The V-neck cashmere sweater paired with a leather skirt is a marriage made in fashion heaven! Worn with a bootie and one of my handmade bracelets, this look was my uniform last week. It was a theme I will revisit again and again. <3
Students are working on papier-mache sculptures (donuts, owls) and colored pencil drawings. The Studio in Art students just finished glazing their clay projects and now they are about to do still life paintings with acrylics. We are having a lot of fun making art!
I did a mini skirt/dress week. It is getting warmer outside here in Syracuse, so, why not? Ten weeks left until summer vacation.
I bought this dress (above) to wear on my birthday two years ago. It is a BCBGMaxAzria with keyhole top and cutout at the waist. I’ve only worn it twice, so, I decided to wear it to work by pairing it with a matching cashmere sweater, as well as leather pants. Next time, I will lose the pants – it was an experiment – details to follow.
Elaine is coming to visit in July. We were talking about the way airlines charge – luggage is extra these days, so, is it less expensive to ship your clothes UPS? Lol – I said, why not just wear all your clothes on top of each other?
That is sort of what these recent outfits represent. I wore the above look on Thursday. We had a two-hour delay/freak snow-storm thingy and it was cold. I dressed in my BCBGMaxAzria turtleneck dress with the uneven hemline then decided to throw on cropped pants and the matching cropped wrap sweater. It was strangely comfortable/oddly satisfying. I think I look like a Punky Brewster-esque monk and yet, I got a lot of compliments that day. Fashion is perplexing when a miss becomes a hit.
These next two looks (above) are adding a skirt and leather pants to my AllSaints leather dress. The skirt look felt genius until I went on errands after school that day. I came home with six inches of rain wetness on the hem of the maxi! Still, I felt fabulous in it. The leather on the dress and pants is lamb – very soft and stretchy.
I’ve tried to get this Rebecca Taylor denim dress into circulation by pairing it with pants and sweaters, but I don’t think it works or at least it doesn’t photograph well. 🙁
I bought this BCBGMaxAzria dress (above) three years ago to wear to my 55th birthday party. I like using it as a tunic paired with more BCBG stuff – sweater, pants, sandals.
I love this Joie leather dress, but it is one of those pieces where you think people will say – oh there’s that dress again. I experimented with it as a jacket and with a top underneath with moderate success. I mean – it is such a beautiful piece, it can’t look bad no matter what you wear with it! Yes, finally! The perfect item. Think I will wear it again next week. 🙂
Wearing all black is like wearing a uniform. There is comfort to it, and a sort of simplistic language, that absence of focal point, that thing where someone says, “I don’t remember what she was wearing, but she looked great.” Or at least that’s the dream, isn’t it?
I used to do a Black Mondays thing but now it’s just about what feels right in the moment (a.k.a. at 6:55 am).
I did a monochromatic thing this week and I am in love with the look. I used to wear black every day and now I’m just so inspired by color.
Coupled with every style of this season’s Rag & Bone boots, it is so fun to get dressed for work. <3
We are doing an art lesson called “my favorite things”, which is a small drawing illustrating items using pictograms and some graffiti. I see a lot of pizza, video games, pets, and sports teams represented. Yes, there were clothes and shoes in my sample, but I tried not to be so one-dimensional. I also added…other stuff (I can’t really remember, off the cuff).
Many of these clothing items are among my favorite things/newest things – the Theory sweaters, the Coach leather skirts, the Rag & Bone boots…. Pretty much everything!
I had to change my wardrobe this year because it just feels so cold at school. I used to live in cardigans over short sleeve or sleeveless tops – layering to peel them off as the day progressed. I guess I used to get too hot, lol. Oh, and it was also because when I prepped the painting lessons and/or washed the paint brushes I didn’t want my sleeves to get wet or dirty. So there’s currently none of that.
We decided to give each student individual supplies. We are focusing on principles of art captured through sketch book assignments, as well as smaller colored pencil drawings on tagboard or Strathmore drawing paper. We just started second semester.
I was a V-neck girl before Zoom. Now I think crew necks look better for sitting in front of that screen all day. Saks Fifth Avenue to the rescue – they had a mega sale of cashmere sweaters for only $39.99! Craziness!!!
Here (above and below) are examples of the double sweater look. I know. I have a lot of sweaters. I will get them dry cleaned over mid-winter break, That starts in T-minus nineteen hours.
I will probably live in pjs and work-out gear during break. And possibly my art smock? I have several art projects that require my attention. I must take inventory of my Tashkovski jewelry collection – I recently acquired more vintage butterfly pins! I’d like to do more writing. And organize my closet. Maybe I should do that first.
Decisions/options/choices….
Although I was in all black yesterday (above), I’m making a conscious decision to add color to my wardrobe. Color looks better in #ootd pictures. Color is just fun. I color coordinate my walk-in closet – this makes it easier to notice items bought separately and even years apart that end up looking amazing together.
This Black Brown 1826 cashmere sweater (above) is something I often wear around the house over my pajamas. It is a thick 4-ply cashmere – very cozy and soft. The sleeves had frayed but I loved it so much, I didn’t want to get rid of it. I brought it to DeWitt Cleaners, recently, because I spilled yogurt on it and when I picked it up, it was not only pristine, but someone had magically mended it as well! The yarns of the sleeves were somehow stitched together (crochet hook?) and now it looks great with the most expensive skirt in my wardrobe!
This outfit (above) was inspired by one of my encaustic angel paintings, currently located on my bedroom dresser. I have had these silk velvet pants for a while. Paired with Marc Jacobs combat-style boots and the double sweater look, it felt super comfy on that cold day. We are in school on Wednesdays while the students are at home. #officehours
I rarely wear red – then this Coach leather skirt came along and now I’m singing red’s praises! Absolutely in love with the length. I paired it with an old Ann Taylor cashmere sweater from when the Ann Taylor store was on the second floor of the mall. (Does that store still exist? – IDK)
The monochromatic look was the rage at the 2021 Inauguration. It looked a bit like a circa 1980s rainbow wedding to me but fashion instagrammers didn’t agree. They loved that parade. I am not a purple head-to-toe fan either, lol. But blue? Yes!
One color works best when it is a blend of textures while allowing the hues to vary. Here (above) a new cashmere sweater with my tissue thin Rebecca Taylor summer denim dress, a navy silk mask and Frame cropped jeans. Boots, kind of, match my hair.
Sometimes I throw on my hat or earmuffs for the #ootd picture and sometimes I wear them most of the day when I am not in the classrooms. There is a lot less moving around these days due to all the Covid restrictions and such, and it just feels a lot colder at work. Hence the double sweater business too.
The fist time I wore this silk Talitha Collection top (above), I was at the Doobie Brothers/Steely Dan concert at the Ampitheater. It was something like ninety degrees in the shade that July day! For a January school day, I threw it on over a thick cashmere turtleneck.
And, P.S., every color in the rainbow looks great paired with these lambskin leather jeans (Joe’s Jeans!)
Finally and full circle, dresses over pants is a fun look – the dresses become tunics/jackets and I get to wear them through the winter and still manage to stay warm. Thank you, Joie and AllSaints, for the leathaaaaaaaa! <3
