Monthly Archives: April 2014

Wardrobe Architect

Wardrobe Architect: Developing a Core Style

What does it mean to have a core style? Isn’t style by its very nature changeable? Certainly I’m not going to wear the exact same clothes decade after decade. Any throw-back Thursday picture on Facebook will give you a good reason to keep your fashion tastes current.

And yet, for most people there is a thread that remains the same as trends come and go. Identifying your core style is about recognizing that thread. When we are aware of what we like and feel comfortable in, we’re much less likely to buy those weird, trendy things that sit in our closets untouched because they just aren’t us. That’s the idea anyway.

For this activity, Sarai encouraged her readers to look at the answers they gave previously about their lives and histories, and to begin to attach those to some kind of aesthetic. The worksheet asks questions about how you feel when you’re wearing your favorite clothes, who your style icons are, and what words describe your life and your tastes.

I put together a Wardrobe Architect board on Pinterest, which has been an indispensable tool during this whole project. Based on this exercise, I started gathering images that reflected the words and phrases and style icons I identified.

I managed to distill what I think is my “core style” into five words: classic, comfortable, tasteful, understated, and quirky.

It might seem that quirky doesn’t really fit in with the rest of these words, but it makes complete sense to me. I love to add one offbeat element to whatever outfit I’ve pulled together, whether it’s wearing Chucks with my dress pants or a leather cuff with a vintage dress. To be honest, to most people the little touches I add probably aren’t all that offbeat at all, but to me, they add a little something different to my otherwise super business-casual wardrobe.

And my style icons? Who else?

The always pulled-together and elegantly casual Audrey Hepburn:

Tastefully sexy Marilyn Monroe:

Classy and confident Katherine Hepburn:

And the fun-loving, silly, and still totally classic Zooey Deschanel:

Who are your style icons, and what five words would you use to describe your core style?

sewing, Wardrobe Architect

The Wardrobe Architect: Style in My Life

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The first week’s Wardrobe Architect assignment involves figuring how different elements of your life affect your personal style choices. I love pondering my own navel, so this was probably more fun than it should have been for me.

A girl with bright red hair and a red t-shirt posing in front of a silver and black curtain in a college dorm room
Me as a wild and reckless youth

I was a youngun’ in the 1990s, the age of “alternative” fashion, Manic Panic hair dye, and oversized flannel shirts. The evolution of my personal style really began when I was in college. I started to gravitate toward a kind-of-vintage kind-of-punk thing, but at that point, I really didn’t know what my style was all about, so it was mostly kind-of-nondescript.

Two girls in a bar, wearing black, laughing
Me as a carefree n’er do well

But the beginnings of a fashion sense were there.

A girl in a flowery dress, with a young boy looking over her shoulder
Me and my little bro, back in 2000

I was raised to value neatness, and looking presentable. I rebelled against that pretty strongly as a teenager, but I know that those values are part of how I dress now. I don’t believe sweatpants should be worn in public, nor do I believe that leggings are pants. I think it’s important to look nice when you go out into the world. Thanks, Mom!

That being said, I live in California, and life out here is pretty casual. My colleagues wear jeans and t-shirts. My social life doesn’t involve clubbing or movie premieres or wild parties, so flashy fancy clothes have no real place in my life. And while I believe in looking presentable, I also believe in being comfortable.

Girl wearing a loose top, cardigan, and jeans
Me now, in a pretty typical work outfit

That picture above really looks like I’m crying, but I swear I wasn’t. It was just an early morning.

The (unfortunately) big thing that has always influenced my fashion choices is body image. Wah wah, what a girl I am. But pretty much since I was 14 I have shied away from anything revealing. No shorts or short skirts, no sleeveless shirts, nothing too revealing. I’m a prude, apparently. I used to dream about those bathing suits from the 1900s. I’m learning to appreciate my figure, but I still am not a huge fan of revealing clothing. You won’t see me in a midriff-baring anything any time soon.

So what sticks out in this analysis, for me? I like comfortable clothing that has an element of classic, vintage style and an element of quirky, punk-ness.

Two young girls in the 1980s, playing dress up.

And apparently, I was a real fashion plate at 10. Yup, that’s me, on the left, with the fabulous bangs.

Next, we dive into defining a core style, one that remains constant through the ever-changing dictates of fashion’s fickle ways.

If you want to ponder your own life and your relationship to fashion, download Sarai’s awesome PDF worksheet. Who doesn’t love a worksheet? You can find more details about this week’s assignment on her blog.

What are the core things that stand out for you about your life, and how it might impact your clothing choices?

sewing, Wardrobe Architect

The Wardrobe Architect, Laura-style

Last January, one of my favorite pattern makers and sewing bloggers, Sarai of Colette Patterns, introduce an awesome series/project called The Wardrobe Architect. The idea behind the project is to begin to thoughtfully plan a wardrobe, rather than to make and buy clothing willy nilly and eventually find that you have a closet full of things you don’t really like.

Now, I am a total sucker for anything that involves planning, especially if there are regular assignments to tackle. I love assignments, and yes, I was a complete school nerd. I love projects! And I have been feeling like I want to start building some coherence into my wardrobe, some sense that the clothing that I’m putting on my body, and especially the clothing I’m spending so much time making, suits me, works well together, and makes me feel confident. This project could not have come along at a better time.

I’ve actually been completing the assignments all along, but it didn’t even occur to me to share my work here until now. I haven’t been a very good blogger lately. So let’s make up for lost time!

Over the next few weeks, I’ll share the work that I have done on my Wardrobe Architect project, and hopefully inspire you to dig in and start planning your spring and summer wardrobe, too. It’s been a really enjoyable project so far. If you’re interested, and don’t want to wait for me and my behind-the-times ass, check out all of Sarai’s fantastic Wardrobe Architect posts. And check back soon if you want to hear about my own explorations, and perhaps get some inspiration (I hope).

goals, health, life

How I Quit Smoking

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I started smoking when I was 15. I was always one of those kids who wanted to grow up fast, and smoking made me feel grown up. I hung around with my trouble-making, pot-smoking friends, sitting in front of the Taco Bell after school smoking and being total idiots. Back then, cigarettes were still relatively inexpensive. I remember buying a pack of generics for $2, and for an extra twenty-five cents we could get Marlboros. They hadn’t yet put high taxes in place and a lot of gas stations and liquor stores would still sell cigarettes to underage kids, so it wasn’t that hard to get them.

My mother HATED that I smoked, which, frankly, was probably reason enough for me to keep doing it at that point. I was such a little asshole.

I smoked all through high school, and I remember getting to college and being so stoked that I could finally buy cartons of cigarettes. I started smoking a lot my first year in college. Like, up-to-two-packs-a-day a lot. That eventually evened out, but from the time I was 18 until I was about 27 or 28, I was smoking at least half a pack a day, and more if I went out drinking or partying. Which, let’s be honest, I did a lot. I loved smoking. It felt glamorous, it felt cool, it made me feel a little edgy.

I know there were times in that period when I thought about quitting, but I never really wanted to. I knew I should. I knew it was a gross habit. My mom still hated it. But it was just too daunting to try to quit all at once.

It probably took me about five or six years to quit smoking. I did it bit by bit, breaking connections and habits one by one. First, I stopped smoking a cigarette with my morning coffee. It was a fairly simple thing, just cutting that one cigarette out a day. Then I stopped smoking at work. I don’t really remember why I stopped smoking at work, and yes, I would very occasionally still go out on the street and have a cigarette if I was having a stressful day, but for the most part, by the time I was 27 I didn’t usually smoke my first cigarette of the day until 5 in the evening at the earliest.

Eventually, by the time I turned 30, I really only smoked when I went out drinking. Which, ok, honestly was still kind of often. At least a few times a week. And then I tended to smoke A LOT. But when I turned 30 I moved across the country by myself to a small town where I didn’t really know anyone, and I stopped going out so much.

By the time I was 32, I was only smoking once every two weeks or so. I had, over time, broken all the daily habits of being a regular smoker. It took me another year to finally decide to quit altogether, and by the time that happened, it wasn’t that hard at all. It was just about breaking that one, final connection, between drinking and smoking, which was actually a connection between socializing and smoking. And when I did quit, it happened really organically. I didn’t set a date or have a plan. I just decided I was done.

I don’t think my Phase-Out approach is a very typical way to quit, but it worked for me, and I think it’s a pretty good technique. Because instead of trying to break a really big habit, one that might have lots of connections in your life, you can focus on breaking one smaller habit at a time, until eventually, all the emotional and physical connections to smoking are gone. If you’ve tried to quit smoking without success in the past, maybe a more gradual approach would work for you. Try to identify the times that you smoke, and connections you have: Do you love to have a cigarette with your coffee, or after dinner? Do you smoke when you talk to your sister on the phone? Do you have to have one on your drive home from work? If you can identify some specific times or places or situations that are connected to smoking for you, you can start to break those connections one by one. That way, it doesn’t have to feel like a big, drastic life change. It feels smaller and more manageable.

Since I “officially” quit smoking, I have smoked probably about 3 or 4 times, it’s true. In almost all of those instances, I was, ahem, perhaps a bit tipsy. But none of those instances made me feel like I was in danger of starting again, because it just wasn’t a part of my life anymore. I feel like a non-smoker. And it feels pretty good. My mom is pretty happy about it, too.