[Deets for cheap seats: Rag & Bone/Jean vintage stripe tshirt I cannot emphasize enough the perfection of. Heavy knit, perfect sleeves, frayed hem. Also, Rag & Bone belt and cutoff shorts, obvs.]
N.B. You should maybe go shop this ShopBop sale while listening to the tune on this page before reading the post because lawd, things are selling out fast. I set my alarm this morning to hop up and snag boots before they sold out, and I got the last pair. More on it down below.
I was talking about formulas last time and I’m still going so hard on formula dressing right now it’s like a new religion. Above, one of the last iterations before fall finally jumped in and made it impossible to keep my leg hairs from jumping out of their follicles like 4 seconds after I get out of the shower.
Whether he panics upon reading this or not, having Chad halfway semi-moved in to my house (even though he’s a pretty hardcore minimalist himself) has made me reevaluate my entire closet and how I pack for trips and how I keep my fridge and just all of it. It’s so goddamn refreshing.
It all revolves around black, white, grey, flesh tone, and olive green. I don’t have 11 pairs of weirdo shorts now, I have 6: 4 of the same cutoffs, and two of the same cargo shorts. I don’t have 14 belts with studs and embellishments, I have three: all the same masculine Rag & Bone belt, in brown, black and camel. I don’t have 27 scarves, I have three: all the same, all neutral. Same with sweaters, t-shirts, dresses… you get the idea.
[Above, a variation on the theme in a leather skirt that I’ve subbed in for cutoffs for places where I frankly shouldn’t be wearing cutoffs at the Saks Fifth Avenue/VCU Where Art Meets Fashion 2016 event with Rebecca of The Crystal Press. Deets for cheap seats: Isabel Marant leather mini + Joie Ajax booties + Madewell Riverside sweater I have in two colors + purse from this post.]
If you’re yawning, don’t: I can get dressed in under 3 minutes and be out the door, I get compliments all the time on like 9-year old holey t-shirts, and I always feel like a million bucks. I think it’s called hitting your stride, and I ain’t ashamed to say I finally did it.
There’s still fun to be had. I go big on the hair, big on the sleepy eye makeup, big on the boobs (ha), big on the jewelry, and I go real hard on the hats—things that felt over the top when my clothes were, too. Because, too much of any of the above I’ve found—Megan and I talked about this when rehashing our life as bloggers before the bubble burst, somewhat sheepishly—make a good photo, like an over-styled Revolve email campaign or the sponsored Instagram account of an ex-Bachelor contestant, but these days that baloney makes me feel basic AF.
Mathematical. And I’m not the first to figure this out; you probably know her, she’s French and named Isabel and she pioneered this jam back in her prime—baggy jeans + sweatshirts + lacy ruffles + sexy, sexy ass boots.
[Deets: Isabel Marant leather mini, from Outnet + Joie Bailee sandals + some $10 camisole from Urban + Splendid cardigan + leather and chain choker from Roan.]
Once I remember standing in my closet in Saratoga, surrounded by office-appropriate J.Crew separates, thinking how hard it was to pull the parts and pieces together to make me feel as bohemian on the outside as I did on the inside. Back then, you had to nail it in a photo on, like, chictopia and that drove my boat so hard I crashed into the pier. I thought, If I can only ensure that every single thing in this closet has fringe, a Zeppelin logo, floral, or huge belt buckles on it, doesn’t matter how I put it together, it will be boho madness.
There’s truth in that—a truth I’m applying today, just in a new way.
Colorful dashiki shirts and massive maxi dresses was a wrong turn. I ended up with a mismatched, forced, sort of crazed collection of things I could only wear 2-3 times—a boho bubble that burst right along with the scene fueling it. One day an old blog post from my pal Becca popped into my head. She was talking about the importance menswear in women’s wardrobes. Putting menswear in the mix. And girlfriend does it with bangles up her arms and gorgeous cocktail rings. And it clicked. We’re women, and that alone makes us sexy—not the clothes. We’re the finished canvas; the clothes are the frame.
[Deets, again: Same Madewell sweater above, in olive + same shorts and belt… you get the idea.]
That’s the cool part about figuring out who you are in terms of what you like to wear. It’s all a crooked path in the right direction, as long as you’re listening to yourself and not recreating a page in a magazine. (It’s ok; I did that for years.)
If you’re here for some excellent basic separates to buy this fall, you’ve come to the right place. And the time could not be better—ShopBop is having a massive buy some, get some off sale and I just blew it out on there with—you guessed it—some rad basics.
My haul:
[Joie booties to replace the old Austin Powers-looking ones I’ve worn into the ground for 3 years + two $20 Free People tanks (already have in grey) + Bobi cardigan + Joie boots.]
Git some.
And be mathematical—cause Lord knows you’ll have your bag full and need, like, $2 more to meet the threshold. Ha!
-C.
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