Outfit for a Tuesday: Teal and Mustard

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I ameliorated what could be considered a gross popular culture transgression, obsessively watched the entire premiere season of Gossip Girl, indeed, became deeply engrossed following gorging sessions on my mother's delicious home cooked food and my parent's well stocked liquor cabinet, at which point ability to formulate any type of coherent or valuable thought was impossible. The television show, not to my surprise, proved to be at once bitter and sweet, in its not too terribly skewed portrayal of some of my favorite archetypal Ivy League caricatures from university. Essentially, at the foundation, it is a guilty pleasure teen soap opera, one that exudes impeccable aesthetic standards; though the contrived plot elements leave something to be desired, even with the delicious and naughty characters, the clothing certainly never does.

Currently, the only compelling influence to manifest has been the pervasive brightly colored tights, which on the show the various girls use to accent otherwise stylish but arguably neutral or traditional school uniforms. I have always worn bright tights, especially while at university, however, once I cycled into the professional realm, I tended to either write them off as wildly inappropriate or frivolous or childish or ridiculous or any mixture of such sentiments. Gossip Girl deserves my eternal gratitude for proving me completely incorrect. Indeed, as with many items, the brightly colored tight need only be styled accordingly, and it, too, can acclimate and thrive in the office environment.

On Tuesday, I paired bold teal tights with a simple, classically cut light gray skirt, identical gray shell, and a wool mustard cardigan, which features small silver buttons. Mustard and teal, chromatic cousins to complementary colors orange and blue, are an ideal match, and the gray serves to keep the look grounded, to avoid muddling or complicating the perfect order. With my legs making the abrupt color statement, I reined the look in by only straying casually from the neutral scope, with the warm but unassuming mustard.



Also over the Thanksgiving weekend, during an antiques open house excursion with my mother, I purchased these silver, pearl, and clear white rhinestone earrings. They add a subtle sparkle, without weighing down the outfit with an ostentatious outlook.



Silver ballet flats, another recent acquisition, purchased earlier this week during the same hunting and gathering mission when I discovered the wool blazer.