What I Wore: 3rd week of January

I have my doubts about this.

Many doubts.

I should wait until I know what I'm doing with my clothes before I show anyone.

I should wait until I have better clothes.

I should wait until I'm slimmer.

This is really putting it out there for me!

Still, we all start somewhere, right?

Saturday:

I just got the necklace ($2.81! extreme clearance!) and the rose coloured top so I was anxious to wear them and see how they looked on me. And wow--look at that muffin top. I've never had one before.

Sunday:

It was very cold, so I layered up. These are my new tapered black knit pants.

Monday:

My new pants, again. I really like this combination though I did feel a tad over dressed while I was swishing the toilet.

Tuesday:

This is a new top. I didn't like the bottom band of white on this when I bought it. I still don't. Had I known what I know now when I bought it a couple of weeks ago, I would have left it at the store. Still, I do like its preppiness.

Wednesday:

This was my first attempt at layering. This does not work for me, at all. I'd rather a white blouse than the denim. The collar wouldn't stay down either, and I didn't like all the bumps and lines under the sweater. Fail.

Thursday:
Oops. It seems I forgot to take a picture of what I wore on Thursday.

Friday:

This is new top--with my new pants. I love this outfit! I wore it out for lunch with my daughter and her friend, then, on the spur of the moment, Hubs and I went out to dinner! I felt great dressed like this. (Hard to see, but I am wearing dangly pewter earrings with this.)

And so there we have it. My first week trying to look good out of my closet.

My Wardrobe Pieces

There are at least a couple of  clothing "challenges" floating out there. One is simply called 30x30. I'm not quite sure what this one is about: Is it to wear 30 different outfits in 30 days? Or create outfits from just 30 pieces for 30 days?

Much easier to figure out is the 333 challenge. You are challenged to pare down your wardrobe to 33 pieces and wear them for 3 months. (This doesn't include underwear, lounge wear, PJ's, and workout wear.) Some have interpreted it to mean 30 pieces and 3 "capsules" for handbags, shoes, and accessories. Some may or may not include a special occasion outfit, or a winter coat, hats and gloves in the 30 pieces. The basics for this idea are here.

I would have to work my way UP to owning 30 pieces!

I went through my closet last week and purged a bunch of stuff I had no intention of ever wearing. I finally put away my summer tops. Here is what I have for the rest of the winter--which lasts until late March round here.

Tops:

These three are round neck cotton tops. All three have 3/4 length sleeves which I prefer.

 

These two are the only v neck tops I own. The teal is cotton, the rose one is a fine gauge cotton knit. Both are 3/4 sleeves. The rose coloured one has ruching on the sleeves.

 



My turtleneck sweaters. The red and grape coloured ones (1st and 3rd) are a substantial cotton weight, the grey one is a finer cotton with a high-low hem, and the last, purple, is a fine gauge knit mock-turtle with 3/4 length sleeves.

I hardly ever wear these collarless button down shirts, in denim and black. I'm not entirely sure why. I know I'd rather they had collars, for a start.

I hardly ever wear these two either:

Two button down, tunic length tops in a knit. The black one is a v-neck in case that's hard to see!

And that's it for my tops. I have 13 to choose from.

Now, for my bottoms.

I have three pairs of pants (and I purchased all three of these in the last three months. I used to own just one pair of jeans.)

The first is my current pair of jeans, a dark wash boot cut denim. In the middle are a pair of black knit, tapered leg pants. I just got these a couple of weeks ago and I love their 1960's ski pant vibe. The last is my pair of yoga pants. They are super comfy but much too long and starting to fall off of me.

I have no skirts.

I have no dresses. (Well, OK, I do, but I have no idea how they are fitting me these days. It is too cold for dresses right now--and I have no shoes for them anyway!)

For layering, I have cardigans. I do have a blazer, though. I tried it on over every outfit I wore this week and no matter what I have on, it looks awful on me. I will never, ever wear it. (Besides, what do I need a blazer for?)

 

 

The top two are long and hit my leg mid-thigh. The bottom two hit at the top of the thigh. The two on the right are navy blue with the one on the bottom having 3/4 length sleeves. I love that purple one in the top left hand corner, it's a great colour and isn't as plain as the others. Unfortunately, it's losing its shape and beginning to come unravelled at the sleeves.

 

That's a total of 20 pieces.

 

Accessories:

 

In addition to my work out shoes and winter boots, I have one pair of shoes, red loafers. I have one black hand bag. I'm still figuring out my jewellery, but other than earrings, I have two, maybe three necklaces I can wear. I have no scarves other than the one I wear in winter with my coat.

 

 

Colour analysis:

 

Neutrals:

Navy, black, and grey.

 

Accent Colours:

 

Teal

Red

Rose

Purple (I was surprised to see so much of it, frankly.)

 

There are just a few items I could use: a long sleeved small collared button down white/off white blouse in a crisp cotton (but not too crisp) and a structured jacket of some kind. The classic jean jacket is calling my name, for some reason. A structured tunic-length vest would be awesome, too.

 

It's pretty underwhelming, I admit. Nonetheless, this is the way things are for the foreseeable future.

 

My Body Shape

Dressing "well" is all about shape and proportion--in the same way that a painting or a photograph is all about perspective and composition. In our culture, the "ideal" body shape is a tall hourglass. In other cultures, the ideal shape may be different. Angie, at You Look Fab has an interesting post about the cultural relativism of these ideals.

Nearly all fashion advice is about how to take the shape you have and "trick" the observer's eye into thinking you have the culturally approved hourglass shape. At this point in my life, I'm fine with it. Perhaps, as I get older, I'll change my mind. Maybe I won't even care. But, for right now, it's kind of fun. But it's nothing to stress over. Ever.

So, in order to play at dress up, it helps to know, for a start, what the shape of your body is, generally, and then its proportions, more specifically.

Angie, at You Look Fab, discusses and defines the conventional shapes: Pear, Apple, Hourglass, Inverted Triangle, and Rectangle.

At Inside Out Style,  Imogen finds even more categories: the 8 shape, A, H, I, O, V, and X.

In order to determine you shape, you need to look at your bones first, fat distribution, second.

For The Inverted Triangle, or the V, the strongest line (or, rather, the widest) is at the shoulders.

The A Shape, and the 8 shape are variations of the more general Pear. The widest line is at the hips (8) or thighs (A).

The I and the H shapes seem to be variations of the Rectangle shape with one characterized and boyish (I) and the other simply lacking a defined waist (H). The hips and the shoulders are about an equal distance apart.

Hourglass shapes and X's are distinguished from Rectangles by the presence of a defined waist.

The "O" seems like it could be any of the above except for a significant degree of fat around the middle. This is also known as the Apple shape. As the style Divas says, sometimes a good bra can go a long way to disguise this particular body shape!

This used to be my shape until I lost some weight (and got some really good bras!). Now, I'm not sure what shape I am. So, I decided to figure it out.

Here I am, dressed to emphasise my silhouette:

What is my widest point?
(I printed out the above photo and got out my rular!)

My first instinct is to declare myself an A shape (or a pear). I mean, look at those thighs! I don't have broad shoulders.

But, here is a pear shape, found via google:

And I just don't see that much of a difference between my shoulders and hips. As well, I don't have a waist. Pears generally do. (It is what distinguishes them from "apples.")

So, I'm not much of a pear. I've been thinking about it and I'm wondering if I'm really not more of an "H" than anything. What puts me off from liking this description is all the talk about havng a "boyish" figure--because that I most definitely do not have! Otherwise H seems to be the best for the moment. I imagine that as I continue to lose weight a waist should emerge, making me an X or an hourglass, albeit a short waisted one. I'm excited about that!

Advice from Imogen Lamport for the "H" body shape: Body Shapes Explained, the H Shape

Tips for the Rectangle from You Look Fab: How to Dress the Racy Rectangle Type


Have you ever noticed if you are a different size from the side than the front? I am. I am much bigger from the side view than from the front. According to Imogen, this makes me round (and not elliptical).

So, there we have the general shape figured out. There's more to it than shape, though. There's my proportions, too. Learning what these are and how to balance them will be interesting, too, I think.

Waking Beauty

My love has been locked in a tower, swallowed whole by a wolf, poisoned by an apple and left to sleep it off.

What could be so colourfully dormant? What could be waiting, languishing for its rescuer?

Are you ready to meet my long lost love?

Clothes.

Not just any bunch of t-shirts, turtlenecks, jeans, and straight skirts, though, no: I have those. What has been waiting for me all my life is my ideal wardrobe--a miraculous collection of just the right tops and the right bottoms which pair up to create endless variations, just like the right set of notes create all the necessary movements in a musical piece.

I had been going to wait until I reached my mythical, ideal weight. Last week, I realised I didn't have too. I've lost enough weight, now, that I have enough options to actually choose something I like instead of settling for something I merely need. (Though, as I expect to continue to lose weight, I will continue to wear some items even though they may be a size too big. It's when they're three sizes too big that I'll begin to replace them.)

Since I was in the military reserves in my late teens and a ready-made (though ugly) minimalist wardrobe was handed to me, I have been captivated by capsule wardrobes. Capsule wardrobes are made up up of the minimum number or pieces in any category (tops, bottoms, and layers) to give maximum versatility.

I studied this one created by Imogen Lamport, at Inside Out Style blog for a "Busy Mum.". (She is absolutely fabulous at this, by the way.)

source

Tops:
Wear-anywhere top
3 T Shirts: stripe, solid, tank.

Bottoms:
Jeans,
Canvas Skirt

Layers:
2 cardigans, each fabulous.

Accessories:
2 scarves
2 necklaces
bangles
Leather shopping tote

Footwear:
Boots
Ballet flats
Sandals

These pieces, before you even change out the accessories, she promises, offer 22 different looks. I love the efficiency of this concept, not to mention how economical it is.


The "new Mum" Capsule is simply fabulous, too. You can easily see how everything will mix effortlessly. It doesn't include accessories.

source

 

 

Imogen explains how capsule wardrobes work--and how to construct one-- in her free e-book, Your 5 Step Formula for a Fabulous Wardrobe. Highly recommended.

 

This is exactly the concept of my weight-loss wardrobe.

 

To be continued...



 

(This is a cross post with my style blog, Prairie Home Therapy.)