April 28, 2011

knots

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necklace - vintage, Brooklyn flea market / dress - H&M / belt - vintage, thrifted / purse - Athens tourist shop / red T-strap sandals - UO

I've been trying to brainstorm new ways to wear this comfy maxi dress - I love the ease of wearing dresses in summer, but have found they don't always lend themselves so easily to the heavy remixing necessitated by travel. Inspired by Jentine and Coury's chic skirt-knotting, I decided to tie it up in the front for an afternoon ramble through Montmartre. I loved the new, more figure-conscious shape the knot gave my dress, but I think I still have some learning to do when it comes to skirt tricks as my knot turned out a little awkward and bulky. I also discovered this might not be the best style to rock when climbing lots of stairs and hills, although having your knees tied together is definitely one way to do some serious resistance training!

Also in knots is my stomach; I made up a batch of cold-brewed iced coffee for this morning, and although I haven't had any caffeine in weeks, for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to drink a huge glass of it more or less undiluted, eat only a little yogurt cup for breakfast, and then hop on the Metro. Glurgh. Suffice to say I am now feeling more than a little shaky. Looks like I'll be scrapping my ambitious dinner plans in favor of curling into a ball in bed with the latest episode of Glee.

EDIT: I also wanted to thank you guys for your sweet comments on yesterday's post - I'm hoping to answer them individually later tonight, but I just wanted you to know that I really appreciate your kind words and understanding about the occasional awkwardness an outfit can inspire.
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21 comments:

jentine said...

I actually packed a dress for going to New York this weekend with a knot already ready to go. Sometimes the knot gets awkwardly large though and it looks like so growth happening...
This looks cute and easy breezy. love it!

Emily_RubySlippers said...

Hmmmmm... this is a great way of wearing a dress (not for steps though, definitely). I'll have to see if I have one long enough. Thanks for joining the vintage debate, by the way. I'm enjoying everyone's opinions!

emily said...

I think maybe a lighter fabric would have been better suited to the knot, this knit cotton made for a serious bobble in front my knees! Maybe I just need to track down one of those plastic buckley things we had in the early nineties to cinch the hems of our hypercolor tee-shirts, those things were rad - as were my floral stirrup-pants.

Kelsey Sykes said...

Yeah, your comments on the other emily's (ha!) vintage debate were really thoughtful and appreciated. Your on the road life sounds amazing and enviable! I will have to backtrack for hours now and see what you've been up to. Also, I can't figure out to follow this here blog...Anyhow, safe and happy trails!

canary said...

Sacre Coeur? That IS quite a hike. And yogurt and the Metro definitely do not mix! Your visit to Paris sounds a bit like mine. Any run-ins with waiters or taxi drivers yet? Your expression in the last series cracks me up--that is exactly how I felt most of the time...a bit peeved, shall we say? Paris can be daunting. At some point, we just said, forget this trying to blend in stuff, Je suis American!!!!!!!! LOL

Ashley said...

I've seen this knotting technique on a blogger or two, too! But have yet to try it as I literally own one skirt that's longer then my knees. Whoops. I love the shape it gives to this dress tho, although I can see how that might have impeded your hike.

I cannot at all relate to your coffee debacle, as I am powerless to understand people who don't drink multiple cups of coffee a day..

xo, Ashley

emily said...

Yeah, this is definitely one look I couldn't try out until I had a little more length in my skirt arsenal. :)

And as I'm sure you gathered from my waaaaay overlong comment on your post, I think the roots of our sartorial decisions, and the way we choose to present them (or not) to the world, should really be up for active discussion more often. I also think it's worth seriously interrogating any trend or choice that gains an air of 'holier than thou,' so I'm glad you brought it up!

emily said...

Thank you Kelsey! Although I will admit to feeling a little burnt out on constant traveling once in a while, so far it has been an amazing trip and I am definitely looking forward to what the next few months bring.

I desperately need to redesign my layout, and in the process make those subscription options easier to find! (Right now they're hiding at the bottom of my about me page.) In the meantime, you can subscribe to the other emily via RSS, Bloglovin', or Google Reader.

emily said...

Ha! It's true, this is my fourth trip to Paris and sometimes I am still thrown for a loop. For the most part people have been pretty sweet to us, and definitely appreciative of my admittedly rusty French, but I'd sort of forgotten the small pressures of having someone else relying on your limited language skills.

emily said...

It's definitely a style best suited to longer hemlines, that's for sure! Although I think it might even work to turn something knee length into a mini.

I was a pretty serious coffee drinker too, until quite recently. Since traveling, I started feeling pretty guilty about my habit - I have no skill making my own hot drinks, so I was spending a fair amount of money for coffee every day. I'd also inevitably wind up cranky and headachey if I didn't have one, which didn't seem like the best way to treat my (non-coffee-drinking) traveling partner! I switched to tea while we were in Morocco and the UK, then gradually worked my way down to only having something caffeinated once or twice a week. I still love coffee, and want to be able to enjoy one once in a while, but I hated that my body actually needed it to feel normal!

Anja_AHeartandSoulStory said...

the knot really makes a difference. Not always my fav', but it looks cute on you! Makes the dress more figure hugging and looks much more flattering!! LOVE

canary said...

Oh, yeah, we lived on double espresso in Paris, and it was like 11 euro for two, which is awful right now with the dollar. The only way I could justify it was we ate hardly anything else and it was the only thing that got me over jet lag and kept me alive.

canary said...

Indeed, there were lovely, kind people who went beyond the beyond for us. They can't help it that they live in the capital of chic. LOL

BetweenLaundryDays said...

Good gracious, front-knot for the win! I often knot my maxis, but I do it on the side, so I'm really loving this knot in front look.

And I'm a die-hard coffee drinker now, though I keep it to one cup a day. Any time I have an extra cup, on accident or otherwise, I end of feeling positively loopy and totally out of whack.

Monica said...

Oh my gosh. So obsessed with your outfit. So obsessed with your style and likewise, so obsessed with this blog!

Ask the Duplex

veronika said...

you look so classic and chic - and incredibly well put together. i read your post from yesterday, after seeing your note on this post; that's so incredibly awful. some people have no tact whatsoever. there was nothing remotely odd about what you wore, and i loved the color combination of the blouse and skirt.

emily said...

I know, it's so funny what a difference a little knot can make! I definitely like the new shape too, I'd love to try it out with some high-heeled sandals or espadrilles.

emily said...

Ooh, I will definitely have to give the side-knot a try, that hadn't even occured to me! I hadn't planned to have mine so absolutely-in-the-middle, but the symmetry kind of worked in a way I hadn't expected.

The coffee was such a hard withdrawal for me, I'm honestly afraid to go back. I love it so, but I can't take having a headache by 10:30 if I haven't had one.

emily said...

Haha, well thank you Monica!

emily said...

Thanks Veronika - it's funny, for the most part I think I'm pretty immune to general rudeness, yet it's totally magnified when combined with my language struggles. It takes waaay too long for me to come up with a snappy comeback en francais...

amanda said...

SO CUTE!!!!!! i love the little skirt knot! and i too like to steal ideas from both jentine and coury. they are just too fantastic, am i right????

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