Rag & Bone/JEAN capri jeans (made in the US) | mine are secondhand
Everlane cropped cashmere sweater | most colors sold out
Emerson Fry short sleeve wool tunic sweater (made in the US) | sold out
Dieppa Restrepo Penny Loafers (made in Mexico) | The Outnet usually has a nice selection marked down
I took these Dieppa Restrepo loafers (which are more than 5 years old) to my shoe repair shop recently to see if they could be cleaned, and they cannot. They are nubuck, and don’t look too terrible, but they definitely look old and I wanted to see if I could refresh them. She brushed them, which helped them look a little better, but I’m sad there’s nothing I can do to make them look “like new.”
Although, I probably shouldn’t strive for that, honestly. As Lori put it in a comment recently about a cashmere sweater, what’s wrong with something looking well-loved? Nothing. Nothing at all. Funny, my friend sent me an instagram photo yesterday of Sarah Jessica Parker wearing a clearly well-worn sweater, I loved it, and it made me re-think my stand. Not that sweaters, shoes, clothing in general doesn’t deserve care and attention, but there’s nothing wrong with their looking like I wear them frequently. Which I do.
Yesterday was in the low 50’s, still no sun, and quite a bit of wind, but I had already determined that I was going to wear this Emerson Fry sweater, so I made it work. It’s challenging to wear sometimes, again, because of the dropped shoulders, it can’t be layered underneath anything, so you have to layer it over something else. I love to wear it over a chambray shirt, but yesterday, to not be too cold, I put it on over my cropped cashmere sweater by Everlane. I was pretty comfortable.
And then I noticed a hole on the sleeve of the Everlane sweater. A not insignificant one. I’ve worn the sweater quite a bit, but not enough for it to have already developed a hole. And I don’t think I did anything to create it. But I’m not too worried; if I can find the thread that I think it came with, I’ll try and repair it. I’m really hoping Everlane brings the cropped cashmere sweater back – it’s such a great shorter length for me, something that’s really hard to find.
— there’s a size large, oatmeal cropped cashmere Everlane sweater in SLOWRE right now —
All these dropped shoulder styles have some interesting side effects: they’re harder to layer, AND it’s not as comfortable to carry a shoulder bag on a dropped shoulder. I’m not sure why that is, exactly, just that it is. My backpack works well, but yesterday I carried my canvas tote and found it cumbersome on my shoulder. I love the silhouette of dolman sleeves and dropped shoulders, but I find the styles increasingly difficult to incorporate into a wardrobe that’s built on a lot of layering.
Just a thought 🙂
Agree with you on oversized styled tops – all of my tops are this style, especially knits and I don’t have many bags because of this. I have a great tote by a Canadian designer named Erin Templeton that I use everyday and works very well with all of my batwing, dolman sleeve, oversized tops. The bag drop is longer than most totes and a good size/shape bag for daily use .
http://www.erintempleton.com/collections/handbags_dl/products/byob-horizon
I also have a cross body by Guidi that also works fine with oversized style tops but trying to find another shoulder bag with a long bag drop is really hard. I wrote to Mon Purse to ask if they will make one of their totes for me with a longer bag drop and they said no! Doesn’t sound very custom made to me. Any other recommendations?
I love the sweater. It’s amazing how different it looks on you than it does on the website models. (and not bad, just different) Ah for a greater range of body types for selling clothes!
Another blogger linked to this website yesterday and I thought it was right up your alley: http://projectjust.com/
i love erin templeton!! i’ve never bought a bag, but i’ve seen her here and there, and i love that she does some work with recycled leather. i featured her once on green grechen a long time ago…
it’s brilliant that she offers a very long strap for her tote bag – that is a great idea.
as far as other ideas, i can’t think of any right off hand, but that’s an excellent idea for a post 😉 : bags to wear with oversized/drop shoulder tops
thanks laurie!
i’ve been following project just since they started, and i really love the idea, but can’t decide if i love their implementation, if that makes sense. i appreciate that they share a lot of their research and reasons why they select the designers they choose to add to their lists, but i usually find most of them lacking – like many designers i would expect to be on certain lists are not. anyway, i love what they’re doing – and am glad they seem to be growing!
Hi Grechen-
About your nubuck shoes- try a plain old clean eraser to get off spots. It really works- Also Camper makes a Nubuck box which is good for nubuck and suede. I will post a pic of it on Instagram.
I love the Emerson Fry short tunic – any luck with restocking?
Thanks for the pic! Do you mean a magic eraser? I’ve used that on the white soles of my sneakers. Didn’t think about using it otherwise! Although why not??
Glad to hear your thoughts. It’s so complicated and there are no perfect answers.
Cute outfit! The reason I sometimes like an oversized sleeve (rather than fitted) on a rain shell or coat is to be able to fit a dolman sleeve underneath. I saw quite a few people wearing blanket scarves over their dolman tops and leggings in Washington in 60 degrees. I like that you took your shoes for an attempted refresh and repair. Sometimes our generation and younger doesn’t think about repairing well loved items. Also loved the SJP sweater story, her clothes always look very lived in to me and we often see her wearing the same pieces. I think her whole shoe line persona is more to take advantage of her Carrie character link but that she is actually more of a casual small wardrobe type.