another work uniform

This is another example of what I think of as one of my work uniforms: a fitted jacket worn with casual jeans.

The jacket used to be more of a pale green, what I think of as seafoam, but it wasn't working for me. So I overdyed it with a bright green, and this is how it came out. It has gotten a lot more wear since then.




Corduroy jacket: probably Burlington Coat Factory.
Broach: ?
Black sweater vest with attached snow leopard-patterned sleeves and dickie: Z Ladies Boutique.
Jeans: Express.
Shoes: Dansko.

black and blue

This is a denim dress that I bought with Kysha in mind, but she gave it a "no, thanks." I think it's going to get a lot of wear year-round because it's so versatile and easy to layer or wear alone.





I kept the vest buttoned-up for warmth under my coat when travelling, but I think it's more flattering worn open over this particular dress. When it's closed, I think it actually makes my waist look thicker, contradictory as it may sound.

And when I got too warm, the vest came off, and the sweater could also be easily removed without removing the dress because it's just a dance shrug.


Dress: Payhalf.
Velvet vest: hand-me-down from Grandma W, if I recall correctly.
Shrug: probably from Discount Dance Supply.
Thermal leggings: Wintersilks.
Thigh-high socks: a hole-in-the-wall shop in the subway under the clothespin sculpture at 15th and Market.
Earrings: Dots.
Broach: ?
Boots: Dansko.

silly flower belt

I picked this belt up on super-clearance for $1.50. It's silly and impractical and I know that I probably won't get much wear out of it, but I couldn't resist!




Sweater: H&M
Tunic: ?
Belt: MaxRave
Jeans: Express
Jewelry: dollar store, modified by me
Shoes: the ever-present, practical Danskos

pretty in pink

I have had this dress for over three years. It's almost impossible to have a bad day if I'm wearing it.



I went through a phase for a few years in my mid-twenties when I avoided anything empire-waisted because I didn't want anyone to think I was pregnant. I started letting empire waists back into my wardrobe a few years ago because they're just so darned cute that I couldn't resist. And now I figure "what the heck," they'll come in handy if/when we do decide to take away the goalie.

Dress: Payhalf.
Slip (visible only at neckline): thrift store.
Plaid socks: a little shop in the Philly airport... Afaze?
Thermal leggings: Wintersilks.
Boots: Dansko.
Jewelry: Claire's.

I took these photos in the Drexel University costume shop, where I have been working a lot lately, due to a show that opened on the 22nd. A couple of upcoming outfit photos were taken there, too.

inauguration day

I have managed to take photos of quite a few favorite outfits lately, but being in front of a computer long enough to post them is a challenge. This one just can't wait any longer, though. Because Mr. Obama has been our president for over three days!

I'm still trying to figure out why these photos look so washed-out.


This outfit is all about the belt. It says "OBAMA" on one side and "WE DID IT" on the other, and there are photos of Martin Luther King Jr, Mr. Obama, and the White House. It's cheesy, and I absolutely love it. My students thought it was "awesome."


Bryce took these photos for me when I arrived home after midnight, ending a 15-hour workday that had been split between Rowan and Drexel Universities. I would have thought that I'd look far worse. It must be the inauguration glow.


You can't tell from the photos, but the red shirt and the red headband have nearly identically-sized white polka-dot patterns. I figured it couldn't hurt to up the cheese factor even further.

Cardigan: H&M
Red t-shirt: Ross?
Skirt: H&M
Boots: Dansko
Belt: a guy in the Philly airport
Headband: Kmart
Thermal leggings: Wintersilks

braving brown

Until a year or two ago, I rarely wore brown. It made me feel blah. Then I had to have these boots, which meant that I needed to start adding brown back into my wardrobe. This is probably the most head-to-toe brown I have ever worn. I love it. Punching it up with blue and orange accents especially helps it to not feel blah.

Dress: Ross
Thigh-high socks: a hole-in-the wall shop in the subway
Cable-knit leggings (barely visible): Mandee
Boots: Apepazza
Scissors and key on cord: never seem to go away
Cheap plastic bracelet: Claire's

I wear that cheap plastic orange bracelet as a reminder to try to take myself less seriously. There is a funny story about how I acquired it. No time for that now, but I will try to remember to share it when it shows up again.

potential Mom wardrobe picks!

Hi, Mom! So, you know that grey sweater that I gave you for your birthday along with the Mama Mia DVD? Well, in the pre-Christmas rush, I bought it in three different colors because I couldn't decide in the store which color would be best to give to you. I settled on the grey one because I remember how much you liked that grey dress I bought the last time you were here. I intended to return the other two, but I failed to do so before it was too late, so they've joined my wardrobe de facto. I will certainly wear them, but it's not like I need two more sweaters. So I thought I might as well ask if you'd like to buy one of them from me. They were $14 each. The colors are actually brighter than they look on my screen. They may display differently on yours. I've been noticing lately that the colors in my photos have been looking washed-out. I've tried experimenting with different camera settings to no avail.

So, if you say "yes, I'd like the _____ one," I ship it to you and you send me $14 through Paypal or by check via snail-mail. And if you say "no, thanks," then I get to keep them. This is the first of what I hope will be many posts of this nature, as explained in this previous post that was directed at both you and Kysha. I think you will enjoy it. You should read all of the Kysha post if you haven't already, so that you understand exactly what my intentions are with this little experiment.

Post questions or comments here as you wish, but it would also be good to e-mail because I'll get that message first. I may not check back here very often.

potential Kysha wardrobe picks!

So Kysha, remember when you were leaving and you asked what I was going to do after you left? Well, I sorta knew what I had in mind, which involved responsibility and getting important things done, but this is what I did: more shopping, and then blogging - not the stuff I'm supposed to be doing, just as I predicted, right?

I picked up a few things for myself, but I also picked up a few things that you might like, with the idea that I can show you pictures of me in them, which is sort of like seeing them on a mannequin that is almost the exact same size as you but with slightly more junk in the trunk. If you like an item and the price is right for you, you can paypal me (or mail a check) the price of the item and I'll mail it to you. If you don't like it, I return it... unless I decide to just keep it for myself. :-) All you have to do is say "yes, please" or "no, thanks." It's like having a personal shopper, but for free!

I'm going to start doing the same thing for my mom, because she is also almost exactly the same size as me, and as I explained, she loves to invade my wardrobe and try on my clothes. And she likes to have me help her choose clothes and put outifts together. I have a good idea of her fashion likes and dislikes, and I think that now I also have a better idea of yours! So every once in a while, I'll suggest that you go to this page and give me a yes or a no. You two get to have potential new clothes hand-picked for you, and I get to work on my hobby (the helping people choose clothes aspect, not the shopping - the latter is just an annoying aspect of the former). And I get the happiness that comes from helping someone I love to develop an outfit that makes them feel good.

Bryce thinks this is something that I could turn into a business model. Except that right now, I can only be a personal shopper for women who are almost the exact same size as me - you and my mom. Because I have to try everything on so I can approve the quality and fit before I'd consider offering it to someone else!

And then, mom or Kysha, if you ever try on something that fits you well, but it isn't quite right for you and you think I'd like it, you could do the same for me. I think I can even set up guest access for you to be able to do your own blog post here. That's partially why I'm calling this blog "Circle of Clothes." It's a silly play on "Circle of Friends."

And now, on to today's picks! Kysha, I have two shorter-length dresses that might interest you. Mom, sorry, I don't have anything for you this time around.

Kysha pick #1: a navy blue knit dress from a store called Payhalf, priced at $22.00.




Pick #1's vital statistics:
•It's made of 70 percent polyester, 22 percent rayon, and 8 percent spandex. It feels like t-shirt fabric, but it's a bit thicker than a t-shirt. It feels like cotton even though it's mostly polyester.
•It merits the wearing of a slip, as I noticed in the bright dressing room that I could see the silhouette of my legs through the skirt when there was light behind me - even though the fabric is not thin or flimsy. A slip would also eliminate panty lines and whatnot.
•It is a bit tight across my butt, but I think it would lay more smoothly across your butt.
•I would wear it with either black or brown leggings or tights, and of course boots to match the leggings because that's my style. But I'm sure it could be worn many other ways, as well. One could wear it bare-legged in the warmer months, but I'm rarely so gutsy nowadays.

Kysha pick #2: a blue denim dress from a store called Maxrave, clearance-priced at a very sweet $9.95.
I wasn't explicitly looking for blue dresses. They're just what popped out at me.




Pick #2's vital statistics:
•I can't find any fiber content information on the tags, but it feels to me like mostly cotton with some spandex. It's very comfy.
•I'm keeping this if you don't want it!
•I would wear it the same way as pick #1, with leggings and boots. In the cold months, I might also wear a long-sleeved sweater underneath it, with chunky knit leggings like these for a warm, layered look. I would also try wearing it like a tunic, over pants or jeans. In the warmer months, I might wear it with thin capri-length leggings or capri pants, or just as a dress without pants, with sandals or Mary Janes.

Post questions or comments here as you wish, but it would also be good to e-mail because I'll get that message first. I may not check back here very often. This is somewhat time-sensitive, as I need to be careful to get any returns done in a timely fashion.

brocade belt

This is another outfit that resulted from my backwards-hanger closet-purging experiment. I usually feel more confident in skirts and dresses than in pants (with the exception of jeans - who doesn't feel great in jeans?), so a lot of my pants' hangers have remained backward. Wearing business-casual-type pants usually makes me feel frumpy.

There is no explicitly-stated dresscode (i.e. "business casual") at the university where I work, but it's a lot easier to get my students and colleagues to take me (the baby of the department) seriously if I dress the part. A blend of artsy and professional is what I'm usually going for. I'll have a lot more wardrobe versatility if I can bring my six or so pairs of non-jean pants back into circulation.


This cream blouse and brown cardigan get lots of wardrobe action. Worn simply with the business-casual khakis, this outfit could make me feel pretty blah. But punched-up with accessories and layering, the whole ensemble felt much better. These pictures suck, though. The colors seem washed-out.

The rose camisole that I layered beneath the blouse makes my skin look washed-out when I wear it alone, so it doesn't get much wardrobe action, either. But I loved wearing it as an accent piece that peeked out at the hem and just a bit at the neckline, showcasing only its best parts. The headband is just a scrap of chiffon tied around my head and decorated with a rhinestone broach that I would normally wear on a jacket. I built the belt out of a luminescent scrap of Chinese brocade, precisely for the purpose of tying outfits together like it does here. I shaped it so that it's widest at front and back, and narrower at the sides. My students thought it was really cool and want to make some for themselves. It's actually reversible. The other side is navy blue taffeta with a white ribbon stripe down the middle. It'll probably show up on here one day. The inspiration for the belt came from this post at What I Wore Today. I would love to make a bunch more of them in different scrap fabrics. I think I'm going through a belt phase.

I actually like this outfit better without the cardigan, but the costume shop gets pretty chilly sometimes. The blouse color washes out my skin a bit, but I can live with that.


PS: The scissors and key attached to a cord around my neck are not intended as a fashion-statement necklace. I am almost almost wearing it when I'm at work, and sometimes also after work if I don't think to remove it, as I am just used to having it there. It'll probably show up in a lot of these pictures.

a sassy 90's/grunge/punk reference

A couple of months ago, around the same time that I started to be inspired by the fashion blogs mentioned below this blog's title, I started a project/experiment for purging my wardrobe of items that I don't wear often enough. I turned all the hangers in my closet around so that they're backwards. When I wear something that was on a backwards hanger, the hanger gets turned back around. I'm supposed to get rid of all the clothes on hangers that are still backwards in six months. My collection of costumes and formalwear are of course excluded from the experiment. I stole the idea from either apartmenttherapy.com or ReadyMade magazine. I can't remember where I saw it first.

This experiment has encouraged me to find new ways to wear clothes that I don't wear very often (or haven't worn in years), by mixing and layering them with other clothes I already own rather than shopping for new clothes to wear them with. This outfit it one such result. It's also partially a result of the fact that I felt like wearing my Doc Marten boots, which I only don every once in a while because they're heavy and uncomfortable for standing for long periods of time.


I love this red plaid jacket, which I purchased on ebay when trying to build my professional wardrobe during my first year at Rowan. But I have a hard time finding ways to wear it. I think I hadn't worn it for two years. It's boxier and longer than I like, but taking it in and shortening the hem would be so much hassle that I don't think it'd be worth the trouble. Due to the boxiness, I feel frumpy when wearing it with any of my jeans, pants, and skirts. But when I tried it on over this rather short and flimsy, girlish dress, which I normally wouldn't wear to work, I liked how they balanced each other out.

The skinny belt (fabric tube) that I draped around my neck is something that I used as a necktie when I was Charlie Chaplin for Halloween when I was in high school (freshman or sophomore year?), and I hadn't used it since. I just added a decorative yellow stitch all the way down the middle because the tube of fabric wasn't laying together smoothly after I pressed it this time.


I actually wore this dress backwards that day. I get away with it because the dress's shape is so simple and flimsy that it doesn't affect the fit much. I've been meaning to hem it in order to even-out the hemline, because it dips down further in front than in back (a problem I often have with skirts and dresses due to my ample junk-in-the-trunk). But wearing it backwards fixed the problem! My black slip is too long for this dress, so I wore my white one, but it sticks out when I lift my arms. Looks like I'm going to have to add "shorter black slip" to my clothing wishlist.

My friend Heidi loved this outfit because it reminded her of what she wore when she followed punk-rock bands in her coming-of-age years.