rusty

jacket - Forever 21 / striped sweater - Madewell / necklace - Clyde's Rebirth / bracelets - vintage, gift from boyfriend / purse - Athens tourist shop / skirt - Zara / boots - vintage Nine West via etsy

Well, once again, it's been a little while since I blogged. My apologies if this post seems a little rusty (har har). I hadn't planned to go on this little blogging hiatus, but these last few weeks have been absolutely packed - and while I have been wearing clothes every day (which, I'll admit, sometimes feels like an accomplishment), between the limited number of work-appropriate options currently stuffed in my suitcase and the inevitable Sophie's choice of weekday mornings ('Brush my hair, or wolf down some cereal?'), regular photos have lately faded to a fond memory. We managed to snap these on Saturday after checking out the Halloween Dog Parade in the East Village - there were some pretty terrific costumes (Lady Gaga dog! Shark Taco dog!), but I think my favorite was the couple that came dressed as Paul Bunyan, with their pug dyed blue as Babe the Blue Ox!

While the change of season has made my limited wardrobe feel even smaller, I have definitely been enjoying the opportunity to piles on lots of comfy layers. I picked up this oversized striped sweater a couple of weeks ago and it's become a fast favorite. It gives my lightweight jackets just the right amount of warmth, and I love how perfectly it matches my rust-colored skirt.

lakeside

necklace - Anthropologie / striped sweater - Gap, thrifted / jeans - Old Navy / woven flats - UO

This isn't the most exciting outfit I've ever blogged, but to be honest, it's hard to feel inspired to 'dress-up' when I'm spending so much time indoors, metaphorically chained to my desk! Fortunately I am nearing the finish line on my portfolio, and I should finally be done working on it (and complaining about it) tomorrow.

We did take a little break from working this afternoon to walk down to this little lake. I'm a definite city-kid, so it's still a little mind-blowing to me to find places like this just down the road from Chris' house. The weather was just gorgeous, and I love that it's actually cool enough to wear a light sweater again. I love the long days and cicada-songs of summer, but fall is by far my favorite season so I'm glad to feel it slowly creeping up on us.

last minute

necklace - Forever 21 / striped sweater - H&M / olive tank - Target / tote - Forever 21 / maxi skirt - Target / wood & brass bangle - vintage, thrifted / sandals - Target, thrifted

Oh boy, did I ever underestimate how long it would take me to recover from our flights on Wednesday! I have never been this thrown by a time-change in my life - last night I went upstairs to take a 'nap' at 6:30, slept straight through dinner, and finally woke up this morning at 5! There are at least some benefits to becoming an uncharacteristically early-riser; this morning I had plenty of time to get dressed, have a leisurely breakfast and do some reading, all before my favorite thrift store opened up at 8am. I found a ton of good stuff (I went with a 'fall wardrobe wishlist' in mind and managed to snag about half of what I was looking for), and now I'm itching to get it all to the dry-cleaners so I can really start playing dress-up.

These photos are from our very last day in Sweden. I started off with this tank and my beaded necklace because I love the colors together, but it was a little chilly so I threw on a sweater as we headed out the door. I was a little skeptical about how this shortish, boxy sweater would look paired with a long skirt and nary a waist-defining belt in sight, but I wound up liking this outfit much more than I'd expected - and it's hard to argue with a pairing this comfortable!

pattern play

necklace - vintage, great grandmother's / striped sweater - H&M / braided belt - vintage, thrifted / skirt - homemade from vintage fabric / watch - Arkanoplatz flea market, Berlin / ring - Amsterdam shop / woven flats - UO

Happy Pattern-Mixing Day! Today's edition of EBEW feels like it might as well be an official blogger holiday. I've happily dabbled in some pattern mixing myself, and this floral (well, herbal) printed skirt has been the basis for a lot of my favorite looks incorporating mixed prints - I recently wore it with navy and white stripes, and paired it with a fun cat-print blouse a few months ago. I think the subtlety of the white-on-yellow print makes this an ideal piece for pairing with more graphic prints like stripes (or cats), and since pink and yellow has been a favorite color combination of mine for some time, I was surprised to realize I hadn't worn this skirt and sweater together yet. Finished with a white belt and a few gold accessories, this outfit was perfect for a breezy day-trip to historic Kutná Hora, home of the Sedlec Ossuary - a chapel decorated by Cistercian monks with the bones of over 40,000 people!


And home to some pretty sweet skeletal pattern-mixing, if you ask me!

To see a few more of my favorite pattern-mixing looks, click here, here or here, and be sure to head over to Everybody Everywear today to see how other bloggers styled up their favorite mixed prints!



Also, in a bit of blog housekeeping, I've recently installed a widget for Google Friend Connect, so if you'd like to follow the other emily through GFC, you can now find it in the right sidebar! And as always, you can also subscribe to posts via Bloglovin', Google Reader, RSS feed or email.

rained out

sweater - H&M / t-shirt - Target / jeans - UO / ring - H&M / shoes - Target

...or in, I should say. Those of you familiar with Berlin will immediately recognize that this is not Berlin. Today was a thoroughly enjoyable rainy, indoors, laundromat-going, chili-making, documentary-watching (NOVA & History Channel specials on Venice) and book-reading (finally finished Eating Animals, started Atonement) kind of day, and in all that we completely failed to take any outfit pictures. Fortunately, I'd worn the exact same thing (save swapping the gray tee for a pink one and the ring for my watch) a little over a month ago on a day trip to Ghent, so my rainy day outfit needn't go wholly undocumented. I love this sweater for days like this, it's perfectly soft and cozy, and I can skip any kind of makeup or accessories and just let my sequins do the work.

inspired

earrings - Anthropologie / pink striped sweater - H&M / purse - Athens tourist shop / braided belt - vintage, thrifted / shorts - Target / geode ring - H&M / gold filigree ring - Amsterdam shop / woven flats - UO

This outfit was inspired by an email I got from a reader. And by inspired, I mean copied in absolutely every detail. That's what 'inspiration' means, right?

You see, about a month ago I got an email from a very sweet reader from Iceland* named Gyða - she had just come back from a recent vacation in France, where she'd picked up this same pink striped sweater from H&M and, remembering this post of mine, worn it on a visit to Versailles.


Seriously, how cute is this girl?

She was even sweet enough to have a friend snap some photos of her there and send them to me (and to let me share them with you guys - thanks again, Gyða!). I was so flattered by her thoughtful note, and I just loved the casual way she styled her sweater with cutoffs and a braided belt, so I decided to recreate it with similar pieces from my suitcase! Sometimes it's nice not to have to even think about what to wear in the morning, and this outfit was just perfect for a sunny afternoon spent sightseeing around the Bundestag and strolling the entirety of Tiergarten.

*Which is incidentally still the coolest place I have ever been in my life, hands down.

hero worship

earrings - Anthropologie / purse - Athens tourist shop / cardigan - Ann Taylor / henley tank - Target / wide-leg jeans - Gap / ring - Amsterdam shop / shoes - Target  

Yesterday was another long, rainy (why are they always rainy?) moving day, complete with tram strikes in Amsterdam, delays due to hail-damaged train tracks, and exploring a whole new bizarrely-stocked apartment kitchen ('Ooh, this time our only knife is... a cheese knife! And we only have dessert-sized plates! Awesome!'), but after all that, we're now all moved in to our new home for the week - Cologne!

Our first order of business today was to pay a visit to the Kolumba Museum, an art museum built by Peter Zumthor (my absolute favorite architect) on the archeological site and ruins of a Roman house turned medieval church. The new museum building manages to incorporate those ruins (and a 1950s chapel) into a single, elegant brick volume. The gallery interiors are incredibly spare, but a close look reveals numerous bespoke details that give Zumthor's minimalism its characteristic richness. (Have I mentioned how bummed I am that we probably won't be making it to Vals on this trip?)

Unfortunately, while Zumthor's building managed to bring a multitude of disparate elements into a single, cohesive whole (I mean, just look at that second photo - dude can pattern-mix!), I can't say I quite managed to do the same with this outfit. This is sort of what happens when I wake up with something to wear in mind, then look at the weather forecast and second-guess that first instinct - I wind up in something a little odd and undercooked. I love the print of this sweater, and the way it looks with the olive color of this tank, but I think the proportion of the cardigan looks a bit off paired with these wide leg jeans. Of course, in retrospect I now know exactly what I wish I'd worn to visit my first Zumthor project in person (mixed patterns in neutral monochrome, all the way), but I suppose you can't plan everything.

shorty

necklace - vintage, great-grandmother's  / pink striped sweater - H&M / gray v-neck - Target / wood & brass bangle - vintage, thrifted / jeans - UO / brogues - Primark

With this outfit I decided to challenge myself a little by highlighting something about my body I'm still working on really loving - my height. Or rather, my lack thereof. As a kid, I grew fast. I hit my current height at ten and was taller than everyone in my fifth grade class - and then, I just stayed there. At a little over 5'4" (I confess - my driver's license claims I'm 5'5"!), I'm certainly not unusually short, but I doubt anyone will be describing me as a 'tall drink of water' anytime soon. (Case in point: both these 'ankle' length jeans and my 3/4 sleeve sweater have to be seriously rolled up to fit that way!)

Since I'm not too likely to get another growth spurt, I've been working on getting more comfortable with my stature, and doing my best to resist the idea that looking taller (and/or thinner) should be my first priority when choosing what to wear. To that end, with this outfit I tried to break as many rules for shorties as I could - I've got horizontal stripes, a boxy top layer, a long shirt that cuts me off at the hips, cuffed jeans, and flat shoes. I even eschewed the lengthening effects of a long pendant in favor of a shorter vintage necklace. According to a million 'dress your figure' magazine articles, everything about this should be unflattering, but while I don't look tall, I do look like me.

(And for all my fellow arch nerds, that's Stephen Holl's Sponge Pavilion I'm standing - nay, trespassing - in front of. That's right, I will totally break the law for you guys.)




To learn more about Dress Your Best, and to find other bloggers who are participating, please check out this post at academichic.