Day to Night in Barcelona

I have been here in Barcelona for about a week now; as is to be expected, packing for a trip that entails both professional business ware and some romping clothes for a weekend off from the job is nearly impossible, at least, when confronted with limited suitcase volume. Earlier in the spring, I purchased this stylized Ralph Lauren black sport coat, immediately recognizing its worth in utility and in aesthetics for my wardrobe. Since landing a spot in my quite contained and crowded closet, this beauty has earned a few stamps in the passport traveling to and fro with me. Not formally part of a suit, it is a great complement, and professional partner, to a number of my tailored dresses, a combination I tend to favor during the summer months when pant suits seem suffocatingly toxic. This week, I paired the blazer with a new broad striped white and black sweater for the daytime look, coupling this with a clean, simple camel pencil skirt. Broad stripes lent a sort of official nautical look to the jacket, as in, work on an executive steam liner ship as the captain, however, overall, the look was fun and youthful, as well as warm Mediterranean weather appropriate.

Earrings of gold, pearl, and a sort of onyx black were an obvious choice for this jacket and sweater combination; the black and gold are mirrored, while the pearl just exudes a classic lifestyle that befits a blazer emblazoned with an embroidered emblem.

For the evening following any professional obligations, spent wining and dining with colleagues at a local delicious dive Thai joint, otherwise known as copious consuming of hot curries and cheap white wines, I switched out the sweater for this plain white tee shirt. A well fitted plain white tee shirt is a true gift from God. Paired with some denim and a deep red lip, the white tee will immediately evoke 1990s Guess girl connotations. It is simple and effortless. With a blazer like this, which, frankly, is a bit superficially bombastic and stuffy, the plain tee shirt drops down the pretension to something casually traditional and elegant. True classic. Alas, this particular white tee shirt has seen its time in rotation: wear, frolic, wash, rinse, repeat, many times. It is probably time to be retired, or at least, demoted to weekend cleaning. I am glad it had one last whirl out here in Barcelona. To cover my legs and other more sensitively intimate regions, I wore a plain black skinny jean from the Gap.

I found these teetering on the obscene gold Capricorn earrings a number of months back in a small antiques shop in a neighboring town. They are about an inch and a half in diameter, a feat which these images really fail to capture in its true disgusting glory. Between the gilded almost Byzantine look, the impeccable texture, and the gorish flaming red bejeweled eyes, not to mention the symbology relevant to my birth date, these were love at first sight.

Leopard print tuxedo flats were the perfect shoe to marry the classic prep aesthetic of my jacket with the gaudy funkiness of my goat hoop earrings; these were one of the wiser purchases I have ever made in the shoe department.