Triple the fun

So now that I'm back to quiet days at the lab, I have a little more time to play with my style. I even was pretty good about taking pictures over the last few days (if not posting them immediately). Helpful in this effort is the cheap extensible tripod I picked up a couple of weeks ago. It fits in my handbags easily, but goes up to 40 inches or so. I had tried the gorillapod flexible wrapping tripod idea, but one of the legs on the one I got popped off within a few days, and I generally had a hard time than I'd expected finding trees/posts/other things around which to wrap a tripod. So this new one is working much better for me.


This was Tuesday's outfit. Top: H&M, thrifted. Skirt: thrifted. Shoes: Nordstroms, thrifted (I can't tell you how many times I've worn these sandals since I got them early in the summer...). Bag: thrifted. Earrings: handmade.

Wednesday:

Dress: thrifted. Black silk blouse: Calvin Klein, thrifted. Shoes: Chinese Laundry, thrifted. Bag: thrifted. Belt: thrifted. This outfit started with me trying to wear this cream dress that I'd gotten a while ago but hadn't worn, yet. But it's strapless, so I chickened out from wearing something strapless to the lab and layered another blouse over it. I need to find some occasions to wear strapless, somewhat-dressy things before the end of the summer!

Thursday:

Dress: thrifted. Skirt: Forever21. Sandals: Wet Seal. Belt: thrifted. I had a couple of casual meetings this day with people I had not yet met, which always makes me a bit over-conscious of what I'm wearing. I liked this outfit well enough. Also, look! It's obvious that I only rarely change handbags...I just stick all my stuff into one and leave it there for a while.

I really would like to take some time soon to go through my closet and figure out some fun outfits, instead of trying to pull something together in the morning right before I head out for the lab. I feel like I'm in a period of being kind of unsatisfied with my closet...not so much for the contents, as for my inability to figure out how I want to wear some of these things. I've been leaning toward a more vintage-inspired style recently, and would really like to do more experimentation with silhouette and shape, but it can be tricky for me to find outfits that make me feel pulled-together and stylish. Because I'm somewhat curvy, good fit and certain proportions seem to be really important for clothes to show off my shape rather than make me look schlumpy. For instance, though I dearly want to wear a couple of the thrifted blazers I've picked up over the last year or so, I haven't figured out a way to wear something with defined shoulders that balances well with the rest of my body and doesn't just make me look square all over (or that could at least do that in a way that pleased me). I'm still learning what works well on me/fits how I'd like to look, though. The creativity of the style blogosphere helps, here, in inspiration and exploration. Though it's also easy for me to fall into the trap of "If only I had some of their cute vintage dresses and beautiful shoes, then I too could be effortlessly stylish!" forgetting that what looks amazing on one person with particular coloring and a particular body type/height might or might not be flattering on me. Anyway. I've been thinking about this for a few days, and wanted to share...

Hope everyone has exciting weekends ahead!