*Wool& Audrey dress (S) in Black Heather, bought November 2022, last worn November 6. Total wears this year to date: 26
*Thrifted Banana Republic 100% merino sweater, bought Sunday at Texas Thrift, last worn yesterday. Second wear.
*My grandmother's Scottish wool scarf, redyed indigo by me last summer.
*Snag merino tights in Storm Cloud (I think --- dark gray). Bought spring or summer 2022, still in good shape though I have had to mend holes in the toes.
*Xero Tari boots, bought summer 2022, surely over 100 total wears by now.
More later, maybe, but now I need to get moving.
More later, maybe, but now I need to get moving.
LATER:
I am back from a very nice coffee, have walked the dog again, and am now, in company with the dog, lazing around. I have worked hard, and I'm enjoying a break.
The weather has warmed up a good bit, but it was cold when I went out initially. Here's how I kept myself cozy:
My goodness me, I do love this big Eileen Fisher cardigan (bought secondhand in September) and don't know where I'd be without it. For so much of our late-fall and winter weather, it's the perfect top layer. I'm glad I have my waterproof and windproof Gore-Tex jacket (bought secondhand in 2023 for our first trip to Norway), and I've also bought a lightweight puffer vest to wear under it when it's really cold, but many days, honestly, this big sweater is about enough. And it just looks nice with things. I don't mind mixing up its earthy, greeny brown with this dark gray --- not at all!
Anyway, by now I've taken off both the big cardigan and the scarf, but even with the rising temperatures I'm still quite comfortable in my Audrey dress (still my most-worn dress in 2024) and this lightweight merino sweater I bought Sunday afternoon while out killing time with the Texasgirl before I had to be at the airport. I'll wear this dusty lavender all through Advent and Lent, but it's not so overtly purple as to scream Advent/Lent. I mean, granted, I wear purple a lot anyway these days, but still, it's nice to have a purple option as subtle as this. It'll look nice with my green Garnet Hill lantern maxi skirt, too.
I washed my hair Wednesday, and it still feels quite clean. But the cold weather is making it go fine and straight, so it's nice to be able to wear it up. I really missed having this option when it was short, a year ago. When it looked good, it was fine, but it so often did not look good, and there wasn't much I could do about it. Today I decided to use my Avigail Adam big hairpin to anchor my updo (braided, folded back on itself, the way I always do my hair), but then added some spiral pins to make sure it stayed in place. So far so good. I don't trust the big hairpin by itself, though possibly when my hair is a little longer I'll be able to secure it more reliably with the one big pin. I do like it and am glad to have it. Its long teeth catch a lot of hair, and if you kind of weave it in as you push it down and through, it holds pretty strongly.
I'm also grateful for how shiny and healthy my hair has been feeling. I've taken good care of it, and it's rewarding my good care and gentleness with a lot of smooth shine and minimal breakage.
My whole vibe today feels vaguely Edwardian (without, thank goodness, the complicated underwear), and maybe also vaguely, softly, organically academic? Anyway, I like it. I don't want to go around in costume, but I do like evoking eras and images in a kind of slantwise way.
And now to think ahead a little to dinner, because after two nights out, I do actually have to cook something tonight, and ideally this reality will not take me by surprise at 6 p.m.
ALSO:
Thinking again about "Queen Baddies," and how much I like the idea but hate the application. That is to say: fantastic, style icons. You do you. I do not want to look like that. Wearing that much in-your-face color and pattern and exaggeration would give me a nervous breakdown, and not because I care what other people think. It would feel so dissonant with who I am that I couldn't handle it. Just looking at pictures of those women --- like, okay, yes, your clothes are your art, and that's great, but that particular kind of art is not for me. I think we need another kind of baddie model to aspire to, for those of us who also aren't going to look like all the little old ladies in pastel track suits, but don't want to look like op art costuming in heels all the time. Quiet Baddies, maybe? Organic Baddies? Introvert Baddies?
I dunno. And I don't know why I was thinking about it, but we definitely need some more categories for how older women who don't want to look like everyone else can define how they look. I had initially written "can look," but the truth is that anyone can look any way they want to. It just helps to have an image in mind --- and if you can't find one, I guess you get to make one up.