Office Attire

     Recently, every time I open Instagram I swipe the app closed about 10 seconds later. It feels noisy and chaotic, which I'm taking as a reminder that if I want good old-fashioned fashion content I should get back to writing and reading blogs. I did some travel in April that involved a week of working in-person in an office - an office that crucially had a pretty good bathroom selfie-mirror. I was equipped with only a very small portion of my wardrobe, so I thought I'd share my actual week of carry-on-suitcase work outfits. To set the stage: it was in the Bay Area, so the weather was temperate (and hot a few days) and the dress code was lax. 

Did You Forget It?

Dress | Alice + Olivia
Blazer | Theory
Earrings | Banana Republic

     Cause I didn't. I brought it. ☺ 

     It is a new year and a short work week, so I thought I'd rise, like a sartorial phoenix from the ashes, eschew the urge to pick comfortable, familiar outfits, and step it up this week. What better way to start the new year with a little clothing fun?

     This dress was actually my last clothing purchase of 2017, and is the Alice + Olivia Jacki Dress. It is a high neck sheath dress in Guipure lace (10 points to Gryffindor if you can tell me how to pronounce guipure - I honestly don't know). Normally, I would have paired it with a shapeless black cardigan, to balance out the fact that it is sleeveless and the v in the front is a bit low, but I decided instead to add a crisp blazer and some colorful, bejeweled earrings. The red in the earrings is a nice contrast to the blue lace, and is a little more festive than my typical minimalist jewelry. I thought people at work would think my earrings were too much for a Tuesday, but I actually got a ton of compliments on them, so there you go - statement jewelry is a crowd pleaser. 

Superstition + Weekend Reading

Top | Vince
Pants | Rag & Bone

     I am not a superstitious person. At all. The most I will do is pray to the parking gods occasionally, and I'm not even sure that counts. However, I was superstitious about wearing these pants again. They are this Rag & Bone pair of jeans with a coated denim stripe down the side, along with a small chevron of leather. They are also like impossible to photograph (at least indoors, so I apologize for the poor quality photos, I had to crank the brightness up to an 11). I bought them secondhand at ReLove in SF, and took them on a recent trip. However, when I was wearing them, I got food poisoning (or something), and ended up puking my guts out. That was obviously no fault of the pants, but I was honestly scared to wear them again. I have such a visceral memory of how I felt right before I yarfed and I remember seeing these pants when I was doubled over. Obviously, as I had just bought them, I couldn't simply give up on these jeans without giving them one more chance. 

Zip Me Up

Jacket | Rebecca Taylor
(available here, and similar but green here)
Top | Vince
Skirt | Yigal Azrouel

The secondhand-clothing gods smiled brightly down upon me this past weekend. I was at ReLove, which is becoming one of my favorite places to shop, and found this skirt...which is actually part of a dress. The dress zips apart to become a top and a skirt, and even though the top was too large, I absolutely loved the skirt, so I bought the dress. Later, I was doing a quick search for it online, to enter the info into my clothing spreadsheet, found an old posting for it on the Nordstrom Rack website, and was shocked by the original retail price. I don't think these "original retail price" listings are always 100% accurate, but they aren't usually off by an order-of-magnitude, so I'm comfortable saying that this was probably the best deal I'll find in 2017 (the price I paid was also lower than what Nordstrom Rack was selling it for). 

Screenshot from Nordstrom Rack

The quality of the lace was basically perfect, even though the dress was used, and I love the leather trim down the front, as well as the zipper detailing around the waist. I decided to double down on texture, and paired it with this boucle/tweed jacket, which also added some shine. I felt professional, feminine, and like a total baller.

Showing the skirt texture.

I couldn't decide what shoes to wear (these were taken before work)
and ended up going with the black flats

 I guess my next challenge is seeing if I can get the top altered, without it ruining the ability of the two pieces to zip together. 
Have you had any good recent scores, or are you due for one?

Professorial

Top | Vince
Pants | Joe's Jeans
Cardigan | Rag & Bone
Shoes | Cole Haan
Earrings | Alexis Bittar

Ok, so it might only be my loafers that evoke a professor's wardrobe, although I think the oversized cardigan plays into it as well. All I need are some elbow patches and a leather briefcase messily stuffed with paperwork.

For this casual outfit, I tucked a silk shirt into some jeans, threw on a comfy cardigan and felt fairly put together for someone wearing skinny jeans. I think the shirt, due to both the fabric and color, add a little polish. It is more like a tunic than a shirt, so the cardigan is necessary because there is a ton of extra fabric in the back - I typically only tuck this shirt into skirts because there is too much fabric otherwise.  

I also added some sparkly earrings that I love! I first saw them on Blue Collar Red Lipstick, and was instantly drawn to them. They are Alexis Bittar, and it just so happens that they were on final mark-down clearance on their website, so I purchased. They always garner compliments, are light and easy to wear, and I love how sparkly they are.

Thanks for stopping by.

Leather Jackets As The New Cardigan?

I've started wearing leather jackets in the office, the way that I would normally wear a blazer or a cardigan. I think it definitely is more casual, but I think it is also just plain cooler. I try to pick well-fitting and streamlined leather jackets so the fact that I'm wearing outerwear, indoors, is less noticeable. 

Top | SFMOMA Calder T-shirt
Jacket | Veda (last styled here)
Pants | DL1961

Outfit Roundup - Wear to Work

Last week, I test-drove two pretty trendy looks in the office: crop tops and over-sized cardigans.

First up, the crop top. This particular one is Elizabeth and James (this available here), and has shiny metallic embellishments. I paired it with a high-waisted skirt, and layered a tank underneath, so even when raising my arms to put on a sweater (like so), there was no risk that some of my skin would peak out.

Upper abdomen is not really business casual, no matter how you slice it.