I had a ton of fun participating in Lee and Caroline’s #summer10x10 challenge for 2017. I’ve never felt this way about my wardrobe before — I think I’ve actually reached wardrobe Nirvana!
- I love every piece that I have
- They all mix and match really well
- They make me feel comfortable, put together and confident
- I feel good about them because most are either sustainably made, thrifted or me-made
- Many of the pieces can transition from casual, to office, to dressy
It’s taken me a while, but I’ve finally found the style aesthetic that feels like me. It entails a neutral palette (black, gray, white and flax), boxy silhouettes, natural fibers like linen, silk and cashmere, and minimal accessories (I did this whole thing with scarves a few years back before finally realizing they’re really not me.)
Another interesting thing to note — there’s always been a voice inside my head pushing me to wear brighter colors, and more ‘preppy’ options. I think this is a leftover from when I felt pushed by my mom to be more of a cheerleader type (believe me, I am just about as opposite of a stereotypically outgoing and bouncy cheerleader as you can get.) What’s interesting, is that my mom was in town visiting during the 10×10 challenge. And all she had the entire time was compliments for every outfit I wore. I seriously though I’d get the “Why are you wearing such dark colors? Why are you wearing such a baggy top?” But nope, it was all, “You look great! You made that! Wow!” Don’t know if she changed, or I changed, or I never had the right impression in the first place, but it was really nice
The one thing I customized with the challenge was that, since I wanted it to cover not just office wear, but at-home hang-out wear, I decided to keep the 10 pieces to clothing and add two pairs of shoes on top of that. That means it also covered the clothes I wore after I got home for work, and had two supplemental outfits over the weekend. Of course, in the middle of that, I had a new item delivered (an awesome dress from Linenfox), so I ended up throwing that into the mix as well. At the end of the day, here was my list, with number of wears listed as well:
- #memade White raw silk Georgia-like top 2
- #memade Black linen Georgia-like top 2
- Elizabeth Suzann navy silk Vera tunic 3
- Oatmeal cardigan 3
- #memade Emma-like flax linen kimono 2
- Elizabeth Suzann black silk Mara jumpsuit 3
- Loft black Tencel dress 2
- Flax linen trousers 2
- Skinny jeans 1
- Jean cutoff shorts 2
….
+3 - Pointy black mules 8
- Silver Birks 4
- Linenfox dress 1
Overall, I would not change a single thing of what I picked. I debated about putting the Mara in because I mistakenly thought it would be a bit inflexible, but it ended up as one of the items with the most wears. The other item that I’ve learned to adore is the Elizabeth Suzann Vera tunic I picked up on eBay a few weeks ago. I wasn’t 100% sure about it. It’s just a bit wide in the shoulders, so it has a tendency to slip off, but at the end of the day, as I wrote in one of my Instagram posts, “the Vera tunic establishes itself as the most versatile item in my closet. V in front, scoop in front, tucked, untucked, casual or dressy. This is an amazing piece!”
It’s a funny story about that Vera tunic… I bought it on eBay, although it didn’t have an ES tag on it, and when I received it, it did seem like a real ES piece. The silk is a nice weight and a beautiful navy color, but the stitching at the hem was definitely a bit crooked, which seemed odd. I had thought it was a Marlena (that’s how it was listed on eBay), but finally realized it couldn’t be because the straps at the shoulder are much thinner. So I emailed the ES team, just to see if they recognized the piece and what it was – I thought it might be a second or a sample, since it didn’t have a tag. After looking at it (apparently even Elizabeth herself took a look), they decided it must not be a genuine piece because they never made anything tunic-length like that, and they always sew tags in to every piece, even samples. Finally, I got more info from the seller — turns out it was purchased as a Vera dress, but the seller had a tailor shorten it to tunic length for her and put a single slit in on one side (I actually love this feature — it’s really cute.) Since the tag was in the side seam further down in the dress, it got cut off. So that solved the mystery, and I can enjoy having a one-of-a-kind ES-ish piece
I had a great time wearing these pieces and there were even a few outfits that I could have happily worn that I never got around to. It’s good to know if I ever had to travel somewhere warm for work, for two weeks or more, I could easily do so with 10 items of clothing!
Here’s a collage of 9 of the outfits (although there were 12 total):