Monday, November 1, 2010

The Cat's Pyjamas


When I bought the boots that I wore today, I thought that they were the cat's pyjamas.  Then I wore them (not with today's outfit, mind) and I started to wonder if I had made a mistake in buying them.  Today I had  not intended on wearing them, but as I was getting ready to leave the house, I saw them sitting there in the foyer and thought I would give them another chance.  It was one of those special moments when everything just seems to work.  The boots are, once again, the cat's pyjamas.


A while back, I wrote that, when I am in doubt about what to wear, I typically reach for a "little grey dress".  The "little grey dress" that I wore today is, by far, my most favourite "little grey dress".  I think that I have already worn it three times since the middle of September.  It may just be a goal of mine to see how many different sweaters, cardigans and vests I can wear with this dress.


I bought some vintage skirts yesterday.  Both are long and pleated.  Both are plaids.  Both have the colour camel in them.  I know that the colour camel is the "it" colour this season.  But I did not select the skirts because they have the colour camel in them.  Having said that, is the knowledge that the colour camel is the "it" colour this season unconsciously driving my clothing selections?  Or could it be that the stores are stocking more of this colour, so they are driving my selections?  In any event, "it" colour or not, I like both skirts and am looking forward to wearing them soon.


I fell in love with a jacket yesterday bearing the label Spiewak Uniform Workwear that Urban Outfitters is carrying.  According to its website, the company -- I. Spiewak & Sons, Inc. -- started in the early 1900s making outerwear for the dockworkers of New York.  It went on produce jackets for soldiers, pilots and sailors during WWI and WWII.  Now it produces "civilian products".  There was one particular detail on the jacket that I fell in love with that made me fall in love with it:  the button down collar.  (The colour of the jacket -- a deep loden green -- deserves honourable mention as a detail that made me fall in love with the jacket.)


Does this ever happen to you?  In one year, you fall in love with an outfit, so much so that you wear it a lot in that year.  In fact, it becomes one of your go to outfits when you are at a loss for what to wear.  The following year, on a day when you are at a loss for what to wear, you reach for the outfit, remembering how much you loved it the previous year and thinking surely it would make you feel great again this year.  You put the outfit on and, much to your surprise, the outfit doesn't do it for you anymore.  It isn't that you hate it exactly.  It just feels ... tired ... all of a sudden.  I would love to be able to figure out why this happens to me.


I am wearing an old dress from Zara, an old pullover sweater from the Gap, an old silver pin from my jewellery box, un-sweatpants by Roots, a cropped duffle coat from Old Navy, an old scarf from JCrew and old fingerless gloves from American Apparel.  My socks are by MacGregor and my boots are by Aldo.

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