Waiting. . .

     Remember when I mentioned that I would be wearing my new suit soon?  (I wouldn't blame you if you didn't---it was a while ago)  Well I did and here are the pictures to prove it.  I went a bit crazy with the purple + gray combo and made sure EVERYTHING I wore was either gray or some shade of purpley-wine.  But ya know what? I liked it!  I felt put together in my matchy-matchy-ness.  
    Oddly enough, this outfit, while being classically conservative, what with the skirt suit, hose and heels, just isn't all that conservative on me the way I've styled it.  Example #1, those aren't hose, they're gray tights!  Now the difference between gray tights and let's say bright peacock blue tights is lightyears, but when we're talking about the law, one of THE most conservative arenas on this planet, gray tights instead of skin colored hose or black tights is kinda risky.  
     AND I'm not wearing gray shoes either!  I know rule #1 about lengthening legs is to wear the same or similar colored hosewear + shoes, but long leggedness be damned!  I just wanted to be matchy.  So instead of opting for gray heels, I went with wine colored ones that matched my tee and necklace quite nicely.  These also happen to be one of my favorite pair of shoes in my closet right now.  I've worn them to match some purple shades in an outfit (like this one) or to completely contrast (and confuse the HELL out of one of my co-workers) with a turquoise top and white pants.  (post to follow later this week).  I love their versatility especially since they're patent and not black.  I'm all for having a pair (or several) of great black shoes, but having some unexpected color in your shoes just rocks. 

Let's ignore the hair in my face, K?

    So for those of you that are counting, the third way this outfit is slightly quirky on the conservative scale is my headband.  It has a bow on it.  Plenty of people will tell you that in order to be taken seriously, a woman can't show any personality.  At the very least, people will tell you that a young woman just can't draw emphasis to the fact that she's a young woman.  Well, screw that.  I like my bow on my headband and I plan to continue to wear it.  
    Lastly, this tee shirt is just a tee shirt.  I've worn it bunches of times with jeans and flats.  That's the thing though, its just a plain tee shirt, something that's not *supposed* to be in my work closet.  I, obviously, disagree.  I hate button downs and I'm having a hard time finding blouses to wear to work.  So in a pinch I've started wearing tees under jackets and they play quite nicely with my work wardrobe.  Hooray for simplicity!

The Details:

Skirt Suit: Rafaella fit + form (no longer available online)

Tee-shirt: Old Navy Similar

Hose: Hanes Similar

Heels: Nine West

Necklace: Banana Republic 


So yea, this is my way of adding some quirk and unexpectedness into a traditionally conservative outfit.  On a more real life note, its been a bit over 4 weeks since I took the bar exam again.  I should be finding out in the next couple of days whether I passed.  I've been a lot more zen about it than I thought I would.  From the beginning I've felt like I passed, but there's obviously no guarantee.  Hopefully I'll have some good news for you all sometime soon.  How do you normally handle waiting for results?   

Green!

     Happy St. Patrick's Day!  This outfit is from Tuesday, but since I wore my green sweater vest, I decided to save it until today.  
     Looking in my closet this morning, I realized that I don't have much in the way of green.  Sure I have plenty of turquoise, but anything that most people would call green? not so much.  I'm not entirely sure why either.  I've never been one to shy away from color, but at the same time, I've focused on basics a lot lately.  I think this has resulted in my having tons of black and white and cream and a few other colors, namely turquoise and red, and very little of other colors of the rainbow.  This is going to have to change.  While I'm all for basic colors for suits, its tops and shoes and sweaters that tend to bring more interest, ie color and pattern, into my wardrobe.  Next time I want to get a new top I'll just have to put black, white and cream on the no-go list (unless of course its something spectacular).

From: Here

     So the inspiration for this outfit came from 2 very different sources.  The first is a probation officer that works in our court system.  He dresses beautifully every time I've seen him.  This last time I saw him, he was wearing a suit, and rather than wearing an overcoat to stay warm, he had on a sweater vest.  His outfit was in shades of black, gray and white with a red tie.  It was tailored and just plain put together.  So that got me thinking.  Then I went home and watched part of Love Actually while I rode my stationary bike.  If you've seen the movie, do you remember Hugh Grant's assistant's first outfit?  (pictured above).  While entirely too low cut and tight, I've always liked the idea of it.  In the end, I feel like I combined the two to make my outfit.  Where do you draw inspiration for outfits?

The Details:

Blouse: Zara Similar

Sweater vest: L.L. Bean

Pants: Gap

Heels: Nine West in Brown Croc

Pearls: by me Similar Color

Blazer: Loft (no longer available Similar

Less than 10

     Soooo, what do you do when you look pregnant in pictures but you're not?  That's the impression that I'm getting from this outfit.  It could be that when I put the suit jacket on in a hurry to take these pictures before the sun set,  I put it on weird, but I don't know.  The bad thing is that now I'm self-conscious about the fit.  I'm hoping that when I wear it again I'll be able to figure out if I *really* do look like I'm growing a bump or if it was a freak occurence or what.  I'm also really hoping that when I wear the jacket with the matching skirt it will look normal.  I need some feedback guys, do I look pregnant or is it just my imagination?

Pattern!

     On another note, this jacket is from a skirt suit that I bought just before going back to work 2 weeks ago.  I had to get the skirt hemmed, but I am in LOVE with the suit (except for the aforementioned baby bump issues).  I know that in the far away pictures it reads gray, but up close its a really cool black on gray stripey pattern deal.  The skirt has a really sweet ruffle that's just the right amount of feminine and cute without distracting from the formality of a suit.  Be on the lookout for this suit on the blog as I'm wearing it today and will hopefully post it later this week.

    Speaking of the blog, The Fiance made a comment to me on Friday that it had been a while since I posted.  Now, I know that he checks in on the blog every now and again, but I had no idea he kept track of how often I posted or even the length of my posts.  He did not appreciate that last Monday's post was the last time I posted nor that it was a short post.  So that made me wonder, what do you guys think about my posting schedule?  I try to keep posting regularly on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 am eastern time.  Last week posting didn't happen on that schedule as I didn't get home in time any day to take pictures in day light.  Sadly, several of last week's pictures were really cute.  I guess I'll just have to repeat them.  

     Considering that I don't always have a chance to check in with my Reader every day, how often do you check out blogs?  Is there a number of times a week that there is too much posting? too little?

The Details:

Suit: Rafaella (via Belk) Fitted Blazer

T-Shirt: Ann Taylor (gift)

Pants: Gap Similar in Navy

Heels: Nine West

Lavender Pearls: by me Similar

Quickie post

     Wore this a few weeks ago to work when I had to go in to help out in court.  Since it was such a beautiful day, posing by the Mustang just seemed like the right thing to do. Bella couldn't decide if she wanted in or out of the picture, so we're left with her tail in the picture.  Currently I'm wishing it was this beautiful right about now.  *sigh*  Hopefully sometime soon.  How's the weather around you?  Beautiful yet? 

 The Details:

T-shirt: Old Navy Similar

Pants: Gap Similar

Blazer: L.L. Bean

Boots: Tsubo Hepti 

alley chic

    Woo outfit post!  This outfit post is brought to you by my lovely Fiance.  You see, last week after taking the bar, I took advantage of some free time and wandered around the mall.  I just went to look.  THEN I stepped into Ann Taylor Loft and had a very serious dilemma.  I found this gorgeous brown velvet blazer that was on final sale for $19.99.  I tried it on and liked it.  Then the salesperson told me that it was marked down an additional 40% and would end up around $14.  Suddenly, I had fallen in love.  I didn't buy it right then because I wanted to really think through this (albeit small) purchase.  So I left the mall and thought about it.  

     Well I thought about it all weekend and decided I wanted it.  Originally, the Fiance and I were going to meet up at Target in town on Wednesday to do some shopping.  I was going to take that opportunity of being in town to head to the mall to buy the blazer.  Well the Fiance wasn't feeling it on Wednesday, so I asked him very nicely if he would go to the mall on his way home and get the jacket for me.  His original answer on Monday was no, that he didn't know where he was going and would be tired and wouldn't know what it was I wanted.  The next day I took the initiative and called Loft and asked them to put the jacket aside for me in my size.  That night, I again asked the Fiance to go get it for me as now it was set aside.  He lovingly acquiesced.  And so I sent him a map of the mall signaling where Loft is located so he would know EXACTLY where to go.  I even sent him a link to the jacket so he would know what he was getting too.  Wednesday night arrived and the Fiance walked in with a Loft bag and my awesome new blazer.

Laughing at myself

     Thinking about it as long as I did really made me fall in love with the blazer.  As soon as I got it home, I tried it on and was hit with inspiration lighting as I knew that I just *had* to pair it with this skirt.  And then I realized that the Tsubo Hepti booties were perfect.  You see, I had seen Heather Armstrong of Dooce wear a pencil skirt, tights + booties combination before and loved it on her.  So this outfit was born.  I felt super chic all day long with my new velvet blazer.  That and its kind of hard to not feel spectacular wearing these Tsubo Shoes.  

alley chic?

The Detailss:

T-shirt: NY&Co. Similar: Here

Blazer: Loft (no longer available online, but call your nearest store just in case.  Online told me it wasn't available near me when I knew there was a whole rack's worth of jackets at the mall).

Skirt: NY&Co. Similar

Tights: Merona (target) In Black

Boots: Tsubo Hepti (no longer available) 

   

     P.S. I took these pictures in the parking lot/alley behind my office.  I'm laughing hysterically in the above picture because I was just waiting for someone I knew (read another lawyer) to come out and ask what the hell I was doing posing for pictures with my camera perched on a dumpster in an alley behind our office.  If you're an outfit blogger--where is the silliest/craziest/most interesting place you've taken outfit pictures?

March Sponsor

     Just wanted to let you all know that Misikko.com has once again sponsored Law School Fashionista for the month of March.  Later this month I'll be reviewing a really awesome product that they sent me that I have really enjoyed trying out so far, so be on the lookout for that  So yea check them out.