OOTD: Self-Expression Through Style

One of my favorite parts about my job is being a member of the INSIDER Spirit Squad. Every 2 weeks, my office dresses according to a particular theme. We take a group photo and give awards to those who best embodied the day's theme. The Spirit Squad takes the office's suggestions for themes and organizes when and what each theme day will be. I actually wore this jacket for our 2nd theme day – Millennial Pink Day (a theme which was chosen based on an article I wrote a while back).

A couple weeks ago, the Spirit Squad was talking about what it means to best embody a theme, and the concept of the definition of style came up. Kyle, another Spirit Squad member and the person behind the camera for the photos in this post, said that fashion is about trends, while style is about wearing things in new and unexpected ways. This definition places emphasis on how something is being worn as opposed to what is being worn. Josie said that one's sense of style depends on wearing what makes them feel best. Personal style, then, could prioritize fashion trends, comfort, making a statement, emanating a particular persona, etc.

I've always regarded style as a form of self-expression, while fashion refers to the industry which chooses and advertises trends each season. That's why I consider myself a "style blogger" instead of a "fashion blogger". My definition of style, then, is a mix between Kyle and Josie's definitions.

For me, self-expression entails a number of different things. First and foremost, dressing to express myself means dressing to show the world who I am. I'm creative, thoughtful, intelligent, and witty. My creativity shows in the unique pieces and combinations I wear. I'm thoughtful in how I put together my outfits, paying attention to detail and dressing appropriately for the weather and whatever environment I'm going to be in. I like to be smart about what I wear, keeping in mind where my clothes and favorite fashion trends come from. I often throw a little bit of whimsy into my outfits, like the dog socks I'm wearing under these boots.

Self-expression also means wearing things that say something about me. This jacket is an obvious example, as it displays my blog name in my own handwriting. You can't tell in these photos, but I'm also wearing a necklace with a scorpion on it, because I'm a Scorpio. Pink is my favorite color, so I wore an outfit composed almost entirely of it. 

While I don't prioritize following trends by any means, I do like being inspired by what's "in" in fashion, and choosing to wear trends that I like outside of their importance in fashion. This slip dress, for example, is a huge street style trend right now. When I saw shots of celebrities walking around in slip dresses, I remembered being in middle school and finding a silk slip (like, the kind you wear under a dress) in a box of hand-me-downs. I tried it on and modeled it for my mom, declaring that I wanted to wear this dress to my Bat Mitzvah. I genuinely don't remember if my mom was horrified or amused, but I can tell you I wore a real dress to synagogue for my Bat Mitzvah. So, learning that this was now an appropriate style to wear in public inspired me to purchase a slip dress for myself.

Comfort and aesthetics play a huge role in my sense of style. I love this shirt because I can wear it without a bra. Wearing a bra always makes me just a little more uncomfortable, whether due to the underwire or the straps. This dress kind of feels like wearing nothing, an ideal bodily sensation. I've been big on leather (well, faux leather) jackets since high school. I couldn't tell you what it is I like about them, but I find them aesthetically pleasing enough to have 2 of them. I've already mentioned that pink is my favorite color, so I've been figuring out how to wear pink since before millennial pink became a ~thing~. 

Finally, I'd be lying if I said my style was completely unique to me, uninspired by others. I've wanted a personalized jacket with my blog name on it since seeing Payton of Hustle + Halcyon and Dani of Mermaid Waves rock theirs. I had originally intended to embroider a denim jacket with Broke & Fabulous, but I have much more experience painting, and this jacket is just such a perfect representation of my blog.

How do you find and define your sense of style? Comment below to let me know!

OOTD: Part of the Skyline

On Saturday, I took a trip to the East River State Park in Williamsburg to see what Smorgasburg was all about. Here are the Cliff notes: it's expensive, crowded, and just as cool as it was in "Master of None".

Since summer's been in New York, I've been struggling a little more to get dressed in the morning. I need to be work-appropriate during the week, which can be difficult in 90 F heat. Yeah, I know that's not actually that bad, but I'm from the Pacific North West! 90 feels like death.

On the weekend, though, I want to take advantage of not having to wear appropriate clothing. I try not to buy a lot of clothes that I can't wear to the office; it doesn't make sense to only own clothing that I can wear 2/7ths of the time. My office has a pretty lax dress code, so all of my week-wear is really cute and totally wearable outside the office. This isn't too dissimilar from my time in college, when I could basically wear anything I wanted to class. Now that I work in a professional environment, the few things I can't wear stick out like a sore thumb, and I often think about how badly I want to wear my ripped jeans or crop tops during the week.

I definitely can't wear this shirt to work, for example, so I wanted to wear it this weekend because I haven't worn it since I bought it. The only problem is that I didn't want to wear it with ANYTHING in my closet. It usually takes me 15 minutes to get dressed and ready in the morning, but I took a full 45 minutes to sort through everything I own trying to figure out how to best take advantage of not having to adhere to a dress code.

So... A little silly, right? I'm working on finding a balance between being happy with what I wear and getting out of the house in a reasonable amount of time. One of my goals is to stop putting pressure on myself to look picture perfect every day. What really matters is the experience I have on my days off, not what I look like on these adventures. Plus, I can definitely put a cute outfit like this together in a couple minutes if I don't push myself for perfection.

How do you dress for the weekend/your days off? Let me know in the comments below!

OOTD: Up and Down Manhattan

Welcome to my ideal Saturday: walking Luxe all over Manhattan (seriously, I walked 8.9 miles the day I took these pictures). Claire and I started off on 81st street and walked all the way down to 4th street over the course of several hours.

When you're walking around in 80+ degree heat, you have to be really strategic about what you wear. Usually, I don't wear black when it's hotter than 75F, but I made an exception for this loose-fitting dress. Pairing it with a light crop top really helped, especially since it left an opening for my torso to breathe.

If you'd met me a year ago, you'd be very confused by my shoe choice. I've owned one pair of tennis shoes in the last 7 years, and they've been too uncomfortable for me to wear for longer than a couple hours at a time. These shoes, though, aren't like that. Sure, they're a little uncomfortable, but I'm chalking it up to them still needing to be broken in. Either way, one of my roommates gave me these shoes, and I'm always willing to try anything that comes to me for free.

OOTD: Florals? For Spring?

As soon as I saw this print on the rack at a Goodwill in Midtown, I knew I had to have this piece. When I pulled it out, though, I saw that it was a size 28– it was going to be too big for me. At $7.99, though, I wasn't about to pass up a floral print jumpsuit with these cute little butterfly sleeves. With a couple safety pins and this sash, I was able to make this look work for me.

One of the major cons of shopping at secondhand stores is that you often find an item you like in the wrong size. This can discourage you from wanting to shop secondhand. There are two alternatives to this problem. First, you can shop more frequently until you find the right piece in the right size. Second, you can figure out a way to make the ill-fitting piece work. You might need to learn how to sew a couple stitches or be ok with cutting some stuff up, but I promise that it's worth it.

I spent yesterday in the park with one of my roommates and my sister, who was visiting from Boston for the weekend. I didn't celebrate Passover for the first time since I lived in Spain this year, but I was grateful to be able to spend some time celebrating spring. There's a park just blocks from my house that I've been meaning to take Luxe to, and it was finally nice enough to check it out. What a great way to spend a Sunday.

OOTD: Spring Pastels for Cold Weather

Blush pink perspex booties - white wrap dress - pink lace-up H&M bodysuit - blue Forever 21 peacoat 

As I'm writing this, it's March 26th, and there's still snow on the ground. Granted, it's just a couple little patches in shady parts of the sidewalk, but still. It's been spring for a week and I'm ready for the weather to start reflecting that.

I've been waiting for warmer weather to be able to wear this dress as I don't think it would look good with tights. It's still tights weather, with the exception of the rare 65 F day every couple weeks, but I got fed up of waiting to wear something I've wanted to wear for months. I had to maneuver my wardrobe a little to be warm enough without having to wear tights. I initially felt a little weird about wearing this long-sleeve bodysuit under my dress, but after wearing a dress over jeans, I decided dresses should be worn with anything and everything. Since pastels are the official unofficial hues of spring, I decided to pair this baby blue coat with these blush booties. Plus, these colors were the Pantone colors of the year last year, so I already knew they go well together.

Moral of the story? You can totally wear spring colors even though the weather isn't quite spring-y yet. Just get creative with your layering game.

OOTD: Rock 'n' Roll

Pink perspex booties - high-waisted fringe jeans - black mock neck crop top - H&M black moto jacket

In case you couldn't tell by the unevenness of the fringe, I made these pants! Well, I sewed the fringe onto the bottom of a $6 pair of pants that I bought in the men's section of Goodwill. In case you haven't noticed, I love sewing black fringe onto clothing to make something basic look more interesting. It's really easy to do: the whole process took me maybe 45 minutes. You can do it with any trim: velvet, lace, pom poms, etc.