Respectable

This was an outfit I wore for a recent Girls' Night Out. Laura had free passes to the Gaultier exhibit at the De Young museum, so we went to check it out one last time before the exhibit closed. This outfit was comfy enough to wear all night and walk around in, warm enough for the chilly summer evening, and just stylish enough to look respectable at a fashion exhibit.

Jacket: thrifted
Tunic: Asos
Pants: Club Monaco
Boots: Brako
Bag: Boktier
Necklace: Metal Pointu

Neutrals

I got the idea for this outfit from a store display I saw downtown, and I liked the combination of textures as well as the blend of dressy and casual. Until I saw the display I really thought of these silk pants as a purely dressy item, but pairing them with the military jacket and sandals was a great way to wear them for daytime. The other thing I like about this combination is that all the shades are neutrals, but yet the outfit is still full of color. Navy and olive are fairly universal colors that look great on anyone of any age, and which certainly work well for the office.

Jacket: thrifted
Scarf: a gift
Pants: Vera Wang
Sandals: Levity (DSW brand)
Bag: Lucky Brand

Stitches

Sorry for the unexpectedly long absence there, but things just caught up with me. Last week we were finally able to take Spencer to the vet to get his bum knee fixed (we had to wait for him to stop growing); he had a torn CCL and needed a TPLO procedure. Don't feel bad if you have no idea what any of that is; the bottom line is that the surgery went really well and we're counting down the days (just 5 more left) until he gets his stitches out and has a recheck to make sure he's healing properly.

He's still looking handsome, even with his leg in a cast.

Since then we've had our eyes on him all the time, trying to prevent him from chewing at the stitches or jumping around and doing further damage to the joint. So far so good, but 7 more weeks of this seems like forever at this point. The harness he's wearing in the photo has a handle on the back so we can help him on and off furniture and up and down the stairs. 

Over the weekend I headed to Sacramento to visit my family, leaving poor Mark to deal with all the dog drama by himself. And then of course, I have my upcoming trip to Lisbon and France quickly approaching, but thankfully by the time I leave next week, Spencer will have his stitches out. Plus by then Mark will be a pro at handling Spencer by himself -- at least that's what I tell myself.

I've still been getting dressed and going to work, of course. Here I blended the soft browns and olive, and used the splashes of pale pink to bring in some contrast. The belt is one that came off a sweater, but it happened to match perfectly with the brooch. This was also another tights-layering exercise, with olive green fishnets over sheer black hose.

Jacket: thrifted
Top: Noa Noa
Skirt: All Saints
Boots: from Scoop in Copenhagen
Brooch: a gift from my aunt

8 Feet Tall

These shoes make me approximately 8 feet tall. OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I do tower over Mark while wearing them, and that makes me feel like I'm 8 feet tall. I sort of accidentally bought these shoes one day when I went running some errands and stopped into Nordstrom Rack. I say it was accidental because I went in there looking for a duvet cover, but I figured it couldn't hurt to take a look at the shoes, and the next thing you know I find these in my size and I'm trying them on and they look great and they're surprisingly comfortable and they're less than half the original price and... You know how it goes.

They're suede. They're green. They make me 8 feet tall and they feel pretty darn good doing it. There was really no way I was getting out of there without them.

Jacket: thrifted
Tunic: Asos
Pants: Club Monaco
Shoes: Sam Edelman

Fun Filled

Here's a skirt-based outfit that made the grade for the walk to work. The skirt is dense and holds its shape well; thus there's no need for a slip, either for opacity or to prevent the skirt from clinging to my legs. To me that makes a world of difference, because half slips make an outfit feel like they're in need of constant adjustment. You've got multiple waistbands to deal with, and then you have to make sure the slip isn't hanging out at the bottom of your skirt hem or twisting around in some awkward way. I want to start experimenting with full slips under a skirt and top, because I think that might be a better option. There are so many things you never notice about outfits until you have to walk a long way in them.

I've had a fun-filled couple of days. On Thursday night Mark and I attended the annual holiday party at Anchor Brewing Company, where we ate delicious food, sampled the new Christmas Ale, and even got some VIP access into the distillery and the rooftop bar (thanks to my fabulous inside connection). Reporters from the Celebrator and 7x7 Magazine were in attendance, so who knows, Mark and I might even end up in their pages.

On Friday I had the pleasure of finally meeting Lisa, aka LPC, in person for lunch downtown. She is vibrant and intelligent and a delight to talk to; I felt like I'd known her for years. For all her talk of being a Sturdy Gal, I suspect she has a big streak of Arty Cousin lurking just below the surface, so I'm looking forward to going shopping together and seeing how much of that comes out.

On Saturday Mark and I attended my company holiday party at Foreign Cinema here in the city. I wore my Valentino dress with Wolford tights and Miu Miu shoes, a combination I've been wanting to put together for quite awhile. And yes, I was too lazy to take photos.

I'm headed off on my trip to Germany and France today; see you next week!

Jacket: thrifted
Skirt: Marc by Marc Jacobs
Boots: Ecco
Necklace: Wendy Brandes

Suitably Fun

I wore this outfit on a day that I was going directly from work to meet a friend for drinks. Thus it needed to be comfortable enough to wear all day, and warm enough for the chilly evening without requiring me to haul around an additional jacket; it also needed to be suitably fun for an evening out. I thought the pirate flair of this outfit accomplished the fun element, while the stretchy layers and flat boots gave me the warmth and comfort I needed.

These ponte knit pants are incredibly comfortable, and have in fact become a staple for evenings out. They have the sleek, fitted look of leggings, but are thick and opaque enough to wear as pants. Plus, the stretchy waistband is comfortable after several hours of sitting down -- and even after several beers.

Jacket: Forever 21 (original buttons replaced with vintage ones)
Tunic: Asos
Scarf: Alexander McQueen
Pants: Club Monaco
Bracelet: Leslie Danzis

Get Over It

For some reason this skirt always feels very risqu� to me, even though the shortest length isn't any shorter than some of the other skirts I wear. I think it's just the differential between the long back and the short front; somehow it feels like it's supposed to be a long skirt, but then there's that big opening in the front.

I figure I just need to get over it, because to me it works better as a bare-legged spring/summer garment than as a layered up winter one. It's more comfortable bare-legged, too, because there's no good way to prevent tights from sticking to this skirt.

This skirt has a very high waist, and it's made of a dense, slightly stretchy cotton blend fabric, which does a great job of smoothing out my figure. It's like a foundation garment only WAY more comfortable. I combined it with my snugly-tailored blazer to continue the slim line through the torso and to give me some volume around the bust and shoulders.

Underneath I wore my lace-trimmed full slip, which just peeked out at the neckline and below the front hem.

In other news, I'm really happy that my beloved San Jose Sharks have made it into the second playoff round, and are leading the series. Laura and I found a fabulous new (well, new to us anyway) venue to go root for our team, and Laura even got us some shark hats to wear. Stay tuned for some serious team spirit -- I'll be posting photos at some point soon. 

Also, have you entered my 3-year anniversary giveaway yet? There's still time -- the contest closes at 8 pm PST this Friday! Make sure you to leave your comment(s) in the original entry. The giveaway is open to international entries, too!

Blazer: All Saints.... Skirt: Skin Graft.... Shoes: Paolo

In Full Swing

Over the weekend I put together a few days' worth of outfits and recruited Mark to take some photos outside, just to mix things up a little. As you can see, spring is in full swing according to most of the plants, although the bougainvillea seems to disagree; it's half-heartedly putting forth a few small leaves, but seems content to hibernate a little longer until it warms up. I can't really say that I blame it.

For this outfit I kept it springy with the pale pink and off-white skirts, even though with all the layering it was designed with cool weather in mind. It was also the perfect vehicle for this fab new harness that Mark made. Actually I 'ordered' it from him; he had this very pretty caramel-colored, smooth leather in his stash and I thought it would look great for spring and summer in a lightweight harness style. This harness is the basic "Jane Doe" style, with straps that are thinner than the original. This strikes me as being a great option if you've been wanting to try out the harness trend, but don't want to look too edgy or bondage-y. The color reminds me of some of the leather accessories seen in Lanvin's SS11 RTW line.

Tank Top, pink skirt: Anthropologie
Jacket: French Kiss, thrifted
Harness: Audra Jean
Tulle skirt: Noa Noa
Tights: Hue
Shoes: John Fluevog

Marie Antoinette

There's a wig shop right down the street from our house, and they always have these outrageous Marie Antoinette-style wigs on display in the front window. Naturally, I desperately want one. So the other day I was walking back from the hardware store and I decided right then and there that I was going to march into that wig shop and buy one, not so much because I have any use for it at the moment, but simply because I thought it would be fun to come home from shopping carrying some landscaping staples, an aluminum dryer vent, and a Marie Antoinette wig. You know, just the necessities.

Sadly the wig shop was closed that day, so my dream of assembling the most random assortment of purchases in the history of shopping will have to wait. Who knows, maybe next time I'll also be carrying some lightbulbs, a pack of guitar strings and a pumpkin. 

Today's featured new thing is this camouflage-patterned infinity scarf, which my mom gave me for our belated Christmas. I think it would look great with a Marie Antoinette wig, don't you?

Scarf: Express
Jacket: French Kiss, thrifted
Top: All Saints
Skirt: Anthropologie
Boots: Timberland Boot Company
Jewelry: Betsey Johnson

Curses

Has everyone signed the petition for Team Jennine yet? In the event that the scandal that's rocking the blogging world hasn't reached you, Jennine Jacob of the original The Coveted has had her blog name ripped off by... oh, I don't know -- some jackass whose blog I didn't read anyway. And clearly never will now. The whole sordid episode has already been discussed at length by Sister Wolf, Wendy B, Kingdom of Style, Make Do Style, and so many others, so I'll just add my humble contribution to the growing maelstrom of outrage and leave it at that.

In short, I wish all manner of nastiness upon the perpetrators, including (but not limited to): parking tickets, tax audits, a prolonged visit from their in-laws, clogged drains, alarm clocks that inexplicably go off at 4 am, chronic bad breath, and socks that go missing in the dryer. A curse upon you, thieves! Please feel free to heap your ill-wishes upon the scoundrels in the comments.

Oh, and if you buy Wendy B's fabulous swear rings, she will donate part of the proceeds to help Jennine with her legal fees. Which, in truth, will probably prove to be far more useful than the curses you'll find over here. Not that those aren't fun too.  





Jacket: thrifted
Necklace: Manu Lizarralde
Shorts: White House Black Market
Harness: Audra Jean
Socks: Sock Dreams
Shoes: MIA

Oblong Inflated Spheroid

Disclaimer: the rest of the text in this post has nothing at all to do with the outfit. I tried and tried to write something interesting about it, but finally had to call uncle. It was just a casual Friday outfit, after all. Here are the details in case you're pressed for time or are otherwise disinclined to read my random rant of the day:


Tunic: thrifted
Harness: Audra Jean
Bangles: Amrita Singh (via Gilt)
Jeans: Diesel (via Gilt)
Boots: All Black










Over the weekend I realized why I cannot watch American football. I always figured it had mainly to do with the fact that the players spend most of their time just standing around on the sidelines. That, and the way the players' butts look catastrophically bad in those gross shiny pants with the weird seams on either side of the crack. The uniforms look like a skintight, disco version of a union suit.

 Dude, you've got way worse problems than the concussion you're about to get;

pimps in 1975 looked hotter in their spandex pants than you.

But in fact I don't think it's either of those things at all; my general loathing of football comes down to two annoying little occurrences that just plain bug the crap out of me.

One is how the calls are communicated. Now in hockey, when a call is made the referee gives you three important pieces of information: who is being penalized, for how many minutes, and what the penalty is for (usually in one to three words). That's it; no more, no less. "Number 64, 2 minutes for high sticking." Fine, now let's get on with the game. But in football the explanation might take several minutes, and frankly I don't have the patience to hear the entire rationale behind a convoluted call pulled from some obscure rule, whose source can only be found by poring over a tome that's undoubtedly equivalent in mass to the entire Encyclopedia Britannica series.

 Easier to interpret than the rules of football.

What's worse is that the majority of the referee's monologue typically isn't even the call at all, but a recap of what just happened. Look buddy, I just sat here for 10 minutes of deliberation, watching the players wander around spitting and readjusting their crotches; cut to the chase, would you?

The other thing that really gets under my skin is the commentators, who insist on using the word, "football" in their descriptions of the action, as in, "He ran the football into the end zone." Now I may not even begin to understand the intricacies of the game, but even a blockhead like me knows what kind of a ball they're playing with. Obviously if I'm WATCHING FOOTBALL, then the object they're throwing around (when they can be bothered to get out on the field)  is simply the ball. Is that extra syllable really going to fill up a significant amount of airtime when you've got nothing clever to say? I didn't think so.

 

Clearly they were never told that silence is golden.

I understand the desire to spice up the language and make the commentary more interesting, but this is not the way. In hockey they might call the puck a biscuit, or simply the puck, but you'll never hear them say, "Marleau shot the hockey puck from the blue line." Why? Because it sounds stupid, that's why. Get some new words, football announcers; even calling it an 'oblong inflated spheroid' would be better than football.

It's sort of like that annoying sound, faint though it may be, that once perceived is impossible to ignore. A distant barking dog or crying baby, perhaps. And now that I've taken note of the lengthy soliloquies of the refs and the irritating overuse of the word "football," my utter disdain for the entire sport has crystallized. I do, however, occasionally enjoy hearing about how a player's head was "on a swivel." Perhaps there's hope for me yet.

One Fell Swoop

This is the other new pair of boots I alluded to yesterday. They're a little lighter than they appear in the photos, more of a camel color and not medium brown. Normally I avoid suede, but these were just so darn pretty I couldn't resist. They reach all the way up to my lower thighs and yet have no hint of a Julia Roberts/Pretty Woman hooker vibe.

One complaint about these is that on me they're a lot slouchier than they appear in the listing on Endless. In fact I had to tighten those straps at the top of the boots to keep them from slumping all the way down to my calves. But tightening the strap did work, and Mark had just the perfect buckles to put on them so that I don't have to take up the excess length by doubling it back through the front loops. It's a handy thing to have a leather craftsman in the house.

These boots take care of several fall trends in one fell swoop: OTK boots, camel, and suede; adding the military jacket and bubble-hem skirt brought the trend count to 5 in this single outfit. As for the big piece of string stuck to my right arm, that was purely accidental; good thing I noticed it before I left for work.

Jacket: thrifted
Belt: Audra Jean
Skirt: Attila Design
Boots: Apepazza

Giants Fever

It seems the whole city has got Giants fever. Last night there were Giants hats and jerseys everywhere you looked, and after the victory over the Rangers, you could hear people cheering and car horns honking all over town. I got really excited this morning when I noticed that even the guy collecting trash on the side of the highway was wearing Giants orange, until I remembered he was just wearing the Caltrans uniform that's issued to people who have to perform community service. Oh well, at least for today that guy can pretend that he's wearing the orange vest and hard hat not because he got caught drunk driving, but to show his team spirit.

This outfit was meant to have a mod look, but ended up being something else entirely. I like how it turned out though; the shaping of the top works really well with the skirt, and the bright colors counteract the pirate vibe that would ordinarily come across with the combination of the military-styled jacket and cuffed boots. Not that a pirate vibe is a bad thing; in fact, I might try to play that up a little the next time.

In other news, check out this high-larious video of a Dallas reporter at last night's game, in which he flips out because he smells someone smoking weed at the ballpark. Do people really not know that smoking pot in public is not a big deal in SF? And here I thought we had a reputation for it!

Bonus shots of Georgie photobombing me:

The dog's laziness knows no bounds. First she walked right into the photo and couldn't even be arsed to sit up straight (she's actually leaning against my leg), and then she just slid on down to the floor and laid down. I'm surprised she didn't just take a nap right there.

Jacket: F21
Shirt: Red Dress Shoppe
Skirt: Anthropologie

Boots: Modern Vintage

Fidel

I got the idea for this outfit when I was shooting some photos for the shop; it was inspired by the way the harness was styled on the male model in our Auxiliary Magazine feature. The model's outfit in the photo shoot had a military vibe to it that made the harness look very rugged and utilitarian. I thought I could approximate the look by wearing this lightweight jacket as a shirt, and then just for fun I added the tie to fill in the neckline.

The harness is another one that I shamelessly stole from Mark's stash; I saw it there in the finished pile and figured I'd better claim it for my own before someone ordered one in that size. This is the Jane Doe style, and is actually the first black harness I've added to my growing collection.

One of my coworkers told me I looked French in this outfit, which disappointed me a little; I thought I was channeling more of a Fidel Castro look.

Hat: ADS Hats
Harness: Audra Jean
Jacket: thrifted
Skirt: thrifted, shortened
Boots: All Black

I'm pretty sure I've never seen Fidel Castro sporting either 
polka dots or a miniskirt, and that's sort of a shame. 
You only live once, Fidel!

Stars and Stripes

I found this little tunic at Goodwill just before we left for Burning Man. Out on the playa I wore it as a super-short minidress, with just a bikini bottom underneath. Back in the real world though, it's relegated to the role of tunic, and will be worn strictly over skirts or pants. The starry scarf came with the tunic and is actually designed to be used as a belt, but for this outfit I wanted the contrast of a black belt, so I swapped in one of Mark's designs and wore the original belt as a scarf.

One thing I noticed about this tunic is that while it's really comfortable for normal wearing, the sleeves are a little too tight for the hunched-over position required for riding a mountain bike. Which reminds me that I really hate riding mountain bikes. So if this tunic goes back to the playa again, it'll either be with cut-off sleeves or, preferably, I'll be riding a cruiser bike instead.

Burning Man bikes are a whole phenomenon in and of themselves. First of all, the alkaline playa dust is highly corrosive, which means you really don't want to take a nice expensive bike out there. And then, with the thousands of bikes scattered all over the playa, it's important to be able to readily identify yours, as well as light it up thoroughly for nighttime visibility. So what you'll see out there is an amazing assortment of lavishly decorated, incredibly beat up and rusty bikes, many wrapped with EL-wire, which can be used to create all sorts of spectacular effects against the black background of the desert. Every year as August approaches, beater bikes become a hot commodity in and around San Francisco, which is good to know if you're looking to unload an old rusty bike.


Shirt: Target
Tunic: thrifted
Belt: Audra Jean
Jeans: Acne
Boots: All Black

Belly Dancing

This was an outfit that went straight from work to going out; it was Laura's birthday last week and we double-dated at Marrakesh, a Moroccan restaurant complete with belly dancers. Laura and I were even persuaded to go up and join in for one song, and the outfit proved to be plenty comfy for a little belly dancing. Which, by the way, is a lot more difficult than it looks.

Laura's birthday having passed means that my own is just around the corner. But every year I make the most of these few weeks of difference in age to give Laura all kinds of grief about how old she is, in the form of a birthday poem. I've been doing this since Laura turned 22, mind you. And every year it gets more and more difficult, because really there are only so many ways to tell someone they're old.

I've rhymed "superannuated" before, I've discussed how Laura baffles scientists because her bones are too old to carbon date, I've placed her back in ancient times on the banks of the Tigris River, drinking mead from an earthen jar and learning to read in hieroglyphics. I've thrown in references to Depends, a walker, pushing up daisies, false teeth, the

whole nine yards. I've talked about how her lifetime is known to geologists as the "Laurassic Era." And this year I described how, being so old as to predate any modern form of transportation, she arrived in North America on foot via the Bering Strait land bridge. It's getting tough, I tell ya. How I'm going to keep this up for another 40 or so years I really can't tell.

Dress: All Saints
Jacket: thrifted
Necklace: Manu Lizarralde
Belt: thrifted
Skirt: a gift from Mom
Boots: Modern Vintage