Outfit for a Tuesday: And the Beat Goes On

Today was my first day back in the office after my professional then personal glorious hiatus; after vacationing in the romantic and idyllic gray Paris, it was, admittedly, a tad disappointing to find that little had changed in the frantic hustle at work. I was thankful, though, that I had chosen to disconnect completely while away, ignoring the surprisingly scant smattering of emails that trickled through during my absence. At first, my deductive reaction was that I am not integral to the mechanics of the team; the immediate deluge of demands this morning assured me, for better or worse, that this is indeed not the case.



I have had this silk camisole blouse from Anthropologie for awhile now, since the early autumn, and had nearly forgotten about it. With the cream, sort of shapeless open cardigan, I had originally intended to leave it open, but then decided to tie a cinch at the waist, to give more structure to the look, as the shawl cardigan now meets where the pleated navy skirt begins. In a moment of spontaneous symmetry, the tie nearly parallels the ruffle flair of the camisole.



I bought this thick ivory bakelite bangle on Saturday morning, during my excursion to the infamous and historic markets of Saint-Ouen in northern Paris. The markets, the oldest in Paris, feature the most beautiful exemplars of art deco furniture and the most wildly opulent and luxurious pieces of designer costume jewelry I have ever seen in my entire life. Obviously, most of these items of utter design arousal were beyond my meager price range, however, this bangle was a rather good deal. The delightful shopkeeper, a quirky older woman who displayed her eccentric wares proudly, spoke French with me and, she claims, mistook me for a Parisian; despite her rather generous deceit, she was too kind.




This stylized navy, spring weight trench has a rather narrow window of when it is in season and fresh; the sun shone brightly this morning, but there was a mild chill, so I took advantage of the opportunity.