My imaginary Richeldis, looking back on her visions, meditates on the solace of another woman's company:
richeldis
Working, too, on rearranging my short-story collection, in hopes that maybe maybe I can place it somewhere soon. The poetry MS is still out at Able Muse, and I'm starting to get antsy about that, but meanwhile, here are these stories. It would be nice to kick them out the door this year or next, get them on their way, have them out there in the world, while I peck away at longer, slower projects.
It's another lovely, sunny day here, with a high of 80F. Just sublime, perfect weather, when I can enjoy wearing fewer clothes and not be bored by that. The time will come again when I long for the variety of layers, but that time is not now.
Wearing today:
Willow again, since she got bumped out of her place by the arrival of Maggie T on Monday. Willow has had a little bath in the interim, in some diluted sulfate-free shampoo --- as much as I love this wisteria color, and I really, really do, it shows every. single. spot. that touches it. This has been far and away my most-washed dress, but I wash gently, with respect for the lanolin in the wool, and she seems no worse for it.
This shot shows you how short this dress is: not quite short enough to flash my bike shorts when I raise my arms, but short enough for me. I'm not bothered, but this really might be useful for someone else considering this style: as people have long been saying, it does seem to run shorter than other swing styles.
Still and all, this is a fun dress, and as with Fiona, I want to get as much wear as possible out of my dresses with longer sleeves before it really is too hot to contemplate them so much. I like the "arms in/legs out" look of a dress with sleeves in the summer --- though we will reach the point, and fairly soon, where it's more comfortable to have "everything out" (well, not literally everything, but arms and legs, anyway).
I am once again thinking to cultivate the habit of wearing a hat. I hung this one on the peg by Dora's leash this morning, so maybe I'll actually remember to put it on before we walk. I should really take more care in the sun, since the level of care I take on a daily basis is none, and I have the skin to show for it. But I also just like the way a hat completes an outfit. This is a level of detail I normally don't aspire to, but then I see pictures of women looking so lovely and put together in dresses with hats, and I think: why do I not do this?
I will want to wear a hat for Saturday's graduation at the Abbey, because unless it's raining, we'll all be seated on the piazza in front of the basilica. Even in his academic regalia, my husband comes home every year with a sunburn. So I'm practicing today.
I do think the addition of a hat makes a difference:
No hat . . .
vs.
Hat.
Anyway, I feel easy and breezy and ready for anything today.
Still giving some consideration --- or reconsideration --- to this skirt I have bought and have been waiting for, and will have to wait a whole nother month for, before I get it. On the one hand, I went for it for . . . reasons, chiefly that I have some shirts. On the other hand . . . I really wonder whether, after all that time spent waiting, I would actually wear it all that often. Even given that I really can wear anything I want out of my closet, at any time, I don't wear tops and skirts much at all. That's never my first choice. Sometimes I wear a skirt to vary up a dress, but mostly I have not wanted to wear separates, and I really wonder if it's going to be worth a hundred-plus bucks to me to have another separate, just to justify my ownership of a couple of wool/cashmere tank tops that I really bought to be under-layers in the winter (and would keep for that purpose in any case, because when it's cold, they are nice and cozy).
I'm not going to move on my reservations today, but I do note them. The longer I have to wait for this skirt, the more I wonder whether I want it at all. I do like and want the color. Of all the greens in the Wool& palette, it's the one I'm most likely to wear well, mostly because . . . it's teal, and I look good in teal. I can wear a green-leaning teal, far more reliably than I can wear a straight green (though my green cotton cardigan is all right, note that I'm generally wearing it with blue).
The other thing that I'm noting, but not acting on immediately, is that . . . contra all my criticisms of this dress design, and they have been many . . . I'm kind of eyeing the Brooklyn dress. Would I be eyeing any dress at all right now, given that I literally just bought one, if I didn't have something on order that I could cancel for store credit? Probably not. Almost certainly not. But given that I have something that I've paid for, and I still have a little credit left from my last return-and-purchase, my mind is restless on this score in a way that I'm sure it wouldn't be otherwise. I hope it wouldn't be, anyway.
WHY, though, am I thinking about this dress, when I've been so critical of the design? Partly, I think, it's seeing people wear it so that it actually fits. A lot of people seem to size up, which makes the bodice fit in a way that looks loose and sloppy and like medical scrubs (exacerbated by the Country Blue color, which is one of the choices --- as much as I love blue, I really don't love that blue, especially in that design). But I've seen, lately, a lot of photos where women have sized down --- including smaller-busted women like me --- and it looks actually quite cute. The sleeves don't seem as shapeless. And the longer length, especially, gives the design a balance that I don't think it has in its regular length.
I'd still be worried about the wrap design. And I don't love the look of a stitch taken to keep it from gaping, though one could do that. I have had a surplice-front dress that I loved --- I don't think I have any photos of it, sadly, but it was a Gap knit dress, in a tealy blue, that I'd bought on ThredUp in probably 2017 or so. Maybe even 2016, I don't remember. I did take a stitch, after the gapey bodice bothered me, and that was my least favorite thing about it, but I wore it for years, until it got too pilled and stretched to be any good. Now that I think of it, it was even more like the new Isabelle than my navy Talbots dress was --- the main difference was that it had a higher waistline, almost empire, which felt flattering and comfortable to me, with a lot of easy flow in the skirt. So maybe it was, overall, a less structured dress. Also, it had a really low surplice back which made it hard to wear with a bra --- that, more than the neckline, bugged me whenever I wore it, and I almost always felt that I had to wear a cardigan. But it was a pretty, flattering dress nonetheless, and as I say, I wore it a lot for a long time.
Anyway. As much as my eye is drawn to the new Isabelle, I really wonder if that's just too bare a dress to be useful to me . . . but then I think about that wrap style. Half the time, what I think is no way. But then I find myself thinking, Wow, this is cute. And this. And this. And this, though honestly this last looks like a an outfit I've made with my Fiona. Maybe it's the Fiona that has me thinking this way: the idea of a dress that fits kind of like that (which is what I thought about Sophia, and it didn't work the way I'd envisioned), but short-sleeved and a little breezier, with maybe a little more potential to dress up as well as down. I think that's my other point of resistance to the Isabelle: yes, I could see wearing it with a pair of Birks, but it looks like a dressier dress, full stop. Brooklyn, meanwhile . . . can look cute with a cami or crop top under, if you need it. I could see utilizing my wool and cashmere tanks this way, and even my tees, especially in winter. The colors I have would look good with Pacific --- that's why I wanted the Pacific skirt. I don't really love the looks where people have layered long sleeves under it, though when it's cold, you do what you gotta do. But in general the style layers really nicely. I especially find myself drawn to it as a top with a skirt. I do also see that it works nicely all year round. I think Isabelle might be harder to wear in the winter, without obscuring everything that's nice about her under lots of layers.
Again, I will not do anything about this idea today, or impulsively. But I am thinking about it. I am revising my former thinking. Meanwhile, it's not like I need another dress. BUT I have another item coming, which is paid for, and in my impatience, perhaps, with that process, I do find myself wondering whether there isn't something I'd like better than that item, and wear more, and be happier to have spent my money on.
Aaaannnnnd I really should go walk the dog. The last two days have been 4+-miles days, which feels good. I want to stay on my walking game here, to walk farther and farther with more stamina, because that feels good, even when it's hot.
Just gonna clap my hat on my head and go.
I am also once again counting periwinkle as blue.