When the Juices Aren't Flowing

Coat (Zara, similar here), Shirt (Zara, similar here) Jeans (J.Crew - old, similar here), Heels (Nine West, here's my dream pair), Ring (Blanca Monros Gomez via Of a Kind), Necklaces (Dogeared) 

Despite the fact that I fancy myself otherwise, I think that in real life (in this case, real life means my endeavors to dress myself) I am actually not a creative person. Like, at all.

Please! Quiet your objections! I know, it's difficult to believe because according to my hair, I should possess Ms. Frizzle-status levels of innovative ability, and should also be loosely related to Lionel Richie's Jheri Curl circa any moment in the 1980s. 

But alas, each morning as I stand butt-naked before my closet, bewildered and frustrated by the prospect of having to clothe myself in a combination of things that thoroughly fools people into thinking that I am stylish and capable, my inability to conjure anything close to a formative idea, along with my subsequent knee-jerk reaction of reaching for the same blazer and the even more same pair jeans, reminds me that I am in fact completely devoid of imaginative faculties when it comes to what I wear. 

Which is why I'm over the moon for these white pumps. They've single-handedly revolutionized (overstating maybe?) my outfit-compiling process, in that they seem to make everything I wear not lame and boring by exacting a certain sharpness that elevates, say, an otherwise dull grey sweater to something that maybe a stylish someone would don.

They are a recent purchase, which means my relationship with them will go something like this: I will wear them over and over again on such annoyingly consecutive schedule as to induce eye-rolling from everyone that knows me, until my face falls off and I am so utterly sick of them that I hurl them at the floor and in disgust swear them off completely, until 6 months later when I rediscover them in a fit of closet cleaning and I fall deeply in love with them all over again. 

Except that won't happen with these because they're better than that.

Stripes of the Pin Variety

Coat (Zara - majorly on sale over the holidays, similar here), Trousers (Zara, similar here), Shirt (H&M Men's, similar here), Brogues (Rag & Bone - majorly on sale thanks to Barney's Warehouse, similar here), Necklaces (Dogeared), Ring (Blanca Monros Gomez via Of a Kind - Christmas present from The Man) 

It is safe to say that the two patterns that dominated the Autumn/Winter Sartorial Season last year were plaid (in various forms) and pinstripes. This is mostly thanks to one lady: Stella McCartney. With lines that consistently demonstrate a tendency toward and a mastery of masculine silhouettes and motifs as worn by a woman (and it should be noted that the Stella McCartney woman is one of insurmountable cool and imaginative simplicity), Stella McCartney possesses the kind of creative hands that make things that immediately flood us with an overwhelming sense of desire. And (here's the real trick, and what more often than not sets apart a good designer from a master of the art form) that desire is lasting.

Her Autumn/Winter 2013 collection from last year is basically runway porn. You can't see it and not get turned on. Of course what inevitably happened is what always happens with trend-setting collections. Her line initiated The Trickle Down Dance, and soon us plebs were awash in a sea of midnight pinstripes and fuzzy plaid. No matter how many times I saw some version (or inversion in some cases) of her pinstripe coat, or an angora plaid sweater, the original desire hatched by her archetypal designs remained steadfast, and in some cases all the more stronger.

Which is the story of how I came to look like I do here. (It is a tale of fascinating proportions and epic intrigue, I know.) And thusly, I am compelled to once again do what I always find myself doing, and that is to throw my hands up, toss my head back, and spin like some sort of coked-out gypsy while I praise the Gods that are Zara.

Oh and if you feel like making your mind explode and then subsequently shoving a month's rent into your computer screen, you can behold (and then purchase) the original inspiration for this particular pinstripe coat here. WOMP.