Outfit Log: Green Velvet

This was my outfit from Tuesday, when I wore another long-sleeve shirt that I made last weekend (for some reason, I was feeling compelled to make velvet shirts...I guess it really feels like winter these days, after a slow start). I started out with the shirt, pulled out the skirt in my closet that complemented the shade of green, and went from there. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the proportions here, though, especially as they look in the photographs. I generally prefer to tuck my shirt in when I'm wearing a fuller skirt, but this one bloused out in unflattering ways when I did. If the top were a bit longer, I'd wear a belt over it to define my waist. In general, I've found that I now almost always try to define my natural waist in the silhouette of my clothing. I've done that since I figured out it was more flattering on me, I guess. I think I need to now experiment more with variety on that theme, or at least being a bit more comfortable when an outfit (particularly a skirt-based outfit) varies from it.


Luckily, this shirt turned out to be incredibly warm and comfortable, especially because of the full cowl collar. I'm starting to think that keeping my upper chest and neck warm is a huge component to my feeling warm in general. (Does anyone else find that?) And being toasty warm all day is definitely high on my list of winter priorities!

Outfit Log: Lace Blouse and Wrap Dress

I decided to dress up a bit more today, for a mid-week mood lift (though today wound up rather unproductive). I started with the silk lace-front blouse, then looked for what dress I could wear over it. The brown lace-up boots added to the somewhat Victorian feel of the outfit. (Everything is thrifted except earrings and tights).


I wore my hair down all day, then clipped it up when I got home and immediately forgot about it when I took these pictures. Yep.


Something I love about this black wrap dress is how versatile it is. The overall look can be changed quite a bit by what blouse I wear underneath. Other ways I've worn it on the blog:

January, 2011

April, 2010

March, 2010

Outfit Log: Print Skirt

I feel like I've been living in black turtlenecks this winter, as well as these flat boots I got at the start of the fall. I don't wear this patterned skirt too often, but I always enjoy it when I do...comfortable, swingy, and fun.

Somewhat of a quiet day today at the Lab. Trying to hammer out details of a project I'm working on...seems like a number of the projects I'm involved in at the moment are right at the stage where we all don't quite know exactly what form they're going to take. Potentially an exciting stage, but also somewhat difficult to navigate through. It will be interesting to see where things go over this next semester, both for these projects and for the smaller ones I hope to start soon...

Layering, Adulthood, and other Friday Musings

Today's outfit shows off one of my winter-survival dressing techniques: take a dress. Then wear it over a turtleneck and fleece tights. It's like you have two outfits on!


Today was a pretty long day at the lab, including a couple of hours of giving demos of our group's work to a large number of sponsors from China. It made me wish I was one of the couple of folks in our group who speak Chinese, as it's always a bit harder to demo through interpreters. Though it seemed everyone was having a fair amount of difficulty trying to translate concepts like "14 independent channels of lighting" or "frequency domain analysis".

I then spent the evening going with my mother to Ikea to pick up a few things for her, and ended up getting a new little rug and lamp for by my bed to replace the tropical-floral-print ones that I got when I moved into my first college dorm room. Another goal of sorts for this year (formed when the boyfriend and I came back from visiting his family for the holidays) is Operation Make This Place Look Like Adults Live Here. Better cleaning and decluttering is a huge part of this. As is very slowly updating a handful of decor items. Anyone who considers themselves a "grown-up," do you have any suggestions for how to make someplace feel like an adult home rather than a dorm room? We don't have any posters or things like that, but the overall impression still seems young to me...

I do believe it's winter, now...

It may have taken until January for Boston to get really cold (well, a high of 26 degrees today, which is not as cold as it will get this winter, though significantly colder than December's upper-30's-mid-40's kind of weather), but now we're in what I'd legitimately label as winter. Not my favorite season, but I think this one will be short enough that I can manage.


Thus, today's weather necessitated pulling out my giant leopard-print coat. It's bulky and on the bold end for my taste, but also very warm!

Now where's that snow?

I'm looking through you...

I'm a little late to last Friday's FBFF questions about body image and blogging, but they're good ones so I wanted to make sure I had time to think everything through! And this weekend was remarkably busy, working on an art installation that is being put in tomorrow morning. A coworker and I designed a piece that requires hundreds of suspended, illuminated, vellum butterflies...they're going to be beautiful, I hope. This does mean I've spent most of the last week constructing butterflies and wiring them up in preparation. The laser cutter at the lab is my new best friend (along with my old best friend, the hot glue gun).

So, the questions! (I was going to include some pictures with this post, but I keep leaving my camera cord at the lab. Soon!)

1. Since you started blogging has your image of yourself changed?

Yes, I would say that is true... though I'm not sure what part is due to blogging myself, what part is due to reading terrific fashion/style blogs and seeing a wide range of people looking fabulous, and what part is due to other influences. I do think that my body image has improved over the last year since I started being more conscious of/playful with my clothing choices. During my first year in grad school, I had slipped into just wearing jeans/sneakers/a fitted tee. Now, I get inspiration from amazing people all over the internet, and am inspired to have fun with my own fashion choices. I do think I feel better when I am pulled together and have put some thought into what I'm wearing. (A related secret: I often make sure to dress up if I'm sick to compensate!) So, blogging here about my personal style has encouraged me to make the effort to wear things I feel great in, as I know that at least a few people will notice.

The first image of myself I posted on this blog, and a picture from an outfit post a couple of weeks ago. I think there's been progress both in the style and the presentation...

2. Are you self-conscious about any aspect of yourself? If so, do you go out of your way to avoid it or do you post it/talk about it anyway?
Now that I think about it, there's fairly few things I'm self-conscious about physically, these days. I suppose I'm mostly uncomfortable with presenting myself in a possibly over-sexualized way...which sometimes results in discomfort with low-cut tops or too-high hemlines. Because I have a somewhat curvy body, I find that certain clothing choices can have much more sensual/sexual overtones than they would on a slender figure. Maybe that's just my imagination, but I'm definitely self-conscious of it.

So do I talk about these things? I guess I do on occasion. I'm still exploring how much I want to reveal in what contexts for this blog (especially about my work-related life, as I would prefer this blog not be easy for professional colleagues to find). I know I also select pictures for based on the ones where I think I "look good," but I'm not sure I have much of a mental model of how those images differ from the ones where I think I look less good. (Okay, except for photos from a side view. There, my photo selection is definitely influenced how much my stomach is sticking out. I guess I'm uncomfortable about that, too.)

3. Based on how you are feeling now, what do you think the future holds in the evolution of your body image?
I think (hope!) I'm going to continue getting more comfortable with myself and my body image. I'm taking steps to make sure I'm keeping my body healthy, like my morning workouts. I'm also having fun experimenting with my self-presentation through clothing and style, finding more things that make me feel good and look good to myself. I'd be interested to check back with myself in a year, or two, or five, and see how my feelings compare.

4. Do you photograph yourself for your blog? If so, how do you feel about the experience when you're having your picture taken? If you choose not to post pictures of yourself, what prompted that decision?
At this point, most of my entries involve photos of myself. Sometimes these are taken by the boyfriend or by one of my coworkers, but most of the time by myself with a tripod. I'm not sure I like the experience of self-photography, though I'm pretty comfortable being photographed by others, which may have something to do with the albums full of photos my mother's taken over the years. I feel much more contrived and uncomfortable posing for myself, especially if I'm outdoors where I might be observed.

Additionally, it's been interesting to see how outfits look different when photographed...there have been things that I've felt great in and thought I looked really nice in that are much less flattering in the photograph. (And as I still have a lingering belief in the truth of photography, this can make me change my mind on my original outfit.)

5. What would you want every person who struggles with body image to
take to heart?
You are beautiful right now. You don't have to look like a model or the girls you see in magazines or that pretty girl next to you on the train to be beautiful. You don't have to be a certain weight or shape or height or size or gender. You don't have to wear certain clothes or shoes or fix your hair a certain way. You are yourself, and I hope you will learn to accept and appreciate that gorgeous self.

Also, you should read Already Pretty if you don't yet...

My New Favorite Vest

This was what I wore today, another work outfit for a day of meetings and demos. Today was sunnier and a little bit warmer, but I still ended up with a ton of layers...a dress over a shirt and skirt, and two pairs of heavy tights (my trick this winter for keeping my legs warm.). The vest was a late addition today... I was taking a bit of an easy morning and getting to the lab later than normal, so ended up stopping by the Goodwill on my way. I'm very glad I did, as I came across this gorgeous long gray vest...tailored impeccably, fits me quite well, was only $7, and may now be vying for my favorite clothing item. (And did I mention, it's Armani? I really some my thrifting luck today!) So the vest got added on when I got to work! I'm finding myself quite drawn to tailored items these days, which is an interesting style development...


Details: Sonia Rykiel blouse, thrifted. Brown Charlotte Russe dress, thrifted. Yellow skirt, thrifted. Gray Armani vest, via Goodwill. Tights, HUE. Brown oxfords, Aldo. Belt from thrifted dress. Earrings, Ebay jewelry lot.


Let's see, what else is going on? Still keeping up my morning workouts, which is exciting. I'm signed up for a 5K race in a month...now I know I can definitely run that far. Though I've never actually run a formal race, particularly not a road race, so it'll be a new experience for me. I think I'm going to want to get off the treadmill and start running more outside before then. If it ever gets any warmer!

And the snow keeps coming down...

I wore this outfit on Monday, the one day this week where I could get away with cute shoes and not just snow boots. Tuesday it snowed even more, and all today we've been getting a lovely ice/snow/sleet/rain/"wintry mix." This outfit really started with the tunic top, which was Sunday evening's refashioning project. While cleaning up things last week, I had come across a number of black, gray, and red sweaters that I'd been keeping to refashion - some wool, some cashmere, some just acrylic -- all of which had issues like moth holes, seriously not fitting me, or being "I'm sure you can do something with this!" hand-me-downs from my family.


The body of a gray sweater of my brother's became the bottom. Then I took rectangles of fabric from two separate black sweaters, sewed a bit up one side to leave an armhole/draped sleeve, and sewed them to the waist with a zigzag stitch so edges didn't unravel. I attempted to leave as many existent hems and finished edges in place as I could! Then the middle seam was still pretty lumpy and not attractive, so I covered it up with a sash made from the sleeve of a red hole-filled sweater.


I'm pretty pleased with the result, though I think I still need to balance the sides a little bit and tack down the belt in more places around the waist. I especially like the open back, though it does require me to wear a tank top or something under it. But the whole piece was very comfortable!

Details: Sweater top, refashioned. Freestyle Revolution Jeans, thrifted. Black Roothy oxfords, Nine West. Tank top, Express.


And let me introduce you to my holiday-money shoes, deeply discounted Nine West oxfords. Ever do that thing where you put an item in your online cart and then leave it there while you try to convince yourself that you don't need it and should spend the money on something practical? Ever leave it there and keep debating for several days? Finally I figured that I really liked them if I kept coming back to them and having to try to argue myself out of them over again. And with a very good sale and free shipping, I think these were worth it! They're very comfortable, and I think I'll wear them a lot. Once the sidewalks dry out again, that is. Anyone else getting a bit tired of the endless snow?

Lavender Layers

I really, really liked this outfit yesterday. I've worn the lavender over-sweater a lot before, but it's not so good in the winter because of the shorter sleeves. So I decided to try wearing it over a long-sleeve shirt and got comfort, warmth, and fun with shades of purple (especially with the patterned purple scarf)! And you'll notice the same boots that I keep wearing...again, more comfortable pieces. (I also am pleased that it was composed almost entirely of thrifted pieces...) And really, I just felt incredibly cozy in this. Perfect for a day of working at the lab. I had a project I needed to get done yesterday morning, and then some work on a paper I hope to submit to a conference in a few days.


Purple shirt, thrifted. Lavender Ann Taylor sweater, thrifted. Freestyle Revolution jeans, thrifted. Black boots, thrifted. Scarf, thrifted. Necklace, Wet Seal. Earrings, handmade.

Also, something I forgot to mention...I've been doing pretty well so far with the workout routine, actually making it to the gym basically every morning before work and a long run (on the treadmill for now) on Sundays. I'm getting back into shape much faster than I'd expected; I actually ran 4 miles last Sunday, which is huge for me -- that's probably further than I've ever run! I've also been inspired by the wonderful Kyla of Blue Collar Catwalk and her Sweaty Wednesdays series to set a few fitness goals for the year. I've signed up for a 5L race in March (though we'll see whether my rehearsals for the opera, which is coming to Boston that month, pose a problem), and plan to run a 10K in October. Plenty of time to build that up, right?


So anybody have any great weekend plans? Enjoying (or not) the giant mountains of snow that seem to be blanketing the East Coast right now? I was definitely in snow-boots-wading-through-piles-of-snow mode this morning...

Peacock Feathers and Suede

This was Wednesday's outfit, for a fairly quiet day at the lab. My week's been alternating between days full of meetings and project workshops and quieter days to just work. Somehow I've gotten myself a full load of projects for the next month or so, which is a good thing.

This outfit was yet another attempt at dressing warmly enough for the cold, snowy weather we've been having. I'd gotten this suede skirt a while ago, but just found it again in my closet that morning. It's a nice weight and cuts the wind fairly well.


Details: Red sweater, Forever21. Suede skirt, thrifted. Tights, Loft. Shoes, Aldo (gift from my mother). Necklace, self-made.


I really like these Aldo oxfords. I wasn't sure what I thought about the high-heeled oxfords trend for a while, but as I've been seeing more and more adorable pairs of them over the last year or so it's really grown on me. So when my mother and I were out shopping after Thanksgiving and we found these shoes on a big sale, I was thrilled to have them be a holiday present. I've already worn them several times.


Closeup of the necklace. I'm trying to get in the habit of crafting things more regularly, and this was one of the pieces I put together last week. (One of my new year's goals is to craft something at least once a week.) I'm attempting to really jump-start this by signing up for the Thing-A-Day Challenge, where participants agree to make something every day for the month of February. I can do that, I think (even though some of the days may be fairly small projects). And that's just what I need to get my creative juices flowing!

What else? Somehow, it feels like this was a long week, even though I took Monday mostly off from work. The MFA was having a free day, so I went for a while and checked out a couple of sections, including an exhibit on the couture designs of Arnold Scaasi...some lovely, though fairly over-the-top dresses. (Including the one covered with white feathers, worn by one of his clients to the opening of a museum exhibit on birds!) The polka-dot dress here was one of my favorites, though the picture came out fairly blurry due to the low light. (Sometimes I really wish I had a DSLR...)


Then came the busy workweek. We got even more snow here today, and the weekend's supposed to be super cold as well. I'll mostly be working on writing a conference paper, though I'm planning to put up the shoe DIY over the weekend. Anyone have fun weekend plans?

Bold print and a black dress

This outfit (which I wore on Tuesday) started with the blouse... a lovely silk thing with one of the loudest patterns I own. I'd picked it up at the dollar-a-pound because I really liked the colors and figured it was worth $0.50 or so to see if I could make it work. So on Tuesday, when I had the first day of a class and a couple of presentations where I wanted to seem "artistic/creative," I thought I'd play with the blouse. The first step involved toning the print down a little...so I added the black wrap dress. I've been wearing these boots a ton recently, as they seem to go with most things I wear (and are remarkably decent in the snow, too).


Here's a closeup of that pattern detail. Now imagine that all over the shirt. Not my style to wear a whole blouse worth of that, but glad I could fit it into an outfit!

Details: silk blouse, thrifted. Black wrap dress, thrifted. Tights, Ann Taylor. Black leather boots, thrifted.


We got a LOT of snow on Wednesday, so I worked at home...I'd missed the first round of Boston blizzards this winter, but not this one! Probably got at least 12 inches?


I'm not a big fan of the snow/winter in general, but I have to admit this storm was really beautiful.

Also, I've got a shoe DIY post coming up soon...but here's a bit of a preview! I started with these navy Mossimo heels that I'd gotten for free but never worn. And I've been really inspired by patterned shoes, including things like Jeffrey Campbell's Tick Tribal shoes...

I'll be posting the finished results soon!

New Year, New Beginnings

Hi everyone! Realize I haven't been around these parts for a while...hope everyone's been doing well and had a great holiday season! Little bit of catchup: I spent September in Europe working on my research group's opera, which was amazing and turned out fairly successfully. October and November involved a fair amount of time with a production of Guys and Dolls, which I made the perhaps-overwhelming decision to both be a cast member of and costume design. December involved some small projects, visiting friends, and spending the holidays with the boyfriend and his family. And now, suddenly a new year!


This was yesterday's outfit, trying to start some of my fashion resolutions (well, I'm calling them "goals" rather than "resolutions" this year) about being more comfortable pushing my personal boundaries with what I wear. I also hope to do a fair amount of closet-editing this year...I've collected a bunch of thrifted clothing, some of which I don't necessarily love or look all that great in. I would love to have a closet filled with comfortable and fun pieces I really enjoy wearing and feel stylish in. Trying out whether this purple dress is one of those...comfortable, fun, but I'm not sure what I think about the shoulder pads. These boots, unfortunately, have to go in the giveaway pile... I didn't realize how tight they were across the tops of my feet!


Details: Dress, thrifted. Earrings, handmade. Boots, thrifted. Belt, thrifted. Tights, Ann Taylor.


Other goals for the new year include getting back in a regular workout routine, trying new recipes, doing something crafty at least once a week, reading a book at least every month, and getting a couple of papers published.


I love the buttons on the sleeves of this dress!

Happy New Year to you all! :)

Gray and Lace

Today was supposed to have some miserable rain/snow weather, so I had to counterbalance my desire to wear pretty skirts and shoes with realization of weather realities. Have I mentioned that I really, really am looking forward to spring? Then it didn’t actually rain or snow while I was outside…so that’ll be tomorrow, apparently. And Thursday and Friday. So much fun...no, not really.


This outfit started with the gray dress, a go-to thrifted piece. I hadn’t worn it with the lace shirt before (actually, while I’ve owned the lace shirt for a number of years, I think I’ve only worn it once or twice), but I’ve been really inspired by all the lacy details I’ve been seeing around the blog world and Chictopia, so…


So today was a busy day at the lab, still preparing for this performance I’m doing as part of my thesis! Though luckily showing some of my performance work to my adviser went really well today…I got some good feedback and some ways to make changes that will hopefully really improve the final performance. So that’s really great…now I just have to implement everything in a couple of days! Wish me luck!

Wearable necklace circuitry!

So this whole outfit started out with the necklace. See, I’m taking a class on technology and textiles this semester (which is going to be so much fun!). Well, technically I'm not actually taking the class for credit, I'm a listener since I'm so busy with the thesis. But I'm trying to do the projects anyway. Our first project involved creating a soft circuit of some kind…so I chose to build a simple necklace with a light on the (neoprene) pendant that lit up when you squeezed a felted bead elsewhere on the necklace. We presented those projects in class today, and I knew I wanted to wear the necklace as part of my daily outfit rather than just bring it in for class.


Since the necklace design had ended up feeling fairly ’60’s to me (partly due to the materials and colors available), I tried to echo that in the outfit...the shift dress with the contrast banding, which I wore over a striped shirt due to that little thing called "winter" that makes it impractical to wear sleeveless dresses right now. It was a fun exercise!

So here's the necklace when it isn't lit up (most of the time):


And when the felt bead is squeezed, connecting a circuit and lighting the LED in the pendant:



I'm not sure what's up with this facial expression. I still haven't gotten my "model" poses down.


Also, the wedge boots finished off the sixties-ish look for me...I felt like a go-go dancer! They're surprisingly comfy, though. Another dollar-a-pound-plus find...

Time for a cozy sweater!

I got most of yesterday off because of President’s Day (translation: I worked at home in the morning, then went into the lab later in the afternoon because I had a meeting and a rehearsal). After the lazy, lovely weekend, it was a bit hard getting myself back in gear! (Also, code did not work as well as it was supposed to. Grr.) So… a cozy sweater-dress seemed in order. I found this one thrifting with the boyfriend over the weekend. It's lovely and warm, which seemed really appropriate...even though it was almost 40 degrees out eventually. (Spring coming soon? Maybe?)



The coat is another weekend thrifting find. I’ve been having really good luck with coats at my favorite clothing-by-the-pound store! Now I just have to start wearing them...which may mean it has to be a bit warmer for some of them, but I think I can wear this coat now and still be fine. I really like the faux fur cuffs and collar, too.


Also trying a photo without the glasses…what do you think? I used to wear contacts, but have given up on them in the last few years as I haven’t found any pairs I can wear really comfortably (my astigmatism = huge contacts that go blurry when your eyes get dry and they shift a little bit).



I only have a week and a half until this thesis performance. There is SO much that needs to be done. And I'm spending time blogging. Oops.