Take 5

Hi there, remember me? It's bloomie the fatshion blogger. I know it's been five months since I last blogged. I'm no longer a lapsed blogger, I think I qualify as a non-blogger.

But September has arrived and due to some pushing and prodding by my beloved Jamie I am going to attempt a fifth incarnation of 30 Dresses in 30 Days.

I'm not making any promises this go around. I forewarn you that I may not finish the month, I may spend a day in my pajamas and most notably I may/will likely end up wearing dresses that I've worn before. At this point in my endeavor I can't quite keep track of what I have and haven't worn in previous years and going through 120 outfit photos every morning just doesn't seem feasible or realistic. So I'm going to aim to wear things I think you haven't seen before, but it may not always work out that way.

Dress - Ebay
Leggings - Danskin
Sandals - India

Earrings - Topshop
Fascinator - Street Fair

Photo courtesy of Ateqah, who also suggested the tongue.

Sometimes I Wear Pants

Not often, not a lot, but sometimes I wear pants. A fact which can take people by surprise. This afternoon I ran into a friend while running errands who commented "I didn't even know you owned jeans." Ha. In fact I own plenty of pants and plenty of jeans. I am after all, a woman who loves options and large wardrobes.

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The jeans are Not Your Daughter Jeans, purchased for a fraction of their retail price at a Ross in Orlando, Florida. They were this magical, amazing lone pair of jeans in an 18 petite that were just waiting for me to take them home. I've paired the jeans with my beloved purple cowboy boots but it may have been a bad idea. I'm afraid they give me just enough height to make my jeans look an inch too short. Next time I'll stick to flats.

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Almost everything else I'm wearing was a hand-me-down. The t-shirt was from my friend Lauren and the cardigan was from my friend Jamie and both originally came from Anthropologie.

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The crazy necklace once belonged to my Grandmother and I can't quite imagine her ever wearing it. The fascinator was purchased at a Brooklyn street fair.

Jeans are comfortable and keep you warm in the winter, but to me their most fabulous function is that they showcase my ass better than any other article of clothing.

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Happy Holidays

Yesterday was my office's annual holiday party. Mind you this was the 4th work holiday party I had attended over the previous seven days, but it was also the "official one." I hadn't really planned on wearing anything special until a friend gchatted me the night before to ask what I was planning on wearing. Oh my, I needed an outfit. I scoured my closet and was so excited when I realized I'd finally have an opportunity to wear this dress that had been sitting in my closet for the past year.

I picked this black, velvet, sparkle dress up in a charity shop in Charleston last year for less than $10. In a completely un-shocking twist of fate I was drawn to it by the sparkles. I picked it up, held it up and thought to myself, this looks like it'll fit. And then I looked at the size tag and though uhh...maybe it won't. Why? Well take a guess what size this dress is. Have you guessed yet? It's marked a size 6 and as my colleague said last night I may be many things, but a size 6 I am not.

But I grabbed the dress, took it into the fitting room and lo and behold it fit! It's a stretchy dress to begin with and I'm sure it has stretched considerably over the years. I'm guessing this dress dates to the Working Girl fashion era. It just shows that you should always, always, always try stuff on so you don't suffer from fashion remorse.

I paired the dress with my new hair fascinator from Primark that I picked up last month and my necklace is also Primark, albeit several years old.

I'm wearing my beloved and fairly banged up first ever pair of Duo boots.

And here's a close-up of the dress so you can appreciate the pattern. I like it so much that it's worth the trail of glitter that follows me everywhere I go when I wear it.

My friend kept saying I was wearing a diamond dress. I was a bit confused until she sent me this clip. NPH give me a call and we can be matching diamond twins.

The Accessories Make the Outfit

Sometimes you put together an outfit where the pieces speak for themselves and other times the outfit comes together with the accessories. This is one of those instances where the outfit takes shape from the accessories.

Worn unadorned this is just a simple brown dress with a purple cardigan. A fine outfit, but nothing special. Add some textured tights, boots, a hair fascinator and my new sweater clips and now we're talking.



I think I may have been especially encouraged to accessorize this outfit because both the dress and cardigan are hand-me-downs. The dress was a gift from my very well endowed friend who bought it and subsequently realized that it would not work with her chest. It is a size Large and it's by Velvet, one of those luxury cotton brands that I love so much but rarely buy due to the price. Instead I wait for hand me downs from my generous friends.

The cardigan is also a large and is a from Anthropologie via the wonderful JLR. I love Anthropologie, (especially their cardigans) but it falls into the category of far too pricey for my regular consumption. When I shop there it is almost exclusively on the sale racks. I'm actually heading there tonight after work to return some stuff, but I may be lured into full price shopping by this cardigan that my co-worker owns that I have been coveting for months.


The textured brown tights are from Target and I've become a recent convert to their Merona brand tights which go up to a 1x/2x and fit me really well. They're only $7 a pop and it's always good to find some new inexpensive tights option that fit my hips and ass. For new readers the purple cowboy boots are my most prized material possession and you can read about them in an earlier post.


Finally the outfit really comes together for me due to my hair fascinator and my brand new, worn for the first (and so far only time) sweater clips. I had never even heard of sweater clips until I recently saw someone post about them on fatshionista. A few weeks after that I was at the 2009 Bust craftacular and saw some guys selling them and purchased my very first pair. I'm loving them already and think they really tie the outfit together. If like me you're now obsessed I recommend searching for them on ebay or etsy.

I always dress up for the polls

I think it has already been well established that I'm a passionate person. And there isn't much in the world that I'm more passionate about than voting. I mean I truly love everything to do with voting. I love protecting the right to vote. I love helping enfranchise folks so they can vote. I love voter education and registration and empowerment. So as you can imagine, Election Day is my favorite holiday of the year. Even more than Halloween or Thanksgiving or Sukkot, I love Election Day. Shutting the curtain, ticking the boxes, pulling the lever {sigh}, it's perfection. Ok, apparently I'm passionate and a geek.

Sadly as much as folks seem to think it is, voting is not a right in this country. I wish it was, but it isn't. There is no affirmative right to vote in the United States, rather the Constitution merely says that you cannot be barred from voting due to your race or gender or age. Nowhere does the Constitution say voting is a right. Plenty of Americans of sound mind and legal age cannot vote and in honor of them I strongly encourage every last one of you that is able to do so, to exercise that right. Ok, I've now dismounted from my high horse.

All of this is a prelude to the fact that in my book Election Day is a reason to get dolled up. This doesn't mean nearly as much to me as it does to others as I sometimes feel the need to dress up when I go to my bagel shop, cause otherwise I disappoint the lovely men who work there who have dubbed me "hot pink lips" but an excuse is an excuse.



I think I mentioned that when I was on my sojourn down South in October I did a bit of thrifting. Thrifting in NY is both expensive and a bit of a headache and heartache as there's not nearly as much to go through when your size hits the double digit. That is very much not the case in Charleston where I picked up today's dress as well as 2 others for a grand total of $20.

We were driving into town, a bit lost and confused when we passed a thrift store and I made Ash pull over so I could do a quick "pop." I really like to "pop" into stores and within 15 seconds ascertain if there will be anything I want to buy, can afford and will fit me. I have it down to an art and a favorite bloomie saying when you're walking down the street with me is "can we pop in for a minute?" So we pulled over, Ash gave me 10 minutes and as I jumped out of the car I dropped my guide book in some sludge in excitement...oops. I then ran inside where I experienced a strong sense of deja vu, realizing I had been in the same store 8 years earlier on a post-college graduation road trip. I'm telling you people, the store spoke to me for a reason.

It was in that quick 10 minute "pop" that I found today's gem. A bright, ridiculous, beautiful dress. It is vintage Chadwick's and it was the first time I had worn it. The tights are from Old Navy and the wedges are from Payless, a store I don't really shop in but I was walking past it one day and saw these shoes in the window and I just fell in love. Patent, hot pink wedges, how could it not be love at first sight. The belt is from Primark and the headband...well that also has a story.

The headband was another purchase I made on my Southern trip, this one acquired at an arts and crafts fair outside Savannah. It was kind of hysterical because I got the headband at this booth labeled "bows for little girls" or something along those lines. I actually went a bit mad at the booth because their hair accessories were so much cheaper than in New York that I bought 5 for less than I would for one. It was also hysterical because the proprietor of the booth kept wanting to help and offering up suggestions about how "it looks real cute" when you put your hair in a ponytail and stick a barrette with a huge bow right in the center of your head. I kindly explained to her that it wasn't quite the look I was going for.

Headband detail


Belt and print detail. Perfectly matching nail polish is just a happy coincidence.

Photo credit goes to Ateqah, who among many other titles is my voting buddy. Sadly it is likely to be our last time voting together since she moved a few days after Election Day (just a few neighborhoods over, not to a whole new city). We started voting together last year on Election Day (which was just ever so slightly more exciting than this past one) because we were phone banking swing states for that one and we were supposed to tell folks to bring a friend to the polls so they didn't get frustrated with waiting and walk off. So last year we voted together and I was done in less than 5 minutes while she waited for over an hour and it turned out to be a good thing that she had a voting buddy. Sadly this time around turnout was waaaay less and neither one of us had to wait at all.

Just a little bit of whimsy

I love playing dress-up. Costumes, wigs, insane makeup, you name it, I love it. I wish I could wear a purple wig every day, but technically I'm a grown-up and such things are frowned upon in an office environment. That's why God made weekends, isn't it?

Today's outfit isn't terribly exciting. I wore it this past Saturday and even though I ended up having the loveliest day, I didn't have anything too special planned when I originally got dressed. The weather was so glorious that the outfit was based around the fact that I just wanted to wear a sweater coat as my sole outerwear. Can I just state for the record how much I am loving fall in New York this year. The weather has been just beautiful - sunny and crisp and not too cold. I've basically been able to leave the house with just a hoodie or sweater-coat for the entire month of November, it has been amazing. Ok, now that I've gushed over Mother Nature, on we go.

Like I said, the outfit isn't very exciting. I just threw on some jeans (Z Cavarrichi via Ross if you can believe it), a long-sleeved t-shirt (Old Navy) and one of my beloved sweater-coats (this one is cotton and it's from Banana Republic). As usual it's in the accessories that it came together.

I considered wearing sneakers, but instead decided to go for some cute, purple flats from Office that would dress up the outfit a bit. The scarf is from a street fair and the earrings are a present from Mirka and I don't know where they're from. And the ears...well here comes the whimsy.

As I was contemplating how best to accessorize, I reached into my drawer of bows and feathers and hair accessories, originally planning to grab a hot pink headband. I realize for many of you a hot-pink headband with a bow would already have been too much, but that's my speed. As I was searching through my drawer I came upon the ears you see me sporting in today's photo.

I'm sure it will surprise none of you that I found the ears in the children's section of H&M. I bought them a couple of months ago, fearing that if I didn't I would suffer from fashion remorse, but not entirely certain that I would ever wear them on a day other than Halloween. But I saw them in my drawer, realized how well they matched my outfit and put them on and ran into the living room to ask my roommate if they were too ridiculous to wear out and about, or if they were the perfect level of whimsy? She voted for perfect amount of whimsy and that's all I needed to hear. The ears were a go!

I don't think I would have ever even thought about wearing ears, if not for inspiration from Elie. She's been wearing ears anywhere and everywhere for years, although I think she may have retired them at this point. Let me just say they were a hit! People kept smiling at me all day and I got a bunch of compliments (I did also get a bunch of weird stares, but that doesn't bother me). And I wore the ears all around town - I wore them to the movies and to lunch and out to an impromptu party at my local bar and even in front of my best friend who does not understand my fashion inspiration, but loves me anyway.

Photo credit today goes to Joie who took my picture after we saw Precious at BAM. She appreciated my whimsy and let me tell you, we needed something to giggle over after watching Precious, a movie which the blogs I read have dedicated more time to in the past few months than nearly any other topic save for Palin bashing.

Fashion Remorse

You're likely looking at this outfit and asking yourself what was that girl thinking? It's a bit much, I know. The "dress" is a vintage 80's tennis outfit that I picked up at a thrift store in Savannah with the original tags still on it. I stood in the store for the longest time unable to decide whether I should take the plunge and go for it. I decided since it was $3.97 it was worth the price of a cup of not very good coffee to not be plagued by fashion remorse.

Wait, don't you mean buyer's remorse bloomie? No, I mean fashion remorse. When you're in a store and you can't decide whether to take the plunge and make the purchase so you pass. And then you have remorse for what you didn't buy. It can be just as serious as buyers remorse or worse because sometimes I'm getting dressed and stop to think "if only I had those open-toe, gladiator Topshop booties this outfit would look perfect." But you don't, so the outfit is only at 85% instead of 100%.

I had fashion remorse several times in the past for things that I didn't try on and/or buy because I assumed they wouldn't fit me or look good on me because of my size. Nine years after the fact I still remember this dream cardigan I spotted in a store in Dublin that I handed off to a friend without even trying on because I just assumed it wouldn't fit me. She bought it and guess what I found out? It did fit and every time I saw her wear it I suffered from fashion remorse. Now I live by the wise words of Beth Ditto who years ago, before she was as famous as she is now, said something along the lines of "go in a store, try on the biggest size they have and if you bust the seams, fuck 'em for not making it in your size. " Rock on Beth. I love you.

So no more fashion remorse I say, especially because of my size.

Outfit details

Tennis dress of 80's awesomeness is thrifted. Detail below


Leggings are Danskin
Sandals are Primark
Cardi is Anthropologie via Jamie
Belt is New Look
Earrings are Topshop
Hair piece was purchased at Atlantic Antic and was another almost case of fashion remorse. This hair fascinator was $25 which was way more than I thought it was worth but I just loved it and with all the colors in it I thought it would be incredibly versatile. I walked away from it and then walked back to purchase it I wanted it that much.


Photo credit goes to Ateqah who took this for me outside of our office building.