In my attempts to wrestle the brain and schedule into submission and re-habituate to the blogging life, I have tried a couple of remote blogging locations. I mean coffee shops, mostly. Last Friday morning I spent a couple quiet hours semi-productively at the Hardback Cafe inside Hastings. I was dressed like this:
- Breve-colored slip-on Italian loafers. These are comfortable and classy, even if it’s not so classy when I slip them off and put my feet up on the couch or coffee table 😉
- Sage green short-sleeved pants. Perhaps not the most fashionable, but I consider these “just get dressed” summer clothes. As usual, I wore them with a belt and my signature key ring hanging from a belt loop.
- Also, “just get dressed” summer clothes: Mod Bod tank in ivory. Now, I love these tanks and have them in several colors, but this summer I haven’t worn them much. They seemed boring. However …
- This short, puffed sleeve jacket in a crispy cotton fabric and neutral putty color is just perfect for converting just about ANY “just get dressed” summer outfit into business casual. Why didn’t I think of that before?
The jacket has a slightly-fitted shape which, combined with the rounded sleeves and a pair of shorts that taper slightly creates a smooth figure 8 ish silhouette. I have had the jacket a few years – never worn it much – and it was a thrift steal: Caslon (NORDSTROM) tags on when I bought it for next-to-nothing.
I always feel more like myself when dressed with a business edge.
I’ve been thinking about this since you wrote it – how nice to know what you prefer. Jackets are kind of a weakness for me. I’m always drawn to look at them and, even with regular clothes purging, I still have many. But I don’t think I wear them often. A fella came around door-to-door the other day. Burly young guy covered with tattoos, lots of almost biker gear. I saw his van parked down the street, clad in ads for a meat company. He starts to tell me he sells to lots of my neighbors (as if I care) and I tell him I am not interested and turn to go back inside. I had come out of the house because he had already turned away by the time I got to the door. He becomes sharp and demanding, his body language combative, and tells me I haven’t heard what he’s offering. Startled, I told him there was no call for him to be so rude. He keeps talking over me and I said I don’ t want it and opened the door to go in. He hurls at me that he was going to give me free meat. I shut the door without letting myself tell him I wouldn’t want a year’s worth of free meat if it meant having to listen to him any more.
I was very angry at his bullying and the first thing I wondered about is whether he would have started in with that if I”d been wearing a jacket! 😀
I’ve thought before about the difference in the wardrobe for being at home and being on the streets, off course. But had never considered all the various people who come to the door, bringing the public aspect right to you, as it were.
I’m not acquiring any more summer clothing and don’t expect to start acquiring winter clothing until I explore the dimensions of what I already have. At first I was doing this because I wanted to wear familiar outfits that I knew the feel of before I reached for them and obviously can’t get full use of my clothing if I keep adding new choices. But now I am also aware that I don’t want to add new choices because I tend to be so experimental that it can obscure what my preferences might be. Like you knowing about your business edge components. Came across a charmingly apt idea in a book I am reading: let go of the clothing that you keep for all your alternate self-image aspects and just keep a list for yourself of what all those self images are, without the clothing as place holders. 😀 From Open and Clothed.
I am finding it a relief not to add new (confused) options. Also in that book, I think, was the idea of someone taking on identity through seeing what you’re wearing. Backwards from most people, I think, but it fits me. I”d like to work out what it is the other way. Feel too much like a chameleon. Believe a good friend described my clothing habits that way, too.
Hmmm. Well, even a person who likes to wear a jacket is unlikely to be wearing it at home. I would take the jacket off and throw an apron or flannel shirt or something over my t-shirt as I would likely be working on food prep or something else messy. :). With an attitude like that, the guy probably has to give free meat to get any customers!
Those ideas from Open and Clothed sound familiar; I’m going to have to look and see if I have read it. In addition to keeping a list of alternative images, I might consider trying on stuff in that style from time to time – maybe in stores that I wouldn’t be likely to make a purchase in, for safety’s sake. I have been playing with trying on stuff that is more experimental or more of a stretch, just for fun. The downside is if I do that at the thrift store, I could end up buying a “red herring”.