I was excited to pop on my vest from Torrid (with its missing buttons & all), because when I did, I found it felt more relaxed in the belly. That it wasn’t so constricting, and as such, was more comfortable to wear.
Miss Malaprop & I were recently talking about the “What I Wore” phenomenon in fashion blogging– and for the most part, how we don’t necessarily feel like “what we wear” has a place in the community. We don’t necessarily layer a lot, and what we wear to work may pale in comparison, style-wise, to what some ladies showcase on their sites. My daily outfits have to reflect a certain reality– a reality that is walking through New Orleans streets that aren’t smooth, that are destructive on shoes.
This outfit is a variation on what I typically wear to work– I never know when I’m going to have to haul boxes of programs around, plan trips to the grocery store for events, or do a clean through of the office. I’m put together, I’m stylish, but is it groundbreaking? Is it inspiring to designers? I find that doubtful.
Does that mean that our styles have no place in the community? What does that community mean, when we see bloggers saying, “Getting dressed so I can take outfit photos”–does that imply that what they’re presenting as their style isn’t’ necessarily what they’re wearing on a daily basis?
It’s also interesting to compare an outfit like this between “the real world” and the online fashion community. This struck me when one of the grad students came across my blog and said something along the lines of– “I shouldn’t be surprised, you’re always so stylish.” Among the online community, it’s probably nothing impressive. But on a college campus, it’s suddenly a different story…
Details: top from B & Lu, vest from Torrid, jeans by Lane Bryant, shoes by John Fluevogs, Crest necklace by Amelia Arsenic, bag from Handbag Heaven.
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
I love that outfit. I really want a good waistcoat (vest!)
I have to say that I’ve been dropping a lot of blogs recently, mostly ones where I just can’t connect the “style” photos they take to real life.
What inspires me about blogs are when I feel a real connection to the author and their style. That these are REAL stylish people, not fashion plates, models or industry insiders. I think real peoples style changes day to day. One day I want to be an elegant 1940s lady, but the next day I want to wear mini dresses and ankle boots, that’s what real people are like and that’s what I want to see in a blog. I can read a Fashion magazine if I want models in made up outfits!
I really love that you’ve been doing more outfit post lately. It’s great to see the real you :D
.-= Retro Chick´s last blog ..What Are You Wearing? Granny Chic =-.
“I think real peoples style changes day to day. One day I want to be an elegant 1940s lady, but the next day I want to wear mini dresses and ankle boots, that’s what real people are like and that’s what I want to see in a blog.”
I agree– or I know that’s how my own personal style varies!
And thank you– it’s kind of weird and feels risky to put myself out there, but I want to add that aspect in to my site and that involves a little risk…
Mm. I have such mixed feelings about fashion and clothing as self expression. I love to dress creatively, but I too have to dress for a certain reality — shortish skirts and frilly things are just not practical in my office, and wearing a lot of pink stuff just highlights the fact that I am the 2nd youngest employee and one of only two females here. That wouldn’t bother me, except that I’ve also been in the company longer than all the men I’m supposed to be supervising, and it’s important for me to somehow convey authority through my presentation. At the same time, dressing for that particular set of circumstances can be very fun and challenging.
.-= Mary´s last blog ..Clips from the Stars =-.
Mary, I totally feel you on the role & workplace– I’m the youngest person in our dept. by about 14-15 years, and my age is closer to that of the students & grad students then my colleagues. (In fact, I’m often mistaken as a student by our patrons.) So it IS important to convey authority, and one way of doing that, unfortunately, is through our fashion choices…
I’m glad to see you think it can be fun and challenging–it’s great to look at it as less a burden and more an opportunity!
What’s funny to me is that I get more hits/comments/questions on posts that show what I wear. I wasn’t doing those kinds of posts originally because when I see other style bloggers what they wear is so wild I’m always curious as to where they’re going. I had a reader tell me, your style fits my world and it’s not crazy so I appreciate the posts where you show us how you’re accessorized. Even your post with the cropped tights made me rethink how I might wear some of my pieces. I guess that’s the great thing about blogs, everyone has a unique style of their own!
.-= DWJ´s last blog ..Friday’s Fabulousness =-.
This is exactly what I mean.
If I’m looking for inspiration I want someone to show me how they looked stylish in a world where they had to walk on cobbles, go to the shops and then stop off for a drink on the way home!
I get sick of seeing bare legs in December and high heels on the beach!
.-= Retro Chick´s last blog ..What Are You Wearing? Granny Chic =-.
I might agree if there’s snow on the ground, or just no palm trees around, but I’m upset by the media’s ignorance of Florida, etc. in fashion. In some places, not to brag, but there’s perpetual Summer. Everyone seems to think we’re barely breaking out skirts when sometimes jeans are too hot and I can hardly even find a day to wear a sweater that isn’t a cardigan, because here sometimes indoors in the Winter is far too heated, and it’s not even that cold out. It’s really annoying to go to malls in the Winter. Even in MA, it gets hot in malls in the Winter! Here it’s silly, I see shutting off the AC, but heat when we’re walking and lugging bags? Ugh.
OK that was a huge rant. But I’d hope you wouldn’t run away from my blog next Winter seeing my ensemble posts. Actually I just posted something from Nov/Dec (but JUST posted recently) and I wasn’t dressing for Summer. I guess that should help.
.-= Ella Mode´s last blog ..Gisele Bündchen Admits she Doesn’t Design Her Line =-.
Oooh girl I feel the same way about outfit posts. Even though I work in a creative environment where I can get away with wearing anything I still have to w-o-r-k in it! Lifting boxes, bending down to pick stuff up and being on my feet for 8 hours a day means comfort takes priority.
The times I do outfit posts are for special occasions, like Mardi Gras, or if I bought something great at a local shop and want to promote their inventory. (Ex. my show & tell Saturdays) Otherwise I don’t think my closet is a bowl of fabulous. Most days I just want to leave the house without looking like a complete idiot.
.-= Christy´s last blog ..Have yourself a fashionable festival season =-.
Yes! It’s so easy to think retail is a great place to express your fashion & style choices, but in reality, there’s a lot of hard & messy work involved. Shipment at Urban Outfitters was a great way to destroy an outfit– you got covered in dirt, cardboard, fell, etc.
I love the questions you’re raising here. Like you, I definitely get questions and observations from people in real life – both positive and negative – because how I dress is “extreme”. That being said I’ve always kept outside (think: lurker) of the “What I Wore” communities/fashion blogs/etc because I either feel that my personal style isn’t extreme/unique enough to participate OR (even more strangely) that what I usually wear doesn’t fit the criteria for inclusion. What’s strange is that this type of style sharing should push all of our boundaries but it seems like a lot of the looks are more homogeneous than revolutionary.
That’s not to say that some people aren’t experimenting and being true fashion revolutionaries within these groups. There are definitely some individuals I can credit with inspiring my own personal style over the last few years (you included!) and I never would have found them without the internet and the various communities and flickr groups. But at the end, I think it’s become another genre of dress unto itself.
Can dress be defined as a genre? I’d like to think so. It’s art after all.
Wow Monday :-) All of the above being said, you look adorable and I love that bag even more now that I’ve seen it “in action.” It’s also great to see how you’ve styled that Crest necklace – it looks very do-able for work.
.-= Jenna Nicole´s last blog ..jnajnajna: @jennie8289 I’m jealous :-) How many Sox games are you going to in a single weekend? Hrmmm? =-.
There really is a sort of homogeneity in fashion that is shared online, and it seems it kind of trickles down from those that are revolutationaries and real trendsetters…
“But at the end, I think it’s become another genre of dress unto itself. ”
That’s a really eloquent way of putting it… there really is this genre of dress that is kind of prescribed to the fashion blogger community…
I’m absolutely with Retro Chick et al here. Some of the wilder outfit posts are fun and sometimes I find that I can take colour inspiration from them even if I’d never actually be able to wear the outfit. But the ones I *really* enjoy are the outfit posts which showcase something I could actually *wear* within my daily life without injury, inconvenience or five times as much storage space as I already have. Seeing other women combine items I already have in a way I’d not thought of, or someone of a similar shape to me really working something I’d mentally filed as ‘wouldn’t suit me’, is inspiring.
I started blogging my own outfits recently, not because I think I’m particularly stylish but rather because I felt that I was in a style rut and objectively looking at outfit photos and my wardrobe with these inspirational ladies in mind is really helping me to come out of it. I’ll never be an A-list trend-setting blogger, but there’s room on the internet for all of us.
.-= Cat´s last blog ..Look, world – no makeup! =-.
I couldn’t agree more with Cat and a lot of the other commenters. My blog is very heavy on outfit posts but I definitely don’t fall into that extreme category. I post what I actually wear each day and not some outfit I threw together, ran down to the park for a photo, then headed back home to get back into my PJs. Being a college student, heels are not a part of my daily routine because I have to walk all over the place, a lot! At the end of the day, while I definitely post outfits (a lot) I have an aversion to blogs that are unrealistic.
I love seeing more and more people speaking up on this, and that they do, like you, post real life style.
Cat, I agree with so much you have to say! There’s something inspiring about those who take fashion blogging to that fashion level, but at the same time, I love people who take pieces that maybe I own (like a cardigan) and who wear it in a way I’d never think to (like Jennine always wearing them upside down).
Using your blog as a means of inspiring yourself, looking objectively at the outfits, etc, is a fabulous idea! Especially when people feel that they can provide you with ideas back…
You look great!
I also tend to avoid the highly stylised blogs, where it looks like the photos were taken in a studio, or are made up entirely of designer clothes. But I don’t mind if the outfits are too crazy for me to personally wear. Different people have different lives with different dress codes, as long as I believe an actual person actually wore it, I’m happy to be inspired even if it isn’t ‘me’ at all. Inspiration can be pretty diffuse, and I don’t really read others’ blogs for tips/direct inspiration.
As to ‘dressing to take an outfit photo’, I kind of do do that. I don’t tpost an outfit every day, so some mornings I will get dressed with the express intention of taking a photo later on. But that doesn’t mean I don’t also go to work, run for the bus, stand in line at the supermarket in that outfit as well. I use the fact that I will blog about what I wear as a way of pushing myself to dress more interestingly.
But then I’m not a member of the chictopia, lookbook, weardrobe or any of these places, because I do perceive them to be promoting a certain type of style (and be quite ageist too). I stick to the part of the blogosphere (and wardroberemix on flickr) where fun but wearable normality while holding down a ‘proper’ job and creativity without it necessarily being ‘high fashion’ are accepted and celebrated. I love the sense of community!
Phew, sorry, long comment!
.-= Franca´s last blog ..Ways of wearing Vintage =-.
Franca, thanks so much for the thoughtful comment!
I definitely don’t have problems with someone dressing, and thinking “Hey I look fab I’ll take a picture!” but more of the, “I’m spending all day in my sweats, oh I need to do an outfit post, so I’ll put something on, go outside, take pictures, put back on my jammies, and post it.” It’s the reality of–hey, I DID wear this, and I DID go on to my day to day activities in this.
What I happen to love about the posting blogs is that itsnice to know not everyone is a size 2. I know in my heart that no one really is a size 2 that’s why that’s ALWAYS the only size left on the sales racks.. ..
i find it quite refreshing though to see Real people who have a job & a everyday type of lifestyle wearing what inspires them & what is affordable & comfortable. It seems that the Fashion magazines have lost sight of that.
Yes! Fashion magazines really have lost sight of that… it’s great ones like Glamour are really trying to get back in the swing of things and realize that hey, women are REAL and have to have REAL lives…
Offtopic: my anti-spam word was RICKROLL!!
Ontopic: I really love that you wrote about this. I think the rise of blogs and social style sites like The Sartorialist, Chictopia, and Lookbook have put so much pressure on those of us who love fashion to be “on” all the time that instead of actually celebrating our own true personal style, we hide ourselves because we won’t look cool on the Internet. And then, of course, there’s the whole problem with not being “thin enough” to be fashionable. I adore all of the aforementioned sites, but I hate how there is rarely if ever anyone above a size 6 who feels proud enough of their appearance and their style to post a look on their. And when they do, they rarely get the kind of praise and “hype” the more stylishly thin folk get. There have been so many rad outfits I’ve had on in the real world that I’ve wanted to document but have been worried that the Internet wouldn’t approve of them, or give me shit for being too fat to try to pull them off.
So thank you, for the reality check, and for the great dose of truly inspiring real-world style. Consider yourself “hyped.”
.-= Leigh´s last blog ..Tank Magazine, 2010 =-.
Leigh, you’re really right-on about sites like Chictopia, Sartorialist, Lookbook, etc. And you’re not the first fashionable lady I’ve heard mention it. It really makes me miss Shoutfit, which had amazing alternative styles, older and younger…because the popular fashion sites really promote a certain “hipster” fashion ideal that just isn’t realistic or feasible for most women. It’s sad that people aren’t excited about it either, and don’t “hype” the outsider….
I’d love to see more of your outfits out, doll– we can be built in support for each other!
I was just thinking of this last week when I decided to try to start posting weekly outfit photos. I never bothered before because like you, I don’t layer and I don’t get dressed up just to take a picture!
.-= WendyB´s last blog ..Congrats to MrB and ProPublica on the Pulitzer Prize =-.
Wendy! I’ve noticed before that we have similar uniforms for our day lives, which can be dark jeans, black top, fab accessories…. so it’s not super thrilling to the fashion community, but damn if we don’t look good in it…
I love the fact that one of the grad students said you are “so stylish” – because it’s true. I think style comes down to wearing what looks best on you. And you do that so well!
I have to agree with Retro Chic who summed it up very nicely above. For me, it comes down to real style for real people. While several of the outfit posts on sites are cute – they sometimes seem a little too fussy to be practical. I would much rather see ensembles that can translate into my active lifestyle. – But that’s just me.
By the way – now that I see that bag being worn…I want it even more. ;)
XO Piper
.-= DailyDivaDish´s last blog ..Spring/Summer Scarves =-.
<3 Thanks, doll!
Soo I’m really late (kept meaning to comment on this yesterday & forgetting!). I totally feel you though…I’ve pondered about daily outfit photos & fakeness as well. I don’t specifically dress up for the photos, but I do tend to take outfit photos on the days when I’m more put together than usual (most often because something is going on that day). My normal outfits are not really worth posting, because I just throw on pretty much whatever’s handy that I didn’t wear the day before (the joy of working at home!). I mean, I do go out in them, but I dress differently if I’m going someplace other than Target. So is it fake to only take photos on the good days, or just practical?
Either way, I think you look effing CUTE here! Love that waistcoat :D
.-= Michelle´s last blog ..Marvelous Monday! =-.
I definitely don’t think it’s fake to take them only on the good days, but it’s fake (to me) to slip on an outfit, take pictures, and go back in to put on your sweats!
Of course your outfits are part of the phenomenon! I love seeing VARIOUS styles from different women across the country, so the outfits you and Miss Malaprop wear definitely fit into that for me. But two things you said are absolute realities
1) “getting dressed for outfit pictures” (lol!) makes readers think you kick off your high heel boots before you head to work, and
2) no one, but NO ONE layers like a fashion blogger. Even Mori girls are like, dayummmm.
Also, I’m just now starting a Tumblr, but I’m a big fan of including bummy days – Invader Zim t-shirt with high school kickball shorts? Bring it on!
.-= mightay mightay´s last blog ..Dress of the Week: Diana Goddess Gown =-.
You know, I recently LOVED Jordy at Clutch 22 for doing her “I just dyed my hair, here is me in my pajamas aka what I wear most evenings” post. It’s always nice to inject some whimsy and laziness in to our lives and be reminded that we all want to be comfy on the day’s end….
You are so friggin’ cute in that picture.
I’ve often found myself in a similar position: I’m dressed and I look nice/decent/appropriate for the office, but not particularly “fashionable,” so I don’t bother to take pictures for the blog. Black trousers and a blouse isn’t exactly groundbreaking, you know?
On the other hand, I don’t like to get dressed up just to take photos (I’m lazy like that), so I’ve tried to find a happy medium: taking pictures when I’m already wearing a look I feel is “worthy,” and not bothering when I don’t feel like it, no matter what I’m wearing.
.-= Tamia´s last blog ..Sampler Weekend =-.
Tamia, you’re the happy medium I’m probably feeling myself! There are days when we think, hey, this combo’s a bit different, and I’d like to remember it/share it…
I think there’s room enough for everyone especially since everyone’s reality isn’t the same. I’m sure if I didn’t have a 9 to 5, I’d have the time to put together some super high-fashion-looking, smile with your eyes type stuff..or at least my version of it. LOL.
And what is this layering you speak of? Ok, I’m kidding, but I don’t think I ever really understood how to do it. And that’s probably because I live in a place that doesn’t require it. Who knows?
Now, put some new buttons on that vest! It’s too cute for missing buttons! =P
.-= Alicia´s last blog ..…outfit post: fake it ’til you make it… =-.
I just wanted to say that I love that outfit! I’m all about the metal buttons lately, and that vest has plenty!
.-= anardana´s last blog ..Oyster Mushroom and Yves Pepperoni pizza =-.
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