A Very Spotty Celebration
Though I may not have made this clear before, in many ways I am a much older person in a younger person's body. I love tea, and Judy Garland movies, and reading books at home. My best friend, Geneva, often sends me Buzzfeed quizzes along the lines of, "Are you a twenty-something grandma?" (my quiz results are always yes, undoubtedly.)
Sometimes I need to be reminded to be young while I am young, so in honor of that, this week I attempted to dress my age. (Inadvertently, I also ended up matching the dog, again.)
Here's how it all shook out:
THE EVENT: I went out for drinks with Geneva, to celebrate the engagement!
THE BROKEN RULE: I'm really leaning hard into my over-achiever tendencies, lately. I felt the need not just break one rule, but, again, I broke four:
- Don't wear anything too revealing
- Heels are too much. This is Seattle, after all.
- Round faces can't wear hoop earrings.
- Whoa, hold your horses on all that makeup.
THE OUTFIT: Geneva and I decided the occasion called for fancier Friday-night-out attire. Now, as a premature old person who REALLY likes her couch, sometimes fancy night-out wear can be hard for me to achieve. After a bit of hemming and hawing, I decided on a black racerback blouse, black tights, a Dalmation-print mini I've been hauling around since college, and wine colored velvet heels.
Now, let's talk about these heels, because they are new and I am obsessed. First off, I got them on Amazon for THIRTY DOLLARS. And they're velvet, and tall but with a block heel and ankle strap they're easy to walk in, and man, this experiment must be changing me because I would wear them everyday. I attempted close ups, but Izzy saw the camera and was feeling a little top model. Some of the pictures are more cute dog, and less cute shoes.
When I got over my shoe excitement, I put on hoop earrings and purple lipstick, and as I type it out, that sounds like a lot. However, at the time, I looked in the mirror, thought, 'YOUNG PERSON LOOK ACHIEVED' and called a Lyft.
THE EXPERIENCE: The experience in this outfit was great! Geneva and I accidentally coordinated our outfits, so I'm sure we looked really fancy together walking down the street. (That makes us sound like hookers. We are not prostitutes.) She had champagne waiting for us at her apartment, and then we went out and got dinner and fancy cocktails, and had a funny server and it was really very lovely. It was fun to be wearing a celebratory outfit while celebrating, even if I was over-dressed compared to the people around us. (Seattleites go out on the weekends in their North Face jackets. All the rumors you have heard are true.)
THE CONCLUSION: The more I break rules, the more I've come to realize that what I wear does not seem to matter. I haven't spontaneously combusted when I've dressed differently. No one has been visibly offended by my outfits. The skies haven't opened up and struck me with lightning. Before I began the experiment, I would have never worn this outfit. For this occasion, I probably would have worn a black dress and black tights, and maybe a heeled bootie and called it a day. Presentable and inauspicious. I would have stuck with black eye liner and a simple lip color. I wouldn't have looked dowdy, but it certainly would have lacked the fun that this outfit had. And the more I err toward fun outfits, the more fun I seem to have. So I suppose the next logical step is, is there a limit? When does the fun top off? Perhaps that's where the experiment will head next...
Next week, blog posts will return to their normal Tuesday/Friday schedule! See you on Halloween!
