outfit diary vol. 2

what I’ve been wearing!!!

Hey, stranger.

I started writing this at 7:30am on a flight to Oregon for a week of eating lots of grilled chicken, corn salad, and summer tomatoes. I finished it on the flight back, sporting new tan lines and a note on my phone that reads: fresh corn, cherry tomatoes, red onion, avocado, basil (?). use a balsamic dressing? maybe honey? I rekindled my love affair with corn in a big way. If you haven’t had any grilled summer corn… get on it!

Every time I travel, I get this frantic burst of energy toward my life. Something about airports, even though most people look raggedy and tired, reminds me that there are a lot of people out there and a lot to see and a lot to do. Almost like clockwork, I step off any plane and practically buzz with newfound energy. Most of that goes towards staying on top of work, keeping up with hobbies, cooking more often. But I save a sliver of that excitement for my wardrobe, naturally. Let’s get into it.

While my entire family was all together, my aunt booked us in for family portraits. The last time we did this I was probably 9 or 10 with a heavy side part and low rise jeans. We were instructed to wear a neutral color on top but had no such rules to the bottoms, so I opted for this beaded, embroidered skirt that Kathia had lent me a few days prior. My experience with skirts is that if I have to keep pulling them down, forget it. This shape, slightly boxy and falls to just above mid thigh, is perfect for me and as a recovering neutrals-only dresser, I find having one patterned item is enough for me to feel excited about my outfit while still feeling like myself.

I want to be buried in this dress. It fits me perfectly, goes with all of my shoes, and can work for most occasions. I’m in love! Denim doesn’t necessarily fall under the category of adventurous or life altering, but I love the stitching in this dress. Plus, it’s such a versatile material and I love when denim utilized for anything other than pants. Give me a denim hat, a denim belt, a denim boot and I’ll want to get my hands on it. These shoes are square toe Mary Jane’s, which give me hellish blisters and early onset bunions but remind me of that very esoteric saying, how does it go… beauty is pain? Something like that.

This may not make sense to anyone but when I wear this outfit with a pair of wire framed glasses, I immediately feel like a character in a Nancy Meyers movie. Maybe I’m a mysterious architect in the city who’s always running to a meeting, coffee in hand. Maybe I’m the quirky best friend character or the main love interest. Maybe I’m a preppy student with big dreams and high expectations. Either way, I want to always wear things that make me feel like different character for the day. Otherwise I’m bored.

The infamous leopard (cheetah?) print camisole. I love this top so much that I didn’t buy it at first but went back to the vintage store the next day because I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I knew it would be there— it felt like fate. Someone pointed out that I have a favorite silhouette and it kind of changed my life. I do have a favorite, and it’s whatever this is. A-line? Trapeze? Gunny sack? Whatever it’s called, I love it. The shoes were a gift from Kathia and fit me like a glove. They’re Italian made and while I don’t always know what to wear them with, I have a blast when I do. They made a wonderful click-clack sound on pavement, which we all know I adore.

So… sequins. Let’s talk about them. Hell hath no fury like a girl whose hair gets stuck in sequins and is ripped out of her head. However, and this is important, they are fantastic to look at. They’re sparkly in a relatively chill way, especially if on top of a dark material. This top falls in such a beautiful way in the back, and I love the dark green and red checkered pattern. Will be wearing this with low rise jeans and the black slingbacks to dinner later this week.

This is not something I would wear to work, for pretty obvious reasons. I am finishing up my contract role at the end of August and in the process of applying for jobs again. Something I struggle with beyond the unavoidable rejection emails is the feeling that I have to mold myself into the most palatable version to be considered for roles. This is not really a complaint so much as it is a dilemma I have when getting dressed for the office or preparing myself for interviews. How do you ride the line between maintaining authenticity while also respecting the fact that work is, well, work? I don’t know.

I adore this dress, so much so that I wore it on my 23rd birthday and felt so beautiful. I have no idea what material it is, some cross between silk and Viscose (I looked up what material feels like silk but isn’t and this is what Google told me, I didn’t just know that off the top of my head). This chevron pattern is not one I normally would reach for, which I’m starting to realize is my favorite type of clothing. I like wearing things that I’m curious about. I wonder how I’ll feel in this? I wonder if this color scheme will suit me?

I spent a good 2 years of my life wearing exclusively shorts and oversized t-shirts for some reason, still not sure why, and even as I began to enjoy getting dressed, I still always overlooked dresses. On a random Tuesday last summer, I bought a white babydoll sundress from Aritzia and wore it almost exclusively for 3 months straight. Since then, I will wear a dress at any opportunity possible. I am wearing a pink mini dress to the grocery store. I am wearing a floral maxi dress to work. I am wearing a flouncy, turquoise babydoll dress to dinner. Most importantly: I am not sweating in the July heat.

This skirt is mysterious to me in that I’m not exactly sure how to wear it. I have to pull it pretty low on my hips so that the ruched part fits correctly but then I walk around feeling extremely aware that it is tight on my ass. However, the whimsical, flowy fabric of the bottom half is fantastic. I subconsciously swish my hips a bit more when I walk and slump dramatically into chairs so that it billows out around me.

This is exactly the type of outfit I want to wear when I feel that familiar buzz of energy, or motivation, that welcomes me the moment I step back into my life after a week of traveling. Sometimes I worry that I want too much out of life, dear reader. In looking for my next job, I am closer now than I’ve ever been to The Big Move. The Big Move is my secret little dream of moving to New York City (or Copenhagen but that feels a bit out of reach for now) that is less about the place I move and more about the gash it would rip into my life. I think about my desire to put myself in the most challenging environment possible, or to be able to wear whatever I want whenever I want, or to change up my life every time I’m in the vicinity of a TSA line and I think: what does it mean that I am never satisfied? I want more, more, more. Not more things but more experience. I want to be a ripe old lady with enough stories to entertain her family for hours but I don’t know if those stories are happening now, or will happen later. Do I need to just breath in deep, hold my breath, and jump? Rip a gash into my life and trust that somehow it will be the thing that I’ll look back on and think I’m so glad I was brave enough to do that? Yet again, I don’t know.

Lastly, this is the outfit I’m wearing while I prepare to send this to you. The shoes are my trusty Tory Burch kitten heels, the bag a new purchase from a thrift store out in the boonies, aka Oregon. I’m working remotely from a cafe today and my coffee has long since gone cold, but I never work as well as I do when I’m surrounded by the hum of people around me. There are families getting an afternoon treat, friends catching up, two influencers behind me taking about their social media strategies, a group of older men playing backgammon at the table to my right. I am feeling very grateful that there are people out there who choose to read about my outfits and my endless questions and my (very brave) attempts at figuring things out. Thank you as always for reading.

xoxo,

Evie