Back when I was shopping for clothes (it seems so so long ago!), I had a rule that helped me curate an interesting wardrobe (well, interesting to me, at least): always buy the most unusual piece of clothing in your consideration set.
So if I'm deciding between two items, I pick the one in the more adventurous cut, fabric, pattern, or style. That's because when I finally take it home and integrate it into my wardrobe, it's gonna look a lot less crazy than it does styled on the mannequin. I guarantee you that the neon shorts/oversized caftan/palazzo pants/sequin dress you thought you could "never pull off" will look a lot less shocking paired with your old jeans/cardigan/shoes/whatever.
That said, my adherence to this rule has backfired on more than one occasion, meaning I'll buy something, it'll sit in my closet while I try to figure out how to wear it during countless solo in-front-of-the-mirror bedroom fashion shows, I'll forget about it, it will languish in my closet hopefully like Corduroy the Bear until one of my maniacal Salvo purges, and then it will fall victim to that other stupid rule, "if you haven't worn something in a year, throw it out," and I will donate it without wearing it even once, often with the tags still attached (Mr. Brass Knuckles is reading this and woefully shaking his head right now).
Suede fringe skirt, Topshop, $(I don't remember)
I bought this fringed suede skirt online from Topshop shortly after they started shipping to the US. Mind you, this was before the era of US Topshop retail stores; previously I was sending my purchases to a cousin who lived in London, who dutifully shipped the packages to me in New York (CRAZYPANTS, when I think about this process now).
This skirt is pretty cool, but it adds a lot of volume in areas I've already got a lot of volume if you know what I mean. Okay, it makes me look kind-of wide, and I never knew how to wear it, and up until yesterday it was dangerously close to running through its lifecycle in my closet.
But last night was date night, and I was determined to make the skirt work! This is important, you guys!
The problem was, since it makes me look wide, I always tried to wear it with things that are narrow: cinched blouses, peplum tops, tight vests, etc. But this actually accentuated the wideness and brought the wideness to even wider levels.
So this time I decided to wear it was something that's also wide -- something light and billowy, like one fashionable potato sack on top of another, and you know what? It worked. Wideness, diminished by more wideness! It's so counter-intuitive, my mind is still a little bit confused:
Here are various photos of me opening doors. Sorry that they are blurry. Mr. Brass Knuckles said he is going to start a blog called "Can You Take a Picture of Me for My Blog?" that recounts the demands placed on blog photographers. Skirt, Topshop; silk blouse, F21; jacket, Hong Kong high street; shoes, Fendi.
We saw Prometheus. A visually stunning movie, but it was not as good as the hummus plate we shared at the bar with our champagne later in the evening. That hummus was good. Also, I won't spoil it but any woman who's ever had a cesarean would be like yeeeeaaahhh right!
A 24 ounce Modelo and Warby-Parker-esque 3D glasses make any movie more entertaining.
Have a great week, little Knuckles! Kick some ass!
