Crabby
Posted: August 13, 2021 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: blue, blue jean culottes, brooch, navy button-up, red, red slingbacks 1 Comment
Ever since I read the book about Madeleine Albright’s brooch collection, I became aware of how you can use the brooch to convey a certain message or mood, and I tried to apply that to my own brooches. Of course, I still choose them based on how well they go with the outfit, but occasionally, when I just want a brooch to add some touch of interest to my outfit, I would stop to think what it says about me.
Take this outfit, for example. I wore it to attend an important work meeting on Zoom, and as we all know, when it comes to the Zoom meeting look, it’s all about from the neck up, so I wanted to add a brooch. At work, I’m known for my directness and perhaps even stubbornness when defending my views (not always a good thing, I’ll admit. I’m working on it), so I chose my crab brooch because there is a saying in Vietnamese that translates to “As stubborn as a crab” (since a crab only moves sideways instead of back-and-forth, see) to show that I’m not afraid to speak my mind. In the end, it wasn’t necessary because everybody was in agreement anyway, but it was nice knowing I could rely on my brooch for a bit of strength. (The shoes were an afterthought. I didn’t wear them for my meeting, naturally.)
1940s Inspired
Posted: November 6, 2020 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: blue, navy paperbag pants, red, red slingbacks, white, white short-sleeve sweater 3 Comments
Since my rediscovery of thrift/secondhand/vintage shopping earlier this year, I’ve been leaning hard into my vintage-inspired style, especially 1940s style. I’ve always been drawn to 1930s-1950s style anyway, but 1940s style is a lot easier to recreate than 1950s’ (no puffy skirt, no shapewear), and it’s more functional and practical than 1930s’ too. Of course, I don’t want to look costume-y, so I tend to look for clothes that can be translated into modern outfits. One such piece is this short-sleeve sweater. I paired it with my paper-bag pants for something like this or this, and the pattern of the sweater is interesting enough on its own so I kept the rest of the outfit simple.
End Of Summer
Posted: September 25, 2020 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: blue, blue jean culottes, navy linen sleeveless top, red, red slingbacks Leave a comment
I’m getting to that point when I’m sick of my warm-weather wardrobe, but the weather is not cool enough to bring out my cold-weather clothes yet. It makes for a vicious cycle. Because I’m bored with my warm-weather clothes, my outfits are uninspired, and because I feel uninspired, I keep buying fall/winter clothes to alleviate my boredom (all thrifted/secondhand, of course, but it’s becoming a problem), and now I end up with too many cold-weather clothes that I’m not able to wear yet, which in turn makes me feel more bored and uninspired. But! The weather is cooling down soon – a tiny amount, but it’s still going to be cooler – so hopefully that can give me some much-needed inspiration. So here is the last of the summer’s outfits. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s comfy and relatively interesting with the red details, so I thought I’d give it its own post.
Linen Dress
Posted: August 19, 2020 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: blue, brooch, navy linen dress, red, red slingbacks 2 Comments
One of my thrifting goals is to find more solid-colored summer dresses – they are easy to throw on, and can be dressed up or down and paired with my funkier pieces without overwhelming them. You’d think that solid-colored dresses would be easier to find than printed dresses too, but most of the ones I saw in my local thrift stores were either white (no) or pastel (big no, not with my skin tone) or they are in a crunchy, boho style that isn’t me. Eventually, though, I found this navy linen dress. It isn’t perfect – the color was quite faded (nothing a quick dye job can’t fix), the silhouette is a little looser than I like (I can just tighten the sash), and it doesn’t have pockets (oh well) – but it fits the bill, so I’m excited to wear it more.
Duchess Inspired
Posted: August 21, 2019 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: mustard wide-leg pants, red, red slingbacks, white, white eyelet button-up, yellow 1 Comment
When I saw these photos of Kate Middleton back in May, I knew I had to put together something inspired by it. The culottes are cute, but what really drew me to the outfit is the shirt. I’m a sucker for broderie anglaise (I have, at last count, four tops with some on them – it’s part of my Anglophilia, I guess) but I never thought to pair them with my culottes, so here we are.
At first, I thought about wearing my sneakers to mimic the Duchess’ outfit completely, but then I found sneakers make it slightly too casual – Kate Middleton may have pulled them off, but I couldn’t – so in the end, I decided to wear my red heels because there is a bit of red on my shirt.
