Regional Casual Uniform
Originally posed by Jody, this question is so much fun:
Suppose you stepped off a plane in your neighborhood, city, or country. Could you tell you were home by how people were dressed? Is there a Regional Casual Uniform? What do people (and you may narrow down to a specific segment of the population if you like) wear when they are going out, during the day, going to be seen, but not needing to dress up?
Bottoms Up.
- Here in the Great Northwest, while the bottom may be a skirt, shorts, or pants, there will be something “outdoorsy” about it. If it isn’t denim and/or it doesn’t have cargo pockets, no doubt it is tree-colored.
- No such variety in tops, though. One MOPS meeting, when I was trying to point out a particular mom, it went something like this: “See the lady in the black shirt? Well, behind her is another lady in a black shirt. Then there’s so-and-so, wearing a black shirt. Well, the lady you’re looking for is the next one. Wearing a black shirt”.
So there you have it, the Great Northwest Casual Uniform. What do the streets look like in your neck of the woods?
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Lifestyle Segmentation
Picking up the thread I let dangle in the comments on my post, The Demise of Retail as Therapy, I will define what I mean by “lifestyle segment”. Simply put, different activities demand different clothes. Lifestyle segmentation breaks them down into four categories: leisure, casual, business, and social.
Leisure = The least formal. Includes all athletic-wear and shorts. Jeans are usually leisure, and always when worn with athletic shoes, message t-shirts, and sweatshirts (including polar fleece).
Casual = Nicer, but still fairly relaxed. Due to geographical variations, I prefer to not define this category too precisely. Lunch with your boss, your pastor, or your grandma requires casual clothing. Business casual fits here.
Business = Formal business clothing is mostly suits and “jacket outfits”, sometimes tailored skirts or dresses.
Social = Clothing for social occasions includes floral dresses such as those worn by wedding guests, cocktail dresses, and ball gowns.
At times, especially out here in the Great Northwest, I have been known to lament the lack of opportunities to get dressed up. When I ask you what I should wear, I don’t want to know if I can wear my jeans. Can I wear my ball gown?
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Another Option for Fall Template
In the past, it’s made sense to me to employ the following transitional template:
new jeans + summer top + winter layering piece
“Winter layering piece”= jacket, sweater or sweatshirt.
I’m only tweaking it. For sure, this is a timeless formula. But I am also warming up to the scarf as layering piece for warmth. Since I have a half-sleeve (short, three-quarter, or roll-up) cotton top in almost every dark color I like to wear, I plan to use the following template for Fall 2009, at least in the leisure lifestyle segment:
dark jeans + dark half-sleeve cotton top + scarf
Thinking through the top colors I have and determining what color scarves I still need is my next step, along with switching over the closet and some biffing.
Which of the four lifestyle segments (leisure, casual, business or social) are you currently working on and what will you be wearing this fall? Assuming, of course, that you’re like me and the wardrobe is a constant work in progress. 
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Hot or Not? Summer Leisure Shoe Fashion Lab
Of all the topics we discuss here, shoes - especially leisure shoes - is one of the most volatile. Ladies like their shoes! And they are a very personal thing, in terms of expressing the style idiom of the one wearing them. So, I thought perhaps we’d play another personas and perceptions fashion lab.
Here’s what to do: I’ll post pictures of different shoes, but they’ll all be from the same season (summer) and lifestyle segment (leisure). Paranthetically, I am allowed to use the pictures here because if you click on one, it will take you to a site where you can purchase the product. If you purchase the product, they pay me a small commission. There, full disclosure. Now, back to the lab. :) What you are to do is to identify the age of the wearer and something about their style personality, as well as any other comments you’d like to add.
One last thing: I realize that not everyone can pay $100 for a pair of shoes, even one that promises to last 8 or 10 years. What’s your upper limit in this shoe category?
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A Chaco Story
If you’ve followed my wardrobe conversations for any period of time, you have no doubt heard me talk about my Chacos (pictured here). After a couple of years of online peer pressure, I have reached the conclusion that no dressy casual sandals can substitute for an everyday leisure shoe - and with my lifestyle, that’s what I need. And no summer athletic shoe is more elegant than Chaco.
Learning that Chaco was recently purchased by Wolverine ramped up the urgency for me. I needed to buy a new pair this year! (My old ones have served 7 full summers already and, while they aren’t worn out, shoes were much heavier looking 8 years ago than what is flattering on me.)
So, for an anniversary gift, my hero bought me these:
Chaco - ZX/2 Unaweep (Multi Brown) - Footwear
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When Do You Combine Differing Styles?
Who besides me remembers when longish dresses worn with granny boots (or combat boots) were everyday casual wear?
The differing styles were talking about here are mainly levels of formality, aka lifestyle segments (my basic four: leisure, casual, business, social). In the above example, social (dress) + leisure (boots) = casual (nicer everyday wear). And, hard as it is for me to believe now, we all wore it. Which leads me to my first declaration of personal opinion on the propriety of mixing disparate styles:
If it’s a mainstream look and you have a mainstream personal style, go for it!
For example, it is still mainstream to wear flip-flops with everything, including wearing them as dress shoes. While I have a fairly mainstream idiom, I give this look a pass simply because I am not comfortable in flip-flops. And I do believe there are a few places where flip-flops are still inappropriate: the White House, professional office setting, or anytime you have to walk in front of a group of people quietly watching you. Conversely (no pun intended),
if you are a true style innovator, mixing metaphors is an integral part of your idiom.
After all, somebody first popularized the wearing of dresses and granny boots, right? Young people, aka the pre-employed, have more latitude in these matters; presumably they are still experimenting and finding their personal style. Also, if you haven’t yet collected all your permanent wardrobe pieces; you may not have the perfect patent leather sandals to wear to the family reunion, flip-flops will have to do.
There is one final circumstance in which I think it makes sense to combine differing styles, one which is a little trickier and sometimes messes me up:
when your accent style contrasts with your main style personality, combining those two styles is part of your idiom.
Such is the case with me: my main style is contemporary classic, my accent style is functional natural. How does that mess me up, you ask? Suddenly the other day, when I was reading some Jennifer Skinner’s excellent articles, I realized that, in combination with some other aspects of my personal idiom (budget, metal allergies, and so forth), contemporary + functional can misread as conservative. Which is not me. Except in politics.
So what’s your combining styles story?
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Formal Wardrobe
(Almost) my entire formal wardrobe:
Ball gown: purchased thrift this year for $1, with brand-new tags still attached. I love it! But where will I ever wear it?
Evening gown: not brand-new, although it might as well be. Purchased the same shopping trip as the dress above, and for the same price! Plans to wear this include a fancy dessert out with my daughters and their friends, where we can all dress up. Preferring to precisely embody the epitome of propriety, I probably won’t wear this to my hero’s company holiday party.
Separates: IMO, this look is a little matronly, but apparently that’s okay because when I actually wore it to an event the other night (with silk long pants under!) I received very generous and very genuine compliments from RLFs whose opinions matter. Like my daughter, who said it doesn’t matter if it looks matronly because it looks good. And my real-life fashion hero, the young mom in our circle who I consider the most artistically styled. I’ll leave it to you RLFs to figure out who that is 
Missing from this post: the silver, three-quarter sleeve, silk-and-metallic top that makes the skirt above into a dress. Also a similar, sleeveless, red combo. And a party dress. (But if I ever had the appropriate place to where it, and I could work up the nerve, I’d wear my mom’s wedding dress as a party dress.)
I think part of what makes the formal lifestyle segment such a challenge, and brings about the peer pressure to eliminate it, is the whole cost-per-wear thing. On the other hand, thrifting (or even borrowing) formal-wear can bring it into the realm of reason. BTW, the gunmetal skirt was also $1, with the tags on it still, and I’ve worn it several times, as well as loaning it to a friend to wear with her own sweater.
Cocktail clothes are another subject.
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Wardrobe Therapy Weeks 2 & 3
… the dash-through version. Aka my entire everyday winter wardrobe in a single post. Refer to Convertible Everyday Winter Template for details on my winter uniform template.
Tops (which would have been week 2). Some discussion of the colors of and their combining took place recently back here.
Primarily leisure, three cashmere turtlenecks: light coral pink, light heather gray (my “sweatshirt“), and dark heathery brown. Or melanin hemoglobin color, hair color, and eye color. I also have an ancient merino wool turtleneck, which looks exactly like the brown one pictured here, presently employed as a painting shirt (not like for painting the house, but for attending watercolor class and for painting sets down at the studio).
Exclusively leisure, five pullover sweaters: light fair-isle, brown cotton thermal vee, gray merino vee(mostly for “painting”, see above), black crew (almost scoop), and oatmeal heather vee. Not terribly exciting, are they?
Although when combined with one of these shirts, most of which cross back and forth from leisure to casual, the color combos get a little more interesting. Surprisingly, I have discovered recently that the oatmeal heather is exciting with the white or pink, okay with the print, and downright boring with the brown. Hmmm.
I have two cashmere cardigans, and I’m not certain where they fit in the process. By spells they turn up with dressier stuff, but I wouldn’t be afraid to wear them for knocking around either. Especially the pink one. Purchased at Value Village for $1, it’s already been through several winters with me as a crew neck; but when recently it began feeling a little snug (okay, it was a torture device), I cut the front open, serged it, and … voila! A cardigan!
Bottoms and jackets, week 3.
To qualify to be pictured here, the jacket had to fit. My paisley didn’t qualify on the basis that over any of the blouses pictured here it becomes a torture device.
The charcoal trousers have a matching jacket, but it doesn’t fit well. I am considering paying real money to have it altered, as the trousers fit fabulously.
My winter jean collection, from left: flannel-lined straight legs, really old bootcuts for tucking, less old bootcuts for kneeling on the floor with the kids, and my good dark skinny jeans.
Phew! I feel virtuous, having posted something tangible and fashion-related. And my everyday winter wardrobe’s not in bad shape either. Now, for the sake of discussion, would you suggest one item to add and one to delete from this mix?
Updated to add: Karen outdid herself and sent in a polyvore. I love this stuff! Thanks Karen!
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Convertible Winter Everyday Template
Another one of those ‘duh’ moments, as my friends of another generation say, “I could’ve had a v-8!”
Has winter arrived in your region? (Not you. lol) I know for some of you winter doesn’t necessitate adding many clothes, but here in the Great Northwest the sky has turned gray and my feet are cold. From today on, white takes a backseat and heather gray moves up in my wardrobe.
But the real “aha!” was this: the convertible everyday template (for my personal style idiom, winter 2008/2009).
- around the house: jeans + collared shirt + sweater, pullover wool or cashmere
- out & about town: jeans + collared shirt + blazer, velvet or washable suede or maybe tweed
Upon rising, I can “just get dressed” for whatever I am doing first, knowing that later in the day I need only change my top layer (and shoes) to remain situationally appropriate.
Have you had a convertible template you used successfully?
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My Coat Wardrobe
(Sadly, necessitating the re-run of this post was getting the heavy winter boot - in the behind - from Eddie Bauer. That’s right, no longer can you contribute to my “never have to re-enter the paid work force” fund by buying through Eddie Bauer links on the blog. In fact, the links were only permissible because of the affiliate relationship and have now been removed.)
In my lifestyle segmentation pie chart, only two slices are really worth serving: casual and leisure. Living in a region with four distinct seasons requires more coats, to my practical mind, than would seem necessary. But they are.
Here’s the run-down:
- Casual winter coat: If I could only afford one coat, it would have to be a topper-length wool. And if I could only afford one coat, it would have to fit better than mine does. HOWEVER, this coat fits perfectly over a wool suit or a velvet blazer, which makes it perfect to throw on over smart casual winter ensembles or for church.
- Leisure winter coat = a puffy down jacket. Primarily worn for sledding and dog-walking, I am currently using a black one (for which I paid a single dollar), which will naturally be replaced when I happen on something in a great color.
- Casual spring: even though it isn’t a spring color, I will have to wear my new sateen trench.
- Leisure spring: the pink puffy thing pictured back here?
- Casual summer: All summer long I carry a cardigan around in my purse. Comes in handy at restaurants, the grocery store, basically anywhere air-conditioned.
- Leisure summer:
a white jean jacket. What else?Something else. Now’s not the time to think about it, though. (I do have a windbreaker, in case I go to the beach with my parents.) - Autumn casual: Again, the wine sateen trench.
- Autumn leisure: the burgundy quilted pictured here. I also wear a chamois washable suede jean jacket.
One little hiccup in my system: what color gloves, etc., to buy. For the most part my coats are all similar colors: burgundy, wine, aubergine. My purse is that color too, as are most of my shoes. Perhaps I have painted myself into a comfortably colored corner. What color gloves would you suggest?
