I had a bit of a Claudia Kishi moment when I got dressed this morning. For those of you who don't get the reference, you clearly were not a girl growing up in the 90s with an unhealthy obsession with The Babysitters Club (P.S. Best blog ever). To paraphrase the great novelist Ann M. Martin, "She was wearing a canary yellow oversized silk men's shirt with skinny jeans and flats, with a stack of bracelets halfway up her arm that combined a silver cuff, periwinkle, yellow, and peach resin bangles, and delicate silver hoops." While I didn't think I would snag Scott Schuman's eye, I did think that I had pulled something relatively cute together. But I couldn't help but pause in the mirror and wonder, "Should I be wearing this?"
.JPG)
By no means was I vamping it up: note the previously mentioned yellow mens shirt. I've just had a bit of an identity crisis since I've gone back to graduate school and cannot for the life of me figure out how to dress casually and still look my age. This wasn't an issue when I had a job and a business casual dress code. Look polished. Wear skirts to the knee, minimize the cleave, leave something to the imagination with dresses or pants, and ditch the flip flops. Business casual dress codes work with my personal style, because I've never been much of a sexpot. I can turn it out when the event calls for it, but more often than not, you can find me shopping in my grandmother's closet rather than my sister's.
My sister is hot to trot and dresses like a lot of undergraduate girls at my school. They're big fans of the bodycon dress and doesn't mind flaunting a little cleave. They burned real pants years ago and exclusively wear leggings. We differ on the appropriateness of rocking Saved by the Bell crop tops in a class where your professor is a world-renowned expert in his/her field and will likely be writing your recommendations post-graduation.
I'm not a fuddy-duddy and I love and appreciate good style. I have since replaced my BSC obsession with an equally unhealthy obsession with fashion blogs, and I live for an architectural dress, a well-tailored coat, shoes that look like art, and statement necklaces. But when you're closer to 30 than you are to 20, what, if anything, is considered too trendy? I'm not sure what magenta lipstick or Ecto Cooler green nail polish says about me these days. Can I still wear mini skirts? Stacy and Clinton from What Not To Wear insist that I'm still entitled to the mini until age 35. Is this the same age that I have to put away bikinis? And just how many bangles are too many bangles?
Yo pros: How do you navigate your own concrete catwalks and look like the CEO as opposed to the intern?
.JPG)
By no means was I vamping it up: note the previously mentioned yellow mens shirt. I've just had a bit of an identity crisis since I've gone back to graduate school and cannot for the life of me figure out how to dress casually and still look my age. This wasn't an issue when I had a job and a business casual dress code. Look polished. Wear skirts to the knee, minimize the cleave, leave something to the imagination with dresses or pants, and ditch the flip flops. Business casual dress codes work with my personal style, because I've never been much of a sexpot. I can turn it out when the event calls for it, but more often than not, you can find me shopping in my grandmother's closet rather than my sister's.
My sister is hot to trot and dresses like a lot of undergraduate girls at my school. They're big fans of the bodycon dress and doesn't mind flaunting a little cleave. They burned real pants years ago and exclusively wear leggings. We differ on the appropriateness of rocking Saved by the Bell crop tops in a class where your professor is a world-renowned expert in his/her field and will likely be writing your recommendations post-graduation.
I'm not a fuddy-duddy and I love and appreciate good style. I have since replaced my BSC obsession with an equally unhealthy obsession with fashion blogs, and I live for an architectural dress, a well-tailored coat, shoes that look like art, and statement necklaces. But when you're closer to 30 than you are to 20, what, if anything, is considered too trendy? I'm not sure what magenta lipstick or Ecto Cooler green nail polish says about me these days. Can I still wear mini skirts? Stacy and Clinton from What Not To Wear insist that I'm still entitled to the mini until age 35. Is this the same age that I have to put away bikinis? And just how many bangles are too many bangles?
Yo pros: How do you navigate your own concrete catwalks and look like the CEO as opposed to the intern?
No comments:
Post a Comment