the western vibe that the piping on the chest suggests. I think this dress will be really versatile because it also has an East Asian vibe that is hidden under my shirt collar and the dress is overall kind of nautical. You'll be seeing more fun combos with this dress in the future.

I love that it was still warm enough in October to wear this incredible linen dress that I bought at a vintage clothing store in Portland. Obviously, I have mixed emotions about global warming.

January

This is my favorite winter dress! There's  nothing like a cozy calf-length sweater to make any sub-zero day a little more bearable. A coat like this helps too.

I got the idea for this outfit from this chart that was all abuzz on Pinterest at the time. It illustrates some obvious ways to wear a blanket scarf (2, 4, 5,8), some questionable ways (3,7), and something that I had never considered, belting. The dress I am wearing has a belt attached, so I just used that to cinch the scarf at my waist. It looked good, but ended up hindering my movement throughout the day, so I ended up wearing it like a cape by midday.

I think I was inspired by my scarf belting experience above when I put this outfit together. I belted this bulky cascade cardigan to give myself a little shape and it really worked for this look. I'm also really enjoying the absence of color here with a pop of excitement from my sparkly statement necklace.

Here's that blanket scarf again worn a little more conventionally. I did not intend to wear this scarf all day, but in case you didn't know, January is a cold month.

I don't think I've had the chance to rave about these jeans yet, which is interesting because I've worn them at least once a week since I got them. These are some form fitting, super long, ultra-soft flares and I love them. Personally, I am very happy that flares have come back into style. I've always liked their fun retro appeal.

Notes on Puce

"Gettin' it in camel"

If I could commit to something like a "Fall fashion concept", this would be it.

Earrings - Layla's Elaborations

I'm not sure how to correctly portray the color of these tights. The packaging says that they're "olive oil". Olive oil is just a marketable Puce, which is what I call this color. However, when I googled the color puce, I found this color name to be quite controversial. Apparently, "puce" is a dark reddish purple, but when I took a small poll, the general public thinks puce is a dark greenish yellow. Maybe this has something to do with associations with the term "puke green". Now I'm left totally confused and ashamed of my color naming abilities.

Whatever you want to call it, I love the color and I love these sweater tights from Poppy. I'm going to be wearing them a lot this coming Fall and Winter, so I had better get a "puce" (or whatever) colored marker to better represent them in my drawings.

Necklace by LaLunette

I woke up this morning with thoughts of casual comfort. I was gonna wear some jeans and a simple top and feel great about myself. I don't know how it happened, but this is what I came up with: black slacks, a backless blouse and high-heeled boots. I'm so messed up. I can't not get fancy.

Clothing Dilemmas and a New Dress

This dress is from my last visit to Sioux Falls. There's a new vintage store downtown and they were having a sale. Buy 2, get 1 free. Of course I found 3 gorgeous garments to take home for way less money than I would have spent in the cities.

I bought this jacket at Lula. At the time, there was a dress with it. The dress was kind of hideous and it did not fit. I asked if I could buy the jacket separately and was denied. She said that it's rare to find vintage separates like this still paired together and did not want to break them up. Respectfully, but disrespectfully, I bought the set. It was no loss to me because I've worn the jacket enough times to offset the cost of buying a dress that I would never wear. However, it was a loss to the vintage fashion community because I ended up consigning the dress alone without it's pair. Years later, while walking down the street, I spied the dress in the window of a different vintage clothing store (not the one I consigned it at). I guess the lady at Lula was right because without it's jacket, this orphan dress keeps getting passed from store to consumer to store and that's my fault. While I felt bad about it at first, I've made peace with my choices because dresses don't have feelings.

This is a crop top that I've been trying to figure out how to style. We all know that I'm into crop tops, but I generally wear them fitted. This one is all loosey goosey and makes me uncomfortable when paired with a skirt, like I'm Christine Ricci in Black Snake Moan. I honestly don't understand the physics of her boob/shirt situation.

Here, I paired it with a fitted Maxi dress. Very cute and comfortable, but too hot for late July.

Incorporating My New Duds

After my clothing exchange, I was so excited about all of my new clothes, that I immediately found them homes in my closet. Then I thought, these clothes have been incorporated into my closet, but I need to incorporate them into my daily wardrobe before I forget that I have them. I decided that everyday I will wear a different clothing exchange item or two and make them work with my current wardrobe. So, here it is, three weeks of "new" clothes.

You may have noticed that Sundays are missing. That's because Sunday (and sometimes Saturday) is my lazy day and I spend most of the day in my pajamas.

There are some items that haven't gotten worn yet because they're not of this season and there are some items that have been worn frequently. I think my favorites from the exchange are the western  sweater, the ombre chambray shirt and the skinny jeans. This is very surprising because these are items that have never been a part of my personal style. Again, this is why I endorse the clothing exchange.