Thrift Haul

I allowed myself a thrift store splurge on Thursday, using the excuse that I needed to start building up a wardrobe of interview outfits. And, to my credit, I did get a couple of interview worthy items in this thrift haul.

Serious black pumps:

These have a nice, reasonable, heel height for interviews. Not so high that I'll be struggling to walk, but high enough to nicely elongate my leg line. They work well with black tights, and they are comfortable enough to wear all day, provided one's day doesn't involve a great deal of standing or walking. These are office shoes, not retail shoes.

Black and blue knit dress:

Buoyed by my more successful second attempt at styling my thrifted wrap dress I gave this faux wrap a try. I really like this print and this dress has much more fullness in the skirt than the feather print wrap dress. The top of this dress might be a bit big for me. (That almost never happens!) I might have to take it in a little but I'm going to reserve my judgement on this until I try it with a substantial belt, instead of the wimpy, narrow, self fabric tie that came with the dress.

Black and cream silk blouse:

I love love love this print. The blouse is the slightest bit tight in the chest area and the top button pulls open a little. I bought it anyway because, did I mention that I love love love this print? So, either I'm going to get back on the healthy choices wagon and slim down, or I'm going to try a more minimizing bra, or I'm going to end up giving it to someone else. Heck, it was only four dollars. Just thinking about wearing it is almost worth the price. No, really, I'll be sad if I can't wear it, but I think it's definitely a risk worth taking.

Jellybean print silk blouse:

I actually saw this print more as squashed circles until I brought it home and Chris remarked- "Jellybeans, nice."  Now jellybeans are all I can see. This blouse fits well in the bust and therefore the shoulders are too big.  Since this is a problem I generally expect to experience with any blouse that wasn't made expressly for me I thought my first attempt at making the shoulder alteration which would result in a blouse that fits me should be performed on a garment that I wouldn't be sick over ruining. Just in case. This is that garment.

Black and white knit dress:

This one is not work appropriate. I picked this up to provide an alternative option for this dress. It has many of the same qualities: wash and wear, easy to pull on, travels well. Not spectacular, but serviceable and useful.

Shiny blue flats:

I have a thing for colored flats. I do already own a pair of navy patent flats, but these have silver buckles, and they were five bucks. I don't think much more explanation is necessary.

High waist-ed trouser-ish jeans:

I've been wanting a trouser style jean for a while. These sort of fit the bill. The denim fabric of these jeans is quite thick and rather stretchy, a quality which is unlike what I would normally associate with a trouser jean, but the high waist and full, straight leg are exactly what I was imagining. They will provide a welcome and practical alternative to the jeans I have been wearing almost constantly of late.

Striped sailor pants:

I'm a sucker for pants with this button detail. And stripes of any stripe. As an added bonus, since these stripes are vertical, they are possibly somewhat slimming.

An interesting (to me, at least) end note: it suddenly seems that in order to find the things I want at the thrift store I simply have to utter the magic words- "I never find said item at the thrift store." This magic has worked recently, first on jeans and now on blouses. It's making me wonder if I shouldn't start complaining about how I never find diamond bracelets at the thrift store. More realistically, I guess it should prove to me that I shouldn't rule anything out; I should just keep looking.

A bit boring, perhaps?

This is what I wore today to apply for a part-time retail job that I don't really want:

I'm also applying for actual career-type positions, but I'm hedging my bets by looking at retail as a stop gap until I find my dream job. I have about twenty years of retail experience from part-time sales to entry level regional management, so I'm probably vastly overqualified for the type of thing I applied for today.  I have a bachelors degree in apparel merchandising, but I don't want a lengthy commute, so my local apparel and fashion related options are somewhat limited.

What am I looking at? I'm setting my sights high!

It can be incredibly demoralizing looking for a job, even one for which you're overqualified. I haven't had to go through this for a while, and the last time I did the economic outlook was not nearly as grim. Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to this process much, but I'm determined not to let it get me down. (Famous last words?)

I might have mentioned how much I dislike the side shots. Not flattering.

I'm counting on having the excuse to purchase interview outfits to cheer me up. And the thought of once again having a job that requires some level of dressing up is exciting too.

Bruno coordinates well with my outfit today, no?

Introducing...the sliver sweater clip.

I'm coming to the end of this series featuring my *inherited* jewelry. I have just one more piece to feature after today. There are other things, but those are things I'm considering having reset, or restrung, or changing in some way to better fit my style. These last few pieces have been more challenging than the first things I wore.  I tried and tried to get this sweater clip worn and on the blog earlier but I never liked it on any outfit with which I pared it- until now.

I think the idea of a contraption like this was that it would keep your sweater from slipping off when you had it gracefully slung about your shoulders, rather than actually having your arms in the sleeves. I think that would drive me crazy so in this outfit the clip is merely decorative and not practical. There is no need to fear that this tiny sweater is going to slip away- I have to struggle in and out of it. It's an extra-small, and I'm most definitely not, but I like the shrunken effect for layering purposes.

It looks like I was right to be wary of owning jeans again. I seem to wear these all the time now. I'll use the excuse that it's getting cold but if I'm honest their frequent appearance here is due more to laziness than temperature. Jeans are just too easy.

These new black patent and tobacco colored flats are making me want a nice trim pair of black slacks. How can it be that I don't own a pair of basic black pants? Actually, I probably do own a couple pairs that don't fit me and are stored away for the time being. But that doesn't do me any good at all right now. Once again I've acquired new shoes and let a practical wardrobe need stay unfilled. It's hard for me to be sensible where cute shoes are concerned.

Chris bought these for me this weekend. I'm not trying to diminish the sweetness of this gesture but I'm sure that their being flats had something to do with his generosity. Chris never misses an opportunity to point out the folly of my many impractical shoe choices as I am hobbling down the street after him in four inch heels. I suspect Chris is trying to reward my sensible choice in order to reinforce the behavior.

The ring is an eBay purchase. Silver, wood, and tiger's eye. I love the silver and wood together. Almost all of the furniture in our home is this same dark wood and silver metal combination. Viewed from the top (as above) this ring looks like a fried egg. In profile it looks more like a nipple. The tiger's eye stone protrudes quite a bit. I refer to this as the fried egg ring- because a nipple ring is a different animal entirely.

Adorable, right? Who needs pants? Okay, I do. But these are too cute.

Visible Monday

I am participating in Visible Monday, hosted by Patti at Not Dead Yet Style. And finally debuting my new spectator cloche from Wayne Wichern. A hat always makes me feel visible in the best possible sense of the word. I feel positively impossible to overlook in this hat.

Planning this post has lead me to give a lot of thought to my own experience of aging and the changes it has brought regarding how I'm perceived by the the world at large, and how I see myself. The Visible Monday project was created to help redress the loss of visibility and esteem that seem to inevitably accompany the aging process when you are female. (Kudos, Patti, and more power to you!)

"Common wisdom holds that at a certain age, women no longer garner the attention of men in public. We are still loved by our husbands and partners, and told we are beautiful, but the world at large no longer sees us as noteworthy."
The Invisible Woman, Patti @ Not Dead Yet Style. (Click here for the whole post.)

While I realize that, at forty-one, I'm only beginning to experience the effects of this pernicious phenomenon, I have to say that I'm finding my own decreased visibility very liberating. Perhaps I'll have changed my tune by the time I'm fifty, but right now I'm happy to have traded some of the unwelcome attention I used to receive for a few wrinkles and a couple of extra pounds. You've heard the crude expression about your mouth writing checks your ass can't cash? Well, for much of my life I felt trapped in a bizarre reversal of that phrase, with my body projecting completely fraudulent messages about my intentions and expectations, promising things I would never, ever, deliver.

I was once told by a gay male friend that my body was wasted on me. And maybe it was, because I certainly never enjoyed the ogling, or the not particularly complimentary compliments, or the sleazy propositions. I got a lot of them. And I wasn't especially attractive either. I just happened to have a large chest and a small waist and longish legs. And if I chose to wear anything that didn't completely obscure this then I had to be prepared to deal with a certain amount of ridiculous behavior. And, frankly, I didn't want to deal with any of it. So I mostly hid.

As a teenager I hid in enormous sweaters and punky haircuts. In my twenties, in quirky vintage clothing. In my thirties I attempted an arty layered look that just made me look fat when I wasn't. But fat seemed preferable to sexy, and it did the job of curtailing most of the leering.

Getting older has meant that I can come out of hiding. I can wear something that flatters my shape without feeling like I'm asking for trouble. Sure, my shape has changed quite a bit too. I have mixed feelings about that. But, over all, I'm much more comfortable being able to *dial up* my visibility when, and if, I choose to do so, than feeling constantly over exposed, as I did when I was younger.

I'm pleased that visibility as an *older* woman seems to have much more to do with style than with sex. I'm pretty happy with that trade off.

Introducing...the silver filigree leaf pin.

I wouldn't ordinarily wear a pin just slapped on a hat like this. Attempting to feature all of this jewelry on the blog is causing me to try things I wouldn't have otherwise considered. This placement of this pin seemed to appear rather contrived no matter where I tried to put it on this outfit. Left with the choice of appearing contrived with a pin on my chest or contrived with a pin on my shoulder, I decided that I'd prefer contrived and slightly unexpected than contrived with a pin in an absolutely ordinary location. For better or worse, my boundaries are being pushed slightly by blogging. While I can't say that I think this particular pin and hat combination is a run away success style-wise, I do believe that any expansion of one's boundaries is a good thing.

I'm completely without make-up in the above photo. Unless you count the smudges of yesterday's mascara under my eyes. Why am I posting this photo? Because my chin looks really long. Everyone has something they're obsessed about. This is my thing. I'd kill for a jutting, prominent jaw line. I think I have a terribly weak chin. The only cosmetic surgery I've ever given serious consideration to a chin implant. I adore how my chin looks in this photo so I'm sharing it with you, even though this is an otherwise terrible picture of me. 

 

This cotton beret is the hat I usually jam over my hair when I have to go somewhere and I don't have time to take a shower. As is the case today. I'm feeling quite proud of myself for posting pictures of my un-showered, un-made-up self. This is what running late looks like, people.

Chris called this look "very 'movie' French." Gotta love that man!

Doesn't this look like I'm gazing affectionately at my very prominent love-handle?

Introducing...the silver feather/leaf pin.

Worn today as a pendant:

I think of this pin as a leaf, but today I decided it was abstract enough to read as a feather when paired with the feather print of this wrap dress. I tried the pin in several different orientations on the dress, and on the tank, without success. I was already fully dressed so I was pretty committed to making the dress and the pin work together, thereby sticking to my goal of posting all my newly acquired jewelry while not having to get dressed all over again, just to post this pin today. My thought process went something like this- "It needs to be up high or it looks silly, and not on the patterned fabric or it gets lost. It's too bad I can't pin it to my neck...(looks at pin held against neck)...ah-ha!...necklace!?" Now the pin is suspended on a silver chain, and accomplishes the dual purpose of being the focus of this post and making me feel quite creative and resourceful besides.

I decided to give this wrap dress another try today, after being seriously disappointed by it the first time I wore it. (You can see it here for comparison.) I think this is a big improvement. Of the many things I've learned from this blog (and [note to self] I really should be keeping better track of those lessons) one of the best is this: A self fabric belt never, ever, does the dress it came with, or you, any favors.

I've also pushed up the sleeves here, to about three quarter length, and I think I prefer this length to the long sleeve. I'm still on the fence about making this alteration. Mostly because it isn't often that I find dresses that have long sleeves so it seems a shame to 'waste' this one. I'll have to wear it one more time with the long sleeve before I make my final decision.

I've been searching for years for an upgrade for these boots. These were purchased against my better judgement, and under significant pressure from the friend with whom I was shopping. They are constructed of a leather-like material bonded to a stretch knit fabric. I thought at the time of their purchase that they were far too 'hollywood hooker' for my taste. (I mean 'hollywood' in the sense of the movie industry dream machine, not the geographic location. These boots look to me like a costume designer's conception of what a sex-worker would wear. Even with my limited experience I know that most of the women who sell sex do not look anything like this.)

I bought the boots, in spite of my qualms, because they were deeply discounted and my friend was loudly singing their praises. And they've turned out to be marvelously practical. I've worn them with slim skirts that cover the knees. I've also worn them with evening dresses that have a narrow silhouette- they can somehow take the edge off (or maybe give an edge to) a dress that might be a bit too fancy for just dinner, otherwise. As long as the skirt or dress covers the knee, and the tops of the boots don't show, the effect is actually more dance teacher than dominatrix, in my opinion.

I'd love to trade up to a pair of boots almost exactly like these. Something of better quality, and with a less pointy toe, but otherwise the same. The same slim fit in the foot and leg. The same only  moderately high, but still slender, heel. The same unadorned style. It's proven an impossible dream so far, but I keep searching.

Introducing...the Norwegian silver pendant.

Affectionately known as the 'Indiana Jones necklace.'

Even though this pendant doesn't actually look much like the staff of Ra headpiece from Raider's of the Lost Ark there's something vaguely Egyptian about its styling, and its large circular shape and scarab-like center stone made Chris and me both immediately think of Indy.

Image from here.

Of all of the jewelry I recently 'inherited' this is probably the piece with the most actual value. (I can't claim to be a jewelry expert but I did search the maker online and found an identical piece on eBay.) As near as I can tell (again, no expert) this necklace was designed for David-Anderson by an artist named Bjørn Sigurd Østern in the early sixties. This particular design is a stylized representation of Viking long boat. (Not at all Egyptian, which was my original, uneducated impression.) I like A LOT of the other things by this guy that I've seen online- I feel another collection coming on. Apparently this designer also created some famous pendants representing Thor's hammer. I think it would be neat to own one of those, since my new (married) last name is Thordsen.

Here are the markings on the back, for those with an interest in such things.

This is certainly my most favorite piece of the 'inheritance.' I shortened the chain considerably but I think it needs to be just a tiny bit shorter still. I wanted to err on the side of caution since it's hard to add length again without getting a new chain altogether. I've worn the pendant a few times at this length and now I'm sure that I want it to be shorter. And I did try to wear this piece with the chain at its original length. I think it's important to try to preserve the integrity of vintage pieces, if at all possible. But it's really hard for me to wear longer necklaces. They tend to hang off of the fullest part of my chest like they're being dangled off a cliff. It feels annoying and it looks ridiculous in profile.

I initially thought that the central stone in the pendant was turquoise but it turns out that it is likely something called amazonite. I've never been a fan of turquoise (or amazonite for that matter.) I'm not sure why I don't appreciate turquoise. Even I think it seems like I should, given how much I love wearing blue-green, teal, and aquamarine. And turquoise is almost always set in silver- by rights I should adore it.

I think one of the things that turn me off of turquoise, in spite of its color, is the natural veining and irregularity of the stone. I'm the same way about heathering in knitwear. I know that yarns with slight color variations are supposed to enhance the appearance of softness and depth in knits but I prefer the look of true solid color knits. Heathering seems more casual, less sophisticated. More sophistication is what I'm after. I feel the same way about turquoise. And turquoise jewelry very often has Southwestern styling, which doesn't appeal to me at all.

This cashmere cardigan features some of the heathering I've just been vociferously maligning. It's pretty subtle. Impossible to see in photographs. Almost invisible in real life. I really wanted a light blue cardigan so I ordered this hoping that the heathering wouldn't be too obvious, even though the color was called "aqua heather."