Yesterday I paired up Lizz Basinger’s Solo Pleat Tunic Dress with a scarf and boots. Today you may recognize the layers I added to another Sassafras purchase I wrote about earlier in the week: a faux fur vest and my motorcycle jacket. For the vest, I removed the scarf and added a couple of necklaces. I’ll write …
Dressing Like a Seattleite By Way of Portland
Now that you’ve seen how we do pinstripes in Seattle (here, here, and here), take a look at how we do another menswear style: the shirttail hem. The Solo Pleat Tunic Dress by Lizz Basinger of Portland is another great find from Sassafras. It may have the hem of a men’s dress shirt but it is made of sweater knit …
Adding Layers in True Seattle Style
After I bragged about the sunny weather we’ve been seeing in Seattle recently, the clouds rolled in with a boastfulness of their own. And now it is raining and cold. No mind. I just add an extra layer to stay warm and dry. I’ve got the gray boots back on from my first post. If I’m really …
True Seattle Style from Sassafrass
You all know my love for history. I write about it in almost every post, whether it’s my personal history or some era in fashion. But you must also know that I would never want to go back in time. “The good old days” really weren’t that good for most people, especially women, people of color, the …
Keep or Delete: A 16 Year-Old Houndstooth Skirt
Happy New Year! A new year has arrived. It’s a perfect time to take stock of the past and put together a plan for the future. Since this is a fashion blog, I’m using this occasion to take stock of my closet. I got the idea from a fellow over-40 blogger, Julia from When the Girls Rule. She asked readers …
Fab Collab Celebrates Christmas at 40 Plus
It’s that time again when the ladies from JTouchofStyle join me in a Fab Collab. Over the coming week we’ll be celebrating Christmas together by sharing holiday memories and clothing we wore for the occasion. My story kickstarts the celebration, but I hope you’ll come back to see Jodie’s, Nancy’s, and Charlotte’s stories too. As many of you …
Going Grunge with the Fab 40s
The year Kurt Cobain died I quit my job in advertising and became a nanny. His death had nothing to do with my leaving advertising for nannying. They just happened to occur in the same year. It may come as no surprise to regular readers, but the King of Grunge didn’t impact my life much back then. It feels …
Extending Summer Into Fall with a Twiggy Dress
Now that we’ve turned the clocks back, the sun sets around 4:30 in Seattle. From where I sit, the bottom of the sky is pink, the water and overhead sky are steel, and the hill rising up from the Alki Peninsula sparkles with lights of people living past dark. Here in Seattle, early darkness generally means chilly evenings. To …
Great Gatsby on a Budget
Another Halloween has come and gone for another year. Did you dress up? I didn’t dress up this year, but it used to be something I did every year. These days, I put that energy into creating modern styles using elements from past decades of fashion. My goal is to create real style, something I would …
Time Travel in a Plaid Skirt
It all started with this skirt…. And then there was the Fab Collab on plaid that I did with Jodie and the ladies of JTouchofStyle.com. I got plaid fever, I tell you! But seriously, the skirt spoke to me from a place I visit often when I’m looking for thrifted inspiration. You may have heard …