Privilege Blog

Cleaning Up Okay, Or, Saturday Morning at 9:41am

May I present dressing for for dinner last Sunday night. (Also a background photoshopped to remove mess. You’re welcome.)

I wore the never-fail Dries van Noten with the Harwood coat my siblings gave me. Changed my silhouette, that coat, giving more of a trapeze dress than shift. Went with pearls, i.e.  inexpensive pearl drops from Pearl Somewhere-Or-Other and the non-inexpensive 1930s Cartier seed pearl and diamond bracelet inherited from my mother.

First I tried these Neous pumps. More comfortable than they look. But it was raining, and besides in the Northern California suburbs very, very, very few people dress up for restaurants.

So I switched them out for black suede waterproofed Isabel Marant Dickers and immediately felt 100% more me that evening. More playful.

Nothing here is new. Except the eyebrows.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. Make sure you’re wearing the shoes. You know the ones.

6 Responses

  1. You look great, and yes, so much more “you” with the booties. I’ve found myself asking the question “Do I feel like me” now when I get dressed. It’s moved up to my highest criteria, along with comfort – which often overlap.

  2. You do look great! And I clicked onto the boots to see you posted about them in 2013! Isn’t it satisfying to get long life from clothes? I don’t think I would have cheered my eleven-year-old shoes when I was young. As for dressing up, sometimes it’s just for us. My husband and I overdressed slightly last night for a restaurant in Chadds Ford PA, knowingly and happily. Enjoyed seeing him in some great Italian slacks and he looked at me, appreciating that I wasn’t slouching around in my everyday wear. Another benefit of being 72 – I don’t need to fit in perfectly with a roomful of strangers, though I do need to be comfortable and feel like myself, just a little zhushed up for dinner out. That Dries dress is wonderful btw.

  3. Beautiful! Adore the outfit, and love the choice of booties over pumps. Since I moved, and my car is in my nephew’s garage on Queen Anne Hill, I find I don’t want to use it, I’m walking everywhere, and find that I prefer trainers, loafers, boots, or a dressy bootie to any other shoes. I’m looking for a pair of comfortable everyday hiking boots that look a bit dressy, if that can be a thing. Even a pump with a one-inch heel feels odd. I may cull and donate all my heels, some of which are from the 1980s and in perfect condition, because I just don’t wear them any more, and my heels were at the most three-inch and with a wider heel. I’m keeping identical pairs of leather and suede Aquatalia short booties with three-inch block heels because they are good looking and comfortable. Though, I wore the leather pair to the board meeting and felt a bit odd to be towering above my usual height, and using different leg muscles. I have a pair of kitten heel suede and silk booties that would work well with your outfit, though I tend toward a midi or maxi length dress because that is most me. On Thursday I walked a couple of miles to meet a friend for dinner and then to her hotel and then home. I was happy in those suede booties, leggings, a cashmere tunic top, a shawl wool coat made by a San Francisco designer friend in the 1990s, and as always a scarf. As Kathy noted above, feeling like me and being comfortable are, and have always been, my primary concerns. An aside: As you probably know, Seattle is yet more casual than San Francisco, but there is enough variation that the way I dress fits in fine. Someone in a cafe a few weeks ago said my style looked French, which I’m taking as a compliment At our board meeting and cocktail hour on our top floor indoor deck area this week, there was a casually dressed couple, the man with a ZZ-top beard and the woman with lemon-yellow and lavender hair, our board president with wild curly hair and a wrinkled flannel shirt, the board secretary elegantly attired in a dress and long jacket with tights and heels, and the treasurer in a t-shirt and jeans. The ZZ-top beard and the lemon-yellow and lavender hair are a lovely couple in tech. The board president is a charming man also in tech who moves with his wife between a home in the California desert, a Bay Area rental, and the Seattle condo. Semiotic signifiers are generally absent. This El Nino year has been a boon for me. I’ve bought no new clothing because the weather had been so mild, and I’m continuing to winnow my wardrobe rather than expand it. I find Seattle’s variety pleasing, and as I walk up and down the hills and slopes I appreciate that comfort, water-resistant and waterproof materials, and a grippy tread all matter. And? People do use umbrellas here. My beautiful umbrellas are not languishing. Happy Saturday.

  4. Lovely!! The weather you’re way is as insane as it was when I lived there many moons ago. Though you’d never know it -California sun shines from the heart!!

  5. Great outfit. The dress and boots combine well. Eyebrows are brown and well defined …nicely done and looking good. Enjoy.

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