Only thing missing is my canvas book bag...

So, the photo is awful but I at least I figured out a way to take it in our hall closet not-quite-full-length mirror, in the almost dark. :) 

Wore this today but did not actually go out in it. Feeling a wee bit self-conscious about the degree of preppiness. I am about to take it all off and go for a run in my gear. 

Having said that...RED is BEST!! Woke up way too early on too little sleep and put that scarf next to my face and almost didn't need makeup.  :)  This is a true red which wasn't perfect with my blonde hair but works great with the grey. My range of reds expands! :) 

And, in other news, I love this J. Crew sweater....got it about a month ago and have worn it at least twice per week since then. It's beautiful quality cotton, with snaps at the sides and a vertical blue stripe down the side as well, slightly slouchy and oversized -- the perfect thing to throw on if the evenings or mornings are cooler. 

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46 Comments

  • catgirl replied 7 years ago

    Gorgeous! Yes, the hair changes the colors you can wear and how you wear them. It's a fun learning curve, actually.

  • anne replied 7 years ago

    Great new sweater!

  • Suz replied 7 years ago

    So, Una, what have you discovered that works for you now that did not before? Maybe I will start a thread with that question...or maybe you did exactly that last year? I seem to recall something like that....

  • Angie replied 7 years ago

    Killer

    I think this is a GREAT look. Your hair and the scarf add lots of pizazz. 

  • replied 7 years ago

    Love it. Scarf is perfect here - and I LOVE THAT SWEATER!  I also am smiling at us doing the Una -pose lately .  Interesting about reds.....I never wore them either - mostly because I never saw anything in red in a piece I liked, but you've got me curious how it would look w my hair too.  

    I don't see this outfit as too preppy because the sweater is nice and slouchy and has that side opening. If it had a traditional banded bottom and was more fitted, than yes, but this is really cool.  And I like these sandals much better with jeans.  

  • replied 7 years ago

    p.s. I have quite a few canvas book bags if you want to borrow one :)  

  • rachylou replied 7 years ago

    Lol. Except you need to run that top thru the heavy cycle wash for about ten more years... Sweet!

  • texstyle replied 7 years ago

    I wasn't sure if the white shoes would work with white pants after the white bermuda discussion - but they do and it looks great! I don't think it's too preppy at all.

  • Chris987 replied 7 years ago

    Gorgeous on you!!!  Doesn't look very preppy to me...not sure why...

    And I'm loving the sweater....dark background with slimmer lighter stripes....I'm liking it better than the opposite configuration....

  • marianna replied 7 years ago

    WOW! Love this. And it's so interesting that I LOVE the sandals with these pants, but did not like them with the shorts. Angie was right that the sandals need a longer bottom! Well done.

  • viva replied 7 years ago

    So cute. Love this whole outfit.

  • JAileen replied 7 years ago

    Adorable!!!

  • Dottie replied 7 years ago

    I love it - the red scarf is perfect. I also like how the polka dots on the scarf lend to a little pattern mixing too!

  • Jenn replied 7 years ago

    Such a good outfit, Suz... perfect for your polished self. It's instructional for me to see that sweater a very different body type than mine, because it looks just perfect on you. I tried it on a while back and it was HORRIBLE on me. Every piece is definitely not for every body, and that's perfectly OK.  :)

  • Aida replied 7 years ago

    The sandals look sooo good with the white jeans! I like the preppiness of your outfit here, it doesn't read on the whole as preppy. Probably thanks to the new 'do. Have you tried doing the single big cuff with those jeans? I'm really enjoying that with my raw-edged denim.

  • Sara L. replied 7 years ago

    Nice! I tried a neckerchief outfit today and couldn't do it. It felt too affected for me. I might give it another try with a weekend outfit.

  • replied 7 years ago

    I just love it. That sweater is gorgeous.
    I'm happy that your range of reds has expanded. Reds are great for adding colour to your face. I think that's why a lot of women wear red glasses.

    I am definitely a frequenter of the library and it's usually with some plastic Loblaw's bag or a kid's backpack :)

    aside: I also see that you have the ECCO white sneakers. We are sneaker twins, yay!

  • Suz replied 7 years ago

    Sara, do give it another try. I think it depends on the scarf, really. This one has MAJOR sentimental value as I bought it in China when we went back to visit my daughter's orphanage city. I wanted to bring back one fashion souvenir and this was it. It's a gorgeous quality silk but an awkward shape to wear for anything but this type of look. 

    Aida, you are so observant. These jeans actually need another hack. I left them as is and only rolled them because they frayed badly somehow and they are too long anyway so I rolled. I'm going to hack them to the proper length and maybe roll again as you suggest to make - horrors!! -- capris!! 

    Jenn, thank you. Isn't it instructive? Because I do so much shopping online I have become an obsessive reader of the reviews. I really want to hear what people's body type is. When I review an item now I am incredibly precise about my height, approximate weight, figure type, body modifiers, climate, needs, etc. The sweater that is hell for one is perfect for another. J. Crew in general fits to a rectangular body type, I believe. Whereas some other makers? Uh...no. (You should have seen me in the Ted Baker store in Boston. Our hourglass Fabbers looked divine in his designs!!) 

    Dottie, Viva, Aileen, Marianna -- thanks. 

    Tex, re the shoes -- yes -- I like them better with longer bottoms too. They work okay with my tube skirts but I wore them with my flared skirt and blanched at the pic I later took....Live and learn, folks...I actually wore this in real life in a Montreal restaurant at lunch -- urgh!! Luckily half the people in the place were inebriated. 

    Chris, if it doesn't look preppy it is probably the hair and shoes. Or, like Lisa and Rachy said, the fit of that darn sweater...need to shrink it!!  ;) 

    Lisa, coming to get that Anansi bookbag pronto. 

    Angie, Anne, thank you. Angie, you inspire us all so much! Thank you. 

  • Suz replied 7 years ago

    Smittie, yes!! I got them with Gaylene's help from Ingeldew's. It was the only place that had my size! I really like them but haven't had too many chances to wear yet. 

    As far as I am concerned, any bag that holds books is a good bag. :) 

  • replied 7 years ago

    Speaking of Anansi , I just had a cocktail with Sarah MacLachlan at The Hotel Fort Garry. The ACP meetings are here this week.  The bar was packed with publishers of all shapes and sizes - kind of fun to see people I hadn't seen in a few years .  Publishers are the oddest dressed people ever ;)  (Jack David in those strappy rubber sandals  (what are they called again - starts with a T) with socks, massive pleated blue shorts hiked up and firmly belted over his impressive girth with a random Blue Jays t-shirt on . 

  • replied 7 years ago

    I hope you're kidding about shrinking the sweater......

  • Aida replied 7 years ago

    Hah horrors nothing! I actually like capris (maybe that's the horrors?) and I think these will make a fine pair. If it makes you feel better about them you can always call them cropped straights ;)

  • UmmLila (Lisa) replied 7 years ago

    what's the Anansi book bag? Is that from the Neil Gaiman Anansi Boys?

    And also, I love this look!  

  • Angie replied 7 years ago

    The skirt outfit is fabulous. Elegant. Wooohooo. LOVE the shoes with the skirt. 

  • Jaime replied 7 years ago

    Doesn't strike me as preppy. The wonders of perfect hair! Love the sandals, interesting about the red. 

  • replied 7 years ago

    Anansi  (House of Anansi ) is a Canadian literary publisher . Very well-known and respected . Publishes many big Canadian writers, as well as international/UK  and US writers ( like Jim Harrison) .    I was a rep for them for 10 years or so - and Suz is very familiar with and known to them as well.  I have lots of their canvas book bags :)  

  • Colette replied 7 years ago

    Oh my goodness this outfit looks great on you! I love the scarf with your new hair. And the sandals are perfect with these jeans.

  • Suz replied 7 years ago

    Thanks for filling in about Anansi, Lisa, and of course I'm kidding about shrinking the sweater!!! The sandals are Tevas. 

    Writing/ publishing people in Canada have less than no money and mostly think it is frivolous to be interested in fashion except for a few poets who love their Fluevogs and their rock star moto jackets. :) 

    Angie, you think? I thought that outfit looked really dumb in retrospect. Similar to Saturday's bermuda's outfit. Anyway, however it looked, something felt off about it to me. I think it is too "set" and matchy-matchy for my aspirational style.  There is something too rigid about it. I am going to try the skirt with a denim shirt or jacket and a different type of top, as you suggested -- not tucked. 

    And Aida, yes, that's what they are, really -- cropped straights that I wore BF style last year and intend to wear as raw edge this year! 

  • Suz replied 7 years ago

    ETA -- this is what not having a full length mirror or my camera set up for regular photos does to me. I try things out but can't evaluate ahead of time and just go out wearing them, only to cringe later!! Can't WAIT until DD is finished her photography course!! (By the way, she does take really great photos now!) 

  • replied 7 years ago

    Not all of them are as broke as you'd think :) 

    The skirt outfit is great - I'd just swap out the white shoes for something softer.    There is too much of a contrast going on there between shoe and skirt - but I love the idea of the cobalt top . Just wear your metallic cage sandals here....you have those, right ?  

  • Suz replied 7 years ago

    Yeah. Got them. They weren't here when I wore the outfit, though. I was travelling and had only room for a set number of shoes...agree on the contrast levels -- it's too much. 

    And #$*% those publishers if they have money they are not giving their writers...

  • Maneera replied 7 years ago

    Perfect! It doesn't read preppy to me at all....but it does look Minimally Fab. I think it's that red of the scarf and the sandals.

    I actually really like these sandals. They look amazing with the jeans! I was considering a very similar pair of brown sandals for myself a while back...now I almost regret not buying them because the block heel is super comfy.

  • Angie replied 7 years ago

    Suz, can you close your denim jacket and wear it like a top? I do that with my flared skirts sometimes. See below: 

  • Ledonna N. replied 7 years ago

    Hey sis you are so analytic when it comes to your thinking I love it. I wonder if your hair evolution means something more deeper.

  • Suz replied 7 years ago

    Angie, I love that outfit on you. The skirt is so vibrant -- you wore it for Mother's Day once, did  you not? 

    I can do my denim jackets up, absolutely! I have the white, the faded denim, and the darker denim with leather sleeves. I will try that. Will have to wait for a cooler day than the one I was wearing that outfit -- maybe in September. That outfit was a 33+ with humidity day in Montreal -- phew! 

    I also have a chambray shirt that works with it and a striped linen button down for some pattern mixing. And a black cropped top with split back. And a black mock t (sleeveless) and some other options. I'm going to experiment. It's not a failure because I love the feel of the fabric and it's always nice to have a change. I just need to find the right way to wear it. 

  • CocoLion replied 7 years ago

    This works!  I am so inspired by you to try it myself now.

    I think this outfit hits every note of how I want to dress myself right now.

  • lyn67 replied 7 years ago

    Hah, the canvas book bag is missing:-)). I find the white sandals(which I did not really like to the shorts outfit) are working so great here, and looking trendy once again:-). So very controversial, I know they were current buys and fab shoes, still they were not really doing any favor to the other outfit somehow... Love the outfit with the new hair and so-it  is all gorgeous, again!

  • lyn67 replied 7 years ago

    Wow, just read the comments, and  saw the skirted outfit-love the big white earrings to it!!! Wow, wow, wow!!!

  • skylurker replied 7 years ago

    Very puzzling.
    I see nothing wrong in both outfits.
    And I'm afraid to say it, since you didn't feel good in them, but they both look typical Suz to me : blue&white palette, modern classic pieces.
    Do you hate those sandals or what ?!? :)

  • Tanya replied 7 years ago

    Gorgeous outfit on you Suz, the red scarf totally makes it and the color is so vibrant with your hair.
    I also adore the J Crew skirt outfit on you and would like to thank you for your help in choosing the correct size in the skirt; i got size 2 at your recommendation and it is a perfect fit. We are twins now, yet again :) I have a somewhat silly question regarding the skirt background color: is it black or very dark inky navy? I keep changing my mind about it depending on the lightening and what I put next to it.

  • Mochi replied 7 years ago

    I am wondering if anyone is capable of looking bad with this formula. And Suz, you look particularly chic and spiffy. You own this type of look. I'm madly in love with your shoes, btw.

  • Suz replied 7 years ago

    Those shoes definitely inspire a lot of love and hate, don't they? Isabelle, you ask a good question, but honestly I think I like them -- they are extremely stable and comfortable and I have been looking for white sandals for  years. I just like them better with pants than with shorts or skirts, I think. :)  And I was feeling sensitive about "preppy" perhaps. I definitely lean that way in my style but might like to alter that a tiny bit...

    Tanya, I'm so glad the skirt worked out! It's a lovely fabric. I wish I could answer your question about the background colour. I have the same question myself! I guess that is a quality of silk, that it is changeable. On the whole I think it is black, but it could be ink. I tried it with an ink tee from J. Crew and it looks great -- but then it also works with black. So I'm just going to say it's either or both!

    Denise, I am gobsmacked! You want to dress like preppy me? No, it's the ease of the sweater, I think -- it's really a great cut. 

    Ledonna, Lyn, thank you! 

  • Mochi replied 7 years ago

    Hate????

  • Angie replied 7 years ago

    Suz, YES. I wore heck out of that skirt - that it tore. *sobbing*. I believe it's cooler where you are now - no? You mentioned so on the blog this morning. Or do I need more tea??

    I look forward to the outfit experimentation with the  skirt. You really need a crop top! 

  • Suz replied 7 years ago

    Oh, so sorry about your skirt, Angie!! But it was very well loved. That is always some consolation. 

    LOVE your crop top with the striped skirt - that is a look I can absolutely get behind. Now to find one of those tops in a fabrication that will work. The AT ones were all sold out in my size when I looked and we pay hefty duties on AT anyway (even though we have AT stores now in Canada...though of course not where I live...)

    I'll be in Toronto next weekend and plan to sneak out of my conference to do a little shopping. I might meet with success in an actual store.   

    Yes, much cooler here today! I am dressing for work at home but might have time for some experimentation later.   :) 

  • Angie replied 7 years ago

    YAY. 

    I WISH you could get these tops. You would have LOVED them. 

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