Sveta's Blog

As soon as I saw Angie's beautiful outfit I knew what I want to wear that day! Alas, I did not have white flares so I decided to reverse the colors.
All items are several years old in this outfit so no finds for them:
- JCrew yellow Tippi sweater;
- Danier white leather moto jacket;
- Ink Paige Canyon flares;
I don't have anything in bright turquoise as this is not my best color so this deep  blue-teal silk scarf is the closest I can do.

Pic 2 is what I wore the day before to the office. I got these camel pleated wide leg trousers in the consignment store in the fall. I have been collected the inspiration pictures of such pants for several years and these looked like they fit the bill so I thought they will be my wild card for the season. I could not wear them in winter so I am starting now - and I am not sure. I still like the inspiration pictures but I am not sure about them on me.

I wore them on Thursday and then the flared jeans on Friday and could not help but notice that I felt more fab in the flares than in these trousers the day before...

 Is this because my body type (curvy in the hips) is not the best for this cut at all? Or is it just this particular pair of pants is not right?

 I do wear them with flat loafers here but so are some of m inspirations so that should not be the reason....

Should I just ditch the whole idea and get rid of these pants as a mistake? Your thoughts are very welcome!

I think this will be the last WIW for a while: I am leaving on vacation next Friday so most likely won't have time to post next week and definitely won't post the week after!
pic #1 My attempt on Angie's ensemble with white, light blue and black. I was not sure I really liked the black jacket here - too much black  -=so I wore it mostly without the jacket at work but looking at the picture I think it was not too bad. These faded blue jeans were bootcuts with a very small flare which looked really awkward to my eye so I altered them to straight legs.

pic #2 Tried to take outdoor picture but the light was fading - hopefully you can see it enough. There were several inches of snow that morning so I defaulted to ponte pants and tall boots.

pic #3 If I cannot have real spring I will make it myself! :-) I love this lavender sweater with white jeans  - fresh and spring-like!

pic #4 These plaid jeans were favorites last summer and fall and this is their first outing after winter hibernation with AT blush blouse and BR navy jacket. I tried these chestnut loafers with the jeans but looking at the pictures I am not sure this is even flattering enough. I should have read Angie's 5 rules fro cropped pants again before venturing out of the house! :-(

Here was mu short week. Thank you for looking and as usual all comments and suggestions are welcome!
Have a nice weekend!

The spring has teased us with the sun, blue skies and bird singing and now it is back to winter: I woke up to a couple of inches of fresh snow yesterday morning, it almost gave me a heart attack! It is bitterly cold now (it was -10C this morning and -17C with the windchill) but I believe the spring is here anyway. Why? Look what I found today in my garden - the first crocuses! (pic 6) Honestly I prefer these humble and shy flowers to the most splendid roses and orchids because they are here when I desperately need them! :-)

pic 1
 I wanted to do Angie's light blue, white and black ensemble from yesterday's post yesterday morning but that snow broke my plans to wear the faded jeans because I could not wear the booties I wanted in the snow. In defiance I decided to to the pastel, black and white outfit anyway so here it goes! True to my color preferences there is a lot of white here and black is represented in small doses (boots, belt, tipping of the blouse and my hair LOL).

pic 2
I was in the mood for a plaid shirt and white (yet again) but rainy weather dictated the white jeans tucked into boots. I desperately want to replace these boots with a better pair of cognac but so far no luck...

pic 3
Skirt day! It was a day before the winter came back so nude hose was pretty warm and comfortable.

pic 4
Dry  days with snow mostly gone and this called for flared leg trousers! Another soft edge outfit here - yellow makes me happy!

pic 5
Almost ink out with some stripes and red thrown in.
OK, I feel very "word-deprived" today so keeping this sweet and brief! :-)
Thank you for looking and hope you have a glorious  and warm (I wish!) spring weekend!

This week was an experiment to see how I can dress for 2015 trends from my wardrobe. Honestly I cannot say that I was 100% happy with the results but this is what experiments are for, right?

pic #1 Fluid Fits
This one was easy as fluid fits make the bulk of my closet. Everything in this outfit is several years old  but I hope it still looks current. My soft edge!

pic #2 Tailored Silhouettes 
My attempt on a tailored silhouette using a fluid cashmere sweater. The sweater is pretty thin (actually it was called "tee" on JCrew website) so it was not too bulky for tucking in. It felt a bit strange to tuck the sweater in though - please let me know what you think.

pic #3 ’70s Inspiration
I have a memory from mid-seventies of my Mom wearing a long gilet over a turtleneck and flared trousers so this was my inspiration for this outfit. It is quite dark for spring so I added a bit of light with the pearl necklace, bag and booties.

pic #4 White
Another easy one as white is widely represented in my closet (Angie's influence of course). This outfit was also a feeble nod to her stunning sea foam outfit because it is also white and blue. I tried this cat print shirt with this pointelle white sweater last week and really liked it so this is what I decided to go with that day. Alas - only during the day I realized that the outfit I tried before was with the dark wash jeans so it was more flattering than this one (lower contrast on the bottom) Oh well, next time - hopefully this one was not a complete disaster!

pic #5 Wild Card
I got these pleated wide leg trousers at consignment store last fall. I was attracted by the camel color and the fluid fit - my wild card for this spring season. This is their first outing as our winters are not friendly for wide legs. I was debating if I should tuck in the turtleneck but decided to wear it untucked.
I was also debating if I should add a scarf or this camel vest and decided to go with the vest in the end. It does not match the color of the trousers perfectly but it is closer in color than looks in the picture.
These pins were my inspiration - something I wanted to try for a long time but was not able until I got the trousers:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/401313016764984301/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/401313016767656840/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/401313016767586974/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/401313016765111715/
It felt good during the day but looking at my pictures I am not really sure it looked that good. Also I think it was a mistake to wear this cape with these trousers - too much volume, right? I would appreciate your opinion here and suggestions.
Anyway, this is what I had this week. Thank you for looking, as usual all feedback and suggestions are very much appreciated.
Have a wonderful weekend!

The spring is here! We still have the mountains of snow laying around but they slowly melt down  - such  happy sign! The birds are singing, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and I ditched the puffer and winter boots - hopefully for good. As I said - the spring is here!
Now when I am not limited to black winter boots only I have been trying Angie's ensembles all week:

pic 1 Lemon, and Cognac
This is a variation with white substituting for the light blue. Also wearing (kind of) bandana here as per Inge's post.
Lisap, see - I also wore trench today! :-) It is more caramel than tan in color (and leather) but I think it fits the overall soft color palette.

pic 2 Ink Out
This is as maximal as I go with layering: a shirt, a turtleneck and a vest. I did a version of this outfit with the skirt before - this is more "inked" version. I know that a button down shirt layered under a turtleneck is not everybody's cup of tea but I like the unexpectedness of the collar peeping from under the roll neck.
 I am SO ready for spring that I pulled out the flared jeans - even though the ground is quite messy in some places with the melting snow. Who cares! :-)
Added chestnut booties and cobalt  coat to break down all this ink...

pic 3 Grey, White and Citron
Technically this is the same sweater as in pic 1. I am not sure if it is more lemon-y or citron-y but because it is the only yellow sweater I have it has to work for both ensembles :-) I don't think I will layer this sweater over the shirt again: it is too thin AND too light-colored  - not the right combination as any fold on the shirt is visible through the sweater/. Too bad because I like this yellow color paired with white very much.

pic 4 Navy with Peach and Brown
I still love this peach tipped blouse from Ann Taylor I got almost a year ago and happily repeat almost the same outfit I wore last spring - why not!

Thank you for looking and have a wonderful weekend!

It is the end of February and I am SO ready for the spring! Unfortunately the Mother Nature does not agree with me and we had another "extreme cold" warning this morning :-(
Oh well, at least they promise some barely-above-freezing temps next week - something to look forward too I guess!

pic 1 Some orange to brighten a winter day and cashmere to feel warm in the cold. I wore this sweater before with a soft Gap white shirt and it felt too sloppy with exposed hem so I tucked it in in the end. This time I wore it with a crisper Foxcroft shirt and exposed shirt hem felt fine. What  difference a fabrication makes! It is hard to see in the picture but my trousers are navy shadow plaid from Express.
 
pic 2 Unfortunately this almost ink outfit did not photograph well indoors. This is a forum debut of my new ink blazer from Banana Republic - Tall at last! My Mom altered it and it fits perfectly now - I am happy as a clam! My 2-year search for a longer ink blazer is over! Going for a variation of the equestrian look here :-)

pic 3 Dress day! This dress brings back memories from Seattle meetup so it is a happy dress for me! This time I paired it with a coated utility vest from BR. What do you think?

pic 4 I was cold, tired and slept in so FFBO with a comfortable jeans and warm cashmere blush sweater were in order. I still don't know if these jeans are relaxed skinnies or BF? Actually they are straight leg jeans but 2 sizes too big now so I treat them as BFs. BTW Suz - this is how I wear full length BF jeans all winter long - rolled just a bit and fitted over booties. These UGG Chelsea booties really allowed me to wear more types of bottoms in winter - and they proved to be waterproof enough.

pic5 I missed my culottes which were in the laundry so I could not wait to wear them again this week. Honestly Angie's post this morning inspired me to pair them with my lemon yellow Tippi sweater...but I felt that my dark short hair is not enough to balance the black boots - the only footwear I could wear with these culottes in -26C this morning. Inge's pearl review prompted me to wear a necklace again  - I like how these separate pearls bring some lightness to the ink sweater.
Thanks for looking and as usual all comments and suggestions are very much appreciated. Have a great weekend and stay warm (for those who live through a Great Freeze)!

I SO want to take outdoor pictures of my outfits! Alas, with the freeze we have right now it is not going to happen any time soon - even if I get home when it is still light :-( So sorry for the quality of the indoor evening pictures, this is all I can do for now.
pic 1
I tried Angie's light grey and white ensemble -sans the light blue as my winter wardrobe does not have any.
These are new Gap grey jeans - the same ones Suz has. Unfortunately I wore them to work that day and then noticed that there is a defect on one of the seams - the threads are pulling apart. I will try to exchange for another pair, let's see if Gap stands behind its products.
pic 2
I am so happy I got the Lands End Chalet puffer in Tall this year. It is long enough to cover the tops of my tall boots and provides enough insulation so I can wear skirts with sheer hose to work. Of course if I had to commute for 40 min in this freezing weather it would be not enough but for driving in and a short 10 min walk it is quite sufficient to keep me warm.
I usually do not wear scarves indoors for the last couple of years - they feel "too much" for me - but somehow I felt like scarf wearing here.
pic 3
I did get asked at work if I am going riding that day :-) I don't care as I really like the look. The consigned BCBG blazer is black with faux leather sleeves and Gap merino t-neck is navy. 
pic 4
Tried to pair my long grey gilet with a grey pencil skirt and quite liked the proportions here. I felt that I need to add some white into the mix but a scarf felt like too much so I went with this necklace (even though I don't wear them often now). Looking at the picture in the evening I think that this chunky necklace may have been too much and I should have worn a different one. Oh well - next time!
One observation on this week: it was a very wise move to expand my winter footwear collection last fall. Last winter I had a single pair of tall flat black boots and when it was snow and freezing for an extended time I was sick to death from wearing the same pair ALL.THE.TIME! Footwear often dictates the outfit silhouette and when you are limited to tall flat boots you are really limited in the silhouettes you can wear.  By adding an ankle booties and heeled tall dressy boots I have expanded what I can wear in such extreme weather. If not for these dressy boots I would not wear my skirts and culottes that often at all as I don't care much how they look with these flat boots.
I am still limited in that all 3 pairs of my winter worthy footwear are black so my next goal is to add other colors to my collection. It is not going to be an easy task - especially in my size - but it is worth pursuing. 
Thanks for looking and as usual all comments and suggestions are very appreciated.
Have a nice weekend everyone!

It feels like ages since I posted the last WIW post! Life is definitely getting in the way of my YLF quality time :-( I need to get on track with taking regular pictures and posting so here we go...

pic #1 Almost "ink out" 
I wore this a day before Angie's blog post. It is not technically speaking a complete "ink out" as my skirt and tights are grey and booties are black but is it close enough? This outfit was inspired by this pin from Banana Republic - https://www.pinterest.com/pin/..... 
I LOVE this coated utility vest more than I ever imagined. It was definitely a wild card for me which is becoming a work horse pretty fast.
My initial thought was to wear it with dark wash skinnies (which would be more "ink out" but then I tried it with a skirt on a whim and liked it a lot.
It is a pretty busy outfit my style - a lot is going on with all the layering on top - but I think that keeping it tonal helps to lower the "business" factor. What do you think?

pic #2
Twice a week I have a challenge of dressing for work and then transitioning for a dance practice or lesson. Which means I need to be warm for work but be able to remove the top layer and stay in a lightweight top for a dance. I thought this striped lurex tee should work with BF jeans but they are not high waisted enough for this length of the top. It bothered me that it kept riding up during the day. Oh well - lesson learned.

pic #3
Another work-to-dance outfit and another outing of my new workhorse vest in the same week. :-) It was a serendipity indeed that I was able to find winter worthy dressy tall boots in the same season when I went for another wildcart - culottes. I would not be able to wear and enjoy my 2 pairs of culottes as much if not for these boots - and yet I was searching for the boots BEFORE I even considering to branch into the culottes.  Now I wish I can add a second pair of winter-worthy dressy boots which are non-black - it will really increase the number of outfits I can wear in winter.

pic #4
Another outfit inspired by BR pin:
 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/401313016771303484/
These are my NYDJ ponte skinny  pants from 2013 NAS which are my version of winter leggings. The wool cobalt moto is from last year Gap.

pic #5
Culottes and dressy boots again! This time simple and tonal with ink and grey culottes fashioned from old wide leg trousers. Cozy for a cold winter day!

That was my week.Thanks for looking and have a wonderful weekend and happy Valentine day!

I always want to try Angie's ensembles on Fridays but usually my closet is lacking the main ingredients. The same thing happened today - out of three featured colors I had one only - citron. I don't have olive and cognac at all (although would love to add cognac at some point). The closest to cognac was darker chestnut of my Vaneli booties but it was too cold and snowy for them today. So pic 1 is my "poor man" interpretation - brown leather jacket and leopard belt to replace cognac and no olive :-(

pic 2 Vested interest
I think I am going vest crazy now! I decide to keep BR coated vest I asked you about here. I have ironed it with low iron through the clean cloth and it looks much better this way: I think it was just wrinkled from the packing. It also did not wrinkle from the day of wear which is a good thing.
I am slowlu falling in love with it and think it will be as useful wildcard as my grey gilet. The navy color is so beautiful and the sheen from the coating adds the depth to it. I would not buy it in a usual "utility color of olive or beige but this one feels "me" somehow. Tell me I ma crazy after all!
I am afraid my look was pretty dark that day. I paired the vest with LLBean shirt in green and nave plaid. It has some white in it but not as much as the red shirt (which is still in the laundry). I would wear white jeasn with this outfit but this was the time of the month when white jeans are not the best thing to wear :-( I hope that red booties made the outfit less somber.

pic 3
This was a challenging day. It was bitterly cold (-30C windchill in the morning) so I needed to dress warm but I had a dance lesson in the evening and was going straight from work so I needed a light outfit for it (too hot while dancing). This is what I came up with: sweatshirt worn over a dress.
In the evening I removed the sweatshirt for the lesson - problem solved.
I wore warm sheepskin lined boots that day and changed into booties at work.

pic 4  
Another cold day and shoe change at work. I felt like grey and yellow so her we go. I felt very cheerful all day wearing these loafers :-)

pic 5-6 Outfit inspired by Suz and Mary
 Suz's post on her orphan boots made me to wear mine that day - and a skirt. I so wanted to add a red skirt to my wardrobe but now when I have it I kid of struggling to put outfits together in which I feel fab. I think it is because of the style and the fit. It sits on my hips so tucking in is difficult. It also not tapered but more of a straight skirt. I tried to add this lilac sweater to it because I liked the lilac / red combination in Mary's outfit. I also layered a shirt to add some structure - and my dressy black boots with patterned charcoal tights (in solidarity with Suz's boots). I am not sure how I feel about the whole thing. I like lilac and red together but was this sweater too long and shapeless here?
Here is my week. Sorry the light is not the best even with the flash. I need to get working on my photography skills ASAP!
Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

These outfits are from the first week of January. As you can see I have repeated quite a few items there - why not!

pic 1 Cropped vest
I have finished knitting this chunky cropped vest (inspired by Angie's vest from Club Monaco) and promptly wore it the same day to a friend's birthday party with Gap BF shirt and Kut plaid jeans. Fun!

pic 2 "Skirted leggings"
Worn to work on January 2 - I did not feel like working that Friday at all so comfort was in order. I also tried to play with "skirted leggings" look from Angie's ensemble post and this Calvin Klein tunic and NYDJ ponte pants was the closest I could come up with from my closet.

pic 3 Cropped vest - again
That was another attempt for a cropped vest - this time to work. The shirt is shorter here - and I think I prefer this vest with a longer shirt (like in #1). It was snowing that morning so skinnies tucked into tall boots was a necessity.

pic 4 Moto meets culottes
Another work outfit. This time dark neutrals with a dose of cobalt to cheer me up - actually the same palette as in #2...hmmm, interesting! This is the first time I wore cullotes and boxy moto together - works?

pic 5 Boyfriending with Missoni 
I got this Missoni for Target tunic in 2011. I wore it a lot for a couple of years with skinnies and tall boots but last year it was mostly idle in the closet as I was not feeling tunic + skinnies outfits as much as before. This is my attempt to rejuvenate it and make it feel more current to me. Black turtleneck is layered under this sleeveless tunic with my long gilet on top. I thought of wearing my Madewell skinnies with this outfit but accidentally grabbed Paige BF jeans instead and did not realize this until I was out of the door. In the end it may have been a lucky mistake as BF jeans feel fresher with this look than skinnies would - or am I kidding myself?

As usual all comments and feedback are very much appreciated.
Thanks for looking and have a great week!