An outfit for driving.

• Hoodie: Maurices (buy)
• T-shirt: Old Navy
• Jeans: Maurices (previously)
• Boots: Clarks via Craigslist
• Socks: Hanes

Since the beginning of the year one of our ongoing projects has been to get rid of some excess stuff, either by taking it to consignment and thrift stores, or by selling it on Craigslist. This plan has a flaw I have recently discovered: other people on Craigslist have things I want, and so I end up "window shopping" the other listings. And that is the genesis of this outfit. I found a listing for a formal dress on the cheap, and while I have no "reason" to own one, I found myself realizing that it would be really nice to try one on, and own one "just in case", and the seller was offering an excellent deal, and really, this is all just rationalization for the fact that I want to make up for wearing a tux to my HS prom. So I sent an email, and scheduled a time and place to try on the dresses to make sure they fit. I realized that since I would mostly be driving and trying on dresses, I might as well dress how I wanted. And so after a pleasant and chilly afternoon drive, I am now the proud owner of a formal dress, and pleased with my outfit for the day. Even though this outfit spent more time in the vehicle than it did outside.

And of course today's pictures were taken by my wonderful wife. And I am slowly getting back into the swing of things with blogging and commenting, it only took the first two months of 2011 to do that. Thanks everyone for your comments and reading my blog!

Velma.

• Dress: Macy's (buy)
• Boots: Payless
• Pantyhose: Just My Size
• Socks: Target (previously)

This was an outfit from last week that I meant to blog. The dress was bought with Christmas money, but I've had my eyes on it for a while. So when I was doing some after Christmas shopping, and noticed it on clearance... I figured that meant it was time to make a purchase. When I picked it out, the burnt orange color was one of the draws, but it was only after I had the outfit on with some nerd-chic glasses (not pictured of course...) that I realized that with a few minor changes, I was dressed similar to a certain Scooby Doo character.

Now I have to take a second to thank some really awesome bloggers. First, AppGal of Musings on the Mountain listed me, along with some other wonderful bloggers, in her post on blogs you should read! So thanks the for wonderful shout out! And Lisa from respect the shoes reminded her readers about my giveaway in her Lazy on a Sunday Afternoon. And Meg of Questionable Taste kindly mentioned me in her post What I've Learned. Thank you so much for these mentions! And of course, I hope I haven't missed anyone!

And last but not least, Ariana of fatale fashion gave me a stylish blogger award! Thanks so much Ariana! Now as part of the award I'm supposed to list seven things about me.

1. I love ballroom and latin dancing. Its a passion actually, but where we're located, we don't have a lot of opportunities to go out and dance.
2. I love horrible movies. The worse the better actually. My latest favorite is Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. Of course, some movies really are just bad, but there are certain types of Grade D cheese fests that I adore.
3. I secretly enjoy Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, La Roux, and other pop singers. And I don't usually want to admit it to my friends. (And I'll even admit that I owned a New Kids on the Block tape when I was growing up.) Now, I'm not one to obsess, so I'm not a super fan by any means, and I enjoy a pretty wide range of music.
4. I love traveling. I have seen (and waded in) both the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean within the same two week period once.
5. I was involved in band all the way through college. I even stuck with marching band for part of my college career. Ironically (or perhaps not...) I don't usually enjoy watching football at all.
6. In addition to my personal addiction to shoes, my wife and I both have a serious addiction to collecting books. And books, like shoes, present serious storage issues when you have "too many". We have "too many".
7. I spend a lot of time procrastinating. Its actually gotten worse as I've gotten older. I try to compensate for this by reading nearly anything I can find on better ways to be organized. Of course, reading up on better ways to be organized is a great way to procrastinate. :)

I know I'm supposed to pass the award on to 8 other bloggers, but I have so many wonderful blog friends and I wouldn't feel right leaving someone out. In addition I truly believe all of my readers are stylish, so if you need a reminder of how stylish you already are, consider yourself awarded the Stylish Blogger Award!

Funky rockabilly?

• Dress: Maurices
• Belt: Maurices (came with the dress)
• Socks: Target
• Shoes: Converse via Target (men's department, buy)

My wife and I had some disagreement over this outfit. My wife liked it less than I did, but I wasn't 100% happy with it either, however it's growing on me over time. I actually almost didn't post it, but its always fun to see what everyone else thinks! I wish this separates instead of a dress as well, but I do think its still fun as it is. Normally I also would have worn shoes with a heel, but I recently bought these sneakers, and I really wanted to pair them with a skirt or a dress. (Edit: eek is an awesome blogger who occasionally makes great use of Converse sneakers in her outfits, and I I realized I omitted a link to her blog!)

I also have a question to answer today, the awesome Genevieve from sandbox romance asked: Just out of curiosity, do you ever experiment with wearing more "gender neutral" clothing in public? I have to confess; I have no idea what that would mean for men!

I love to do small experiments with the clothes I'm willing to wear in public, and over time, I have slowly expanded the list of things I'm comfortable wearing. Most of those items are clothes labeled for women though. However, the first image that jumps to mind when thinking about "gender neutral" clothing are some of those horrible (and not so horrible) grade B sci-fi movies where everyone is wearing muted pastel colored jumpsuits. In all fairness, there are some fashion forward sci-fi movies like The Fifth Element (er, but then again how many sci-fi movies can get Jean-Paul Gaultier to design their costumes?)

Thankfully this is a blog post, not a research paper, so I can do some vacuous uncited handwaving :). I recall reading several writers who have pointed out that "unisex" styling almost always defaults to "masculine" styles, and is almost always "functional" (in contrast to "stylish"). When I try to think of "feminine" unisex styles its difficult. For instance, I guess the closest thing to a gender neutral "skirt" that comes to mind is a Utilikilt. However, I don't own one, and where I live I have the vague feeling a Utilikilt might draw more attention than "simple" crossdressing. (Interestingly, I do know some male hikers that prefer kilts to other lower body garments.) Historically, leggings, tunics, and togas all seem to have been fairly gender neutral at some point, and even high heels were once worn by males. Well, actually I suppose toga's still sometimes count as "gender neutral" party wear on college campuses.

In discussing some of this with friends who live in more metropolitan areas, I am aware that its more common and acceptable to see guys wearing skinny jeans, deeper V-necks, and other items that would be labeled more "feminine". Certainly some visions of "gender neutral" seem to be more androgynous, in contrast to more "masculine" versions. I also think its interesting to think about the role of homophobia plays for some males in deciding whether certain articles of clothing are too "feminine".

Some of the things I have incorporated into my daily rotation include women's jeans from a medium to a dark wash. Most of them are boot cut, although a couple of pairs have more flare. All the jeans are more fitted through the thigh though. I also have some women's oxfords and women's sneakers I wear on a regular basis out and about. My hoodie is from the women's department, and it has more fitted sleeves and a double zipper. My gloves (coming soon in a post!) and my new winter coat are from the women's department. I don't know if any of this counts as "gender neutral" though. I would like to incorporate more items into my daily wear though, but I admit it, I get really self conscious the more things I wear out. In my ideal world though, I would want to wear everything I post on this blog out, and it count as "gender neutral".

As always, I love answering questions, so feel free to ask away in comments or via email, and I already have another question from blog buddy Pamela to answer in my next post! (And I always tag posts like this with q and a.) Of course my amazing wife took the pictures for today's post.

I'm not a lumberjack.

• Top: Maurices
• Denim Skirt: Maurices
• Socks: Target (previously)
• Boots: Payless

This outfit turned out far better than I imagined and it was extremely comfortable too! I really like plaids, but I have trouble finding plaid tops that work out, and that don't make me feel like I look like a lumberjack, but this one worked out pretty great I think (Not that its bad to look like a lumberjack, its just not the look I'm going for! ;) ). I was also a little nervous about the pattern mixing with the socks and the top, but I thought it worked out pretty great too. These boots are also a little different since they have zippers on the outside instead of the inside. Every time I pull them out of the box, I still find myself surprised by this and only remember because I'm trying to put them on backwards.

Oh, I'm still catching up on blogs, I haven't reached the "mark all as read" futility stage yet! :) And of course, my hair was done and today's pictures were taken by my beautiful wife.

BBCA 5: Neutrals and Pink.

• Tank: Maurices
• Shrug: Maurices
• Skirt: Maurices
• Belt: Torrid (previously)
• Socks: Target (previously)
• Pumps: Payless

This outfit is part of Melissa's Blogging for Breast Cancer aWEARness challenge. I am seriously running behind on everything today, admittedly, a power outage this morning didn't help. And while I would have loved to write something more interesting, instead I'm writing that I wanted to write something more interesting just so I can get this posted. I did decide that I enjoyed the socks with heels look after trying it once before, so I thought I would try it again for this outfit. I definitely need to get some more socks, but the few times I've been out shopping lately I didn't see anything inspiring. Tomorrow will hopefully be a lot better! And of course, today's pictures were taken by wonderful wife!

Sock it to me.

• Dress: Maurices (on clearance)
• Cardigan: Old Navy
• Belt: Torrid
• Pumps: Payless
• Socks: Target

Recently I've seen two bloggers make super cute and creative usage of socks. Collette of Statements in Fashion wore an awesome lacey pair of knee highs with peep toes and Amber's Notebook payed homage to Clarissa Explains it All. (And yes, I remember watching that show when I was in middle school...) And then during our Labor Day weekend shopping, I decided to check out socks at Target and found this pair. I also got this dress at Maurices on clearance for around $23. I've been thinking about it every time I've seen it in the store, the lowered price finally convinced me to buy it. I had a lot of fun putting this look together, but I have no idea how anyone is going to respond to this one. :) Honestly though, I'm amazed at how great the style bloggers are, I really didn't expect to get any readers when I started this. Actually, I had no idea what to expect, but everyone has been so amazingly wonderful. Oh yeah, in case its not clear from the picture, these peep toes have little cutouts with blue stitching highlighting everything. Today is shaping up to be a crazy one, so forgive me if I'm not fast on the comments! I also hope everyone has a great weekend! I'll be posting again on Monday. And of course, my wonderful wife took the pictures and provided input on the outfit.