Sunday, January 9, 2011

Winter Wardrobe Day One: An Homage to Michelle Obama.

Hey, everyone! 

So is there a bout of intestinal flu running around where you live?  Baby CW had it first in this household on Thursday, and when I didn't get it by Friday morning (same with Rex and Mr. Dina), I felt I was in the clear.  Not so much.  By Friday night, I took a major turn for the worse and was sick for a good 24 hours.  I ended up losing 6 pounds of water weight.  (Here's how it works though it seems...I had recently put on 4 pounds because of my stringent "no activity" post-PFO closure.  I was becoming so sad that I had gained the weight that I was very excited to get back to exercise in late January.  Well, what do you know?  You are so funny, God.)  Rex got it last night (ooh, you should have seen the amount of laundry we had to do at 3 am).  Mr. Dina is still doing fine (lucky!).

Okay, so where the heck was I last week if I wasn't posting here?  Well, I was teaching my fashion class for the 3rd time.  As you know, I have taught "Spring Into Style" and "Fall Into Fashion" and now we can add "Winter Wardrobe" to my resume.  Instead of being two weeks as Spring Into Style and Fall Into Fashion are, Winter Wardrobe is one week.  Basically I keep the same curriculum as the other two classes, but I don't cover sewing, color coordination, and basic design.  I focus mainly on the inspiration boards, using the inspiration to create an outfit from their closets, and the runway show.

In order to facilitate this, I wore a few outfits this last week that were inspired by others, including Monday's look, which was directly inspired by our first lady, Michelle Obama.  Regardless of politics (fashion is bi-partisan, woo!), I love Mrs. Obama's style and I was super-excited to show the young ladies how she had inspired me.  I was also able to show them how to bring it in the winter, which is usually the time people (especially in the DC are) tend to become super-frumpy, all hidden under layers of down coats and uggs (both of which are great, but a lot of folks around here take these and become like honest to goodness snowmen).

Above is the polyvore I first created when I bought the Factory Leopard Print Cardigan.  I knew that Michelle Obama had worn this years ago, and I knew that crewcuts had made a version (at over 150 dollars it was far too rich for me), but until this winter I had never seen a women's version.  Yay for J. Crew factory online!  :)  The skirt is the Palmilla lace pencil skirt.  The shoes are the amazing Prized Rose Peep Toes (which are the sister pair to the equally awesome Anticipation heels) from Anthropologie's Miss Albright.  The belt is also an Anthropologie item, the three beacons belt.


I was on the fence about this outfit.  I have been really hard on myself lately (I have been feeling this way for a while, really, which may explain a lot of my lack of posting).  Every outfit seems just a little off.  The more I look at this, the more I like it, but honestly, that morning, had I had more time, I might have taken the skirt off and worn pants instead.  Tuesday and Wednesday were equally tough for me.  By Thursday, and especially Friday (my fave of the week), I was feeling a lot better (kind of ironic, really, considering what ended up happening to me on Friday night--lol).

Sizes: Cardigan, Small.  Tee, Small. Skirt, Size 4.  Tights (herringbone tights by J. Crew), Medium-Tall.  Prized Rose Peep Toes, Size 9.5 (1/2 size bigger than the Anticipations).  Belt, Small.

From the side.

In my quest to make the outfit better, I tucked up the shirt, and it still kind of bugged.  In the end I just needed to get over my OCD tendencies.  No one at school said anything but nice things about the outfit.  Are any of you all really hard on yourselves?  It isn't just the blog, btw, I have always been like this.

Here is the cardi close up.  I am glad that J. Crew put out a version that all of us could afford (I believe I paid 30 and some change...).

Talk with you all soon.  Days 2-5 will be around soon enough!