Recreating The Cape

My dear friends,

A year ago today is when I took the first real photos (not in the mirror) for this blog.  I thought I’d celebrate by updating the look.

I took these photos over the weekend before the biiiiig snow.  I guess it really is time to retire my stilettos for the winter, snow and more snow in the forecast for the foreseeable future.  I had to change to my Jeffrey Campbell boots to actually do anything.

Although I love the cape, I have to admit that I don’t exactly love the cape on me.  It’s not the best of silhouettes for a petite and I always feel too overwhelmed: all you can see is the cape, like HELLO CAPE— oh, and are in you there, Alex?

I wore my Alexander Wang sweater tunic/dress thing under the cape.  It has a much looser fit than I usually go for but I adore it both as a very small dress and a tunic!

Oh, I was also featured on the We Love Colors Style Blog on Wednesday.  Not a bad way to celebrate a year of photos!

Love and snowflakes,

Alex

  • Target cape, LOFT embellished belt, Alexander Wang sweater tunic/dress, Old Navy camisole, J Brand 10-inch skinny jeans, Luccia G. heels.

Winter Outerwear: Vintage

Originally published on 1.9.11

Worn on Friday 7 Jan 2011

We’ve been having a lot of snow in the Northeast lately.  I’m skipping two sets of photos (pre-snow) to show you some timely outfits (for once).

My coat literally saved my ass on Friday— the temperature dropped drastically in the afternoon and a lot of the melted snow turned into ice.  Which I didn’t notice because those ice patches were puddles at 1pm.  Yeah, wiped out.  Not pretty.  Luckily no one was around to hear me laugh hysterically at myself while lying on a sheet of ice in the middle of the road (all the other crazies must have stayed in).  This coat is so huge that I didn’t feel a thing when I fell.

The best part about this coat, though, is the lining:

The initials belong to my cousin’s mother, it was her coat and gifted to me by my cousin during the holidays.  My cousin is very tall (and I top out at 5 feet 2.25 inches) so the coat doesn’t exactly fit her.

I left my hair kind of wavy and disheveled, I didn’t want to look too done up wearing both the coat and the suiting dress.

I found some very tiny gloves in the pocket.  They definitely don’t fit me and I can’t think of anyone I know that could wear them.  Anyone wear glove size 6 1/2?

The days are getting longer, but how quickly the light still fades.

Strouss coat (vintage), J.Crew dress, turtle pin, Assets by Sara Blakely tights, Target/Xhilaration boots.

Sunny Dress in the Snow

Monday 27Dec 2010

I still have a few photos left from last year, I’ve been posting a lot less because of the holidays.  I’m also still so behind on blog reading partly because Tumblr is always down and partly because I am just really behind.  I think I have 200 posts backed up in my Bloglovin or something :P  I’m here, guys, and I’m working on reading!

It’s been so windy here lately!  I got some funny photos of my hair literally sticking straight up… yeah, attractive.  I don’t like when it’s windy so much in the winter because it makes it just that much colder outside.  And it can cause your car to feel like it’s blowing off the road, I seriously thought something was wrong with my steering for like 20 minutes (go me) before I figured out the wind was just that strong!  I hope your new year has gotten off to a good start!  I celebrated by cleaning house (most of it) and not taking photos (Juicy Couture velour (enough said)).

J.Crew sweater, Free People dress, Target belt, HUE tights, Arturo Chiang boots.

More Uninspiration

Worn on Thursday 16 Dec 2010

Sorry for the blogging delays this week, you know, the holidays… Hopefully I’ll have another one tomorrow!  And I’ll use the queue and hopefully hopefully have a little bit more time over the weekend! 

So last week I was having a really uninspired week.  Because this jersey sweater thing is actually loungewear.  And I’ve almost but not quite worn this before.  I went through all of my sweaters due to the sudden actual winter weather… and ran out of everything that wasn’t a sleeveless blouse.  I had a pile of laundry the size of Mont Blanc, seriously.  Holiday stress probably zapping my creativity… that and the abscessed tooth that’s about to need a root canal (please I hope not, I have no dental insurance).  Going to the dentist today, I hope they can try to hold me over until January when I think I will have at least some dental insurance! 

I hope everyone is enjoying time out of the office, but if you’re in the office like me I wish you a slow enough day that you can write a blog post if you want (like me)!

LOFT lounge cotton jersey open cardigan thing, Anthropologie shirt, J. Crew skirt, Target belt, HUE tights, Frye boots. 

Double Leopard

Worn on 18 Nov 2010

Thoughts:  Is belting a scarf… totally over?  I’ve never actually belted a scarf, um… conventionally (remember this crazy idea?).  Not that only belting one side of a scarf is standard or anything.  And it’s not even a big fluffy scarf.  But I thought I’d try it since I’ve never really done a belted scarf although I frequently see it on the blogs.  

I also decided to match my scarf and shoes although I don’t really know how that came about.  I especially like these leopard shoes with my brown HUE tights, I think that’s actually where the whole look started.  Then I added some purples and some more leopard, and there you have it! 

You may have noticed those crazy little hearts to the left of my photos… they’re the Hypeed inspirations hearts (yes I’m trying out Hypeed, I never want to write any sites off before exploring them thoroughly).  You can just ignore them, I know most (if not all) of you are not on Hypeed.  

J. Crew shirt, LOFT skirt, Lauren by Ralph Lauren scarf, Target belt, HUE tights, Deena & Ozzy (Urban Outfitters) heels.  

Standing in the Street

Worn on Thursday 11 Nov 2010 

Thoughts:  I just posted about bringing things back from trips this week, so I want to tell you that two of my outfit items (well really three, two stockings) in this post came from Japan!  This trench coat saw me through months of unpredictable weather when I was studying abroad in Osaka and remains one of my favorite lighter jackets.  In fact, this entire outfit (minus belt and add black flats) was a favorite with my friends from study abroad.  I went to Japan in January 2008 so I’ve been wearing this for quite a while!  I also wore parts of it for the blog last month and in March of this year.  

Also, red lipstick is now officially part of my everyday lipwear.  I think I’ve worn it for about a week straight!  I just woke up one day and thought why shouldn’t I?  Red lipstick was the first lip color I ever wore, starting when I was five for ballet performances.  Since then it’s always had a bit of a special place in my makeup collection.  I seem to be matching the tree again with it!  I switched places mid-photoshoot because on the LCD it didn’t look like the photos in the street were exposing properly but they ended up coming out okay!  Yay!  I would love to take more photos with the red tree in the background but unfortunately there was a huge storm Wednesday morning and now there are only about ten leaves left on the tree :(  Soon there won’t be any leaves left on most of the trees, sad because I love when the leaves change color during fall!  

Trench coat from Japan, dress from Commander Salamander, Talbots scarf, Target belt, over the knee stockings from Japan, Sofft shoes.  

Sunday Fall Outing… from a week ago (oops)

10.31.10 – Halloween – Parade

Aaaaaaaand this is what happens when I have fifty minutes to be showered, hair washed, and out the door.  Forgot my lipstick, hair sort of flying… My friend texted me asking if I wanted to go to the parade at 1:30… and it was 12:40.  I barely made it and I have no photos without the coat — I was just wearing a boring aubergine shirt anyway.  But in other news, I’m appropriately dressed for the first time this season!  It was the first wool coat day of the season as well, and I would have worn gloves but I hate taking photos while wearing them, some weird thing about not being able to feel the camera or something.  

J. Crew coat, Burberry scarf, J. Crew shirt (no photos, oops), Odille (Anthropologie) skirt, HUE tights, Mossimo for Target boots.  

The parade actually occurred on Halloween this year!  It was the first time I’d gone in years.  

Serious commitment: some of the people in this band danced to Thriller while some played.  

I ate some very delicious Irish shortbread. 

I very secretly and blindly took this photo.  I’m glad I got it because I loved this woman’s coat.  Where have I seen it before?  I’ve seen it somewhere but I can’t remember.  

She was also wearing very cool cowboy boots (right).  Another sneaky photo.  

Left the parade behind the Red Hat Society.  I didn’t get a photo of the red sequin beanie though.  

My friends and I once walked through this cemetery to creepily peer in the windows of a house we wanted to rent (it was totally empty anyway so maybe not that creepy).  It was a lot bigger than we thought — we’re talking $3000+/month kind of bigger so that was a no.  Fall seems to be going so fast now, half the leaves are already on the ground…

Silver Evening

10.16.10 – Saturday – Fall Wedding

Look at all those leaves!  I guess I’m going to have to rake them up soon.  I really miss jumping into huge leaf piles, I used to do that a lot when I was younger (and of course in college… usually at 2am…).  I last wore this dress to a gala in June and I had it lifted at the shoulder since then.  I think it fits much better now!  I should really have 60% of my clothing altered but unfortunately only about 20% really ends up going to the tailor.  So that would mean that 80% fits improperly (oops).  

I’ve finally broken out the cape!  Except that now it’s really too cold for the cape, and just about a week ago it was to hot.  There was a skip of an entire temperature range… the range for cape weather.  I actually wanted to wear a longer coat with sleeves but it squashed my dress, so appearance won over comfort as usual :)  Luckily I don’t tend to overheat or freeze easily, I think I must have some kind of superhuman internal temperature regulation system or something!  

Mossimo for Target cape, unknown gloves, Ralph Lauren small bag, Ellen Tracy dress, Nina shoes.  

Black & White & Red All Over

10.8.10 – Friday

This is one of my favorite color combinations, although I hardly ever wear it.  I’m far more likely to wear black and white, or maybe black and red (although interestingly never red and white).  All my photos are so boring I’m only posting this one, the rest are me just looking up or down or right!  So boring.  Maybe I need to try jump photos or something, although I think heels are just a little bit prohibitive… 

Ann Taylor shirt, Target belt, Merona (Target) skirt, Salvatore Ferragamo shoes.  

Music Festival Two

8.15.2010 ~ Sunday

To the music festival again, and it rained all day so everything was a huge mudslide!  I don’t know what the people wearing flip flops did and now I understand why Hunter boots show up at Coachella and such all the time.  It was so humid that I actually felt overheated in this outfit but I don’t know what else I could have done.  I think it was just one of those days and it was going to feel sticky and airless no matter what!  

LOFT embellished tee, J. Crew skirt, Target belt, Mossimo for Target boots.