Crazypants! The blog.

I'm headed to a folk dance thing, so a skirt is more fun. Finding something to wear with the skirt was surprisingly hard. I need to find more cropped tees, I think. The waistband on this silk skirt is too flimsy for tucking anything in. But this tee, and leather-front sweater jacket thing, work fine for now.

I debated footwear a lot and I'm still not thrilled. My low ankle boots were the wrong proportion. These combat boots with the skirt reminded me pleasantly of the 90s, so I stuck with the boots even though they're only 'just flattering enough.' Chunky sandals or oxfords would also work. The last photo is the ankle boots I tried first. Not sure why I didn't like the combination - it looks fine in the photo.

Silk skirt and BR leather sweater from Crossroads (the sweater has been kicking around my closet for years and only recently made it into frequent rotation). Uniqlo tee, awesome Madewell boots that I hope last forever.

Oh - and the undercut is re-shorn. I did it myself with scissors this time. It'll look less extreme in a week or so when the stubble is long enough to look hair-colored.

I woke up to the sound of rain on the street. It warms my heart. We're still in an epic drought overall, but this spring has been rainy and foggy and cool like San Francisco weather is supposed to be. This winter was the first time in history that we got no rain in normally-wet January, so things have felt very off balance.

Today's clothing is mostly second-hand. I found YLF just as I was shifting towards buying more new clothes (to stay on top of current trends) but I still have a lot of consignment gems.

Jeans: Genetic Denim legging jeans from Crossroads (as a genome biologist, I love their DNA logo, so I'm glad I finally found a pair that fit).
Top: Alexander Wang wrap sweater vest from Wasteland
Boots: Tsubo Loe
Jacket: unknown, from Wasteland

The wool jacket is this really cool double-layer design, solid black over pinstripe. Unfortunately it still smells like perfume from its previous owner a year after I bought it, so I don't wear it often (gives me a mild headache).

We're heading to a play tonight, and maybe fancy drinks, so dressing up a bit seemed like a fun idea. Inspired by Approprio and Diana, I decided to wear this sheer silk tunic over jeans. It doesn't have the wow factor of the fuller skirts they wore; I'll try that next time. Instead, I stuck with a modified FFBO. I know this Vince tunic has shown up in my posts before.

The shoes are new, the Steve Madden low-heel booties that you all love. They are amazingly comfortable, and I don't say that lightly; I basically can't wear heels but these must be exactly the right shape to support my feet.

I was contemplating Aziraphale's post about RATE alternatives to white jeans... I put on my cropped solid-black skinnies under this, at first, but the effect was too polished and downtown for my current fashion mood. These faded relaxed skinnies took it down a notch. I tried other changes, too - mannish loafers instead of the refined booties, for instance - but settled on this combination. (The jeans are Blank NYC found at Crossroads.)

With my faculty job interview over (it took a serious amount of prep) I'm looking forward to having energy for interesting outfits. My goal is to try a few things that are a little more out there instead of FFBOs like this, much as I like it. (Approprio, I hope you don't mind that you're my inspiration for this!)

And as soon as I'm done with one last job-related meeting, it's time to re-shave the scraggly undercut. Saturday!

Today was chillier than it has been -- hooray! Another chance to wear a sweater. I put together a FFBO: Allsaints Drina cardigan, a black tee, and my slouchy Zara jeans. Plus bonus photo of my cat, who follows me wherever I got.

My actual outfit had flat boots. But in the photos, I'm wearing a pair of gorgeous Rag & Bone classic penny loafers I found at Nordstrom Rack yesterday. They would be an expensive impulse buy, so I am not at all sure I'm keeping them.

Pros:
-They fit! I have never before found a loafer that fit the big bony bump on top of my feet (where the tongue is). 
-They are masculine in a way that I like. More feminine loafers don't fit my style (or my feet).
-They stay on my feet and are comfortable.
-They have brown leather soles. I've wanted shoes with a bit of brown to look more vintage-hipster-Madewell and less urban than my all-black shoes.

Cons:
-They're preppier than my usual look. I grew up in Connecticut and boy do I know preppy. It's not my usual style, but I don't dislike it.
-They are somewhat similar to the men's oxfords I've been wearing a lot.
-Despite what I said about masculine being good, they do look rather clunky on me.
-I have a lot of shoes. (https://www.pinterest.com/monochro/on-my-feet/)

I have three pairs of flats, but I never wear them because they just don't stay on my feet comfortably. This might be better for my work shoe needs. They'd look fine with relaxed skinny or straight jeans. What about wool slacks?

Hi all!

My dressing has been uninspired recently. Tshirts and jeans every day. Plus, I went up a size so it's thrown off my sense of what looks good, and I've had to replace a lot of jeans.

I'm finally feeling back on top of my wardrobe! Last night I went out for dinner, and I realized I could dress up my jeans and tee with my favorite blazer. I don't know why I haven't worn blazers at all this past year, but I hereby declare I'm bringing them back. This one is my favorite, from Theyskens Theory. And my boots added a bit of sparkle, too (the leather in the back is subtly sparkly). I felt great.

I also went to my favorite consignment store yesterday and found two maybe-winners. I bought them, but I'm not 100% sure they'll be workhorses.

1. Rag & Bone tweed wool shorts. They hit just below my knee. At first I thought I'd hem them, but from the photos, I actually prefer the longer length (photo 3) instead of rolled (photo 4). I do wish they were cut wider, more like culottes. I think they might have started life as full-length trousers.

2. Dries van Noten tall boots. Beautiful, beautiful soft leather. Incredible. And not too tall on me. They gape a bit around the top, and scrunch too much at the ankle, but it's still better than any other tall boots I've ever tried. For the low price, I decided to just go for it. The toe / foot shape looks a bit dated but I think it's ok.

What do you think? Are these gold medals or just fun things to have in the closet? Do the shorts work with the boots (photos 8&9) or would I need longer, looser culottes for that look?

Tonight, we went to a dinner party hosted by my department's recent Nobel laureate (!!!). It was just a casual dinner to welcome the past year's new faculty hires. I wasn't quite sure what to wear, but put together two outfit options that seemed about right for the event.

My boyfriend helpfully took photos of both so I could ask friends for advice, and they unanimously chose #1. It's a Theory cotton shirtdress over my skinniest R13 jeans, with these fun heels I almost never get to wear.

So, I wore #1, and it was great. Comfortable, sharp, and the right tone for the crowd. It's funny to realize how anxious I still am about dressing for events, just leftover feelings from many years of always feeling awkward.

Outfit option #2 will be revisited later, but I can see why no friends voted for it. It's a Zara wool dress with great ruching and draping. Unfortunately, it hits my calves in exactly the wrong point. I made it worse by choosing the ankle boots, but I wanted boots to make it less dressy because I knew the dinner would be fairly casual. Friends pointed out that the proportions of the boots with the hem weren't great. I'm going to get it hemmed to knee length, I think - as in the photos from Zara:
http://www.zara.com/us/en/woma.....31536.html
Should I try to hit just at the top of my kneecap?

My guy looked sharp in a black fitted buttoned shirt, black jeans (with the perfect real black denim, not overdyed solid black, so they had some visual texture), and his Fluevog boots. Wish I had a photo!

Bonus photo: A week or so ago I posted about a jacket that I love. I decided it was too big and returned it, but here's a photo of it. It could have worked but at the price, I didn't want to risk it.

I changed into my favorite crossover jeans and a really cool drapey wool wrap top to go to a friend's whiskey tasting party.

I rang the doorbell, rechecked my email, and discovered the party is tomorrow! His first invitation had the wrong date.

Luckily, he just lives across the street from me.

Sorry the contrast makes the details invisible. Posting from my phone so I can't lighten the photo.

I've been searching for the perfect track pants / joggers / harem pants. At some point I realized that with all the variables (silk, cotton, wool; gathered cuff or not; drop crotch or not; etc) there were 96 possible combinations, which overwhelmed my OCD perfectionism.

Luckily, after a few misses, I found the pants of my dreams. They're a thick jacquard weave cotton. Somehow I talked myself into spending much more than I meant to on them, but I do really like them.

Now I just need better styling ideas - I'm wearing them today with my most basic tshirt. I think I could use a few more mostly-white tops with some sort of pattern or graphic. They'd also work well with any of my black sleeveless silk shirts. I want to avoid looking like I'm going to work in sweatpants.

And shoes - they work with these flats, and perhaps with my mephisto sandals. I'm going to wear them tonight with Converse but that's a bit too sporty for my ideal look. Oh, and they'd work with my heels. Lots of ideas to try.

I've been having one of those weeks where I go through so many clothing options each morning before I find something that looks and fits right. Trial and error is how we learn, though!

Outfit 1:. Helmut Lang sleeveless high/low lacey wool top, Theory wool sweater, emergency jeans bought while feeling large a few weeks ago (CoH straight leg). All second-hand. And my Mephistos, inspired by Angie's post about Birkenstocks this morning.

Outfit 2: Snapshot at the Rack yesterday. I returned something and didn't buy anything new. Go me. Vince linen box tee and bp white sleeveless shirt (both Rack, long ago); Gap legging jeans (legging is a misnomer, though). For this, I remembered Angie's encouragement for us to try fluid tops. I would normally have turned to a more fitted combination, but I think this works better.

K/R: Back in the fall, I was debating boots:
http://youlookfab.com/welookfa.....indecision
The AllSaints boots went on sale, and then there was an  extra 20% off promo one weekend, and I had a big store credit languishing. They were out of stock in my size, but I asked and AllSaints called me to say they'd located a pair in Chicago, could still apply the 20% off, and did I want them?

Yes.

So, they're here and I think they're great. The leather is soft and they will break in nicely. But, I have the opposite of flower pot syndrome: the dreaded ankle-muffintop. (Cankles?) The stiff, straight shaft and my leg angle don't quite match. BUT if I keep them unzipped 1" - which I like the look of, honestly, a nice RATE touch - they are just fine.
3-4: Partially unzipped, no muffintop
5-7: Zipped, muffintop

 Opinions?

After yesterday's jeans question, I had an inspiration and went back to get one size bigger in the regular length so they'd sit lower on my hips. (The long length was a bit too long without cutting it, and the regular length are a lot cheaper than the long length, also, so I'm a little biased towards making them work if I can.) So, do these work? I haven't cut the tags yet and I'm not thrilled with today's outfit - I think I should ditch the belt, for one thing.

(thrifted Helmut Lang cardigan, Fluevog oxfords in photos 1+2 because I need to walk a lot today, Sixtyseven vince knockoffs in 3+4)