Ver. 2.0: Laundry Day

So the return coincides with 2 things.  1 is a new focus (also... just a focus of any kind).  I actually have things to say, not just weird pictures and high levels of undifferentiated snark.  So I'm going to dig deep in my closet.  Actually put stuff together.  Figure out and communicate why I wear what I wear and what thought (or lack of it) goes into making those decisions.  So in the interest of beginning at the beginning I bring you laundry day...

Laundry day is often a weird day for me.  I'm pretty obsessively organized in my closet (you might recall I have 4 subdivisions of T-shirts) so seeing my collection of argyle socks and my bureau generally decimated by the long weeks of use is sad.  Of course, that said, doing laundry sucks (and takes forever) when you have to fold all your stuff a certain way and make piles of solid and political t shirts. Though I feel better when I restock and get to lay them all out like this (normally they're laid out like this at the laundromat, but I felt weird taking my camera in there).

All the categories are there, I even washed some of my button front shirts.  I have so many only a couple (or 3) get washed at a particular cycle.  Especially since I always wear them with a shirt under them (though not necessarily an undershirt).

Anyway, to the most important part of the post.  My outfit.

I can pretty much thank Ashley for this one in its entirety.  She borrowed my denim jacket yesterday and wore it over a hoodie with scarf, cords and boots.  I was a big fan.  I also thought it was appropriate laundry day attire.  A little slouchier than I normally am, but still pretty put together.  It also has a slightly military vibe to it with the sort of slate green pants and the high boots and high buttoning jacket.  Plus my car has a flat tire so I had to lug all of my laundry by foot the 3 blocks to the laundromat.  Combined with the 6 inches of freshly falling snow (and the 8 ft. of non-freshly fallen snow) I really wanted that hood up and those boots laced up.

But the beautiful thing about this outfit is that it's easy to break down into component parts, which is really how I build most of my outfits.  In this case it was cords, sweatshirt, straight-front jacket and boots.  Now, if I had wanted to play up the militaristic vibe that I saw, I could have swapped out the hoodie for a sweater (or sweatshirt), knotted the scarf a bit tighter and put on some aviators.  Or, I could make it a bit less eccentric (i.e. no bright red hoodie and argyle scarf) by swapping out the cords for gray flannels (cotton flannel in my case since I don't really own any wool "trousers") and a more subdued scarf .  Pair it with a blue sweater and some chucks and you get this

Now, if you know me you know that there's no way I'd put together an outfit without some bright color someplace, but some brown longwings would suit it just as well.  It all depends on what you want to say.  

Which is the advice I'll leave this first new post on.  Remember that when you get dressed you're saying something.  No matter how much you spend, in money or time, you are the only one making the decision.  I'll get way more in depth on how I think in the future, but for now, just remember just because you saw it on a blog or someone tells you it's "the rules" or whatever doesn't  mean its gospel.  It's just what they're trying to say to the world.