Dress that does double duty

...as a skirt! Here we have a Banana Repblic (2005 or 06) dress as seen previously here.

Topping it off is the ever-useful and classic J. Crew Jackie cardi, in blue or purple (depending on your point of view). I like to call it electric purple.

Break out the linens!

J. Crew linen-cotton scarf: $20

J. Crew linen-cotton sweater: $20

Gap pants of unknown synthetic material: $22

Short(er) Sleeves!

Friday!

Oh, the comfort of darkness. In my wise old age I am beginning to understand why some people stick to wearing black and only black. Except in this outfit the skirt is actually super-dark purple.

J. Crew chiffon bow sweater, auburgine cord skirt and mottled gray/black BR tights.

That's all I got. Thanks for checking in, and have a relaxing weekend, friends and strangers.

It's here, and I wore it!

Above is me wearing the ever-coveted Liberty of London for Target dress. The size 4 petite worked well, after all. It debuted (on me, at least) tonight at a work function, and lots of my frugal fashionista co-workers were impressed to hear it was Target. I am, too.

It's quite quality. Although, you will notice that it really took an impression from a hard day of sitting (creases in front). But for $35, I'm not complaining.

A French story

In honor of spring I wore LOTS of color today, via this Gainsborough Pencil Skirt from Anthropologie. It's a Tracy Reese design in a mildly snug size 2 (for reference I am a mildly roomy size 0 in J. Crew).

I wonder if the skirt got its name from the painter Thomas Gainsborough, who did works like this:

But with its classy boldness, I wonder if they meant also to allude to Serge Gainsbourg, the French singer/songwriter:

Who, by the way, is the father of actress/singer/songwriter Charlotte Gainsbourg:

Whose mother is the actress, model, singer and film director Jane Birkin:

For whom this legendary (Hermes) (Birkin) bag is named:

Ta-ta for now, Wintery Cardigan

This lovely cardigan is going to the bottom of the drawer today because its wintery comfort should no longer be needed! I hope! The orangey pencil skirt may follow soon--it has a wool texture that might not mix with summery stuff. And I do want to wear summery stuff very, very soon. This cardigan, though, is a trusty and versatile bugger who will no doubt return in the next cold season. Here's a look back at the fine service it has provided these past few months: here, here and here. (By the way: Today's entire outfit--tights, skirt, cardigan, shirt and scarf--is brought to you by the sale section of J. Crew. Yeah, I'm addicted. It's true.)

Mad for the 90s

I've been sentimental about the 90s lately. Yesterday I watched one of my favorite 90s Woody Allen movies, Husbands and Wives, and I just spent half an hour You Tubing Ben Folds Five videos. All while wearing this long, plaid skirt (which the Mom bought me on an 08 shopping trip to J. Jill). The top is from The Limited (or Express? I conflate those two stores...which are also both very 90s...)

Add the fact that my hairstyle is modeled after that of 1920s flappers, and I'm a mish-mash of my two favorite decades from the 20th century.  I'm one of those people--one of those people stuck back in time!

Knock-offs

In honor of the fact that I am stressed, there is no fashion post today.

As the Bard Himself said,

To be relaxed or to be stylin', that is the question
Whether 'tis classier in the mind to suffer
The fasteners and labels of outrageous fashion
Or to take the hangers against a sea of fabric
And by folding them end them


(The above is a bad ripoff of Hamlet. 'Cause I'm tired and goofy. Have a good weekend.)

Pardon the bulbs

Light til 7 p.m.!

My daily laptop-camera photos aren't going to look as shabby as usual now that the sun sets later (I take the photos afer work). In fact, I'm off for a run in all this fabulous sunshine.

Plain Jane

Today's outfit is pretty plain and straightforward. But here's a follow-up to yesterday's post:

Thanks to this My Superfluities post, I have a decent shot at the much-sought-after yellow shift dress from the Liberty of London for Target collection.

Dina, a fabulous blogger, linked to Target's petite sizes in the dress, and I rush-clicked a size-4 petite (no size 2s left, but maybe a 4 will be better). I'm an inch or so shy of official petite status (I'm 5'6"), but I'll give it a go. Fingers crossed!

Pink

Deja view. Yup, I'm totally cheating on this picture-taking thing. This photo is from the last time I wore this outfit (in January).

Speaking of dresses, after exhaustive anticipation via Internet viewing, I fell very much in love with this Liberty of London for Target shift dress:

So I walked excitedly to my local Target early Sunday morning to nab one in my size, and you know what? They were gone! Gone, gone, gone!

The staff said the Liberty of London shipment had come in Friday and all the shift dresses sold out Saturday. Boo.

Couldn't even get one online by the time I walked home because they were sold out online, too!

However, My Man--who has much experience selling bike parts online (not the stolen kind--he just buys old bikes, takes them apart and leaves metal parts all over the apartment) assured me that doggonit, I could have that yellow shift dress in size 2, as long as I waited patiently, the Good Collectors of the World would provide (via eBay). I hope so.

Velvet crush

Here's a sweet little deal I got recently: The fall 2009 J. Crew velvet jacket in deepest indigo (so deep it looks black here). It was $40--nabbed during one of those early-morning pop-backs. I'm wearing it here with a dark purple corduroy skirt, dark purple shirt and black tights.

All my favorite dark neutrals, united in one outfit!

Red and black, Jack

Speaking of Jack, My Man and I are SO obsessed with the show Lost. Jack is the name of one of the main characters on the island. We just got on the bandwagon last month and we're already on season 3 (watching it on hulu.com).

In fact, today is My Man's birthday, and all he wants to do is watch more Lost! (We did celebrate a little this past weekend, too--couldn't let such an important birthday celebration slide by.)

Green machine

There's a science to shopping for clothing when one has extremely pale skin. I stick to grays, some pinks, and here's a dark blue-green. This is a Banana Republic shirt I've posted about before, but this time it's with a skirt (J. Crew outlet) and tights (Banana Republic, they actually have a little diamond pattern you can't see in the photo).

I'm actually not strict about wearing clothes that complement my skin tone. That would be too much work! But it does feel nice to find colors that work.

Cardigan fan

Ta-da

 

Jacket: Ann Taylor Loft, shopping trip with the Mom, $45

Black cords: J. Crew, $25 

Merino turtleneck: J. Crew, $20

Shoes were the black Tsubos: $70 

My new crush

 

  

I have a crush for reals on the British clothing company Boden. This is my third item from them, and I can see myself wearing it for years and years to come. I mean, look: the colors! the pattern! the brightness! the perfectly sized buttons and sharp, neat little collar! 

Darkly purple

 

I had to do some major-bad Photoshopping on this image to show that it's not an all-black outfit here.

Just the pants are black--which are the Club Monaco pair I raved about here. I am on the verge of wearing them every single day! Somebody stop me! 

Orange you glad you wore a dress?

 

Got a jump on Spring today (please? already? sunshine?) with a bright-orange dress. I think it's from 07, J. Crew online sale. The shirt underneath was a present from My Man, and the tights and shoes were brown. 

What's black and white and cold all over?

 

Me