Suiting Up

     This is one of my favorite outfits I've worn in quite some time.  My mom gave me this blouse from Zara after she wore it a few times.  Despite its pale pink color, I knew that I would wear it a bunch.  The reason I say despite the pale pink is that generally, such a pale color near my face wouldn't look so great.  However, because I wore a purple necklace between the blouse and my face, I was able to keep the pink from washing me out.  In addition to the necklace, my brown suit kept me from looking washed out as well.  
     By the way, I absolutely love this suit.  I think my favorite part is the high waisted skirt.  Once upon a time, I would not have even thought to wear such a high waisted skirt.  Recently, ie. in the past year or so, I have broadened my horizons with respect to high waisted skirts.  At the moment, 3 of my 4 skirt suits are high waisted skirts and I love them.  The silhouette has completely won me over.  Its both feminine and comfortable and most importantly, it works for my body.  Its pretty great to find a silhouette that is flattering for my body and especially one that I can readily find in stores.  Have you been fortunate enough to find a silhouette that works for you?  Do you have a silhouette you wished worked for you but doesn't?  

The Details:
Suit: JCPenney
Blouse: Zara (mom)
Heels: Nine West
Necklace: Target

Hair and the Law

  Sometime last week, someone asked me if I was pregnant.  I vehemently said NO!  It got me thinking though, not about pregnancy, but about my body.  The question made me feel chunky if not outright fat.  I mean, why else would anyone ask if I'm pregnant if I don't look larger than normal, right?  This made me feel bad.  And I realized how my feelings about myself are tied to my feelings about my body.  For many women, their body is their self and there is no separation.  For others, their perception is tied up in their hair.  I feel that way sometimes too.  When my hair is long and wavy and behaving, I feel young and sexy.  When its up and sleek I feel professional.  Luckily for me, I'm able to go from one extreme to another.  Other ladies, however, have a more complicated relationship with their hair.  My friend Neubia is one of these.  Her hair isn't just a thing on her head, but rather its a symbol of culture and heritage that is inevitably intertwined with her sense of self.  So I asked her to write a post on her hair and the choices she's made with regard to it.  Here is her story:

Law school sucks! Sorry, there is just no other way to put it. What makes it suck more is when your freedom of expression (i.e. individuality) is hampered as a result. Of course, now that I am a lawyer practicing in Fayetteville, NC, I understand that my alma mater, in voicing concern with my stylistic choices, was simply trying to prepare me for what I would face in the real world.  So what is the faux pas freedom of expression I've engaged in . . .

I HAVE LOCS! Some of you may know them as "Dreadlocks."   Screw that! There is absolutely nothing dreadful about my hair.  Hence, the shortening of my choice of hair style to just locs, rather than dreads.

I came into law school with natural hair. That is, I did not use chemicals to alter the texture of my hair.  Most of the time, I wore an afro. Sometimes I would wear braids or twists.  During my second year, I decided to embrace the tight coils that my hair often created on its own. One of the first comments I received when declaring that I was locing my hair (because in my early stages of locing, it just looked like I had twists), was whether I was considering a career at a firm.  Well, truth be told, I wasn't, but even if I was, if a firm is unwilling to hire me because of the grade, texture and stylistic choices I make with my hair, then I am unwilling to work there!

Making the decision to loc is not easy.  When most folks think of locs, they think of a chain such as this . . . Bob Marley, pot, rebel, Rastafarian, slacker, etc.  Well, as much as I enjoy Bob Marley, and consider myself a bit of a rebel, I am not a pothead, and I am a Christian.  I am also . . . (DUN, DUN, DUN) a lawyer.  That's right, people who wear locs are successful business types with expensive ass degrees from private schools, too.

There are 0, count it 0 other attorneys in this city with locs.  The word on the street is that the one guy who did have locs fell prey to the pressure and cut his off.  I refuse to conform! When I walk into court (most of the time to observe for now because we have local rules that take some getting used to) all eyes are on me.  In fact, one morning, I walked into the lawyers only area behind the courtrooms (exiting a courtroom) and was chased down by a bailiff.  "Can I help you?" he barks with his hands on his assault a black person belt.  "Excuse me?" I reply wearing WTF on my face.  "You can't be back here if you aren't a lawyer."  "Well, good news for you sir! I am a lawyer. Were you going to arrest me?" I proceed to fire off questions to him in rapid succession, none of which he is able to respond to because his face is still on the floor.  He walked away, likely still in awe that I, yes, the chick with the locs, was a lawyer. FFFFFFF you and the bus you rode in on!

While this moment was as heartbreaking as it was entertaining, I consider it one giant leap for nappy girls everywhere.  Do not underestimate us because we make the choice not to introduce chemicals into our world.  We can run with the rest, and indeed the best of them. So the next time you see someone with locs, take off your cap of ignorance, and don't make assumptions about them.  Each one, teach one.

Spring!

     Look kids, an outfit post!  Last time I posted an outfit I was waxing poetic about these shoes and how they go with everything including white pants.  Well this is the outfit to which I was referring.  I wore this outfit a week or so ago, just after the first day of Spring.  Bella and I were clearly loving the warm weather.  In fact, I've been looking forward to wearing these white linen pants for the past 2 months.  In fact, I've been waiting to wear several of my linen pieces for a while.  I'm really quite a fan of this beautiful fabric.  In spite of its habit of wrinkling by just looking at it, linen adds great texture and movement to an outfit.  Plus, it just fits in perfectly in summery and warm weather.      

The Details:

Top: Loft

Pants: Talbots Similar Also Similar

Heels: Nine West

Necklace: made by me

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

Mixing Patterns

I wore this outfit yesterday.  I've been inspired by Brittney of A Day in the Life Too . . . to get out of sweats and into real clothes while I study.  It ended up being just as warm and comfortable as if I had worn PJ pants and a sweatshirt all day long instead.  In other words I sat with a blanket over my lap anyway.  I'm not sure if the clothes necessarily kept me on task more than normal--but I wasn't embarrassed to go outside to get the mail like I normally am when I wear my monkey face PJ pants.  
    This skirt is significantly shorter than I normally wear.  Because I spent the day in a chair, under a blanket, fidgeting to get comfy, it was PERFECT!  The short skirt let my legs move and get comfy without being restrictive at all.  I'm not sure I would wear this skirt without tights ever, but with tights I would feel perfectly fine wearing this in public.  

Cold!

    As you can see, I am boldly mixing patterns with my leopard print rain boots and purple plaid skirt.  I am quite a fan of this combination.  If I had actually left the house I may have even worn these boots instead of my suede knee highs too.  I'm generally not afraid of pattern mixing.  The only reason I don't do it more often is that I don't have a lot of patterned pieces in my closet.  I should probably work on that.  How do you feel about mixing prints? Fun or scary?

The Details:

Undershirt:Fruit of the Loom Available Here

Skirt: Old Navy (on sale for $7.97!(

Tights: Hue Available Here

Boots: Capelli via Stein Mart Available Here

Sweater: Old Navy  Similar Shape Similar in Cashmere

I Feel Pretty!

     Like I mentioned in my previous post, last night the Fiance had a work event to go to.  The thing is, the day was full of a lot of other stuff before I could even think about getting ready.  Normally, he takes the car and I stay home to study all day.  But because the event was at a hotel in town, it made more sense for me to take him to work and then afterward pick him up to go straight to the shindig.  Except that after I took him to work, I went and got a flu shot.  It took a good hour and a half to get in for a 2 minute thing, but since insurance covered it, I feel like it was worth it.  

    Anyway, so on my way home, I stopped to get my eyebrows waxed.  While I've been studying I haven't really cared much for grooming them.  Sure they're on my face and highly visible, but its such a pain to pluck them.  So I've let them grow out.  I used the event as an excuse to get them waxed.  A friend had recommended this hair salon, so I went online and checked out their prices.  Since I would get charged the same thing at the mall, I figured I would go to the salon instead.  I got there and was impressed by the salon.  Their prices are reasonable and the salon itself is beautiful.  I asked if I could get my eyebrows done and within minutes I was headed to the back to get my eyebrows waxed.  The esthetician was really nice and friendly.  She asked me if I wanted them cleaned up or shaped and I said yes to both.  I think they turned out excellent.   I would definitely recommend checking out Tanglez Hair Salon if you're ever in the Wilmington (NC) area and are in need of getting your eyebrows waxed. 

    So after I finally made it home I had to put the Fiance's clothes together so that he could change in the car after work.  Then it was time for me to decide what to wear.  Monday I had picked out 3 outfits and I let him choose which one I should wear.  Since it was his event, I thought it was only fair for him to decide what I should wear.  He chose this Talbots dress that I bought using my Talbots dividends last fall.  

     I got to decide on the accessories.  Even though its 66 and raining today, last night was pretty chilly so no bare legs.  I went with my Merona polka dot tights to keep me warm and add a bit of a youthful flair to my LBD.  To keep the theme of unexpectness going, I went with these burgundy pumps.  (Let's ignore that the mirror I used for this is not 100% clean and reflective, k?)  
     These pumps were my Christmas present from the Fiance.  I had been stalking them online for quite some time, and then mid-November they went on sale for 50% off with free shipping.  I got him to order them for me and they arrived about 2 weeks before Christmas.  *I* wanted to open the box and try them on.  He wouldn't let me!  So I waited until Christmas day to open them.  And lo and behold, I thought they were too tight.  I was a wee bit perturbed as I could have tried them on and gone to the mall to check out the sizes all before Christmas.  In the end, I dragged him to the mall to try on the shoes on in 9.5.  These ended up being too big.  The lovely lady behind the counter was able to stretch out the 9s for me so that they were no longer tight.  Hooray for great service!

Serendipity!

    So, let me tell you about my hair.  Since I washed my hair a few hours before having to leave the house, I had to figure out something to do real quick.  After washing and putting in my Hana Shine Shield leave-in, I threw my hair up in a towel to dry for a bit.  Once it was dry, I finger combed some mousse into it and dried my whole head with a diffuser.  The result was a lot of curls and a lot of body.  Unfortunately, it was also a lot of frizz.  I felt kind of Hermione-ish.  So I put my hair in a Clever Clip, ironed my bangs and decided that that would be good enough if I couldn't do something cute with my hair.  I ran out of the house with my hair up, resigned to wearing it up.   After picking up the Fiance I undid the clip and amazingly, my hair turned out beautifully!  I have no idea how it happened or why I was blessed with this serendipity, but I even *felt* pretty.  And that is HUGE.  So off we went to the Fiance's event looking and feeling great!

The Details:

Dress: Talbots (no longer available) Similar with Belt, Similar, Similar with Sleeves, Also Similar

Tights: Target Available Here

Heels: Nine West Available Here (not in burgundy)

Earrings: ?

Coat: Tahari (consignment store) Similar Shape

Shopping Karma

    If you follow me on twitter, you know that I went shopping  last Wednesday.  And guys, I got *really* lucky.  Old Navy is not a store I normally shop at.  Its been a long time since anything in the store fit me well and so I pretty much gave up on it.  It came out of my shopping rotation slowly as I tend to really like their style, but the fit just wasn't there.  But since I found the skinny cords that I'm wearing in these pictures, I decided I would give it another try.  So Wednesday evening we headed in to town and the Fiance dropped me off at Old Navy while he went to get his hair cut. My purpose for the shopping expedition was to find more casual non-blue jean pants. 

    I made a beeline for the Clearance section and got LUCKY.   Everything in the clearance section was an additional 40% off of the ticketed price.  My first trip to the dressing room consisted of a few pairs of pants.  Only the skinny cords in blue fit.  The second time through the Clearance section though, I hit jackpot.  I found a really cute bird and leaf print dress, light pink cardigan, skinny gray cargo pants and black jeggings.  Since everything was on clearance and the last time I went to Old Navy I got one of those surveys on the receipt that give you 10% off, everything was way cheap.  All in all I left Old Navy with 3 pairs of pants, a cardigan and a dress for about $25 and change.  How awesome is that?

    Anyway, this is what I wore to go on my quest.  Normally when I go shopping I think of the ease of getting into and out of a fitting room.  Despite taking that into consideration, I decided to go with my knee high boots anyway.  They're easy to slip on and off and since earlier in the day it had rained, I didn't have to worry about wet feet or hems.  They were a smidge annoying in the dressing room, but really, aren't most shoes other than flip flops?

    When it came down to the jewelry though, I got stuck.  I was looking in the mirror and all I could think was "This outfit needs some sparkle."  I looked through my jewelry and didn't find exactly what I wanted, but figured this necklace would do in a pinch.  I've never worn it before as its an odd shape.  I think it ended up being the right amount of sparkle and the perfect piece for this U-shaped neckline.  I got the necklace when I ordered some hair clips from the Sew Lovely etsy shop.  She was kind enough to add this necklace in as a surprise bonus to my order. 

What do you wear when you go shopping?  Found any spectacular deals lately?

The Details:

Sweater: Loft Similar, Similar color and style Similar Color in a cardigan

Pants: Old Navy Similar Skinnies

Boots: Target Really Similar, Also Similar

Necklace: gift Etsy

Sunglasses: Guess by way of Marshalls        

Similar Also Similar  
These aren't really similar, but I kind of want them.