I've been reading YLF daily for several years (and have turned more than a few friends onto it), but I'm brand-new to the forum, and this is my first post. As a longtime fashion and style lover, I'm excited! Hence the very long post. I really love how supportive and positive everyone is on this forum. It feels like a world away from the usual internet.

Last year, heavily under the influence/inspiration of Angie, I decided to add a pair of white jeans to my wardrobe. This ended up inspiring quite the style reboot for me, and I've moved to wearing a lot of softer colors, which I've always loved, and retooling my look toward a more romantic, consciously pretty style. I have to say that I'm enjoying my clothes and my style more than ever before. I even got a pair of coppery rose gold specs when I had to update my glasses prescription a few months ago. And I love my white jeans! I actually now have three pairs, one flared from Poetry, one straight-leg from Garnet Hill, and a new pair from Anthropologie which are straight-leg and rolled for a cropped look, and feature embroidery around the hips. I couldn't resist them and will try to get a good photo.

As is probably clear from the above, I tend to do a lot of catalog and boutique shopping (the three listed above are some of my favorites) rather than shopping at department stores. But YLF and my good friend Knitting Gene turned me on to the NAS last year, which has been great fun. The few items I got at last year's NAS were big winners, so I was excited to return this year, especially after KG alerted me to the blush velvet sneaker booties (I've developed quite a thing for pink shoes). It turns out that Anthropologie also has a pre-fall sale, or at least they did this year, so I also picked up a few items there. Their boho/romantic aesthetic goes well with my new look, although I have to watch out for not going too juvenile with their clothes.

For this fall, I was looking to just add a few fresh pieces to my already abundant wardrobe, and continue to move my style in this new direction that I'm enjoying so much. I also wanted to replenish/update some of my basics with my new color palette in mind. My neutrals are now cream, taupe, and even blush, as well as grey, which is my perennial favorite. I got more than I planned, of course, but I did not go crazy (with one notable splurge-y exception).

A challenge for me is that while what I love to wear most is dresses, I work in corporate wellness and also teach yoga, so my daily look has to incorporate active wear without looking like I'm going to the gym. I have worked on this over the years and feel that I've struck a pretty good balance, but it's still an evolving work in progress. I wear a lot of dresses on the weekends (when I'm not wearing my white jeans!), and will sometimes bring one to change into if I'm going out after work. Another challenge is that I'm very petite, and while my current style is as described above (romantic/pretty, a bit boho and also active!), I still want to look grown-up. I'm 56, and while I think I'm a relatively youthful 56 and want to enjoy that I'm very fit from a lifetime of yoga practice – I still wear body-con styles – I'm also a big proponent of both positive aging and aging gracefully; I really want to embody these values and avoid looking like I'm clinging to youth.

So, with that long intro, onto the clothes! Here's what I'm keeping out of what I got:

Sweaters
 Light grey Ted Baker sweater with the lace-y hem (NAS)
 Cream and grey pleated sweater (Anthropologie)
 Halogen long light-weight linen-blend taupe cardigan (NAS)
 Cream sleeveless sweater tunic (Anthropologie)

Tops
 Silver camisole top (Anthropologie)
 
Pants
 White embroidered jeans (Anthropologie)

Skirts
 Pleated metallic skirt (Anthropologie)

Dresses
 Blush velvet slip dress (Nordstrom)
 Long taupe slip dress (Nordstrom)

Shoes
 Cole Haan ribbed ballet flats in nude (NAS)
 TWO pairs of the Gentle Souls sneaker booties (NAS)
 
Bag
 Creamy taupe JJ Winters backpack style bag (local boutique)

I just love the Ted Baker sweater, which I learned about on another member's post (thanks again, Susie!) and then tracked down by calling my local store when it was sold out on line. I wore it for the first time today (photo below). The neckline is a bit high for my taste but that's easily remedied if I decide to have it altered.

The pleated Anthropologie sweater is on back order so I'm still waiting for it, but it suits my style so perfectly I don't anticipate returning it unless the quality turns out to be poor.

The sleeveless tunic sweater is absolutely fantastic for the lifestyle fashion challenges I described above – on it goes over yoga clothes and I'm dressed.

The silver camisole top is so gorgeous and also very versatile, I've already worn it a bunch, both with pants and skirts, and it's garnered multiple compliments each time.

The embroidery on the white jeans makes them a bit more special, something I love about Anthropologie's clothes, and they are sooo comfortable!

I got a pink-ish/dusty coral color in the metallic skirt, but could only find a photo of this silver one, which is also lovely (and tempting, I'd totally wear the look in that photo, but I'm done shopping for the moment).

The blush velvet dress was an unprecedented splurge for me, I rarely buy anything at full price and I think this cost twice as much as any other splurge-y clothing purchase I've ever made. I probably shouldn't have ordered it "just to try it on," because I absolutely fell in love with it and couldn't bear to part with it. So I just decided it was the dress of a lifetime... and because everything else I got was so reasonably priced, I was still able to stay pretty much within my budget for the season. All the other clothes together added up to not much more than the ridiculous price of this one dress. But, who can put a price on love, haha!

The other slip dress was a bargain, mitigating the high cost of the other dress just a bit, and it fits well into my lifestyle since I can easily slip it on over yoga clothes. What I love about both dresses is that they can be dressed up or down.

Did I really need two pairs of the Gentle Souls sneaker booties? Probably not, but "need" doesn't really enter into at this point. Clearly I'm taking to heart Angie's recent advice about duplicating shoes that really work in your wardrobe, and these fit my lifestyle so incredibly well. I got the blush suede and the blush velvet, but, just as in the photos, they are two very different colors. The velvet is really a rose color, and the suede, a very light creamy sand color with no hint of pink at all. I love both. A word of caution about these shoes, though – they are VERY narrow. I have narrow feet and they only just work for me. I wear a 6.5 to a 7; I got the 7 in these and could not have sized up more as they are definitely the right length, but I can only wear very thin socks with them.

I was able to find a photo online of the bag I got, but not the color; this blue color is lovely, but the one I bought is a buttery, creamy taupe, (close in color to the suede booties), and I love it. A backpack style bag has been on my list for quite a while now, and this one was majorly marked down at the boutique I bought it from. If anyone is looking, after I bought this one I saw that Jigsaw has a blush colored one on markdown at a great price right now.

I'm not going to take pictures of myself in every item, but I'll add a few selfies with outfits I've worn so far from these finds. And perhaps I'll add more later as I put together new looks.

In case it's not obvious, that third from the end photo is a close-up of the embroidery on the Anthropologie jeans. I'm dressed for my weekend yoga class on a foggy Bay Area morning in the second to last photo, in an outfit featuring the velvet booties (which are the only new item in that pic). And I'm not wearing anything new at all in the very last photo; I included it because I think it exemplifies my current style and gives an idea of how I've tried to combine my style goals with the needs of my very active work life.