summer - 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.

While blue seems to be the favorite color of a significant fraction of the population, it’s one of those colors I often overlook when picking out clothes and accessories. I do like teal and turquoise, which is to say I like my blue with green in it.

When I notice holes like this in my wardrobe (there is also almost no red in my possession, I noticed recently) I like to think about them – about why there might be such an omission, and whether or not I’d like to remedy it. I do abstractly like ultramarine and cornflower blues, baby and powder blues…but there is a great difference between liking a color and wanting to wear it. It’s a decided personal stamp of approval, it seems, to wear (and so, often, to purchase, to have purchased) a color.

If there was ever a time I would want to sport a true blue, summer is it.

This saturated cornflower blue t-shirt (I know, a t-shirt. So adventurous) is now the brightest blue on hand. The part of me that wants to wear some combination of white, cream, caramel, and cognac at all times thinks it’s a bit garish but I do like it. Fashion baby steps.

J Crew tee, Joe’s skirt, Steve Madden sandals, vintage beaded clutch, Skagen watch, Vuarnet sunglasses, 10mm pearl studs from Pearls of Joy, pearl ring from Pearl Paradise, 6mm pearl necklace* from eBay, vintage amethyst bracelet. On the lips: Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet in La Favorite. On the nails: Deborah Lippmann Girls Just Wanna Have Fun polish (a really bright, pretty coral).

*I’ve been wanting a choker length pearl necklace in a small pearl size for a long time, basically because of the costumes in movies like Dangerous Liasons, Valmont, and anything set in 18th century France, in which they are often worn by young, unmarried women to great effect. I like how they ever so gently mold to the curvature of the throat, the 6mm size youthful and understated.

Tag: summer

the short shorts

summertime blues