Well Read

Today I had to give an important presentation in front of the VP and all the directors of my department. I wanted to look somewhat understated while of course remaining stylish. I chose this striped shirt from Promod as the starting point, since it has a crisp, tailored look. Then I layered on this sheer blouse from the Red Dress Shoppe as a contrast to the masculine cut of the button-down. The layered necklaces and strand of pearls worn as a bracelet modernized the look of the 1930's style blouse.

The wide-leg jeans are by Level 99 and the shoes are by Born. I wanted to keep the whole outfit to this simple color scheme of white, blue, and silver, so I added some flash by layering on a bunch of shiny jewelry, as well as the satin, rhinestone-buckle belt from Noa Noa.

I love the look of lots of rings, although my hands aren't exactly my best feature. When I read Anna Karenina many years ago, I remember being struck by the recurring description of her fingers covered in rings; it's an image that has stuck with me and to this day I feel very elegant when I pile multiple rings on my hands. The circle ring is one of my lucky charms (worn particularly for the presentation today) and is from a Seattle designer whose name I forget.

The second lucky charm I wore today was this necklace. I love images of boats and ships, having been a sailor myself. The ship pictured on the necklace has a special appeal for me because I'm completely hooked on Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series, of which I'm working on book 14 out of 20. The stories mostly take place at sea during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, so the ships would have had silhouettes much like this one. I didn't realize until now how many elements of today's outfit were inspired by classic literature.