Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Outfit


So, here it is:  The outfit that I planned based on the twenty-seven names Fall/Winter 2011 collection.  And, I am pleased with it.  (Not so pleased with the light this morning, however.)


So, being pleased with the outfit, I am comfortable discussing how it came together.  Which is .... I am not quite sure.  I think that it all started with my purchasing the jacket.  When I first saw the twenty-seven names Fall/Winter 2011 collection, one of the items of clothing that I focussed on was the shrunken school-boy jacket with piping detail.  I even mentioned how (remarkably) I didn't have one, of all the jackets that I owned, and how I was going to go on a hunt for one.  After that, I recalled seeing a jacket with piping detail in some store, but, try as I might, I couldn't recall which store it was.  So I had to be satisfied with "going on the hunt".  Shortly thereafter, I found myself in an H&M, and there it was, the jacket with the piping detail that I had recalled seeing.  It wasn't exactly right (it wasn't a twenty-seven names shrunken school-boy jacket with piping detail), but I loved it for what it was (which was probably why it stayed in my mind and I recalled it after seeing the twenty-seven names Fall/Winter 2011 collection) and I decided to buy it.  If it didn't work out, I could always return it.  So I brought it home, and that was, I think, the beginning of the outfit.  There wasn't immediate action on the outfit, however.  Once home, the jacket just sat, in the H&M shopping bag, in a corner of my house, waiting.  I assume that, on some unconscious level, I was deciding whether I should keep it.  Some short time later, I started thinking about removing the jacket's shoulder pads, realizing that doing so would make it "non-returnable", it would make it "mine".  At that point, I assume that I was getting closer to deciding to keep the jacket.  But I wasn't quite there yet, at least not consciously, as I did not proceed with removing the shoulder pads.  I just put the jacket back in the H&M shopping bag and stowed it away in the same corner of my house as before.  But, in the deep recesses of my mind, I think that I had decided to keep the jacket.  With that subconscious decision, I think my subconscious mind began styling it.  I am not entirely sure of the chain of next events, but they included: reviewing the twenty-seven names Fall/Winter 2011 collection, trying on some monochromatic outfits, wearing my Fluevog Tokyos for the first time, falling in love with them and resolving to wear them more (if not a lot), remembering a certain jumper dress and remembering the long black tie (with the pink print) that has seemed so insanely difficult to work into an outfit since I acquired it years ago.  At the end of all that, in whatever order it occurred, came the idea of the outfit (and the conscious decision to keep the jacket).  Within a day of the idea coming to me, the shoulder pads were removed from the jacket.  I can't say that I was 100 percent sure of the outfit at that point (although, I was committed to the jacket).  Very soon thereafter, I tried a bit of the outfit.  I still can't say that I was 100 percent sure of the outfit at that point, but I felt okay about it, certainly not negative about it, and decided to go all the way with it.  Today it appeared, in all its glory.  As I said, I am pleased with it.  Exceptionally pleased with it, in fact.


I am wearing an old H&M shirt, an old H&M jumper dress, an H&M jacket (with shoulder pads removed), an old Gap tie and an old scarf.  My tights are from my sock drawer and my shoes are by Fluevog.

2 comments:

Jessica said...

I too remove shoulder pads as a matter of course. I think I do it as I have pretty narrow shoulders, so enlarging them changes my overall silhouette so much as to make me feel unbalanced. Maybe they also put you off balance?
I love the story of this outfit, and it certainly looks as though the tie has at last met a perfect outfit-mate in the jacket. I know you are dressing very differently now, but I am browsing your archives as I did not have the luck to come upon your blog at the time, but only a couple of days ago. I am enjoying your style greatly!

wardrobetales said...

welcome, jessica! i would say that i feel a little artificial (fake) when i wear something with shoulder pads. i think this has to do with my narrow shape overall. i don't want to change my shape. i want to just be the shape i am.