Shopping with the Grouch

I went into H&M the other day to look for the orange dress which my friend KTS wore while celebrating Queensday in the Dam. Orange is my favorite color, & I figured it would be cheap. I found & tried on several things that I liked (orange is apparently in this season) but left empty-handed as I didn't want to spend $60 on something that wasn't my groceries for 1.5 weeks.


I did pick up the complementary magazine, and therein found a somewhat appalling quote from their head designer, Ann-Sofie Johansson:


"it’s great to reinvent your wardrobe at the beginning of a new season. Fashion doesn’t change as drastically as it used to so you could easily get last season’s favorites to work with smart updates. Safe buys for spring are cool classics in beige or white, and the longer skirts and dresses feel new and very feminine” (Found here)


Look, I realize that if people don't buy clothing, this lady is out of a job. I also realize that she is saturated in an industry where if something isn't new, it isn't wanted. 

But really? I was unaware that real people actually paid attention to what's trendy. Most of my friends have a style which they stick to, adding new additions when their clothing wears out/gets ruined, not when H & M tells them that maxi dresses are in.

The past few years have seen a kind of fashion drought for me: I have too much self respect for leggings as pants, and I'm too tall to wear skirts shorter than the tips of my fingers without it looking like my butt is about to fall out the bottom.

So I've been wearing long skirts for a long time (I'm pants-averse). Unlike in Middle School, when I would be grumpy if something I liked got popular, the fact that they are trendy excites me since I'll be able to cheaply stock my wardrobe with things I enjoy wearing. 

Will I perhaps look out-of-date in a few years? Who cares? This leggings/jeggings thing has been refusing to die, so I'll wear whatever I want, thank you very much. That's the difference between fashion and style.

Besides, I live in New York City. I am so far from the strangest thing anybody will see all day I couldn't even hit it with a machine gun. 

New Outfit

Fall is truly upon us: Oktoberfest in the Fridge and Apples in the basement mean it's time to avoid the asthmatic coma brought on by raking the lawn & obsessing over school supplies.

For the first time in about 17 years, I didn't get to go back to school. I don't really mind having free time, or essentially no curfew, but there are of course things I miss. So this year, for the first time since middle school I bought myself an entirely new outfit. Not just a new pair of pants to combine with my favorite shirt, not just new shoes that will go with some skirts that I already have, but new everything, down to the eyeshadow.



It's pretty satisfying, actually. I bought the shirt from my very favorite store (click photo for details, this blog is not a catalogue), where I can only really afford to buy one thing a year. I bought this shirt because it has a similar hood to a sweater that I bought for my boyfriend which I steal all the time.

The pants are a concession to the fact that I need more than one pair of pants that I don't hate, especially since that meant I did attic construction last week in Star Wars pajamas.

The boots were infuriatingly difficult to find. Did you know that shoe sellers think women still want to show off their dainty ankles? I can't imagine any other reason they would affix zippers to the sides of every single pair of boots. These were bought in the men's section (these big feet are good for something after all!) where the man on staff only hesitated to serve me because he wasn't sure I actually wanted anything. I've said it once, I'll say it again: I LOVE NEW YORK: what I wear is my business. Well, and theirs, I suppose.

Closet Cleanout

I just attempted a closet cleanout, a la the one staged about a year ago by my most-mentioned blogger, Gala Darling [I could write a whole post about how much I love her... maybe I will!].

It didn't go too well. I'm very attached to a lot of the clothing that quite frankly doesn't fit me anymore. I had my sister around to help me out, + I was able to foist some stuff off on her, but... I get really sentimental about clothing! Fortunately I was finally in a mood to throw away the things that are just nasty + decaying (other than my favorite jeans... you will have to pry those from my cold, dead hands)... but my closet is still packed.

I think the issue is that I am moving into a somewhat more formal, 'grown-up' style, which leaves a lot of the hippie-vomit stuff I wore at the end of high school [still perfectly good, still fits me] out of the loop, and I haven't the heart to get rid of it... lots of it is handmade, and some of them were super-thrilling Goodwill finds.

The other issue is that my closet is too tiny. I know everybody says that, but my room is smaller than any of the college dormitories I have lived in, + my closet was literally designed for a twelve-year-old. So once you get the two old prom dresses and my shoe collection and the knitting projects in there, it runs out of space.

And, of course, there is the obvious fact that I pack all of my possessions into suitcases and move to school every four months, + I should probably just cheer up and get used to a life in transit, because I looked great the whole time I was in London, + I only had one suitcase worth of clothing.