I actually thrifted these jean/trouser hybrids a few years ago, because of the complex dark greyed blue colour and lovely feel of the fabric, but at the time I couldn't figure out how to style them, so I passed them along to my mom. She's done wearing them though, and I'm interested in wide legged trousers again, so when she came to visit last month she brought them back. Win!

Last week, we had a day that started out cool and ended up quite warm, enough so that I completely changed the top half of my outfit. Since one is tucked & one untucked, I thought it'd be fun to show them side by side, and see how proportions change. For reference, I'm 5'3", and all of my length is in my torso: I'm long waisted and have a long rise (it takes a 12" rise to touch my belly button, lol). I am wearing shoes in one photo but not the other, and the shoes' sole is probably about an inch thick.

Ok! So the first outfit was actually another experiment for me; awhile back we had a fun chatty thread about Kibbe style types and forum member Sheila suggested I look at 'soft/yin natural' instead of 'soft/yin gamine,' basically to try out more drapey/flowy stuff than crisp looks. I very much enjoyed this Pinterest board, and since I use these ideas more as inspiration than rules, I'm happy to incorporate whatever appeals to my aesthetic sense. Hehe I'm also planning on knitting a couple of big cowls for fall/winter, thanks to the delicious neckwear Claire wears in Outlander, so I thought doing a trial run might be wise. Which is a long-winded way of saying, I put together pieces in a slightly different way than I normally would, and I'd love your thoughts on the result!

Since I was playing with silhouette, I stuck to my classic 'soft summer' palette and paired the moody indigo of the wide legged trouser jeans with a knit 100% silk, fitted sweater in muted, dark seagreen kind of colour; perhaps it's called mallard? (I'm trying to be more precise for Robin & Michelle.) I tucked the sweater in & added a similarly muted, medium blue-grey belt (I'm still learning how to belt trousers, but I promise those weird wrinkles in the crotch weren't noticeable in real life). Finally, I pulled out a very thin, drapey, pashmina-sized scarf that I bought in Toronto's Chinatown: it's in a very similar medium blue-ed grey tone as the belt, and has a chain pattern swirling across it in a soft navy and muted light pink colour. I tied it cowl-style, in the interests of the above-mentioned future knitting plans. Since my hair's a bit longer (suggested for soft naturals), I tried to style it as a 'medium length' cut instead of an overgrown bob, hehe. Oh, I'm wearing my Aurora flats, which I pretty much live in in the summer!

By late afternoon, it'd gotten much warmer (and my hair had gotten distinctly bedraggled: eek! the harder water up here makes hair maintenance trickier), so I switched to a character-laden sleeveless silk blouse instead. This is in a darker cool grey, with a ribbon tie to add some waist definition, and has a deep rounded colour in oyster white with a little black button & ribbon where the collar meets in the front. The back yoke has three matching buttons, although you can't see those. It's long enough to just cover the leg break of the trousers, but looking at the photos side by side, I don't think that lengthens my leg line as much as tucking in did. Thoughts? (And there's Moth, with a drive-by photo bombing, hehe. That bottom square of my bookcase is now left clear of books, so that she has a little cat tunnel/cubby.)

All suggestions, observations, criticisms, etc. are welcome as always! Looking at these photos, I was surprised that the sweater/scarf outfit somehow made my face seem a bit less quirky compared to the blouse, if that makes sense (I don't have those classic All American cheerleader features, like my mother & sister do). Do you see that too, or am I crazy? I find how much we can change the perception of our physical sleeves by changing our clothes fascinating & I have a thick skin, so discuss away!