repeat offender

graphic top - totem via Topshop / watch - Arkanoplatz flea market, Berlin / purple jeans - Uniqlo, thrifted / woven flats - UO

Remember these pants? I loved them so much that I couldn't help borrowing them from my mom to wear to dinner over the weekend... and then again to the aquarium yesterday. I love the bright plum color and the slightly cropped length. They also proved the perfect complement for this colorful top, I picked up on a trip to London four years ago and have never really figured out how to wear, as it seems to somehow fall in between work-wear and casual-wear. Somehow these purple pants (magically?) make it feel infinitely wearable. For dinner out (with dear friends S. and her husband), I dressed this outfit up with a black blazer and studded flats, but a quick shoe-change made it feel equally appropriate for a fun day-trip with Chris.

Be sure to head over to Everybody Everywear today to see how other bloggers styled up their favorite colored pants!



P.S. Thank you all so much for all your sweet comments on my new haircut!

generous

necklace - Anthropologie / blazer - vintage, thrifted / striped linen top - vintage, thrifted / ring - Nasty Gal / purple pants - Uniqlo, thrifted / flats - UO
  
My mom has been on the lookout for a pair of purple pants recently, so I picked these up along with another pair at the thrift store yesterday, figuring at $2 a pair, I might as well give her options. When the weather turned a bit cooler today, I thought, what the heck, I'll just wear them once. After half an hour, it was clear I'll be keeping this pair for myself (sorry, Mom!). So much for my generous intentions.

I've been having so much fun rediscovering all the clothes I have stored in the attic up here, including my 'Miami Vice' blazer. I must have worn this white old lady blazer to work at least three times a week last summer; it just seemed capable of elevating every casual summer outfit to something at least vaguely office appropriate, and today it inspired several members of Chris' family to ask where I was going 'so dressed up.' Apparently there's nothing like cropped sleeves and sharp shoulders to make you look classy!

the purple

purple paisley scarf - vintage, thrifted / tote - forever 21 / trench - H&M / brass whistle necklace - vintage via etsy / watch - La Mer / white tee - forever 21 / wide leg jeans - Banana Republic / shoes - Toms

While the cliche that Italian women only wear black certainly seems to hold true as much as any stereotype, it is (in my experience) surprisingly and emphatically untrue of Italian men. I saw tons of men in Italy sporting bold colors, both as accent pieces and in full-on color-blocked ensembles - my favorite was the man in Venice wearing a coral polo shirt, salmon sweater, and mustard corduroys - but by far the most popular color worn by these Italian gents was the purple. Not just any purple, the purple was a very specific true purple shade, closer to lilac than eggplant, and in fact, identical to the wisteria blossoms hanging luxuriously from walls and terraces everywhere.

I've never really worn a lot of purple (much less the purple), but after days of admiring the bold style of Italian men, I thought this purple print scarf might be an appropriate way to spice up an otherwise basic jeans-and-tee-shirt outfit. And appropos of nothing, I accessorized with gelato.


Mmmm, mango and strawberry.
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new stuffs

Three more new blog posts (complete with outfit photos!) are now up on my tumblr* - click to read unpinchable, mallrat, and revisions. Hope your weekend is treating you well!
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EDIT: In the interests of maintaining a reasonably contiguous blog archive, I have amended my posts from Tumblr below - you can now read them here, or in their original home (with all the original comments) on Tumblr (click to read unpinchable, mallrat, & revisions). Enjoy!
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3.17.11 UNPINCHABLE

scarf - vintage, thrifted / purse - custom, valhallabrooklyn via etsy / jacket - Zara / watch - La Mer / cardigan - Cynthia Rowley via Marshall's / gray tank - Anthropologie / overdyed skinnies - Zara / brogues - Primark

I know what you're thinking: Just how many days in a row is she going to wear that freakin' green jacket?

Don't worry, the answer is only three. The irony is that while this jacket is probably my most St. Patty's appropriate garment, I decided that yesterday would be the last day of the streak and had to settle for just a pair of green earrings today. Fortunately, while the Turkish are known to be occasional stranger-pinchers, they are pretty ambivalent about leprechauns and whatnot, so I managed to pass the holiday unmolested. Unfortunately, they also don't seem to be that big on off-colored beer - I couldn't find a smidge of green food coloring at the grocery store, so Chris and I were forced to celebrate with just regular-colored beers tonight. Our life is super-hard, I know.

We took our pictures yesterday on our visit to the Ayasofya (or Hagia Sophia) - I've talked before about my love for doors, but I think that pair in the first photo might be my favorite ones yet. They're carved out of one huge chunk of marble and are completely inoperable - there's not even a crack in the middle, much less any hinges or functional pulls. (Sidenote: Marble Door is the name of my future band - dibs!)

While I don't really have any problems with this outfit per se, I was definitely starting to feel the frustration of Turkey's sartorial modesty codes yesterday. The weather was sunny and gorgeous, but I felt like I couldn't take off any of my layers for fear of revealing some verboten part of my evidently contested body. I'm one of those people who is always hot, and so the ban on revealing my upper arms or chest (as, oh, 80% of my tops do) tends to leave me pretty cranky after a long, warm tram ride. To further complicate things, accepted styles of dress vary widely within Istanbul, with huge disparities in prevailing attitudes between neighborhoods. Thanks for making things wicked confusing, Istanbul. The good news is that today our sightseeing destination was actually a mall(!), and I did not come away empty-handed...
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3.18.11 MALLRAT

earrings - Copenhagen street vendor / bracelet - gift from Tunisia / watch - La Mer / purse - custom, valhallabrooklyn via etsy / trench - H&M / black tee - UO / skinnies - Target / t-straps - UO

In addition to the metric ton of incredible old buildings we've been visiting on our trip, we've also been making an effort to see some significant newer works of architecture everywhere we've been. In Istanbul, these tend to be university campuses (there's one being built on the Asian side that Chris helped design!) and shopping malls, and our excursion yesterday was to visit the Kanyon mall in the northern part of the city. It's technically an outdoor mall, with a huge courtyard slicing diagonally down the center, but the weather was so mild we hardly noticed we were outside. The shape of the building even protects the courtyard from the rain - it drizzled while we were there, and we only saw a couple tiny damp places. I hadn't really planned on shopping (yeah, right), but between having just finished my taxes (and discovering, to my surprise and delight, that not only did I not owe a boatload, I'm actually getting a respectable refund!) and boyfriend actually suggesting that we browse separately for an hour or so, I wound up carrying a few bags home.

After feeling frustrated the day before with the extra limitations placed on my wardrobe by local definitions of modesty, yesterday I decided to try and break out of my funk by working with a few of the more underutilized items I do have. I have been neglecting my trench since picking up my new army jacket, but I discovered yesterday that I much prefer the fit of the trench when I don't need to cram a bulky sweater under there. I've also been dying to wear these red t-straps more but hadn't yet thought of pairing them with socks to make them a little more early-spring appropriate. While the whole outfit was fairly simple, it wound up feeling pretty polished.

Tonight we're heading out to dinner with our 'landlord' and his girlfriend in Taksim. One of the stranger aspects of long term travel is the sudden non-existence of a social life, and often weeks will go by in which Chris and I don't have a conversation longer than three sentences with anyone other than each other. Given the many, many benefits of our current life situation, this is a pretty tolerable downside, but it does mean we pretty much jump at any invitations we get from our various hosts. So far we've been lucky enough to go out for paella (and wine, so much wine) in Madrid, to share hole-in-the-wall barbecue followed by fancy rooftop cocktails in Marrakech, and attend a proper pub birthday celebration (complete with veggie haggis!) in Edinburgh. This maybe more than anything is why I love the way we've been seeking out our accommodations; by staying in people's homes, we've been able to meet so many interesting people - med students, desert guides, costume designers, retirees, jewelry design students, and some seriously cute kiddos, to name just a few - and have been introduced by them to so much we might never have discovered on our own.

So all that is to say that, while I have no idea what to expect tonight, that's exactly why I'm excited about it.
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3.19.11 REVISIONS

earrings - Anthropologie / bracelet - gift from Tunisia / cardigan (worn as a shirt) - UO / belt - vintage, thrifted / skirt - H&M / tights - H&M / socks - Target / boots - Steve Madden

This was definitely one of those outfits that looked way better in my head than it did in reality. I'd actually dreamed it up almost a full week ago, but had to wait for another rainy-day-at-home opportunity to break out the skirt. This top is actually an ancient boyfriend cardigan from UO that I've been meaning to throw away for months - it's so worn out that I won't leave the house in it, so I've been using it as a sort of robe/housecoat substitute on our trip. I think it works pretty well as a wrap-front top here, but everything below skirt level really didn't end up working out the way I'd hoped. If I were going to try this combo again, these would be my three major revisions:

1. I'd like my tights to look darker, so next time I'd layer black tights under the blue ones instead of gray.

2. I'd ditch the over-the-knee socks entirely. While OTK socks usually spell outfit magic for me, here I think they contrast too strongly with everything else and just end up looking like kneepads. Too weird.

3. Different shoes! Probably my brogues, but I think my black flats could work too. I think with so many swathes of vastly different colors going on here, showing more solid leg-color would help things seem less overly-segmented.

Hope everyone's weekend is off to a great start!
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on a boat

Hey y'all! Just a quick little blog update for you - I've got a few more new outfit posts up on my tumblr* (wild turkey, archived, & feribotu). I also guest posted for Archives this week while Lisa was road-tripping to Austin (so. freakin. jealous.) - you can check out my post on her blog here.
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EDIT: In the interests of maintaining a reasonably contiguous blog archive, I have amended my posts from Tumblr below - you can now read them here, or in their original home (with all the original comments) on Tumblr (click to read wild turkey, archived, & feribotu). Enjoy!
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3.14.11 WILD TURKEY

brass whistle necklace - vintage via etsy / painted wood bangle - vintage, childhood dress-up box / watch - La Mer / navy striped sweater - H&M / overdyed jeans - Zara / socks - Target / boots - Steve Madden / coat - UO

One of the things I still haven't gotten used to while traveling is the prevalence of stray animals. So far every place we've visited has had its own distinct character, but one thing they have all shared is a plethora of feral fauna. For years I'd thought that the legions of cats that roamed Parque del Retiro in Madrid were a particular kind of local color, but since then it seems they're found absolutely everywhere that isn't North America. In Spain, they hunted mice and dropped chorizo in the parks; in Morocco, they lived on the rooftops of the Medina and were offered goat scraps by street butchers; they disappeared in the UK (guess they couldn't swim the Channel); and now in Istanbul, they live in a cardboard box on our balcony and sometimes try to photobomb my outfit shots.


I still don't really know what to do when approached by friendly strays. My animal-love-starved soul is like, PET-IT-PET-IT-PET-IT-NOW! But the cat-fearing germaphobe in me insists that they're all diseased/filthy/will bite me and feast on my eyeballs. (Realistically, I'd say most of the time only two of those possibilities are true.) This may have something to do with the cat at Montserrat who acted super friendly until I tried to touch it (honestly, sometimes I still count fingers when I think about it). I did make one exception in Marrakech, but that was for the smallest kitten I had every seen in my entire life (who only had one eye! Stay strong, little cyclops buddy!) My internal struggle has only grown worse as we're finally in a city with almost as many stray dogs as cats, and even the ones in really rough shape where you can't even tell what color their fur is inspire me to yell, "PUPPIES!!1!" every time.

So for now, my solution is to do as you see in the above photo: chat with them, on subjects varied and erudite. "Hello kitty! You are fluffy! I am totally afraid to touch you! I am also probably the only person in this park who does not have a fish sandwich to share with you. Sorry, buddy!"
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3.15.11 ARCHIVED

necklace - vintage, Brooklyn flea market / purse - custom via etsy / jacket - Zara / wood & brass bangle - vintage, thrifted / watch - La Mer / pink striped sweater - H&M / pink button-down - custom / jeans - Target / brogues - Primark

I really think the Man Repeller is on to something with these buttoned-up collars - after trying it a few times now, I think I am hooked! (Boyfriend is not quite so sold, although he admits that it's cute when worn with a '60s mod look. I'll wear him down yet.)

These are just a few outtakes from some pictures we took over the weekend - today I am guest blogging for the lovely Lisa over at Archives, so to see more photos of this outfit and to read about my own road trip to Texas (Hint: It was not for a blogging conference.) go check out my post here!
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3.16.11 FERIBOTU

scarf - vintage, thrifted / purse - custom, valhallabrooklyn via etsy / jacket - Zara / cardigan - Primark / fox print tee - Zara / belt - vintage, thrifted / ring - Primark / overdyed skinnies - Zara / shoes - Toms

The other day we took a spur-of-the-moment ferry ride up the Bosphorous to Ortakoy. We headed up to the top deck of the ferry just as the sun started going down and managed to snag an unoccupied corner for some quick outfit shots. I think I'm slowly building up my immunity to embarrassment over taking pictures in public places, although I wouldn't mind if my photographer were a little more inconspicuous about it - something about how he backs a full twenty feet away from me and bends halfway over to waist height really attracts strangers' attention!

This outfit is maybe not the most original thing I've ever put together, but it's a pretty good representation of what I wear when I don't have a ton of time to think about it. We decided pretty late in the day that we were going out, so I just grabbed the sweater I'd worn least recently and went from there. I wore almost the same thing on our first day in Turkey, but I felt like pairing it with my army jacket this time around gave the whole look a much-needed color boost. As much as I'm sick of hearing about color-blocking as a trend for spring, it will be nice to have my recent desire to wear every single color at once pass for 'stylish' instead of 'colorblind.'
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testing

earrings - Copenhagen street vendor / wrap watch - La Mer / scarf - vintage, thrifted / cardigan - Primark / fox print tee - Zara / overdyed skinnies - Zara / brogues - Primark

My limited use of the internet here is proving a somewhat bigger hurdle than I'd anticipated. As I worked on writing and publishing my last post, I lost progressively more and more Blogger dashboard functionality, until I finally arrived at zero. I am now writing this post via email, with no real guarantees it will publish to the blog properly, and no way to edit it once it does. On top of that, I was alerted today by dear friend S. (of Narrowly Tailored) that my Disqus comments are misbehaving. I'm sorry things have gotten a little bumpy around here, but please bear with me as I try to keep posting as best I can while in Turkey. (And as always, if you really need to get in touch but can't leave a comment, feel free to email me via the "contact" link on the About Me page.)

I'm still trying to get a feel for the recommended level of sartorial modesty here, so I played it pretty safe today with this outfit. I know I talked about the myriad virtues of scarves a lot while I was in Morocco, but it cannot be repeated enough - a  light, printed scarf like this one is definitely the MVP of any traveling wardrobe when visiting predominantly Muslim countries. I loved the extra pop of color and pattern this one added to my outfit, and I was able to easily convert it into a headscarf while visiting the Blue Mosque.
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lucky

scarf - vintage, thrifted / necklace (below) - vintage, thrifted / perfect army jacket - Zara / cashmere cardigan - Cynthia Rowley via Target / buffalo Larch bag - valhallabrooklyn via etsy / overdyed skinnies - Zara / shoes - Toms

When we took these pictures outside the British Library the other day, I'll admit, I wasn't expecting much. It was nasty and windy, I was hungry, my hair was dirty, and I wasn't exactly making sartorial history with an outfit that's basically a mash-up of this one and this one. And yet, looking back on these I'm surprised how much I like them. This is kind of my uniform for days when I desperately need to be comfy, but I think it's definitely a few steps up from sweatpants and Uggs. I even managed to tie my sweater up nice and fancy without realizing it. The necklace was one of my two sweet finds at a local charity shop - I'll be showing off my other thrifted gem tomorrow.

Sorry I'm a little thin on the words tonight. I think I'm too full of calamari and porter to be able to string together sentences properly. Yeah, it sounds gross, but I promise, it's totally not.
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totally irrational

earrings - Boston street vendor / purple paisley scarf (below) - vintage, thrifted / perfect army jacket - Zara / red print button-down - vintage, thrifted / overdyed skinnies - Zara / flats - Zara

I have spoken before of my love for army jackets, and believe me, this love cannot be overstated. Some people can never have enough stripes in their wardrobe, others collect gray sweaters* - I get sucked in by heavy canvas, cinched waists, and epaulets. So it was that, despite the three (three!) army jackets I currently have at home, I recently made the clearly irrational decision to acquire this jacket at Zara.

But it is so much better than my other jackets! The color is greener! The length is more flattering! The sleeves can be rolled all the way down! And it kind of gives me the illusion of an actual butt!

Ahem. As I was saying - totally irrational, but also pretty happiness-inducing. Sometimes you just can't deny true love, and I intend to wear the hell out of this jacket - and to donate/gift/sell two of the jackets I already have, so clearly this was more a productive exercise in closet culling than a case of impulse shopping. Clearly.

It was again really too warm for a scarf, but I couldn't help adding my vintage paisley scarf for a few of my photos. My henna tattoos are fading, and I'd been wanting to photo them with a few of my favorite prints before they disappeared completely. We're staying in a textile designer's apartment, so we are completely surrounded by an amazing variety of great colors and textures. It is really inspiring me to be even bolder with print-mixing, and bringing back alternative career fantasies with a vengeance.



*Ok, yes, I admittedly have both of these sartorial addictions as well...