Friday Catch-Up

Sorry to go MIA on all of you; it's been a crazy couple of days. I'll spare you all the details and get to catching up on the last few days' outfits.

If there's one place that has influenced my style more than any other, it's Copenhagen, Denmark. In my opinion Danish women have the perfect balance of femininity, playfulness, and sophistication. Tuesday's outfit, with the slouchy knitted snood, tulle skirt, short boots, and ethnic scarf is my version of the Copenhagen style I love best.





The snood, tights, and skirt are from -- you guessed it! -- Noa Noa, which is of course a Danish company. The top is one I brought back from Paris; it also has a removable cowl that's held on by three leather straps and buttons. I got it at a small boutique in the Bastille neighborhood; the brand is called Just Angels. The boots are by Reiker; after a long internal debate I decided that it was okay to wear them with a skirt because the knitted cuffs are too cute to keep covered up all the time. I got these last year in Prague when my feet were absolutely killing me after days upon days of walking in the same pair of shoes.

Wednesday's outfit featured my big splurge purchase from Paris: this gorgeous aubergine leather jacket from Zadig and Voltaire. I saw it at one of their stores in the St. Gervais district and decided it was just a little too expensive to justify. As I continued in my travels I regretted not buying it, so when I came across another of their stores, I went in to take another look at it. Not only did they have the jacket, but it was 100 euros less than it had been in the other store! Well either that, or I'd mistakenly thought it was more expensive than it was. Either way, I of course snapped it up and do not regret it one bit. The leather is soft and buttery, and the fit is perfect.





The trousers are from Anthropologie, the blouse is thrifted, and the boots are by Jo Ghost.


Finally, on to today's outfit. I've had this sweater and skirt for quite some time; why I never thought to pair them before is a mystery, since the plaid and the argyle together make the perfect unifom for a nerd such as I. The turtleneck is from H&M, sweater and tights from Noa Noa, waistcoast from Last Kiss, skirt from Stefanel, and boots from Bata.

DIY Belt

Mark and I made this belt over the weekend. Yep, that's right -- fabricated the whole thing right from scratch. I had been stalking a similar one on the Urban Outfitters site for several months, but was hesitant to pay $80 for it when the design was so simple. I also knew that Mark is super crafty and has a lot of tools for leather-working. So with a lot of help and guidance I created a template from paper, cut out the pieces of leather, and stitched them together while he punched the holes and attached the hardware. The whole project cost about $10 and a few hours of time. I can't wait to try it out with the Noa Noa dress I wore last week, among other items in my closet.

This mini dress is a thrift store find; I doubt I'd be brave enough to wear it without jeans or some stout leggings underneath, but I love the way it layers with other pieces. Today's outfit is a mix of browns and grays, a combination I really like lately. Since the dress alone is too low cut for me, I added this super-soft lightweight hoodie underneath. The leggings are among my new Noa Noa finds from Paris; I bought them a size larger than I needed so that they'd have some bagginess around the knees and ankles, making them look more like pants than tights. The shoes are from John Fluevog and the blazer is from La Redoute.

Shoe Swap

This outfit was a result of being jetlagged and running late for work. On any other day I might have continued to scrutinize it and eventually come to the conclusion that the combination of patterns and colors was too much, but on Friday morning at 8:50 a.m. all I wanted to do was get out the door and get through the day.

I think this mix of patterns works for a few reasons. First, the top is a random floral pattern while the skirt is a repeating geometric; this type of combination is easier to pair than say, 2 florals, although that can be done too. Second, the color palettes have some overlap but are not identical, which makes the pairing look more deliberate and less like a poor attempt at matching. Finally, the color schemes are essentially the reverse of one another; the top has colors on a white background while the skirt has colors on a black background. One additional element that ties it all together is the fact that the skirt has slivers of the same purple shade as the cropped sweater, though it's tough to see in this picture.

These shoes are the spoils of the shoe swap recently organized by Sal. My precious closet space was being consumed with a lovely but too-large pair of red mary janes; I sent them along to a recipient who happily runs about half a size larger than I, and poof! A practically new pair of perfectly-fitting brown pumps arrived to take their place. I can only assume that these occupied a similar position in the closet of my swapmate, as they can't have been worn more than once or twice. I've long wondered at my persistence in hanging onto shoes that I don't wear for whatever reason; I'm happy to know I'm not the only one who does that. A big thanks to Sal for putting the swap together!

Cropped sweater: Noa Noa (from Paris, of course!)
Top: Mica
Skirt: thrifted
Shoes: Rampage

Home Again

Well friends, I have returned from my travels and am back to the daily grind, still a little jetlagged but also still feeling the buzz of having had a great vacation. I promise to do another post about my travels, including some pictures, but for right now I'm going to be a lazy blogger and simply talk about today's outfit. Anyway, I haven't even gotten a chance to upload the photos from my trip yet. I only just flew in late Tuesday night, and have barely even unpacked.

Today's outfit features, not surprisingly, two items purchased while I was traveling. The dress is from my favorite shop, Noa Noa, who has at least 2 locations in Paris in addition to the others I've visited in previous trips to Copenhagen. The dress is from the latest collection; while I was there I also found a little outpost of a shop that was selling a bunch of last year's styles at 40-50% off. Score! I picked up a couple more of their layered tulle skirts that I love so much, as well as a few other things that will no doubt be appearing in this space soon.

The other new item is this denim vest from one of my other favorite European stores, Promod. I wanted to give the dress a bit more edge, and this vest hit just the right note with the seaming details and fitted cut. I like the tie front and grommet holes as well.

Looking at this outfit side by side with the one I wore just before my trip, I realized that the shoes (by Camper) and jewelry are the same. This gave me the idea to try layering one of the tulle skirts under this dress when the weather gets a bit cooler. For now I'm enjoying another little spell of Indian summer that I was kindly greeted with upon my return.

Vacation!

Well blogger friends, I'm off to Paris this morning. I'll be back in 2 weeks with more office wear. A bientot!

O.A.P.

Well, this is what happens to my hair after a day of San Francisco fog and drizzle. As soon as I stepped outside this morning I knew I should've taken my blog pictures before I left the house, but by then it was too late. Oh well, the damage is done. My flip just isn't as flippy as it was this morning.

This is another example of an Outfit of Accidental Proximity: these two skirts happened to be hanging next to one another when I opened the closet, so I layered them. Then all I needed was another splash of blue and something dark to add a little contrast, et voila! The outfit practically assembled itself.

Graphic skirt: unknown
Tulle skirt: Noa Noa
Top: Guess, with a tank from H&M underneath
Charcoal waistcoat: Last Kiss
Shoes: Camper

Traveling Scarf

Kimberly's Traveling Scarf arrived in San Francisco and was given a warm welcome. Having been in the hands of so many stylish ladies before me, I knew I needed to pair it with something really special, so I chose my favorite orange dress. In order to bring out the navy blue details in the scarf, I added this navy blue 3/4-length tee and navy beret. Not wanting to draw any attention away from the scarf and dress, I kept the bottom half of the outfit monotone, to match the hem of the dress and also to elongate my legs. The minidress and small beret perched high on my head made me feel very Mary Tyler Moore.

Dress: Orla Keily
Tee: H&M
Boots: MIA