Independence Day

  Happy belated 4th, everyone! My blog posts are delayed by several hours, so you all are reading this in the future.

 School nightmares and resultant insomnia aside, I woke up pretty happy and calm on my day off. It was spent indoors doing chemistry problem sets, but I didn't see any reason not to put on makeup and get dressed in something fun.

  I originally bought this Ann Taylor Loft dress as an underlayer to wear under dresses that were too thin, too short, or too strapless (or some combination thereof). It's a nice opaque knit, form-fitting enough to be flattering, and super comfortable. It has the added bonus of helping keep dresses up due to friction.

  The top of the dress is so fitted I didn't have to wear a strapless bra (they're massively uncomfortable!) and instead just put bra pads down the front. I hope it's not gauche/TMI to mention I cut the pads out of worn-out bras, serge them, and insert them in clothes whenever I can. It's such a comfortable alternative that I hope other gals know about it.

  It recently occurred to me that I could wear the navy blue dress as a dress in its own right, and I tried pairing it with a silence + noise jacket. I like the swoop cut in the back of the jacket, and it is one of the only jackets I have ever found with sleeves the length of my arms instead of sleeves the length of my arms plus my hands.

   I don't know whether it's the comfy knit fabric, or the plain cut, or the color, but I feel like my inner self in this dress. Normally when I wear a dress I feel kind of like a child peeking through an adult woman mask at the outside world, giggling to myself at the masquerade. Today I feel more like me.

  During my searches for wide belts on the internet the other day, I came across a Top 10 list of things short women should never do if they don't want to look fat, and wide belts was on it. Haha! No disrespect to those lists. I think style rules are great, so we can make informed choices of which ones we want to follow and which ones to break. There's a big difference between a wacky style choice and a wardrobe faux pas.

 

  I realized I was starting my 4th of July with a nice cuppa tea (haha!) and decided to wear my teacup necklace in celebration. The hat was my first hat in what is now a collection of several, and one of the only times I found a hat too large for my head. I wear it pulled over one ear at what I hope is a rakish angle. Come to think of it, this was also my first wide belt. It's like a 20s Aya reunion today.

  Last time I was trying to clasp something closed, I used a binder clip. I finally got around to making the shirt clasps I wanted to, using a thrifted pair of clip-on earrings. I'm happy with how they turned out! I might follow up with a post in more detail about them, since I have another pair of thrifted clips I want to transform, too. Would that be interesting? Boring?

Marching Band Jacket - silence + noise (thrifted)

Dress - Ann Taylor LOFT (thrifted)

Belt - kimchi blue (old)

Corduroy hat - GAP (outlet)

Hat pins - The Donut Lounge, Fangamer

Teacup necklace - Nordstrom (gift)

Shirt clips - DIY (thrifted earrings)

Sandals - Eastland's Lagoon sandal (product site)