nails - The Seventh Sphinx

I can really get behind shorts being as short as the name promises. They should cover the bits that weren’t invited to the party, but there is a healthy number of times and places for short shorts.

I don’t even seem to own long shorts.

We’ve got shortish shorts, and we’ve got shorter shorts.

And I especially, especially like them when worn on a bike.*

*Things to wear on a bike: short shorts, short skirts, mid-length skirts, longish skirts, hats, diaphanous scarves, anklets, cross-body bags.

I don’t have many short skirts or dresses, though, tennis gear excepted. Completely different thing. And I can tell I am getting older, as my idea of what is short is getting longer.

These are just about as short as they can be without being denim hotpants.

[Not that hotpants are off the table. Let’s not be hasty.]

The speakers on this bag aren’t that loud/functional, actually, but I could not care less.

Neon coral Converse high tops (an old color from the Chuck Taylor Fresh line), Paris Blues shorts, American Apparel braided belt, Green Envelope tank, Public C7i bicycle, Loop NYC Audio Couture boombox bag, Vuarnet sunglasses, Skagen watch, earrings rescued from the 80s. On the lips: Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet in La Favorite.*

*EDITOR’S NOTE: Oops. Wrong. This is the new, wonderfully creamy Clinique Long Last Soft Matte lipstick in Matte Peony. Much less peachy than La Favorite. A much truer, brighter pink. I don’t know what I was thinking…this is what happens when you have more lipstick than you can possibly wear in a lifetime. So, yes, this is lovely. I was worried this and the Matte Mandarin would be UK exclusive colors but they showed up on the US Clinique site a month or so later. Phew.

Riding my bike is my favorite thing these days.

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.