1) It's too cold to wear half of the outfits I want to, kinda like this one. I feel cool and awesome and almost froze to death taking these photos.

2) Even though it's progressively getting lighter in the afternoon/evenings, as far as pictures go the lack of ambient light is shit. Especially because upping the ISO levels as I did below, result in fuzzy pictures  (which I kind of knew it would but I was hoping I was wrong.

Maybe we should collectively decide I'm going for a "vintage" aesthetic? That could work. In fact, screw it, I put these in A Color Story and now they're *deliberately* retro. I'm fashion forward, that's right, and not a procrastinator.

So it turns out that that rule about not buying a piece that requires you to buy other pieces works pretty well. Each of these were separate purchases over a decent span of time, and none of them were bought with this outfit in mind. But I think together it results in an obviously historically inspired but contemporary outfit, that brings me a lot of joy.

I'm not going to lie - one of the reasons I don't do buying guides or wishlists is that I rarely have a very specific piece in mind when clothes shopping, and even when I do, it's rare that what I'm eyeing fits the way I like. I am a person who buys a lot and keeps very little - it's a gift and a curse, because I'll try on almost anything and sometimes that works in my favor even when I don't want it to. I think that's the hardest thing to explain to people about my wardrobe. I try on, and even temporarily buy, a LOT because the percentage of what I actually like and keep is negligible. Ok, well may not negligible, but it's certainly not HIGH. I like clothing and admire how other people look in them, which influences what I decide to try, but it doesn't change what I decide to keep because if it doesn't look good it doesn't look good.

Which is all well and good as a philosophy until I find myself in the dressing room at a Christy Dawn pop-up and all of the seemingly large and oversized "one size fits all" pieces look like sh*t. Like all things in life it's a work in progress.

I feel like it's a rare moment these days for me to fall in love with a print - let alone fall in love with onw enough to acknowledge its place in my increasingly more neutral and solid wardrobe. But this N&Co dress got me, with its ridiculously bright Versace inspired print that made me think of both 90s AND 70s. I'm not going to say this dress is gonna be in my wardrobe for years and years, but I definitely have the feeling that I'm going to enjoy every outing in it while I can.

I really have to give inspiration credit to Lee from Style Bee for this outfit. One of her most recent posts was a review of the Thea Wrap Top by Emlee and watching her style it was kind of a revelation. Yes, I did really enjoy the original way I had envisioned wearing this top (seen here) but to repurpose it and make it pretty much work appropriate at the same time? REVELATION. I feel like I missed out on all these ways I could have been wearing it, because my brain was so attached to the "right" way. And the "right" season.

Also, in case anyone was wondering, these new Madewell jeans are going to by answer to every Emmet/Jesse Kamm pant suggestion. I've tried a few and they just never felt right/looked as good as they did on the women of the interwebs, but the "slim wide leg" and uber high rise of these jeans are perfection.

Since I like to be as real with myself as possible, I'm going to say that title up there is 100% correct. Even if I tried at it I probably couldn't pull off as effortlessly cool an outfit again (though believe you me, I will try). Stumbling upon this jacket in Ralph Lauren is one of those holy grail discoveries I'm not typically known for. I'd tried so many times since watching Lizzy's Testing Basics review to find that perfect leather/faux leather jacket of my own, and it'd always been close but no cigar. I did find one for a friend though, so not a total loss.

But this jacket is just AMAZING. It is both already broken in but still structured, fitted in the shoulder but still manages to hang perfectly unzipped (I could zip it, but I probably won't). And the final reason that I couldn't walk away from it was that it was down to $200. FROM $800. It was 50% off the red price and that, folks, is why you sometimes go into stores you usually can never afford, and try on everything.