I went all mini last week. It is finally getting warmer in Syracuse! Yesssssss!
On Friday afternoon , I put the glazes away for the year. All the clay projects are now on deck for the kiln.. I am gearing up for the final lessons. I think there are thirty school days left, so only fifteen classes for A day students and fifteen classes for B day students.
They will be creating art books and the Studio in Art students will begin a watercolor landscape. So fun!!!! <3
Here I am back in black – it is a comfort zone. And I have so many separates to mix and match! I love the way it feels to know who I am and what I love. I love ruffles and puff sleeves, embroidery, leather, silk and velvet! <3
In my attempt to do a theme week, I selected short dresses with pockets. I love deep pockets! Clearly, I need a fifth dress with pockets to finish off the week. I had to insert a skirt on Thursday – but in its defense, OMG, the pockets are enormous. <3
In other news, my school picture was in my mailbox yesterday. I stood in a long line that day on the cafetorium stage, waiting my turn after a group of fifth graders had theirs. Is it all airbrushed? Because it is one of the best school pictures I have ever taken in twenty-five years of teaching. I think it was a new company or something, I’m not sure but, regardless, I am delighted with the results.
So, I was trying out a thing – theme weeks for my work attire. Last week it was black. This week I wore silk every day. Themes are challenging because they limit what you can and cannot wear. This can be a good thing when you have so many clothes in your closet that it makes you focus only on a few key items. And on the flip side, the limitations are frustrating because sometimes you just want to reach for a cotton T–shirt or whatever. I know that when they tell us we are having a jeans day on a Friday – I don’t always feel like wearing jeans.
It really all depends on the weather. And with teaching art, it also depends on what materials we are using – how messy they are. It was very warm in the classroom. I had several moments of overheating, which looked like a menopausal freak show, but was really just a lot of people in a room with no air conditioning wearing masks that make your face sweat and then whoooosh – your whole body, lol. It was happening to the thirteen-year-old boys and girls too.
Wearing silk helped with that. Thank you, Rachel Zoe for your beautiful light weight creations. I cut off the off-shoulder top’s sleeves on the embroidered silk/cotton top (above) and tried it as a layered tube top thingy, which I loved.
A thank you also goes out to Ulla Johnson for this magnificent lightweight slip and dress combo, all silk, that I wore for the first time backwards. When I bought the dress, it was featured as a high neck tunic with a bow at the back of the neck, but I wore it with the bow in front as more of a V-neck and loved it. The other way, the neckline sort of flopped in a funny way, like it was too big and so, this dress had been relegated to the back of my closet. Now you may see it in a heavier rotation.
I know it isn’t as flattering to go with the moo-moo look, as my colleague Katy calls it, but we both love the comfort of dresses like this for work. The dress isn’t particularly editorial but in real life, it is really beautiful with a delicate embroidery throughout the sheer fabric.
I completed silk week with this Halston one-shouldered top that I wore with an Allsaints T-shirt underneath. I paid full price when I bought this top from Neiman Marcus. It has this fabulous drape that I love so muchy-much. I am wearing it in my Facebook profile picture. It’s one of my favorite pieces!
Because I blog my outfits, I feel like I need to wear everything in my closet and have something different on all the time, like the characters do on the new incarnation of Dynasty on the CW. And I guess that has to be fine with me. Clothes are an obsession. Clothes? Fashion, really, and knowing my own style. I will spend every penny on my wardrobe. Eating and paying bills – that stuff is overrated, lol. #whatwillshewearnext? <3
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. 🙂
Can a girl have enough leather dresses? Answer: not really.
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).
Thought I would try a pattern week – the problem – I don’t always feel like following a plan. So, this is just a hodge-podge of outfits from several different weeks. Thank you, Rachel Zoe, Cinq a Sept, Trina Turk, Talitha Collection, Free People, Kobi Halperin and AllSaints!
Last week there was a day I forgot to bring a mask. I had to wear a standard issue one from the stash the school gave me. Ugh! It is crazy how different school is these days with the masks and the social distancing – the integration of the on-line technology and all the paperwork/organization/mayhem. But it hasn’t put a damper on the fun.
My students are happy to be back in school. I only actually have classes twice a week and students are there one day and at home the other day. My colleague and instagram photographer, Katy, and I, have been working together to recreate our art courses to align with the new safety protocols and to allow students to access the courses on-line. No clay, paint or collage work this year – the focus is more on formal principals of art, illustration and design.
We purchased sketchbooks for everyone, as well as dry media including markers and colored pencils. We are still working with the local Lions Club (awesome!) to create peace posters for their international contest. Some of my students may become professional artists by the end of the month.
I know I haven’t blogged much since the onset of these “Covid-19 months”. I plan to improve my on-line store on this site – I’ve upgraded the website to the bells and whistles one, but I haven’t really gotten around to uploading more than a few bracelets for sale. I have a new email address – artist@karentash.com. And I did go to a museum today. I’ll be writing a couple of blog posts about that soon.
I’m happy to be back to school too. I love fashion sooo much – love getting dressed to go someplace. I’m having fun incorporating the mask into the mix – the ones from Kes are phenomenal because I can wear them around the neck during mask breaks. My other favorite ones are by Jonathan Simkhai and, yes, my own, available on www.redbubble.com.
Oh, and, of course, I am a blonde now so I look a lot different than I did in March.
Change is good. <3
