I’ve been enjoying Indigo Alison‘s “Today I Wore” feature and inaugurated my copycat version the other day with pics of my pjs. What I wore yesterday is quirkier, a departure from my normal attire. I wanted something that would work for a workshop, a meeting, and an office hour with students but still let me feel festive at the faculty Christmas party scheduled for the end of yesterday’s work day. I put aside my more dressy choices and was going to go for the black-and-bling in pants and v-neck, but at the last minute, in the back of the closet, I spotted a 90’s vintage, retro-70’s-hippie (yes, a style I’ve already seen not just once but twice in my lifetime and thus in no way should I be wearing again!) little Empire-waist dress. This was a dress I bought for my daughter in about ’93, sometimes borrowed, and then inherited (well, she has too much good taste to wear it anymore) so hey, there’s another rule I broke — mothers should not wear their daughters’ clothes or styles! But I can never bear to throw this dress out — because it’s so kitschy? I don’t know, but it really feels pretty on, and comfy, and flattering (yes, I know, that’s what all the What Not to Wear contenders say as Stacy and Clinton drop their favourites one by one into the big trash can!).
So it was a once-a-year only (in fact, the one-and-only post 90’s wearing of this garment) event.
Are you ready?
I wore it with my Frye boots and black tights
and these feather-and-jet earrings that I just love
and a healthy dose of irony and Christmas cheer!
You are a pill! Love it!
awesome. which daughter did you buy that for? (if it was me, i must have blocked ever wearing it!)
The dress was Rhiannon’s, but you might have borrowed it. I think in that incarnation it was getting worn with either Docs or Birks. (and the Docs were the 12-hole lace-ups.)
Sometimes you just have to break the rule and have some fun with clothing. Good for you!
thanks gina and jillian
For the benefit of other readers my vintage, I checked with Jillian and she assures me that “pill” is meant to be complimentary and signals a certain irreverance and humour (I thought first of the way we used to use it to mean someone who was rather a pain, a killjoy, lame, etc.)