Outfit for a Wednesday: Lipstick Red and Trudy Campbell

Over the Christmas holiday, my childhood best friend, the first friend I ever pseudo-met while I was still gestating and she was being pushed in a stroller, had worn a pair of beautiful vintage-inspired lace-up pumps to our families' annual party. After some oogling and admiring, she told me she got them for a steal from ModCloth, and offered to forward a discount coupon that she had earned from her purchase to share with friends. I scoured the site, fell in love with some pieces but dejectedly discovered not as many options in my size. Finally, I found a perfect pair of low, mid-calf boots, on sale, and this dress. Perhaps blinded by my love for the bold cherry red color and the, initially, attractive 1960s tailoring, I took the plunge. In my defense, I completely imagined this dress as a wool-blend, so much so that I thought it impossible to be any other fabric, especially anything synthetic. 

When the package came, the boots were lovely, and the dress left me disappointed; I realized that, indeed, the fabric was some type of plastic in its previous life and, more overt now that the dress was tangible, I would look like a Zooey Deschannel impostor. Unlike the rest of the United States, which is seemingly enamored with the quirkiest girl-next-door in Hollywood, I find her perpetual doll-like aesthetic a bit nauseating. And, frankly, her characters, permutations of one another, rather boring. Lazy, and aware that time and financial costs for return shipping would be greater than the actual value paid for the dress, I kept it. To assuage my disappointment, I have convinced myself that, rather than everyone's favorite familiar and hackneyed New Girl, I can harness Trudy Campbell instead.

The other day, to temper the intensely twee feel of the dress, I donned a funky antiqued yellowish cream and black stripe blazer, embellished with large and shiny midnight black buttons. Grazing the contour of my waist, the jacket paired well with the cut and proportions of this dress, hitting just at the sharply pulled portion of the skirt of the dress. Bold, with subtle shoulder pads and a clean front, no lapels, this jacket is a favorite piece of mine, pairing well equally with dresses and with denim.

Almost eerily, these earrings match this jacket. Normally, I do not select my jewelry based on a completely complementing color palette, but here, the resemblance was so great, I had to go there. Paralleling the simple geometry of the jacket, the earrings are also wonderfully versatile with their black and cream colors and clean vertical lines.

Ferragamo loafers are my ideal dream: always classic, and supremely narrow, so they fit my feet perfectly. Again, with their darling bow detailing, these kitten heel loafers ooze an aura of polished, meticulous, but subterraneanly fuming and whirling, housewife of the 1960s. One who swills a martini mid-afternoon, lipstick pristine, smashes the glass, then instantly sweeps away the remnants of the mess.


Friday morning coffee soundtrack: The Next Day David Bowie