Thanks, COVID-19

Back in the mid 00s K and I used to very much enjoy a blog called Go Fug Yourself. I dare say it was one of the inspirations for this very blog here. It was just a couple of gals talking about the clothes that celebrities wore. It was a magnificent time, Lady Gaga was reaching her height and so were her outfits. The internet wasn't saturated by, well, everything and Instagram didn't even exist!  It was a really funny blog and a great opportunity to look at all kinds of outfits, good and bad. It still exists in a much fancier form now and I haven't looked at it in years (except earlier today to verify this claim about its existence). When it started getting big and the original authors weren't the only writers anymore (and I'm not just talking about delegating to Intern George)* I think I can safely say that K and I both stopped reading it. It just lost that certain je ne sais quoi. But in its hey day it really was very good. There were a couple of particular things that the writers really did not like, fashionwise, and mostly I was in tune with them. If someone wore shorts or a skirt that was too short, the post would carry the tag 'look into pants', a person wearing leggings would get 'leggings aren't pants' (or something similar - sheesh it was more than a decade ago, I can't remember all the details) and these were all sentiments I could get behind. But as one working from home day rolls into the next I think it's safe to say my position on leggings has changed. Drastically.

I do have several pairs of leggings because I like to run in them (I mean I used to run in them, but for years now I have only fanticised about running in them) and I like to do yoga in them but other than that I rarely wear them. Oh occasionally I'll wear them around the house but they're not really a default. I am just pretty comfortable in jeans most of the time but working from home calls for something else. I do not like to work in too-comfortable clothes, I need something more constricting than pyjamas or tracksuit pants to get my mind in the right framework, but jeans can be uncomfortable for hours of sitting. Moreover, I may be stuck at home but I still want to mix it up a bit. Sheesh, girlfriend still likes to think about and wear sweet outfits. And I gotta tell ya, leggings really are the perfect pal for this scenario. The slight constriction of a good pair of leggings is just the right level of discomfort for WFH, while the flexibility gives just the right amount of comfort. And when you bother to put the outfit together, I feel like you can come up with something pretty sweet. This is what I'm wearing today - a red jumper with a nice shape, red socks to pull it all together - I'm enjoying it on a comfort and aesthetic level.

**

From where I sit now I could actually imagine wearing this in the real world. So I'd like to thank COVID-19 and the forced isolation for opening my eyes to this new possibility of leggings as pants. Although when the doors to the outside world open I may well find this is just like when you're holidaying in a country where the fashion sense is just slightly different and your removal from your life makes you think that you love and could wear the clothes people wear in that country. And then you buy clothes, bring them home to your natural habitat and realise there is no fucking way you'd wear those things. Oh well, only time will tell I guess.   

*You feel me GFY fans.
**Looking at this I realise I'm just wearing a really normal selection of items people would wear in their own house and maybe this doesn't warrant a photo, let alone a blog post. Oh well - too late now! 

Who am I kidding?

God, K's right! You can hitch all your dreams to the wardrobe audit wagon but in truth a wardrobe cleanse comes with as many negative emotions as positive ones. Yes you may feel lighter and better but at the same time you feel full of doubt. Will that dress never be right for you? How can you see all the way into the future like that? Will your daughter buy something just like it in 20 years time and kvetch when they find out you used to have this one? I have gotten rid of clothes that never seemed quite right after long term agonising and years later still wonder if it was the right decision. Conversely have a dress in my wardrobe I bought 13 years ago and never wear but it's so flattering I think I should keep it. Who knows how to cleanse a wardrobe successfully? Who knows if it will even help?

But as I write this and reflect I'm interested to discover I've never regretted getting rid of a pair of shoes. I don't question shoe dismissals at all. But shoes really are a different ball game. And hard to get rid of. Because sometimes a pair of shoes is only good for one outfit, but without those shoes that outfit may be nothing. 

But wait, am I thinking about this too much? Should I be more worried about ballistic missiles?

I started

I started the wardrobe audit yesterday. Thanks to J for that great terminology. I took everything out of my cupboards and laid it out on my bed. I made separate piles for dresses, jackets, knits, pants, skirts, etc. etc. etc. 

I didn't photograph it because I was kind of ashamed by the volume of stuff and the fact that I feel ambivalent about most of it. I started a pile of things to go to the op shop and I put lots and lots of things on it. That felt good.

Then I realsied that maybe I was dismissing some things that are still good, but just wrong for the season. Or maybe just need a wash. I started to doubt everything. And I got sentimental. What to do with my first pair of dejour jeans, that are still good but a bit too faded? Those jeans showed me how great jeans can be.  I'll want to wear super faded jeans again, one day, right? Ditto my green coat, the coat that so perfectly met my needs at the time I bought it, but I would never wear now. 

I guess I lost the thread of the exercise. I was tempted to move everything to the spare room and resume again today but in a real triumph of maturity, I decided that would be a mistake that would leave me feeling no sense of achievement as well as general anxious. 

I put away the things I knew I wanted to keep and  created a draw of question mark items. If I don't wear them in the next six months, they're out. 

And I have two bags to go to the op shop. 

I feel kind of ok about it all, but not the relief and excitement I thought I would feel. I guess that's because it's only clothes and who really cares when there are intergalactic ballistic missiles and such. 

But heck, if I don't feel good about it then no one will, so let's just look at the bags of stuff for the oppie and feel soothed. 

Getting real clean

I am so glad K brought this up yesterday! And by 'this' I mean cleansing and clearing and wardrobes and dressing! I have been thinking for a considerable time that if I could just clear my closet and my eyes I could do a great job dressing on a more regular basis. And in fact I have been on something of a clearing mission. I've sold some stuff on eBay recently, I've taken things to the op shop. I've committed to farewelling clothes I've held on to for a long time despite the fact I never felt happy wearing it. Why hold on to these things!? So no more! That's what I'm saying.

And all this cleansing has helped a lot. I've been wearing outfits that I've been pretty happy with lately and guys, that feels great. If you can see what's in your cupboard your eyes really are open to the possibility of outfits. Just the other day under my cupboard I found a tag of some pants I bought a few months ago, wore a few times then completely forgot about because they are stuffed in between all the other shit hanging in my cupboard. Gross, right? To be fair those pants are really summer pants so it's not like I would have been wearing them anyway but I do think that was a pretty fucked up turn of events. What if we're just buying things we already have that are just lost in our cupboards.

A full audit is in order and although I've been working towards this I think that the next step is to remove everything from my cupboard. And by that I mean EVERY THING so that I really know what is in there and can conceptualise my outfits for a brighter future. I'm feeling pretty positive about this move and I'm hoping it may give me... Oh shit I was distracted from writing this by a message K sent me about poodle puppies and then I sat in reverie wondering if I should enquire about these poodle puppies and now I have no idea what I was hoping this wardrobe audit may give me but whatever if it is I was hoping for I hope I get it!

You're not the message, man

Did anyone watch Bodyhack last night? It's that show with Todd Sampson in which, to quote Wikipedia, he travels around the world to meet "some of the world's most extraordinary people...deconstructing and decoding how these incredible people live, what they do differently from the rest of us and how this impacts the human body." 

I used to enjoy watching Todd Sampson on Gruen. I found him pleasant and informed and he had interesting insights that led me to better understand advertising. 

But I guess at some point someone decided that he was so good at delivering messages that he should be the message. Because from what I can tell, BodyHack is basically a show about him being worldly and adventurous and a thinking person's tough guy. He goes to live among people who do super hard stuff, like Sherpas and French Legionairres and takes on the physical challenges that are part of their everyday lives. Last nights episode he lived amongst a group of people who are seaborne, called the Sama- Bajau who do seem super fascinating. 

They can walk on the sea floor, holding their breath for some time to do it. And because this thing is super awesome and super hard, Todd just HAD to try it. But did he really? I mean, when I am informed that someone can hold their breath underwater for four minutes and walk along the sea floor the equivalent of six floors below sea level, I can use my mind grapes to interpret that and be damned impressed. When I see footage of a person doing exactly that, I am further impressed and amazed. When Todd Sampson then tries to do it, i just think he's a smug fuck. And I think get out of the way man, you're not the message, they're the message. But that's what this whole show is about. Todd telling us some truly interesting things and visiting truly interesting people, then lodging himself smack back in the centre of the action. And he wears a lot of active wear, or gets around topless. Keep it to yourself, guy.

Where to take this

I hope K feels better soon. 

As autumn really settles into being autumn, with rain and cold days I've really been thinking about my winter wardrobe in earnest. And by winter I mean autumn, because of course when winter comes around I'm just going to be in jeans and woollen jumpers constantly. And by cold days I'm not talking about this week which is forecast to be in the mid-20s all week. But I think we know what I mean, right? Right. By February I'm already thinking about my winter wardrobe because I way prefer cold weather clothes and by now I'm bloody gagging to get my skin all covered up. Oh, yeah.  I feel like this season I'd like to do a bit of sartorial exploring, but also set some personal challenges. One of my concepts for my winter dressing this year is 'skivvies under everything.' Whereby I plan to wear skivvies under everything. And rather than just settling on a seasonal look and then trying to dress to it once in a while I'd like to set myself the challenge of dressing in that look everyday for a week, thereby actually seeing if I can do it and if it is a good look for me and hopefully, if everything goes well, just committing to it better because I have the lived experience of it.

Another thing I want to do this season is just fucking go for it. I have this tweed vest in my cupboard I think about wearing but never do, but not any more. This season I'm just going to fucking go for it!

Monochrome! Natch. Autumn is the perfect time for monochrome dressing, and this season I'm going to do it everyday for a week. And then a bunch of other times.

I'm excited about these dressing experiments guys! I can't wait to do them! And then tell you about them! But right now I'm just excited about getting my jeans on!

Still looking ahead

I have so many questions about yesterday's post, like does K swim at the Northcote pool or use the gym there? If gym-users are there at 6am maybe they are some of those smug fucks troubling her so much? Still, Jane's friends sure seem like some smug swimmers. Jerks. But if K is swimming how do we know she's not a smug jerk? Yikes!

I love a warm morning, yeah I do but I'm looking forward to the turn of weather, mind you I don't plan to hang out at the gym at 6am. I recently reread The Shipping News. I loved that book the first time and I loved it the second time too. The blurb told me I'd get swept up in an "exhilarating Atlantic drama." I didn't really remember it like that and that's because it's not really like that. It's more about the vibe of it. Technically lots of dramatic things happen but the really the greatness, for me, is in the conjuring of this stormy, tiny seaside time and it's inhabitants. Anyway, there is this scene in the book where a girl is described as walking into a room wearing a sweater and when I read that line I just, "Oh that lucky thing! A sweater! I can't wait to wear a sweater!" And you can bet to heck I'm wearing one right now. Although I know I'll just have to take it off in a couple of hours when the sun comes out. But that's ok. I'm not a fool. I know that in 6 months I'll hate every sweater I own and be longing to expose some skin and bid adieu to the rain-induced super frizzy hair of winter. It's like Spandau Ballet said, I know this much is true. But for now I'm just digging on a little chill.

Summer recap

Well hunk week was a great way to start the year. I'm pretty sure we all agree on that. But it's time to move on. For now. 

Guys! How was everyone's summer? On a personal level? Obviously it's still summer but we're all back at work now, the holiday is over. How was it?

My summer was pretty idyllic I guess. The pool, the beach, my famous annual new year brunch. A night out. Basically living the dream. 

I'm not wearing pyjama pants in the street though which is disappointing. I tried on  pyjama-like pants and they were actually the spitting image of the Banana in Pyjama pants but in the end the similarity was to much.

I fucking hate the Bananas. They're such idiots and I just think they are terrible role models for our children. Protect the children, ABC! What are you trying to create a generation of bumbling fools who know nothing about the world and can't even figure out the things that are right in front of them? That continue toxic relationships with rats who do nothing but try to manipulate people. END BANANAS NOW!

Woah, sorry. I guess my summer produced some pent up anxiety or is it rage? Probably as a result for having to sacrifice a clean house for the duration of the school holidays. But seriously. On the whole summer has been a delight and I'm looking forward to enjoying the rest of it. And I still haven't given up on pyjamas as pants.

The pyjama question

Me wearing pyjamas in the streets (of my DREAMS!)

If you read fashion blogs you’d be aware that a couple of years ago people started wearing pyjamas out on the street. Or at least on the streets in front of fashion shows. Although some highly glamorous women seemed to be pulling this look off to an extent, it seemed far too stupid for me and a movement I essentially ignored. Until last week when I bought a new pair of pyjama pants for summer. They are wide legged and white cotton with navy stripes and I felt so delighted when I put them on I felt like I never wanted to take them off and the crisp whiteness made me wonder if maybe I didn’t have to.

I’d have thought of myself as a person that would never again wear a wide leg pant but pyjamas are so special. Plus I’m still trying to figure out how to dress in this post-pregnancy body. You’d think I’d have some better ideas by this third baby but I don’t. I should probably go back and read some old blog posts to see if there are any clues in there. At the moment I am blessed with an actual baby that actually sleeps through the night. I have to say I always thought this was a bullshit thing that people with grown up children who couldn’t remember what babies were like would say but Whoopsee legit sleeps through the night and it’s great. I love her for it, but not having constant demand for my breast milk means that I may actually have to do something  about losing this pregnancy weight like stop eating ice cream or start exercising more rather than trusting my baby to literally suck the fat out of me in a beautiful symbiotic relationship between their weight gain and my loss. 

Or maybe I don’t have to stop eating ice cream at all! Maybe I can just start wearing pyjama pants. I mean, I don’t want this to turn into a slippery slope to obesity (though if I'm being honest I’m also very drawn to mumus) but I just don’t know how to dress right now. Naturally there would be a few barriers I’d have to overcome if I were to start wearing pyjamas in public. Like self respect (luckily there isn’t that much there for me to over come). LB’s inevitiable inability to cope with it (I once wore tracksuit pants out to coffee - styled pretty well I may add and it was all I could do to get him to walk beside me to the cafe). And the fact that the pyjama pants in question look exactly like pyjama pants.

It's weird how one can apparently wear any crazy shit if you're going to a fashion show where everybody there will check out your kit and probably judge you but walking down the streets of Collingwood I feel like I'll be far more judged wearing crazy shit. But maybe no one cares. Lord knows I don't. Let them wear cake I always say. Still there's a big difference between sitting in a room fantasising about wearing pyjamas on the street and actually doing it. Mind you, by the end of last summer I was wearing a t-shirt with my brother's face screen printed supersize across the front and I sure as hell hadn't seen that coming so let's check back on the pyjama situation in a couple of months.

Life goals Thursday

J is right but I'm still following two clothes shops on Instagram because I like looking at the ads. 

You know what else I like? Rebecca Judd. Or at least, her Instagram feed. And not in a hateful way. I don't like her feed because I like hating on her. I like it because she seems kind of charming. It happened very gradually. One day Instagram suggested a post from her. As if, Instagram I thought. But then I looked at it and it was about one of her kids, and seemed kind of funny. Then I started looking at her posts, like, seeking them out. And sure enough, the are sometimes charming and funny. Once, on Chris Jude's birthday, she posted a photo and said happy birthday chris judd, I would be up shit creek without you. I thought it was kind of nice.

I don't follow her yet. I'm not prepared to do that. But I am prepared to admit that on Instagram, I kind of like her. 

Might as well jump

So I thought I would directly engage with the topic of jumpsuits canvassed yesterday.

Even though I only have one, I dig the jumpsuit.


I think their appeal is their simplicity. One garment, totally meeting your covering nakedness and style needs, serve it up, let's go. Some people like wearing layers but to be honest, I don't even like wearing separates. 

Figuring out how to pair all those tops and all those bottoms? It's a bit of a headache. That's why I like wearing dresses so much. One garment, everything you need, serve it up, let's go. But the jumpsuit is more fun than the dress.


Until it's time to go to the toilet, then it's more annoying than the dress.


But hell, we're here for a long time, not a good time as our friend Bibby used to say. The idea of eliminating all annoyance in clothing is an impossible dream.


So yeah, jumpsuits!

A vision for the (immediate) future

After my reveal on Monday that I had determined my look for summer K texted me to ask what my summer look would be. I had one word for her: jumpsuits!

I should probably have given her a few more words because if you think about it, jumpsuits isn't really a look for a whole season. Especially for a girl that only owns four jumpsuits and can only breastfeed in two of them. I'm committed to the look and currently have an expensive boob-accessible jumpsuit on layby but it's not really feasible to keep buying expensive jumpsuits. Or own them in summer if I keep laybying them. And yet I can't shake the feeling that this summer is meant to be all about the jumpsuit.  It's possibly a reaction to my recent pregnancy rendering me unable to wear jumpsuits for many months or to the fact that I don't fit into most of my jeans. Whatever the reason, I'm embracing jumpys. 

The thing about jumpsuits is that you have to embrace them, otherwise it's too easy to think they're too full on for day-to-day wear but forget that! There's nothing too full on for daily wear and certainly when you keep dropping hunjies on jumpeys you don't want them to go to waste in your wardrobe. But this leaves me in a position where I have to figure out how to supplement my jumpsuits on nonjumpsuit days. 

Oh sure I could just wear any old thing: shorts and a t-shirt; skirts and singlet; a dress. And we all know that in reality that's probably what will happen but that doesn't help me when I'm trying to construct a theory of my summer look. 

Reading over past blog posts about summer looks I feel like I had some solid summer directions: colour palletes, adjectives. I'm beginning to wonder if "jumpsuits!" isn't quite enough to define my key look for summer so I guess I should be grateful for this miserable weather buying me time to elaborate on my sartorial direction. You haven't heard the last of this friends!

Reality check

I feel like such an idiot. Remember months ago I told you how much I was looking forward to October and November because I wouldn't be pregnant anymore and it'd be spring and I'd finally be able to dress normally? Was I in denial overload or what?! I mean spring in Melbourne, warm? What was I thinking? Not to mention my body. Oh sure I'm skinnier now than I was 6 weeks ago but also I have the body of a woman that was pregnant until 6 weeks ago. Of course I love having a substantial part of my wardrobe back in action but I'd love it more if I looked better in it. 

Don't get me wrong the grass is definitely greener here than back then. I can wear pants. I way prefer my babies ex utero than in utero and the rainy days are interspersed with sunny days. And in fact last night I felt practically gleeful when the rain started. Sitting inside of an evening while it rains makes me nearly as happy as brushing my teeth an hour before I go to bed. But when am I actually going to look good in clothes? My theory is that 8 months postpartum is optimum bod time, but if I'm honest with myself, and you,I'm pretty nervous about how things may pan out now that I'm in my late thirties. I mean Leonardo Dicaprio turned 42 last week. Do you know how old that makes me? An age where I'm probably really going to have to make an effort to lose weight after having a baby. Sigh. 

So I'm just going to eat the McDonald's style apple pies Russeth made that are in my freezer and the ice cream to get them out of my house and stop slathering butter on the Coles brand flatbread I'm weirdly addicted to (mainly because I eat it slathered in butter I suppose). Probably I'll have to stop snacking constantly out of fear that if I don't I'll get so hungry I pass out or eat a horse. Once I have achieved these things then maybe I'll look forward to a time when I may look good in clothes again. If only I didn't have to give up comfort eating to see me through this difficult time. Sigh. 

Empire 2.0 (PM)

Fuck yeah, Queenie. You totally ruling the empire. That monochrome effect is in full flight.

If I were Kate Middleton I would feel so conflicted. Fashiowise I'd think I was basically given the perfect opportunity to dress monochrome for life! But then I'd also feel like I need to not start dressing like QEII while I was still a young woman and make my own style. And so I'd probably just dress in the fucked up jumble I do now. But maybe better, certainly more expensively. So word up K-Mids. Word up QEII!

I don't get it (AM)

Yesterday I was driving through South Yarra and I saw a young couple taking their pet lab for a walk. They were very well groomed, very South Yarra  and looked like they might, in a different time and place, have been friends with Patrick Bateman (obviously that time and place is the land of make believe). The thing that struck me about them was that they were both wearing sleeveless puffer jackets - in itself not unusual but effing baffling to me. 

I can not for the life of me understand puffer vests. I can not see how a cold that drives one to warm their core with puffer would not also require a warming of the arms. I don't know how people can find peace in a sleeveless puffer. Aren't they forever yearning for the arms? 

I don't get it. I don't get it at all. 

I'm pretty sure this couple couldn't have told me because they looked  like the types to make all sorts of decisions based on style rather than comfort. Perhaps I'm wrong about them but when you're making judgements based on a two second glimpse out a car window, you tend to draw on stereotypes. Anyway, if style is their motivation them I guess that's fine but as someone who looks to puffer for survival, an armless one just looks like a bastardisation of all that is good about puffer. Down with sleeveless! 

Short hair don't care (AM)

When I was in my late teens I had this pair of secondhand baby blue men's corduroy jeans. I effing loved those pants, I wore them all the time. I wore them so much that they just eventually became too trashed for me to wear anymore and I had to say goodbye to them. I was sad but I didn't dwell on it. It was only a couple of years later when I found the exact same pair of jeans and tried them on that I realised what they had meant to me.  I am not exaggerating when I say that putting them on was like coming home. It really was the first time I felt that feeling people talk about, coming home. In those jeans I felt more like myself than I did in anything else. But I was young and it was the nineties. I guess I eventually trashed those jeans too, but fashionwise I moved on and if I found those jeans now I'd definitely try them on but I probably wouldn't buy them. I'm a different me now.

The next time I had that feeling was years later when I cut my hair short after years of wearing it long. In my late teens and early twenties I wore my hair in a pixie cut and various iterations of a short mullet and I think I only grew it out really because LB liked it better than way and I guess I was ready for a change. Long hair looks great so why wouldn't I want to have it. But after years of longer hair at some point in my mid twenties I cut it all off and it was so liberating and again I had that feeling that I was my truest self again.

Since then I haven't really worn my hair really short, I usually wear it long but have dabbled with the odd bob. But as you know I hate my hair. It's so dry and untameable and despite the odd good hair day or phase of peace with my hair I often wonder why I bother to have it long at all. I guess in part it's a hope that one day it will miraculously be beautiful. It's also because I can't be bothered putting up with the complaints of LB (who does not like change), my mum ('Oh but your long hair is beautiful...what does LB think of your short hair?'), Baby ('I think you shouldn't get it cut above your shoulders') and Newbie ('No Mummy! NO!' when my hair is up). But you know what, screw those guys. Why would I base my hairstyle on what they want. It's not those guys that have to run their fingers through those brittle, dry, knotted ends or look in the mirror every morning and be greeted with, at best, a feeling of mild disappointment or, at worst, blinding despair. They don't have to figure out daily how to make themselves look cute with a cruel joke of a head of hair. 

And so I just did it, I cut it off. Oh I didn't go for the pixie cut or mullet of yesteryear, just a short bob, but it is so liberating, so simpatico to the rest of me. 

The weird bit at the back caught by the plant is not part of the style. Just another cruel joke on the part of the hair gods. Will they never let me have good hair for one minute!?!

Mum and LB and Baby and Newbie, don't they know the joy of running their hands through their hair and not being stalled by knots and grimmness. Don't they know they feeling of having hair in a style that doesn't just boof out straight away. No! They probably don't know that joy because they don't know the opposite, that which is my life with long hair. I feel so happy to have this haircut to remember how great short hair is. Moreover I'm reminded that really the only time I really love a haircut is if it is a drastic change. And well done of course. Why would I deny myself these truths? These joys? It's like Roxette once said, 'listen to your heart!'

The promised land (AM)

Right now it's the middle of winter, as I'm sure most of you are well aware. This means, presumably for everyone, at best dressing as well as you can when you just want to be as warm as you can. Which can mean dressing pretty badly sometimes. Desperately. For me it also means I'm in a 3/4-length puffer most of the time, so who even cares. Except I do care. A further confounding factor is that I'm 6.5 months pregnant which means I'm very uncomfortable and can't fit into most of my clothes. So looking good and feeling good is not really an option for me.

Furthermore I had a haircut about a month or so ago and though I was and am perfectly happy with it, I feel like I need to shake things up and make a substantial change. Don't worry, if you've been enjoying the sweet relief of this blog sans hair complaints I'm not going to ruin if for you. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying I'm contemplating some future options for my hair. Including:

And:*

And I plan to make this change just before I have the baby, which will be in spring.

We all know how much I make of the colder seasons, my love of autumn fashions and doonas, but there is nothing like a winter pregnancy wardrobe and blah hair to make the arrival of spring seem so full of promise.

My projected late-October self is dressed so well with such great hair. I'm reasonably slim and look younger. Even though the real late-October me will not just be 3 months older but a whole other child older too. And no doubt tireder. I will probably be at home as much as I am now, without the incentive to dress nice and with the added disincentives of being frequently covered in baby vomit and excess milk spilling from my bosom. But though I know all this in my head my heart still envisages a beautiful me, dressed however I want, but always really well. Probably laughing and looking casually, comfortably glamorous. God, I can't wait to be late-October me. 

*These images are both lifted from The Sartorialist, to whom I am very grateful for taking such great pics of great hair.

I love clothes (PM)

I'm not sure if it's what J intended, but I read the title of this post as though Goldmember was saying it, like "I love clooooooooooooooooooooooothes". 

Ha!

But seriously, I love clothes too in a way that is healthy and normal and because they don't cry all afternoon despite you doing everything you can think of to make them happy. Ha!

But seriously. I also love the shot in the arm one's wardrobe gets after hand washing after months of avoiding it.

 

This little number has been in the dirty clothes for months but today's post inspired me. 

I love clooooooooooooothes!

I love clothes (AM)

You guys, I love clothes!

You may think if you've read this blog or if ever had a conversation with me that you already know this and I should too. And you'd be right in a way. It's obvious in the things that I write and things that I say and on a good day in the way that I dress. But loving clothes is something a person sometimes has to deny. Not outright of course but just in the way you are. You have pretend you love other things more than clothes, like your children or boyfriend. 

Just jokes, I love my children and boyfriend more than clothes. No pretends. But guys beautiful clothes are beautiful and I want to wear them. 

I think partly this seasonal mess of weather always helps because every day you're dressing for a new season which really helps keep the love alive. Just yesterday I was fully loving myself sick in a QEII-worthy monochrome ensemble of pale pink shorts with a dark pink linen sweater. Monochrome for life! It really got me excited about spring dressing. Them today I had to totally shift gears into winter dressing. Whaaat?! 

That's when I spotted a great woolen Gorman dress that I bought years ago. It was the last thing I bought before Gorman became my mortal enemy. I spotted this dress in my wardrobe and thought "You're beautiful!" And that's when I just thought "I LOVE CLOTHES!" Why a fight it any longer. Oh sure, I'm wearing monochrome again* (why wouldn't I?!) but that's what's so great about clothes! Colour! Cuts! Combos! They have so much to offer. And I for one love them. Unashamedly and eternally. 

*see above. 

How do you wear that? - Bandanas

Gee, I really hope that K was asking the universe in general about how to wear bandanas, because if she was asking me she was seriously barking up the wrong tree. I barely know how to wear everyday items like a dress. This morning I decided I wanted to wear something other than jeans and a jumper but just ended up dressed like a mourning Amish woman.

Then in a move to rectify the situation before leaving the house I changed my shoes and coat but just ended up looking like a mourning Amish woman with bling on her feet. So don't look at me for advice on how to wear any damn thing. Even Amish women don't wear headscarves and instead opt for those funny hats that remind me of what doctors wear in surgery.

Oh sure, I've worn a bandana from time to time, even with the occasional successful outcome which leads me to think I'm going to do it on the regular and it will become as part of my signature style as jeans and jumpers. Part I quickly learn any success I've had with bandanas was a fluke and I was just a fool to believe.

So really, how do you wear that?