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I went to Coney Island last week and was a little ambitious about the whole "seaside sundress" thing (I get excited about dressing for themes). Thank god I brought a scarf and a jacket. It's still cold out there, you guys. On the bright side, the day trip also involved eating pizza for lunch AND dinner, getting gelato, riding an overpriced roller coaster, and spending some rare, relatively quiet time by the ocean because the chilly temperatures scared off all the crowds! Jacket, bag and scarf are thrifted. Picked up the dress at an American Apparel going-out-of-business sale for super cheap! Sneakers are Tretorn and are SO COMFY OMIGOD YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

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Mostly thrifted for a visit to Roosevelt Island a few weeks back! Roosevelt Island is a GREAT place to spend time in NYC for cheap--the island is accessible by the train or by a cable car system, both of which just take a metro card fare to use! The cable car gives you some really stunning views of the city, and the island has Four Freedoms park (of Yeezy fame), which is a free public space for picnicking and hanging out on the river with even more stunning skyline vistas. Weirdly, this is also what I wore to work--I work with dogs, so full skirts or pants with give, sturdy materials, and practical shoes are key. Going from work to activities right after can sometimes be challenging with all this in mind! That *might* be a schmutz of dog food on my jacket. It's a gross mystery! Everything here is thrifted but the skirt (on clearance at Forever 21 last year) and the shades (Brooklyn Flea). The shoes were one of my better recent Goodwill finds--they're these incredible, comfortable slit leather oxfords by Splendid! These babies probably retail at ~$100 and I got them in like-new condition for ~$10. The whole outfit probably cost from $40-$50 at MOST. I was feeling good about being thrifty AND cute.

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Parents and I also stopped by the Bronx Botanic Gardens for the Dale Chihuly installations while they were in town! FYI-NY residents and people with student IDs get discounts, and the gardens are accessible by transit. It's always nice to get off the island for a while, and this is a pretty inexpensive day trip! The entire outfit is thrifted here, minus the sunglasses (from Brooklyn flea).

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Took my parents to Bushwick (a neighborhood in Brooklyn) a few weeks back while they were in town! Grabbed some local beers at The Well and KCBC (a beer bar and a local brewery, respectively), followed by phenomenal Ethiopian food at Bunna cafe. The graffiti in Bushwick is amazing; it's an incredible mix of tags, scrawls, profanity, and intricate artwork. The resulting colorful walls and pull-down industrial doors make up one of the most aesthetically interesting free walks in the city, in my opinion (and now I'm wishing I'd snapped more photos for this post). I'd written a long post about gentrification, but Tumblr ate it--probably for the best, given that I don't think anyone really wants to hear the probably-subconsciously-defensive ramblings of a trying-to-be-woke white girl re: gentrification. Instead, I'll link you to a fantastic series I found by the author of "The Brooklyn Wars" about the history of Bushwick and how gentrification has warped it. My voice is not the most important one in this conversation. http://gothamist.com/author/Neil%20deMause Outfit is almost completely secondhand! Skirt, bag and jacket are thrifted; Doc Marten Clemency boots are one of the best trades I've ever gotten at Buffalo Exchange.

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Brooklyn Botanic Garden yesterday! The Garden is free every Tuesday (except for specific festival days).

These photos give the illusion that it was a solitary visit, but in reality, there were masses of sweaty, stressed-out tourists pushing past one another to get to the cherry blossom gallery and the bonsai room. Cherry trees are the thirst traps of plants--those pink blossoms are straight up Instagram bait. I don’t know if I’ve witnessed a selfie stick concentration that heavy since the last time I passed through Times Square (says the beleaguered New Yorker of one year).

I get a teeny bit agoraphobic, so that was all a little much for me, but I’m still glad I got some solid plant time in. I’m feeling very inspired to take my houseplant gardening game to the next level. Maybe I’ll finally become the small-time succulent peddler I’ve always wanted to be. Visiting Brooklyn puts these sorts of ideas into one’s head.

Vintage (thrifted) dress, necklace and bag; good ol’ converse sneakers; Bonlook glasses.

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Park time on my day off yesterday! This thrifted dress looks like checks but it’s actually tiny hearts and my cheesy ass loves it.

An NYC tip: Drinking in public is a ticketable offense, so make sure to hide and subtly consume your Rosé (don’t drink it straight from the bottle, like we did). I didn’t get ticketed, but I did have to run and hide the rosé at least twice.

Anyway, I think we can all look forward to seeing much more of my scabby, bike-grease-stained, muddy knees this summer. I know that’s why you guys really follow this blog. Cheers!

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Playing with Blue and Yellow

I have a constantly-evolving list (typed out in the “notes” section of my iphone) of looks that I’m ~feeling~ for Spring and Summer this year. Among other things, the list includes:

bikini tops in the shape of seashells

vintage barettes

patchwork 80s Sharif bags

pastel cowboy boots

and photorealistic vegetable prints (I didn’t say the list made sense).

I actually do have a few vintage barettes, but most of the list is aspirational. However, the idea that keeps floating to the top of the list is the  idea of a rich, creamy, buttery yellow shade for everything—a shade that is almost completely absent from my wardrobe. 

To be frank, it’s hard to find things in pretty shades of yellow that have aged well. It’s a color that’s prone to stains, wrinkles and obvious pilling, and when I’m out thrifting, I often only find it splashed across stretched, dated tees from 5-10 years ago. I’ll spot a perfect, sunny golden banana color and realize I’ve grabbed a pair of children’s leggings. It’s NOT an easy color to find secondhand.

Blue, on the other hand, is. A solid quarter of my wardrobe is made up of pieces in varying shades of blue, all found in decent-to-excellent condition. I salivate over teal, periwinkle, and navy, over shades from powder to royal. 

When I finally got my hands on a suitably yellow piece (this skirt, which I picked up for ~$5 at an American Apparel going out of business sale in late January), I was momentarily at a loss for what to wear with it. Black seemed too harsh, and my pinks and reds felt too summery for early spring when I held them next to the daffodil pop of the skirt. Blue was the key. 

I had the afternoon off of work one day last week and put together a few looks with my flippy little summer skirt! Haven’t worn any of these anywhere besides my apartment stairwell yet, but as it warms up, hopefully they can all get more wear. 

LOOK 1: 

Thrifted crop, scarf. American Apparel skirt. Wolverine boots. 

SUITABLE FOR: Seeing a weekend matinee of some lighthearted new off-off-Broadway comedy. Perhaps getting a baked good of some sort afterwards. 

LOOK 2: 

Thrifted jean jacket, blouse. American Apparel skirt. Wolverine boots. 

SUITABLE FOR: Going to awkward first few hours of a minor gallery opening party, specifically while it’s still light out (sunny yellow just feels wrong for going out at night). Perhaps grabbing a glass of cava afterwards and discussing the absurdity of contemporary art with your wealthy best friend. 

LOOK 3: 

Thrifted top, American Apparel skirt, Tretorn sneakers, ribbon (seen here in the role of “choker’) swiped from my sewing kit. 

SUITABLE FOR: Going to Coney Island on the first TRULY warm day of the year; conning men into spending vast sums to win prizes for you at various carnival games; ditching the men, throwing the prizes in the trash and getting absurdly large soft-serve cones with your wealthy best friend. 

LOOK 4: 

Thrifted blouse, pumps. American Apparel skirt. Stretchy piece of random gold wrapping string from beneath my dresser worn as a choker. 

SUITABLE FOR: Attending your wealthy best friend’s swanky daisy-themed bayb-gender-reveal party on the Upper East Side; revealing that you, too, are pregnant; dramatically telling all the guests that the father is your best friend’s husband, but that you’re madly in love with your personal trainer and that you’re running away to the Maldives with him (the trainer, to be precise); fleeing to a waiting SUV, never to be seen by UES high society again. 

LOOK 5: 

Thrifted blouse, Converse sneakers, American Apparel skirt, sewing kit ribbon choker. 

SUITABLE FOR: The same UES heiress returning for Governor’s Ball looking for at least a few hours of lighthearted fun, seemingly incognito, back from the Maldives after a rocky breakup with her personal trainer. She’d revealed that she was never pregnant and it was all a ruse to steal the spotlight and get attention from her lovely, accomplished best friend, of whom she was madly jealous. This best friend spots her at the festival, recognizing the telltale daffodil yellow of her favorite skirt, and rushes to her, embracing her. “I’m so glad you’re back,” she sobs. “Being sober and pregnant at a festival is terrible. “ They laugh and hold hands. The ashamed, not-pregnant heiress reveals that she’s been going to a therapist. The two women purchase coconut waters. 

LOOK 6:

SUITABLE FOR: The not-pregnant heiress has discovered that she’s actually harbored intensely romantic feelings for her best friend all along. She’s discovered a lot about herself in therapy. She decides to broach the topic with her best friend one day, knowing she’ll regret it forever if she says nothing. She’s seen how her best friend has wilted in her marriage; her best friend’s husband is rich and cruel, frequently absent, with a never-ending supply of suggestions for “improving” her friend’s life and appearance. It’s the hottest day of the summer, and the not-pregnant heiress slips on her favorite skirt, the one that’s seen her through so much with the woman she loves. She wants to look cute and romantic and accessible. She steels herself for what’s to come. 

LOOK 7:

Thrifted blouse, jacket. Nine West boots. American Apparel skirt. 

SUITABLE FOR: Two years later. The heiress stares into her closet in the early morning light. The bedroom lights are off and small snores come from the bed behind her. She’s got to hurry to get to work on time. She has a job at a publishing house now, helping to develop emerging authors. It’s been two years since she and her best friend realized they were deeply, surprisingly, inconveniently in love; two years of madness and bliss. She glances back at the bed, smiling softly at her sleeping wife, and hears her stepson stir in the next room. Looking at her watch, she grabs her favorite yellow skirt and some practical boots. It’s a chillier day than usual, summer turning into fall, so she grabs her raincoat. She turns, leans over the bed, and kisses her wife, who stirs. “You sleep,” she says to her wife. “I have to go. I’ll get breakfast together and drop him at preschool.” Her wife blinks and smiles. “I love you in yellow,” she says. 

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Took at day trip to Dia:Beacon in Beacon, NY last week! Did you know you can get a round-trip train ticket combined with museum entry for ~$40? (I didn't) It's a fantastic, walkable little town that's right by the river and great for a fairly cheap day trip out of the city. All thrifted here. The vintage Wrangler jacket is actually from a garage sale in Boston a few years back--these things age like a dream!

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Changing direction!

READ ME (as of April 2017)

About my life:

Hi! I’m Kelly.

I’m not a particularly serious or focused fashion blogger, and I don’t live a particularly glamorous life. In the past 4 years, I’ve been:

A writer/editor

A legal assistant

A liquor promo manager

A high-end retail employee

A corporate finance drone

A special education teacher

And, currently, a front desk manager at a doggy daycare (it’s as incredible as it sounds)

I’m not living a particularly insta-perfect life over here.

I’ve had lots of jobs. I’ve moved from Indianapolis to Boston to New York City. I’ve bounced around doing the twentysomething, not-born-wealthy, trying-to-make-ends-meet-while-trying-to-find-a-job-that’s-not-hellish thing. I ride a bike everywhere. I live in a teeny, cave-like room in a crammed apartment with 4 roommates in a neighborhood that’s not considered trendy. I bring my lunch to work in tupperware every day. I don’t really go to brunch.

And, shocking as it may be in the blogosphere, I’m okay with all of this! I really like my life right now. I don’t make much, but I get to hang out in New York City and take care of puppies all day.

When you’re a poor kid who (idiotically, some would say) got a liberal arts degree, you have to slog through some shit for a while to make everything work. But I ended up here. That’s a reward in itself. It’s hard, but I love it.

The long-winded point I’m making is that I’m pretty honest about what my life is really like, and it heavily influences the tone of this blog.

About this blog:

The one consistency in my life has been my painstakingly-curated closet (or, at the moment, industrial-strength Z rack crammed with clothes), made mostly of treasures I’ve found secondhand.

I spend more time than is probably productive poking around Goodwill and eBay in search of weird, pretty, interesting clothes. I’m constantly editing my closet, but realistically, I have tons of stuff I don’t wear. I have SO MANY THINGS that I absolutely adore and refuse to part with, but that I absolutely don’t have a place/event/venue/life for at the moment.

So what is this blog for, Kelly? (you ask). What are you rambling about? I see some low-quality cell-phone selfies in the archives. This all seems very thrown-together and directionless.

I mean, it is. I’ve had this blog sitting around since college (scroll back into the archives and you’ll see what I mean). I update it…intermittently (and that’s a generous euphemism). But here it is, with a solid amount of followers, collecting dust. And here I am, with a closet full of clothes I can’t wear to leash up 70+ dogs in the course of a day and clean up the occasional puddle of pee in the lobby.

So I decided to express myself sartorially in the most realistic way available to me at the moment.

I’m changing the direction of this blog to be intentionally editorial.

What is intentionally editorial?

Intentionally editorial means I won’t always have a place to wear the outfits I post here, and that I’ll be honest with you about that.

It means I’m playing dress-up in my closet (and posting the occasional pic of what I wear on days off). I’m reveling in my own brand of materialism and having a grand old time with my precious, precious earthly belongings.

I may not be able to wear a rayon ruffled minidress circa 1995 to ride my bike to work and carry 15 puppies up and down stairs for their lunchtime naps, but I’ll damn well style it and take some mediocre photos of it and enjoy imagining situations it *could* be worn in.

I actually suspect (and by “suspect” I mean “know for a fact”) that lots of fashion bloggers shoot this way, and just pretend that what they post is actually what they wear day-to-day. I’m just being honest about it.

Any other disclaimers?

Like I’ve obnoxiously repeated at least eleven times thus far, I live in New York City, one of the fashion capitals of the world. It’s wonderful and so inspiring, but being bombarded by fashion all the time makes me think a lot about how we define what is stylish—what constitutes acceptable presentation, and what makes a look ~fashionable~.

The conclusion that I’ve come to (and that I can’t take credit for, given the number of people that have been saying something like this for DECADES) is that a lot of trends we see in capital-F Fashion are just clothes, worn by young, white, thin, able-bodied, conventionally pretty people.

I think this is something that rankles me when I think about the world of fashion and blogging—that we’re rewarding pretty white people for being pretty and white and wearing clothes. I understand that I am in many ways complicit in that, and I try my best to be sensitive, compassionate, and realistic about what I post. Please shoot me a note if you don’t find that to be the case.

Anyway, welcome! Cheers to new directions. Everything below this post is pretty out of date, but feel free to have a look and a laugh anyway!

-Kelly

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hey! i wanted to thank you for your review post on the AA riding pants. I just bought some for myself, and they are the best pants ever, and everything you wrote was incredibly accurate! thanks for helping a girl out!

Glad to hear it! I have them in two colors now and they’re still my favorites :)

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More fun THRIFTED things I've worn to work lately! All bought secondhand.

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Experimental suiting: no. ? of ? (All my suiting is experimental) Blouse, blazer, oxfords and necklace are secondhand; pants are from Anne Taylor (just a boring black skinny crop)

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Some autumnal ~looks~ from this weekend while I was poking around thrift stores looking for Halloween gear

All thrifted minus the matte grey converse ($20 at their outlet store)!

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Finally got my hands on a pair of checkerboard vans slip-ons that I’ve been wanting for ages! These bbs were in mint condition and in my size at the thrift store for $11. I like to think that this is the thrifting gods letting me know I am their chosen one.

Dress and bag also thrifted! The dress laces up in the back ❤️

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You are such an idol when it comes to fashion and outfits! That your outfits are thrifted just makes me admire them 100 times more.

Thanks pal! That’s kind :) 

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This one’s not as thrifted as usual–only the cropped blouse.

Culottes (seen in an earlier photo set) from TJ Maxx, blazer from my short stint as a Helmut Lang sales associate, chunky oxfords from the Steve Madden clearance sale ($20!), wristwatch stolen from an ex

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Unintentionally ~Americana~ for a baseball game tonight Thrifted: vintage Guess denim skater dress (!!!!), red leather mini bowler, braided white leather belt Not thrifted: old leopard Keds, nameplate cow necklace (from the Indiana state fair), mini peanut necklace (from a friend)