Rocking the Pre-Shop

That first cool morning sets me yearning to begin making my fall wardrobe purchases. But, the minute I start itching to get out the door, inching toward it so I can start spending some of what I've been fiercely saving since July, I manage to put on the mental brakes.

"Hold off," says I, sagely. "The best stuff isn't out yet. "

"True," I reply to myself. "All I saw last week was the dregs of summer sales and a few, sad looking, fall-ish separates."

"First, we gotta go through last year's stuff ..."

I resist my smarter and better-self with muttering, moaning and complaining.

Ignoring myself, I continue, "And figure out what we'll wear again this year."

"Awww! Nice to see old friends again!" I add, perking up a bit.

"Then see how we can freshen it all up with some new pieces!"

"Excellent," I reply, congratulating myself on my wisdom and restraint.

"But right now, we can go PRE-Shopping !"

"The BEST ! " I shriek, running for my cash and keys.

It stays hot here so long that over the years I've adopted the technique of pre-shopping to keep me feeling like I'm doing something other than just window-shopping for fall things. I wrote a little about this last year, but I've got it down to a science now. I mostly just prowl my usual haunts, seeing what's starting to come in for the new season.

But to make it more fun, I make a contract with myself containing the understanding that if I find something spectacular that I can easily afford without breaking the bank, I can bring it home if it's 1) True Love 2) tried on in-store, 3) an item that will help me transition from hot summer to the slightly cooler fall temps with stuff I already have. And finally, 4) it must possess enough utility to go with me deeper into winter.

(The exception to the wait-and-see part is footwear. I've written about my creative rationalization for fall shoe shopping in previous posts. I buy early if I possibly can because I have a common shoe size and they go fast. Really.)

This DIY-brainwashing cuts out all of the impulse shopping, allows some few but intelligent purchases and lets me feel like I'm doing something proactive. It keeps me from spending too much ahead of the arrival of the best stuff when fall weather really gets into full swing. I've even found I can begin thinking of Pre-Winter-Shopping and retain a bit of cash to spend on myself when the grooviest holiday items appear.

In the last few years, I've discovered another particularly satisfying and handy use for the process. There are occasions when I want to ride the escalator up to the Better Floors in our one upscale-ish department store. When I'm feeling particularly hedonistic, I treat myself to a trip through the racks where there are items by designers I see in the glossies, the names we all recognize, but that I rarely can afford. In Pre-Shopping Mode, I can easily make the trip a fact-finding tour to see what the local 1% types will be wearing, how a good cut looks, what I might wish to find in a more affordable version, and so on. Invariably, a sales woman will come and offer assistance. Instead of ducking my head and replying "just looking" and getting the side-eye and tight smile reserved for lookie-lous, I smile confidently and say, "No, thank you. I'm just Pre-Shopping the season." You'd be amazed at the response you'll get. "Ah!" she'll softly exclaim, and smile knowingly as she drifts respectfully away. Complete pony-poo, but fun and effective. You should try it.

Some Items From My Fall 2015 Pre-Shopping List :

I'm pretty well set up with ankle booties from an obsession I indulged last winter, but I'm looking for a pair of nude or blush or warm beige booties. (Google "nude blush bootie," then click on Images and see what you come up with. I dare you.)

Excellent with winter white jeans, yes?

        Or maybe something more dressy like these pretties?

And I'm sort of pining for a pair of rougher, strap laden ankle boots to toughen up the look of some feminine silhouettes I have in mind.

These are a little sleek, a little tough ...

but these are closer to what I'd really like.

I loved seeing all the well structured, tailored, long sleeveless coats and blazers last year, but none appeared here until this month. I've actually already found and nabbed a long one and a shorter version, both in black, that met all the standards listed above for Pre-Shopping purchase. I'm glad I did, 'cause they went out of the store fast. Satisfaction is sweet. I've begun wearing them with some summer tops for the transition, but see them with tees and long sleeved tops and tunics and weightier shirt dresses for winter. She shoots ... she scores.

         Similar to mine, and a bit shorter,

but I'd love one in this navy!

Again, similar ... and I only aspire to 

bring this much attitude.

Speaking of long and shorter tunic tops, asymmetrical hem sweaters and blouses, and traditional button-down shirts and shirt dresses, see the following candidates:

We're finally seeing some of these faux layered sweaters/shirts and they are becoming yet 

another minor fixation of mine.

This brings us to the sub-category of plaid shirts.  They're everywhere, and I didn't do them when they were grunge basic in sturdy fabrics.  The current iterations, though, include some gauzy styles that work niftily for the transitional weeks now upon us.  I have these two already.

This one actually has more drape and shape 

than shows here, and the colors are richer!

This Mossimo for Target dress I wear differently; open all the way, minus the belt like a duster-vest. Over a black leather-ish, high-neck tank and black skinnies, ankle boots or with  black heels.  Loved wearing it to work recently ... swirled elegantly as I sashayed around.

I'm declaring a moratorium on any more plaid shirts for the moment. I suddenly love what I can do with them ... but stay tuned.  I can turn on a dime.

Another idea that I'm allowing myself to obsess over more than just a little is the completely attainable and surprisingly cool looking skinny scarf ! I can get swallowed easily in traditional winter scarves, and often forgo wearing them at all as I get too warm to keep them on after coming in from the cold. I've left them behind to be lost permanently.

Enter the new kids in scarf-town; they can lend a cool androgynous edge, and function as much like a necklace as a scarf. A skinny scarf can become that illusive third piece without a bit of bulk or fuss and prettily hide a neck-ring wrinkle or two. They can work as well in summer as in winter. They can be easily made at home without looking home-made (a major virtue here in rural Mid-Nowhere, the absolute dead-end of the fashion supply chain) and I stand a pretty good chance of keeping the long ends out of my dinner plate when we go out!

Not with shorts for me,  

but the rest is doable and fresh to my eye!

I'm sure more ideas will take me as the season wears on, but this is my current Early Fall Pre-Shopping List for F/W 2015. Stay tuned, 'cause I know I'll want to show off some results soon ... Autumn always takes her sweet, slow, southern time transitioning into fall, y'all. 

Please don't hesitate to tell me about your own Pre-Shopping adventures, if you have them!

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Flying late and low, trying to get to the

Color-Happy Patti's

Visible Monday link-party.  Join us!

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A special note to all those who sent their astonishing support and empathy for all my summer-time-bloggy blues: 

You've made me feek all better now.  I'm blown away by your efforts to perk me up ... it worked!  I'm still trying  to answer all your notes, and will finish them ASAP.  To all of you, especially to those of you who haven't heard fro me yet, I send my best thanks and massive affection.  

What I Did This Summer ... and Why I've Been Absent

Surprise!  Remember me? Wouldn't blame you if you didn't. I've spent almost a whole season hiding under my cyber-rock, but I've decided to crawl back out to check in with the bloggy world with hopes there's still somebody out there. Although I've been absent, I've still been out here playing dress-up, so before fall gets in full swing, I'll try to trot out some of the summery ideas that I've been mutilating and trying to bend to my will loving and adapting for my own use.

"Never say never in fashion, because you'll be wearing 'never' in two years' time."

      Alexa Chung

So true, at least for me.

A couple of years ago, when ripped, distressed and destroyed jeans were disinterred from the grunge-era graveyard and then reiterated and conceptually freshened up a bit, I squinched up my nose and said, "Ewww. Why would anybody want to wear ruined jeans?" But as so often happens, my eye trained itself and I'm got used to seeing them out and about on perfectly reasonable looking women, and even some of them like me in my advanced maturity! It's already a cliche classic, so that means it's my cue to try it out. Sad.

Paired with"nouvelle grunge" accouterments, rippy jeans still just look ... well... grungy. I didn't go there even way back when I lived in the Pacific NW epicenter of original grunge and it was hot and new. But contemporarily paired with a slightly snazzy top and a pair of ladylike (or especially unladylike pointy toe shoes with a vampy stiletto heel) they just delight me. 

I got a fabulous deal on these red lacquered cork Ralph Lauren pumps.

Neat with ripped jeans and a white shirt.

You'll see them eventually, I hope. 

 When I try for that unstudied look that is so appealing, I still come off looking sort of clenched and I've never once managed the effortless look. Worn jeans with spiffier pieces takes me much closer, and I've had all kinds of fun wearing them as a summer staple. Not quite a uniform, but worn often enough to function as one. The contrast has a sense of humor, and it's a look that just can't take itself too seriously, or at least not for very long.

"Where," you might well ask, "is your example? How do we know it works for you? Where are your outfit photos?"

And this leads to the reasons I've been incommunicada for the summer. 

In no particular order of importance:

1. I'm exhausted with making photos of myself. It's been noticed (ahem) and commented upon (nicely, though, and by more than one person) that I have about 1.7 poses that I use and that it's getting old. I know that. I'm tired of looking at it too. I'm as vain and insecure as anyone and I use that one pose with only the most minute mutations so I'll look as pretty as possible. That's the pose that makes me look less short and squat than the other possible positions, so I cling to it like a lichen.

Not sure what to do about this. No, Dan is less able than ever to help, although he tries heroically. There isn't anyone else around to play photographer. It's a challenge I have yet to overcome.

2. I just couldn't stand it that I couldn't join some of my favorite women in the whole bloggy world at the Vancouver blogger meet-up. I really, really, REALLY wanted to go. Just couldn't manage it financially (or in the style to which I aspire, at any rate) but the most daunting road block was that the meet-up was celebrated on our busiest, most exhausting weekend of the year for our little business. Dan and I both would rather take a beating than work this particular weekend, so I couldn't jump ship on him even if I'd opted to blow the bank. The upside of this is that I was so overwhelmed that I didn't have time to think about all the fun you all were having in BC.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I just couldn't bring myself to vicariously share in the Vancouver adventure via your blog reports of the event either. I don't for a minute begrudge any of you your wonderful time, but seeing you all together just felt bad all over again. I was being rude and childish to avoid the blogs of some of the women I admire most, I know, but it didn't seem right to visit anyone while avoiding some. I apologize to everyone, 'cause that's what I did and I'm sorry.

3. Because we don't go anywhere, or do much that varies from our tight schedule, I've been feeling cramped for blog subject matter. Time for a reassessment of why I bother with this at all and how/if I can proceed in some

useful/fun/satisfying way. One version of my personal truth is that I am a short, squat, elderly woman in the middle of nowhere struggling to look as pretty as I can while coping with the limitations of big-box stores, discounted fast fashion and my own shortcomings. (No stature jokes intended.) Since I'm fairly sure a lot of women find themselves in my situation, can I make this worth writing about, or is it just too much same-old-same-old?

4. At 65, It's been bugging me that I suddenly find I have about as much in common with the "over 40" set as they have in common with the 20-somethings. In terms of dressing challenges, anyway. Even you 50-plussers sometimes seem like carefree youth to me. Some of you late life beauties can carry on looking beautiful and chic forever, but I'm aware of a movement that relegates us ordinary elders to an ice-flow of brightly eccentric and wildly artistic dressing as our only final style statement option. I'm not ready for that, or drawn to the aesthetic for myself at all. I'm having a hard time finding living style icons. Bummer.

Because of the above, I find myself embarrassed at my own behavior and floundering creatively. Blogging should be fun, at least for the most part. Instead, I'm learning some unpleasant things about myself ... and that's the problem with even the shallowest "voyages of self discovery." There's always the danger that you'll discover some not so nice stuff.

So there we are. And here I am. As much angst as I'm whipping up for myself right now, I still miss the camaraderie of mature-woman style blogging, so I am still trying to figure this out. But there are no photos of me in my rippy jeans, or in any other kind of outfits today, okay? Good.

I return you now to our regularly scheduled programming ... and more of what I did this summer.

I've been cultivating my eyebrows and readjusting my bangs so the brows will show. Stay tuned for more on this fascinating subject.  The fun just never stops here.

A Burlington store is going in in the Big City and will open sometime this fall.  Dan and I have been watching the construction with excitement. (I could just weep that I wrote that and that sentence and that it's so TRUE. See what I mean?)   

Another idea from the "never say never" files: I've resisted mirrored sunglasses for a couple of seasons now. They used to remind me of mullets, Tom Selleck's big old mustache from back in the day, and institutionalized male chauvinism. However, I finally overrode my own good taste and fell hard for the modern version for women. Hot weather-floaty fabrics aren't really much support for the little bit of edge I try to sport during the summer, but classic aviators with hot pink mirrors just say something.

(Photo by Shade Traders.) 

I got a pair of these in pristine condition from

good old T.J.Maxx at a reduction so deep that even 

I felt like there must have been some mistake.

They were more a gift for my pink

winter coat, so you'll see these later in the fall, too.

I also have some icy blue classic aviators that are even better, and Dan has even found a similar pair he likes. We do our matchy-matchy, old-folks thing when we wear them to town, but with a soupçon of old-school swagger that I really need to throw right now. Yes we do.

Obviously not Dan and I, but if you squint 

and imagine this couple a lot older,

 it's sort of the same idea ... we are, in fact,

a little cooler than these two. 

Completely OFF-Topic weirdness: Do you remember wishing for a pony at any time in your early childhood? I do ... and am living proof that some wishes do eventually come true, but with completely inappropriate timing. A couple of weeks ago, I was sipping at that first cup of coffee of the morning, looking out at our messy pasture when our dogs went completely berserk. About that time I saw what looked like a big spotted dog trucking off across the pasture toward our remaining big old mares. It took me a minute to figure out that it was a very tiny pony who had broken in to our pasture. So little that he just sneeked right in under a missing wire in the fence. There was no doubt at all about his gender, clearly a stud horse and sporting the most optimistic erection as he headed toward my hefty old girls. First, they regarded him with curiosity, then disdain, then with aggressive annoyance. He ended the day hovering wistfully, unsuccessful but undaunted, at the edges of our little herdlet, and he remains with us still.

No one is claiming him, and I've notified the local authorities, and we do NOT need a pony. We'll find his family eventually and make them come and get him. I know Dan blames my 6 year-old-self for that long forgotten wish, 'cause he says he does.

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Late as I always am, I'm happy to sneak in to the return of the always lovely Patti's Visible Monday  link up ... feels like homecoming! 

Some Mules, Some Culottes and a Satchel Walk Into a Bar ....

... and although I can't come up with a punchline here, I was so cool and and happy wearing them on a very hot evening, I don't mind leaving that title-set-up flapping in the breeze without its punchline.

I found this pair of denim culottes (with the tags still on them!) while closet diving. I vaguely remember putting them in the "alterations needed" pile some years back, and although I don't remember what I was going to do with them, I slipped them right on and was as tickled as if they were a brand new purchase.  This flowy tunic is just one of a dozen shirts and tops I'll be able to wear with these. 

Whether the top I choose is shorter or longer, this silhouette just cries out to me for a dressy heel, so ... ta-daa! Meet my new black mules ... with a tiny, cushiony mini-platform for comfort and that extra height I never mind pretending to own.

When I first saw this little satchel, I didn't mind a bit that it had bright yellow panels on either side, with warm and cool beiges and some subtle black trim.  I love that it's a color interesting a lot of designers this season, but for me it's a problematic color to wear ... just like it seems to be for a lot of women. Seems like everyone and their giddy aunt is wearing it on a tote this year as a good solution, so this little bag seemed like a fun variation on the theme.

And since I'm loving yellow, blue and white together this summer ... ta-da Part 2!  I bring you an inky blue, rough denim shirt (with popped collar, of course) with my blue and white batik culottes.  A yellow belt, the new satchel and I'm set. 

These culottes were only recently a pair of long palazzo pants that I felt looked more like sister-wife-wear on me than a garment meant for traipsing lazily about on the cool tile floor of an Italian villa.  Snip-snip, hem-hem, and there we are.  I haven't seen any printed culottes here in South Fly Over yet, so that's a problem solved.

Nude, buttery-soft leather mules make me so happy with this outfit.  I love these.  In fact, this particular pair of shoes (which I have been looking for more than a couple of seasons!) have inspired me to make a serious effort to wear the shoes I love much more often than the ones I just like or seem merely practical at the moment.  If I got hit by a WalMart truck, I'd hate to croak knowing my especially-beloved shoes where not worn completely out.

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At the very last minute as usual, I'm ducking just under the wire to attend the Season Finale of Patti's Visible Monday . Sincere thanks to you, Patty, for the wonderful past year... and I'll look forward to Fall even more than usual for the season premier of your brilliantly cast link-up!  Ahem.

Come on over to see the red-carpet looks at VM.

Artifacts from my Way-Back Machine

I'm always interested in bags and shoes. And shoes and bags. Always. But this year, stores and the glossies seem to be offering so much more of them both to love, so I'm not surprised that they are so especially intriguing to me. Some years for me it's skirts or dresses or tunics. This year looks like it's shaping up to be the Jan's Year of the Accessory.

We are enjoying strangely extended mild spring temperatures this year, with lots of rainy days, so I've been enjoying a few more days that I can keep comfortably wearing the perfect-for-me, long sleeved, crisp, white and black tailored shirts that I discovered last year. They'll make way for similar-but-sleeveless tops in the miserable heat that is coming soon (and as you see below, the transition is already underway) but I've been digging the unexpected extra opportunities to wear them with my recent and typically Jan-Come-Lately discovery of straight leg jeans on the skinny side. This very simple combination just begs for a great shoe and notice-me bag ... I know "third pieces" are not supposed to be about the shoes, but I think they can often function that way with very casual outfits. There are so many fresh looking shoe shapes, many of them creative iterations of retro classics, that it's easy to focus on feet-first outfit planning. A bag, too, can make a huge difference in how polished a basic shirt-jeans combo can look.

I was shoe shopping when I found this Boho-beauty, and it was a huge accessory crush for me at first sight. I had a similar bag long ago, a much loved and more rustic version in the way-back, that sported antiqued brass metal rather than the shiny and sleek silver fittings of this more polished design. My current tastes don't usually run to strongly Bohemian looks, although it has never gone away and seems to be enjoying some extra fashion-passion from trend lovers, classicists and vintage enthusiasts alike. I was there for the late 60's version and have frequently dipped a toe into some revivals in the decades between then and now. We eldest are so often cautioned that "if we did it the first time around we shouldn't do it again" but this bag, for me, is an illustration of why we absolutely should do it again and as often as we wish.

One of the things I love about having lived through the decades of style that I have is that I can enjoy the evolution that allows past favorites to reappear, renewed and reinvented and with refreshed relevance.

It occurs to me that the white, sleeveless shirt-waist, complete with popped collar was typical of the late 50s-early-60s. By the late 60s and 70s, it would have been looking dated, and the fringed bag would have been paired with quite a different look ... my straight leg jeans wouldn't have arrived yet and the bag would have paired with bell-bottoms. The wooden platforms were throwbacks even then to the 40s and 50s, and now I'm happy to reintroduce them (yet again!) to other pieces from other decades. Like the rest of the pieces, it's become a classic in it's own way, and I am delighted to field the compliments I've been getting. I fully admit to enjoying again the swish of fringe when I walk, without going full-on hippy chic from the Summer of Love. This slightly sleeker version of the my grubbier, rougher, Woodstock-era carryall has evolved, and so have I. (Just from the era ... I wasn't AT Woodstock.) Neither of us are exactly the same as we used to be, but both of us in our current versions are more versatile, more useful than we were then.

And if that isn't a perfect excuse inspiration to indulge in a new bag in a style from my youth, I don't know what is.

(The color isn't as true as the photo above, but you can see

what a nice drop it has from the shoulder.)

  

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That's it for this week ... come with me over to Pretty Patti's 

Visible Monday and see what all the glamourati are up to!

Ketchup

It does NOT seem like almost a month since my last post, but it's that, just short a couple of days. Wow. During my absence, we've had thunderstorm-intense weather with lots of rain (we did need the rain) followed by some gray, chilly days and all that has been unsettling for tornado wary folks here. Dan and I spent a lot of these weeks annoyed and inconvenienced by March Madness nonsense and dealt with customers staying at home because of tax time (an annual non-treat for us, too.) We've spent an inordinately large chunk of the lost weeks reestablishing our stuff with a new primary health-care provider ... another ultimately good thing, that. 

 But my last nerve finally shredded last week because I was still afoot after the old-car debacle of some months ago, and Dan had to coax me down from the tree-tops with a promise of car shopping. At least I thought it was my last nerve, but I found I had still had some left to be frazzed during the compulsory shenanigans pulled by the local, good ol' boy used-car dealership in the process. I have no proper words for this experience, really. But I do have a decent vehicle that ought to be returned into my anxious arms tomorrow after a critical bit of repair is finally completed. So, that's really good and I can only rejoice that it's about freaking time at last !

So, that's some of what I've been doing. Oh, yes ... I almost forgot having to face the dreadful, cold squeezies of the Mammogram Monster. But the result was clean as a whistle, so more good news to report. Yay.

During all this day to day stuff, I did manage to take pleasure in the change of seasonal wardrobe and bring a few items from last month's list out to play! Look ... I managed photos as well!   

So nice to be able to jazz up old favorite combos with a fresh pair of kicks. Keds Double Ups, in this case, and I was delighted with the slightly thicker sole, matching red pin-stripe and red laces! Delightfully and magically, the red laces relieve some of the gunboatish quality that old-school tennis shoes sometimes have. I'm not crazy about how I look in large, flat RED shoes, so they've been worn since then with rolled up BFs, sloppy T shirts and my coolest sunnies. They work better in that context on a short girl, I think, and make a trip to the grocery store a little more fun.

 I wore this on a trip to town on one of those thunderstormy days and tried a nude shoe where I might have worn a bolder color. The otherwise uninteresting and matronly top worked pretty well with pale coat and shoes and a mid-blue pair of skinnies.   I always get compliments when I wear this coat, and I like that it makes a faint swishing noise when I walk. Nice to get one more time to wear it before it gets too hot.

I always go after handbags and shoes if I'm unsettled about everything else ... so here you see a pale pink, white and nude one from Call it Spring (JCPenny) with my favorite rose gold-tone accents.

I couldn't make this photo do justice to the rich cognac color blocked with black in this Sorial tote. It's much better IRL, as are the cognac mules. I could really fall hard for these "straight leg skinnies" from Old Navy. They may be my new favorite jeans cut as they definitely remind me how elongating and curve-flattering a longer line can be.  I like this current iteration of the straight leg; it's like my old style, wider, straight leg stacking jeans married a pair of skinnies and had these!

Ah. That's better, closer to the real life color. Along with black and white, I'm seriously attracted to brown, blue and black combos in all the possible variations for this spring, so there's more to come.

I've been wanting these windowpane pixie pants, and got them at deep discount. Not as huge a pattern as the black and white plaid version I showed you not long ago, and closer to flattering, I think. I'm enjoying wearing fitted shirts like this one with a collar to pop, and the close-but-not-tight fit feels like a good thing. 

Speaking of shoes and bags to make me feel grounded; I love this chunky heeled and thick strapped pair (Steve Madden) and adorably cheap-and-trendy clearance bag from good ol' Charming Charlie ! I'll get the good out of it with all the black and white graphics that are appearing on my radar. Stay tuned.

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So.  That catches me up, and I'm off to check in (sooner, I hope, rather than later) with all the Glamazons and Glamoratti at the Lovely Patti's Visible Monday .  I need to see what you're all up to!