gold - The Seventh Sphinx

It can take a few wearings for a piece to be integrated into my wardrobe, with the first few wearings somehow stilted or off. It’s too new, I overthink it, I try to do too many things at once. I didn’t love this look, in retrospect (and it wasn’t that long ago):

I thought: I can do this better.

Not just wear the sweater again, though this is also certainly part of the plan, but try this look again. This torn jeans, oversized sweater, leather accents, minimal embellishments look. I want the lip to be brighter and more transparent, I want the eyes smudgier, I want a different hair/head situation. Bigger hair. No hat. Or not this hat. This hat needs different hair entirely (cue entirely new vision).

[What I imagine to be a common practice of trial and error is less notable (less potentially galling) when one is not in the habit of publicly recording what one wears…]

Anyway. Sometimes I want a do-over.* And not to do it “better”, exactly, as I think that’s not a very useful word here, but more in line with the spirit of the concept, the original vision. The effect in the first case is too polished, too tightly controlled, not casual enough – given the reference point. It looks fine, but it’s not how I wanted to look.

*This is distinct from liking a look so much that I want to try infinite variations of the look, which I suppose isn’t a bad definition of a clear personal style.

This is more what I was thinking.

I swear I was trying to make a neutral face here. I think my neutral face is just not very friendly.

Carraig Donn sweater (thrifted), AG jeans (thrifted), Ann Klein loafers, Skagen watch, Mulberry bag (thrifted). On the lips: MAC lipstick in Speak Louder. On the nails: Barry M Gelly nail paint in Satsuma. I think gold liner is such a great alternative to brown. Oh, and this is the Michael Kors bronzer at work, though I recently tried the Hard Candy Hula Hula bronzer and found it a great budget option in the same deep, shimmery style.

This nail color is incredible, a saturated mandarin orange. Better angle:

Why why why do I not wear my hair like this all the time? OK, I know why, but here is my official reminder to change my ways.

I don’t usually like words on [my] clothes, or shoes, or bags, or…anything to be worn. I don’t want my T-shirt talking to you, with some room for exceptions when I think the design exceptionally charming or neat. I got that J. Crew kiss tee I wanted, for example:

And, though I don’t know that I would wear it, I have a soft spot for this Flight of the Conchords tee:

vendor images

When it comes to jewelry, though, I’m more flexible. Perhaps because jewelry is a kind of extension of the skin, at least when worn directly against it, and I’ve always liked and toyed with the idea of a tattoo of a word. Or of several words somehow significant to me (perhaps together, perhaps isolated and scattered, in some appealing script). I still quite like the idea but don’t see myself committing to anything anytime soon (neither, though, will I rule a tattoo out in my mind. Have not forgotten the plan to experiment with henna). Though there are some questionable ones out there, I find tattoos so interesting – or I find all species of body decor interesting, the tattoo being a particularly ancient* and powerful example.

*How incredible are these ancient Siberian tattoos?

Coming to the point then:

I got this necklace.

wearing it here

This ties in with what I was saying about being a bit cheesy, I suppose. [What if I am! There is nothing I can do about it, really.] Evidently my exceptions all revolve around love and kisses. And rocking the party.

Well, I like it. Love is a concept worth thinking on, worth keeping in mind. I’m going to wear it. I like the idea of an “M” as well, though my whole name would be, for me, too, too much.

This piece is also part of my preparations for summer, when I intend to wear several dainty gold necklaces of different lengths layered together with a minimally buttoned white shirt. It’s all part of the plan.

Tag: gold

the fisherman’s sweater ii

inscribed