I have been feeling the striped tee and jeans vibes this season. I have kept my eye out for a colorful striped tee and a non-skinny distressed jean in a lighter wash. I just passed on something like the latter for being a smidge too tight.

I posted on Suz’s workhorse thread about my tale of woe about returning a tee I love. I went to J Crew to return and found a higher quality long sleeved tee in similar colors. I also found suitable jeans in my size.

About the shirt - there is a lot of yellow, one of the few colors I avoid wearing. I am open to it as a print. I think the lighting here may make this tricky to determine, but does the yellow look okay?

About the jeans - like many of you, I have a poison eye for whispering. This seems an acceptable level, though. It fits me like a dream. I had given up on finding pants or jeans at the Crew years ago, so it’s a pleasant surprise. Does this look good even with the moderate whiskering? I feel like lighter wash jeans will be harder to find without whiskering this season. (OMG, these may be good with my navy Chelsea boots!)

I do like these items as seen in the dressing room, and as always will check again at hone. But as always, I often like to do a little gut check here when I try to stretch my style comfort zone. I feel solid with my work style but have been working on my more casual style. You all have served me well over the past year and a half or so. What say you?

I am going to be away for half of November, all told, and need to shop my closet for that month and December. I’m trying to get my shopping and returning squared away before then. The good news is my back issues are no longer affecting how I dress beyond footwear considerations. (If you’ve seen previous posts, I’d been wearing an SI belt that gave me muffin top. I decided it was holding back my overall progress even though it seemed helpful in the moment.)

ETA - additional photos. The jeans styled with the boots I mentioned (looks cool but won’t work on because the boots don’t fit my current recovery needs; they have to go in a holding zone. I hadn’t tried them since my injury because I knew they aren’t that supportive.)

Also, I tried to get the best picture I could of the shirt and my complexion. I don’t think it looks bad but I’m a terrible judge of this kind of thing.