Style Wednesday - Inspiration LOVE - Linda Rodin and why I am the last person on earth to discover her!

Sometimes I feel like I am living under a rock, style-wise.

The rest of you seem so knowledgeable about what you love or don't love, what works well for your body or doesn't work well for your body, what your style is or isn't.

But I guess I am a late bloomer, a slow learner.

I am still learning about me and what works and doesn't work.  How to dress this 50 year old body.

I guess I am just starting to really pay attention to this aspect of my life and to how to make fashion feel more authentically me.

Most of the time, when I am pinning pictures to my pinterest board, I see very little that I love clothing-wise (despite evidence to the contrary!).  I may "like" things, but I rarely see someone or something that stops me up and makes me say:

EUREKA!!!!  I LOVE IT!  I WOULD RAID HER CLOSET AND MAKE HER COME OVER TO MINE AND HELP ME OUT!

So the other day, when I went to the wonderful blog, That's Not My Age, I was gobsmacked to discover that I am officially the last person to discover Linda Rodin.

You can read the post here.

As soon as read the post, I knew that in fact she had entered my psyche before, in a J Crew catalogue either earlier this year or last fall:

At the time, she had struck me as a quirky, funky chick.  I was drawn to her sense of style and fun and her good looks. 

Linda is a 63 year old stylist who lives in NYC.  She and her style (and her amazing RODIN beauty products, including the much bally-hooed facial oil called olio lusso are accessible here) have quite a cult following.

She (and her apartment) just epitomize funky cool for me:

I know - it's not for everyone.  It just seems to epitomize who she is

 

 

 It also struck a cord with me as it has a mixture of high brow and low brow, and it all pays homage to her past and the thing she loves, something I try to do with my own place. 

I am currently thinking about what I would love to add to my wardrobe this fall.  Next week we are going to have a whole post on WHAT I did not wear this summer and what I did and what lesson I have gleaned from that...

In the meantime, I have found a real fashion muse for me, for right now where I am in my life.

How about you - anybody acting as your muse these days?  And please don't tell me you are your own muse - you will make me weep and gnash my teeth!

Have a fabulous Wednesday and stay safe out there!

Miller Time Friday - Sunny, with a chance of shoes...

Happy Friday! 

Many thanks to all those who chimed in with words of encouragement as I try valiantly to "stick to the plan!"  Or perhaps, simply shop more mindfully. 

In that spirit, I decided that I must stop talking about getting out all of my things and ACTUALLY get out all of my things.  Today, that involved shoes. 

I don't have enough room to store my shoes and boots from all four seasons together.  So down into the hellhole that is my crawl spaces to get the spring/summer shoe bin.  I thought that would help settle in my mind what the gaps were in my shoe wardrobe.

First I went through all of my fall/winter footwear.  Never wore most of it, though that was in large part due to my personal circumstances after Christmas.  I certainly was not going to give away or throw out something out for that reason alone.

However, I was going to rid myself of things that were

a) uncomfortable
b) too high for me
c) simply old and worn out and worst of all
d) never really fit me. 

Now you know why I order and try on and send back.  I find trying on things in the boutiques here very misleading.  If I bring it home and wear it for an hour or two around the house, I know that it is good or bad. 

So a lot of shoes left, because at present, it is not my intention to work in a 9 to 5 Monday to Friday corporate environment again.  So if any of you are a size 6 and would love a pair of nude Ivanka Trumps for spring or lovely Cole Haan black patent leather peep toe high heel slingback sandals for all 4 seasons, let me know - you can have them for the price of postage!  The rest have gone to other homes and to charity!

And then I went through the summer shoes.  Again, worn out things were thrown out, similar criteria used above.

Here is what's left and it is still a LOT!

I have two pairs of pumps - one black, one nude left, the sequined pumps I bought last fall and my new Tory Burch wedges.  A lovely pair of tortoise shell/leopard print wedge sandals from Pliner and another pair of leopard print peep toe slingbacks from Nine West.  That is the really dressy stuff I can pull out for meetings between me, myself and I.  I realized I have 13 pairs of ballet flats.  Yikes!

And then all of the sandals, sneakers and flip flops!  I could not believe how many pairs of sandals I have, most of them quite pristine because a) the summer is so short around here and b) most of them were too casual to be worn to my office.  I realized I do not need gold or platinum sandals this summer - got 'em.  I have navy, royal blue, yellow, an orangey yellow, cream, ivory, black as well.  I am set (although I did notice that I do not have chambray blue espadrilles!).  It's like my summer footwear knew I would leave the corporate world before I did!

I did note some particular favourite that I will make a big effort to plan outfits around:

The espadrilles I bought in Normandy in 2008.



Wendy, that tortoiseshell bracelet would match me perfectly....

The Pliners.  I have been mostly wearing these with black.  Can I treat them as a summer neutral? 

The Vince Camuto rose gold crystal sandals.  One of the blouses that I bought from Nougat London is the palest peachy pink, and I think it will go great with this.

Looking at my shoes, there is nothing there I would not wear now.  There is still too much, but I have decided that I do not need anything, though I might benefit from some walking sandals.  I will likely do another purge and weed out more at the end of the summer that do not get worn.  I also think that my feet are getting wider as I age, which is why I am finding some of my shoes uncomfortable.  Anyone else over 40 finding that?

I can see the benefit of a list and a plan.  When I see all of these shoes, besides the obvious embarassment that I have so many shoes, I am also struck by the fact that if I had gotten them all out sooner, I would never have thought that I SHOULD have purchased those marina espadrilles this year.  So the inventory I shall start immediatement!  And then I need to shake it up and put together some outfits and see if I have a colour story (cause usually it feels like I have a "paint thrown up against the wall" story!  :-)

In honour of the shoe follies, I propose we mix up some Blue Suede Shoes cocktails:

Ingredients 1/2 oz Southern Comfort 1/2 oz Creme de Banane 1/2 oz Blue Curacao

Directions
Pour ingredients over ice. Shake and strain.

Short and sweet!  

I hope you are all having a wonderful day and if nothing else, are getting a chuckle out of the fickleness that is me!  Have a great day and stay safe out there!