I'm nothing if not a dedicated student, and so I took to Angie's homework assignment in this thread http://youlookfab.com/welookfa.....ting-point like a duck to water. I read, I thought, I mused, I read again and then I acted.
I started with reviewing what I currently have in my closet and put into a purge pile the items that I no longer love, fit my mood for a style refresher, physically fit my body, or require replacement due to wear and tear. I'm working on preparing a list of the items I will be keeping but still have some work to do in this area - I'll post when complete. Through this process I have identified step #1 in what I'm calling Shannon's Spring Refresher Project (I suspect there will be a number of posts over the next few weeks belonging to this topic).
Step #1: Replace black blazer, black pencil skirt and simple black dress.
Now I know what you're saying...."Shannon, didn't you say you wanted to move away from black"?....and yes, I do overall. However, these three items are absolute essential staples in my wardrobe to which I can add color when I want through toppers, footwear, handbags, accessories, specs, lipstick.
These items can be dressed up or down, worn for the office or my life outside the office, and can be mixed and matched in a myriad of ways. I cannot imagine my wardrobe without these three essential basics. This relates to Angie's suggestion that I think about my internal and external factors. I live in a 4 season climate. With the right choices, these items can cross at least 3 of those seasons. I work in an office but am not always required to dress strictly corporate - when I have a Board of Directors meeting, the full suit is worn, on Casual Friday I can pair the black blazer with jeans and a blouse, etc. The same goes for a simple but well fitting black dress - with a jean jacket, bare legs and booties for a weekend day or with a tweed jacket and pumps for work. The black skirt can be worn with tights and booties during the cold months and bare legged in the summer. My office has freezing AC in the summer months and so a blazer is worn pretty much year round in my world. I'd like as much of my wardrobe to be multi purpose between my work life and home life as possible.
My black skirt suit is 3+ years old and is starting to look less than lovely. And my Eileen Fisher drape neck dress has been worn to the point of looking raggedy.
Replacing these three items with new and perhaps slightly different and modern sensibilities will give me the building blocks to move forward.
Step #2 will be assessing how much of a style change I'm craving and willing to pursue. This will be in another thread at a later date.
Angie also suggested I choose my new Style Moniker. I think I've settled on Sophisticated Fun. I want to have an element of timelessness and sophistication to my style - dark wash slim jeans, LBD, my version of a white shirt (these items also address my hint of Parisian Chic) but I want those sophisticated elements combined with fun items - retro chunky jewelry, colorful footwear, unexpected handbag, etc.
Anyway...there are my thoughts so far. Much more pondering to do. I have to say that writing down these thoughts and coming back to YLF has already helped enormously with getting my head around a few things. Thank you all so much - especially you Angie
