Tag: little black dress

I’ve had some people ask for more Uniform Project updates. I’ve been terrible about remembering to take the photos! And I wasn’t sure if people really wanted to see my outfits all the time.

I’ve only left the house a handful of times the last two weeks, so my main aims have been warmth & comfort. This weekend I’ll get out to Goodwill for a bit of refashion hauling 🙂 so that my next update will be more interesting, I swear!

I just realized I forgot to number the photos. Oh well. Ya’ll are smart, you can follow along.

1 was a baking day so I spent the day in my Flirty Apron. Little black dress over jeggings and brown boots.

2 is the LBD over a tiered Urban Outfitters skirt that is one of my favorite items of clothing, ever. Also sneakers that lace up like ballet slippers and have cherries on them, that I call my dress-up sneakers.

3 worn as a vest; I think this must have been my St. Patrick’s Day wearin’ o’ the green.

This is the same day as the middle photo above but I really like these photos with the dog 🙂

4 is over an argyle sweater with jeans and sneaks;

5 was the day it occurred to me to turn the top under to make the dress a V-neck (incidentally, I was stopped on this day by an elderly gentleman who enthusiastically told me how cute my argyle tights were);

6 is a comfy day, worn with velour pants from Boden and my MBT shaping sneakers, or my “heavyfeet.” I bought those when they first came out and the only styles available were butt-ugly white and butt-ugly grey. I wear ’em on days that I have a lot of housework to do.

That’s all I’ve got this round, folks.

What’s the Uniform Project? Rather than buy a whole bunch of new cheapie items, I selected one classic dress made sustainably of organic cotton and pledged to continually work it into my wardrobe in different ways, in an effort to inject “fashion” into my days without being wasteful— of money or materials. I gave myself an “out” by saying I was allowed to buy new items if they were secondhand (since my existing wardrobe is boring). And as a result I’m no longer living the WAHM life perpetually in my sweatpants!

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I wear my sort of clothes
to save me the trouble of deciding which clothes to wear.

-Katherine Hepburn

So I’m two weeks into my Uniform Project, and here are my observations so far:

1. Holy CARP this dress is short. My husband makes me wear a “courtesy skirt” underneath it when I leave the house so that I do not sear out anyone’s eyeballs by unintentionally flashing my bum.
2. This is fun. In an effort to make the photographs not seem all very much the same, I’ve been digging into the depths of my closet for bright accessories. You know how you buy things because they fit this fun, spontaneous image of who you’d like to be? (Just me?) But then you just keep wearing your same ol’ because that’s what you’re comfortable with? Well, all that stuff is being called into play now, and I’m being forced to wear them in public, and somehow I’m walking around with a lighter heart because of it.
3. I’m shifting my mental rules a bit. I had planned to only accessorize with what was already in my closet, as part of the sustainable fashion initiative. However, I’ve been thoroughly decluttering these last few months and ruthlessly getting rid of stuff that I don’t wear often. As a result, I just don’t have a lot of options. Sooooo to keep it interesting, I’m going to say it’s OK to buy secondhand, and new if I can buy organic/sustainable. ‘Kay?
4. Dude, I suck at having my picture taken. I have bad teeth, and so I’ve never been one for smiling for photographs. A few months ago I had adult braces put on, and now I have to either smile with my mouth closed, which looks odd, or really widely so my lip doesn’t get snagged on my braces, which makes me look like a jack o’lantern leering.
5. I also suck at remembering to have Jake take my picture. In the last 14 days I wore the Uniform Project little black dress 10 times… and was photographed five. I’ll try to do better.
6. I appreciate my sweats more. In the last 14 days I bummed around the house in fuzzy sweats and long sweaters 4 times, and it felt like a gift. It’s a huge change from when I spent most of my days bumming around in sweats (I work from home) and feeling… well, like a bum.

1. Necklace made from reconstructed t-shirts, from Hoogs on Etsy (won this from the Green Eyed Monster forever ago. You’re signed up for their newsletter, right?)

2. Rocking the black, white & red for Dr. Seuss’s birthday.

3. Busting out the hot pink tights. Illustrating that I can still camouflage if strictly necessary. (Note: this pink sweater is one of my favorites. It has mother of pearl buttons, cost me $2 at Salvation Army, and is older than my oldest son.)

4. See how I look halfway decent here? Don’t get used to it; I blew my hair dry and put on some mascara for Girls’ Lunch Out, a networking social gathering for Philly-area social media peeps, where I got to talk to grown adults who understand how I spend my days.

I’ve got on a denim courtesy skirt and kickass argyle tights which I love. Please note my painful attempt to smile.

5. Yucky, rainy day made much better by my awesome color-wheel umbrella (thanks, Nanny!). Wearing my wellies and one of many rainhats— just can’t bear to get rid of any of my hats.

Want to see the Uniform Project done up way better than I’m doing so far? Check out Summer Rayne Oakes— she’s designed her own LBD that has more material to work with, and therefore a little more flexibility, and I’m totally salivating over it. And of course, she’s beautiful and has impeccable style. You can see what’s she done with it so far and how much she’s raised for charity: water on the Uniform Project blog.

Check it: I’ve linked this post up to Just Precious and her Fashion Friday. Go indulge in some fashion fun 🙂