Name it! The anatomy of an outfit...

...and how an idea I had did not work as hoped

I wanted to take you behind the scenes of the makings of an outfit I recently wore. I find it’s a classic example of how an idea one has in mind doesn’t work out in practice, and one has to…well…pivot.

Most of the time having an outfit not work out as planned can feel like a defeat, but occasionally the process can be fun and even take an unexpected turn. I think the instances it is fun is when I have enough time to tweak and amend, and ultimately walk out the door in something even better than first planned.

On this specific Saturday the idea for my planned outfit started with me wanting to wear an old Cos wool dress which has been sitting untouched in my closet for two years. I haven’t worn this dress since I sold my grey men’s car coat from Cos, which worked perfectly over the dress…both length- and colour-wise. This obviously annoys me, because one of my rules is that I have to be able to wear pieces in my closet multiple ways.

Here is a pic from last time I wore the dress…see what I mean about the coat?

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So on this Saturday I thought it was time to try to wear the dress again. I love wearing my Khaite zebra boots with it. They add a bit of oomph to the look, and the dress hits the boots perfectly mid-calf.

I also wanted to wear my Jil Sander Goji bag because I hadn’t worn it in a while, and the outfit needed a smaller bag. I like how the bag has a conservative look, while the boots give off crazy aunt vibes…balance.

So in short, so far so good:

But then comes the obstacle, the coat…As mentioned I used to own a grey car coat from Cos Men’s, which looked amazing over this dress. (Short digression: I first purchased this coat because it reminded me of an old Raey (RIP) car coat in navy which I still think about now and again…However, as I do with a lot of things I purchase on the high street, I got tired of the coat and decided to part ways with it after one season. I had worn it extensively and it deserved a new home!) But ever since I sold this coat I haven’t worn the dress, because nothing I own seems to be the right length or colour.

I have quite a few hang-ups with clothing (you will likely unpack these one-by-one if you continue reading this newsletter). They are not rules per se, because I think rules are restrictive, so let’s call them “guidelines”. One of them is that if I wear a long dress, I prefer the coat I wear over it to be longer. I don’t know why, I just think it looks chicer. Unless, (see it’s not a rule), the coat is a lot shorter than the dress, so it looks intentional.

I therefore throw on my short Toteme puffer jacket which I think works quite well here, but we now have another issue…the boots. The combination of the crazy boots + the dress + the feminine puffer makes the look too feminine in a way. Do you see what I mean?:

Had the puffer been a more sporty one and less ladylike I think it may have worked. Here I wore something similar, a grey cashmere skirt and a grey flannel puffer. I think this puffer would have worked with the outfit above because it is more sporty (but I gave it to my sister last year…):

I wanted to wear the boots, so the Toteme puffer had to go…back to start.

Moving on, I tried something I knew wouldn’t work, but I had time so I thought, why not. I threw over my Balenciaga faux mink coat in chocolate brown. And here comes another hang-up of mine, I CAN’T STAND CHOCOLATE AND BEIGE/CAMEL/CARAMEL TOGETHER. Worst nightmare and I’m not exaggerating here. And as you can see, the boots are camel and the coat is brown. I could not get the coat off fast enough: