Yes You Can

As an avid hat enthusiast and milliner, I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "I can't wear hats." Well, I'm here to tell you that yes, you can. Oh sure, there are those rare people out there; you know, the People Who Can't Wear Hats*. But I suspect that their relative numbers are roughly the same as the proportion of narcoleptics versus People Who Just Like to Sleep A Lot (I'll freely admit to being among the latter category). So if you're one of those People Who *Think* They Can't Wear Hats, why not pop over and check out the guest post I wrote for Already Pretty, and see if I can change your mind?

* I think we need to invent a word for these poor folks.

True F@#!ing Story

Today I'm doing something that deeply offends my Virgo sensibilities: I am posting an outfit out of chronological order; that is, I'm skipping over several days' worth of older outfits in order to bring you this one hot off the presses. And why is that, you ask? Well, it's all because of our favorite foulmouthed blogger and jewelery designer extraordinaire Wendy Brandes, who is responsible for these:

I never swear. I f@#!ing promise.

Yes, the glorious Wendy Brandes for Francis swear rings are mine at last! I coveted them for months, stalked them and obsessed over them, was haunted by them first on Kingdom of Style and then by Wendy herself, and finally broke down and bought them last week rather than waiting until after the holidays as I'd originally planned. And I have to say, I'm really fucking glad I did! Pretty much as soon as I put them on my hand and headed into my first meeting, someone promptly noticed all the flashing silver and started oohing and ahhing. Soon the whole team was admiring them. Yes, MY coworkers, noticing, and admiring, some seriously boundary-pushing jewelery. Go fucking figure!

Then after work, I stopped into my favorite stationary and card store to get a gift box, only to find out that the store no longer carries gift boxes of any kind. True fucking story! My response, of course, was this:

Where will I go now for all my gift box needs?

It was serendipity, I tell you. Serenfuckingdipity! So you see, I had to post this right away. Thanks Wendy; it was totally worth breaking my meticulous chronological ordering of the outfit posts for a timely showcase of your amazing creations. They garnered praise from my coworkers and gave me the perfect response to a frustrating situation, all within the span of a few hours.

I suppose I ought to tell you about the rest of my outfit too. Continuing in my ongoing outerwear feature, I'll start with the jacket. This one was selected because with the thick vest to keep me warm, all I really needed were the long sleeves. The cropped leather jacket was the perfect solution, plus, the detailing is cool enough to stand up to those fabulous rings.

Since I don't really like the feel of tucked in shirts, I used the fitted vest to give me waist definition and to balance out my proportions, which were a little off because of the length of the shirt. I also wore long socks over tights with this outfit, but the socks were only for warmth and were pulled all the way up rather than showing beneath the skirt -- and anyway, something about knee high socks with a pleated wool skirt just strikes me as waaay too schoolgirlish for a 40-year-old woman to be wearing. I just love all the socks-over-tights looks I've seen recently on Chelsea and Erin though, and I'm determined to put together one of my own.

These rings are already proving to be really handy at work. Shown here is

a remarkably easy way to say, "Get out of my office."

Shirt: Promod

Vest: Shawna Hoffman

Jacket: Skin Graft

Skirt: Banana Republic

Boots: Modern Vintage

Swear rings: Wendy Brandes for Francis

Highly Functional

Today's featured outerwear is a coat you haven't seen before. It was custom made for me by designer Shawna Hoffman, who also made my fabulous convertible flight suit. This jacket also features Shawna's imaginative and highly functional approach to clothing design: the sleeves come off, and the two bottom tiers of the jacket can be removed for many different lengths and configurations. I originally saw this jacket at Ceiba Records on Haight Street, but it was in a size way too small for me. Assuming that several had been made, I asked about it over at Five and Diamond, but they told me that the one I saw was just a sample and the only one in existence, but that I could have one made to order. Months later, it was finally mine, and the fit is just perfect. There's also a leather version of this coat, but somehow I thought the dark denim was more unique. The back of the coat has corset-style laces, allowing the fit to be adjusted all over.

With this outfit I tried the long-socks-over-jeans-tucked-into-short-boots look again, this time blending the jeans, socks, and boots in a long unbroken line of indigo blue. On the top I layered a sheer floral over my All Saints mottled argyle tunic, and glammed up the whole thing with a sequined scarf. Overall the colors were dark, but the blend of patterns and texture kept the outfit rich and interesting.

Tunic: All Saints
Sheer top: Noa Noa
Belt, scarf: Urban Outfitters
Jeans: Joe's
Socks: Sock Dreams
Boots: Frye
Coat: Shawna Hoffman