March 2019 Outfits: Part 1
Running a bit late with this one (there's only about a week left in the month, lol), but still churning it out. As usual, I'm evaluating my progress in the following areas:
π Depth β do textures, layers, and accessories provide a feeling of richness? Are there small, medium, and large shapes throughout the outfit?β¨ Whimsy and wonder β my general aesthetic goal is to have outfits that feel like they could be out of a storybook (see the My Style page for more details on this). Erring a little on the dramatic side is good.βοΈ Goals for this month β this month I didn't have a goal for the first half, but intend to wear tweaked versions of some of these outfits in the next two weeks that I hopefully like better.
I'm also sporadically wearing items from my winter-spring transitional mini-capsule which you can read more about at the link. That means that about half of these were planned capsule outfits, which I find are usually more put-together looking than the average impromptu look.(click the image to view full-res in a new tab)I'm going to embed my original Instagram posts of the individual outfits because they already include item brands and the weather for the day in addition to my original long-winded thoughts for some context. If you thought that I used IG as a photodump and saved my garrulousness for the blog, you were very mistaken, lol. I am committed to analyzing my outfitsΒ every day.Do you (all five of you readers π) have a preference for embedded Instagram posts vs just photos? I'm not really in this to have people pinning my photos all over the place (not that I'm against that, but I just don't think ~inspo photography~ is the strength or point of this blog) but I do realize that embedding the IG posts makes things harder to save (and the post becomes a lot longer and somewhat redundant if you read all the captions).
Depth
It wasn't my explicit goal for March, but I did keep in mind to incorporate more of my non-techwear jackets and coats and I think that really helped with the overall visual interest of my outfits in these two weeks. I included my favorites in the mini-capsule planning and that helped a lot. Even now after I've gone through most of those looks I had lined up, I find that after wearing a variety of jackets for over two weeks, I'm more inclined to continue switching them up. Kind of sad I only got into this right as the weather is warming up, but there's always next year (and 48F summer mornings in San Francisco).Incorporating another printed item has also made a huge difference. I'm still really into those Morris & Co printed skinny trousers. Looking at the grid, I think if I'd had pants in the same silhouette but in solid slate blue the effect wouldn't be nearly as rich. In these two weeks I wore four different printed pieces which I think is a record for me.https://www.instagram.com/p/Buk6vk0HkQ2/https://www.instagram.com/p/BumE9i1n3K6/https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu38jc2nR0N/
Whimsy and Wonder
I also wore a large portion of my shoe collection here, and I like how that worked towards the more whimsical feel. I love black ankle boots and will probably always love black ankle boots, but working in some more shoes with vintage vibes like oxfords, t-strap pumps, and heck, even just brown boots instead of black ones makes the overall effect more fun.I'm definitely not going to like, photoshop comparison collages just for these posts, but now that I'm doing these collages, I like to imagining "what would all these outfits look like if they all had X item instead"? Partly to see if some new combo looks good to try and also to check if I've done something that works vs old defaults. I think most of these outfits would look good with any of my black fitted-shaft ankle boots, but I think that would make it seem like shoes are not a part of my outfit thought process. (But also props to black boots, a true wardrobe workhorse.)I only wore a hat in two outfits (the same beret) but in the higher level view I think that helps bolster the whimsical feel. No one wears a beret because they want to look nondescript.I got in two outfits that were more in the dark fantasy sort of style which tbh were not my favorites this month, but I do enjoy having days where I can style myself to a different/more specific aesthetic goal than the usual 'storybook' vibe.https://www.instagram.com/p/Bux4JLzHQ7b/https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu1H3WfHvqo/
Goals
I'm really pleased with how this month has been going sartorially, but since my goal here is to keep improving, some outfits I think I'd like to wear again with some tweaks are the the floral blouse + midi skirt look, the culottes + lace-up boots look, and the space print dress. I think if I don't have any specific thing I wanted to try, simply retrying a few outfits with tweaks seems like a good default goal.---I liked this outfit, but I think I would personally enjoy it more if I wore my lace-up pointed toe boots instead. I usually wear these sleeker boots when I'm trying to add a more modern touch to an outfit that might otherwise read as dowdy or overly conservative but here I think the look would be stronger if I committed to vintage-inspired details.https://www.instagram.com/p/ButuZxQne2w/I liked the idea of this outfit (and do still like it overall β let it be known again that unless I explicitly say that I disliked an outfit, even if I write loads of criticism about it, it doesn't mean I thought it was bad overall) but it was just a bit too shapeless for the amount of volume for my tastes. I want to try these boots and culottes with some more fitted or structured items on the top.https://www.instagram.com/p/BuwgaZQHnCm/I love this dress and will continue to love it even if I only ever wear it with black ankle boots, but I felt like a five-year-old (in a bad way, not a joyous one) with the raincoat on. I simply want another chance to wear the dress without cringing slightly whenever I see my reflection in a window. This is a perfectly serviceable jacket and I like it much more than a similar black one I had before, but it's been annoying to try to incorporate into outfits. I could write a whole blog post about my search to find a raincoat but I want to save that for whenever I actually find one. So far the only ones I've seen that fit "actually waterproof real raincoat not a raincoat-shaped fashion jacket" and "less full-techwear-looking" and "red or yellow" are from a brand that looks like it will be expensive AF to ship to the US (Seasalt) so I'm still just using this one.https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu25DQHnlZb/I only had one outfit that I straight-up didn't like and didn't want to re-wear in any form (the first outfit with the sweater dress and sneakers β it was a rushed and grumpy and sore morning), nine outfits I really liked, and six outfits I liked which is pretty great. I give myself more specific things to aim for because it's easier to make progress towards better-defined things, but overall I just want to get to a point where I LOVE pretty much every outfit I put on, and it is easy for me to make those outfits (from styling practice and having the right wardrobe for it).And that's half of March! As we go into warmer weather I do want to start incorporating more t-shirt-and-jeans outfits. I have a sizeable t-shirt collection that mostly doesn't get worn out of the house because I don't have blue jeans (that I could wear to work β I have one pair of blue denim shorts) or fun sneakers and am trying to avoid the heavy look of black jeans with black boots all the time. I've ordered a pair of light wash jeans and some New Balance classics which will hopefully fit so I can start wearing those soon. I suspect it may cause my IG viewership to take a bit of a hit (diluting the brand, as it were β t-shirts-and-jeans outfits just don't lend themselves to interesting posts if the photography is not super atmospheric) but I didn't drop a few hundred dollars on vintage t-shirts to never wear them out of the house.