What I Wore Wednesday: Henry Holland Striped Skater Dress

Summer is slowly but surely slipping away in Scotland. It is getting cooler. the sun has all but disappeared and the grey, rainy season has begun. It makes getting dressed in the morning harder because I don't want to get soaked but it also still isn't quite coat weather yet. Trying to plan an outfit that will go from work to night and factors in the weather is almost impossible. I basically always end up compromising on shoes. I'd love to wear heels but it isn't practical on slick cobbled streets when I'm accident prone so I tend to wear flip-flops on my commute and flats in the office. I'd love to be Carrie Bradshaw running in stilettos but it ain't gonna happen without me falling on my face.

I've gotten into the habit of window shopping online a lot lately. I tend to only shop at online shops with free shipping and with an actual physical store where I can return things if they don't fit. Since I have quite an exaggerated hourglass figure it isn't clear cut what size I am. I'd bought a few dresses from Debenhams sale (I love when they have free shipping!) but they didn't fit quite as I'd like so I returned them to the store. I was super sad as one was a cute striped Red Herring dress but I looked like a line backer as the stripes continued across the bust through to the sleeves. I did however find this Henry Holland striped dress on sale when I returned the others!

Commute

The Office

H! Henry Holland Striped Skater Dress-Debenhams

White Cardigan- Ann Taylor Loft

Black Leggings- Marks and Spencer

Black Studded Ballet Flats- New Look

Silver Heart Bracelet- Merci Maman

Black and Blonde Glasses- Vivienne Westwood

So you can see I wear a cardigan and flip flops (or gyms shoes if it's raining) on my way to work. Also I promise I had a pedicure and my toenails are painted; I have no idea why it looks like they aren't in that photo and I'd never ever ever have my toes out if they weren't painted. I love the full skater skirt and the pleats at the front on the H! dress. I've been trying to find a cute stripey dress all summer so I'm glad I've finally found one. Shopping online is definitely great now I'm working full-time and don't really have time to browse shops like I may have before.

I've just learned about a cool new extension from London fashion startup Shop Of Me that knows the instant something you've looked at goes on sale, sometimes before a retailer even announces they’re having a sale! How freaking cool does that sound? 

It uses your shopping cookies to then send you an email when any items you've browsed have gone on sale! How cool is that? It works in the US and UK with over 100 retailers so far! Just download the extension, enter your email,  window shop til you drop and get an email when what you like goes on sale. How easy is that?

Do you shop online or do you prefer to shop in store?

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Feminist Friday: Hairy vs. Hairless

Anti Pervert Hairy Leggings

It all started two months ago with those stupid freaking hairy "anti-pervert" leggings. You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones that permeated my Facebook news stream with comments of "haha" and "eww." The ones that were billed to keep unwanted male attention at bay. Those stupid freaking leggings drove me to a feminist rage that put me on threat level explosive. I hate them. Even more so I hated that no one else around me seemed to understand that they weren't funny and they weren't gross but were the epitome of patriarchal bullshit and  perpetuated the beauty myth while not so subtly victim blaming.

So if you don't want "perverts" perving on you then you should have hairy legs. So obviously hairless legs are the only attractive thing to have; if you have hairy legs you're gross and even the perviest perv will leave you be. I've talked about hairlessness and what society tells us is beautiful before so I'm not going to rage on too long here--on the grand scale of how fucked up these leggings are it's the lesser of all the evils.

Women "have" to wear these leggings to stop perverts. Why can't the perverts stop themselves? Even suggesting that they will stop unwanted attention suggests that any unwanted attention is the fault of the woman being harassed and not the harasser--victim blaming and not even vaguely subtle about it. I'll also take it so far as to say they perpetuate the belief that rape is about sex when rape has nothing to do with sex and is about power. If you're a pretty, hairless girl you could get perved on so you need to protect yourself by making yourself ugly and hairy so no man would ever want to harass or perv on you. Obviously unattractive women are never raped or harassed, duh. 

I promise they're really hairy.

Those freaking hairy leggings pissed me off so much I decided to say fuck it and I would grow my own pair of leggings and challenge my own thoughts about hairy legs and say fuck you to the man. One little problem though--I can't shake that feeling that other people are judging me and my hairy legs and I really don't like it.

In general I've been okay about it. I've gone to swimming pools, worn dresses without tights to work, but I've also been somewhat hyper-conscious of what I think is other people staring at my legs. I'll be fine and not think about it but then cross my legs in a meeting and think that everyone is looking at my legs and how hairy they are. It doesn't help that hair in general grosses me out and I don't know if that is just a personal hang-up or societal norms rearing their ugly head but I can't embrace and love my hairy legs like I would in some utopian feminist fantasy. Maybe two months isn't long enough to break my subconscious subservience to societal norms but I'm not anywhere near 100% secure about having hairy legs.

I find myself apologizing for them, too. To the girl who waxes my eyebrows to friends when I'm out for drinks--they all say the same thing about how blonde I am and they hand't even noticed. They couldn't have not shaved for two months but I still can't reconcile it. I want to be happy, hairy and care-free but for whatever reason I'm fairly sure I'm at the end of my hairy journey. Although I have to say writing this and "coming out" with my hairy legs has made me feel a bit better about it all.  Still though feeling the wind blow between your leg hairs isn't a particularly pleasant experience.

It's increasingly difficult to reconcile my feminist beliefs with my own personal beauty beliefs but I hope I can fall back on my most favourite feminist belief--choice. I chose to have hairy legs and at some point I'm going to choose to have hairless legs again. Sure my choices are partially informed by what society tells me I should do but if I buck the norm and still don't like it surely making an informed choice is worth something? 



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What I Wore Wednesday: Rocky Horror Picture Show

We've had so much on lately and work has been crazy busy--I'm just perpetually exhausted. Last week though I went to go see the Rocky Horror Show with my friend Susan at the Kings Theatre in Glasgow. I'm a HUGE RHPS fan and I'd never seen the stage show so I was really excited. Since I was coming straight from work and Susan was taking the train in alone we nixed the idea of costumes. I did give myself a Rocky Horror inspired manicure though for good measure.

Black and Blonde Glasses: Vivienne Westwood

Black Top: HM

Skull Scarf: Chelsea

Black Plaid Skirt: New Look

Black Leggings: Marks and Spencer

Studded Ballet Flats: New Look

I bought the skirt from the same sale I bought the sugar skull necklace from last week but I'm still not 100% on it. I needed a new skirt though and it was £8 so it worked. I should be able to wear a lot of different tops with it since it's black but since it's plaid it isn't too boring. Kilts are totally back this A/W and plaid makes me think of kilts so it's vaguely trendy, right?

I'm really struggling to string two words together so I will leave it at that! This week I'm enabling voting so vote for your favourite linked up look! I'll let you know who everyone liked best next week!

 



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What I Wore Wednesday: Studs, Skulls & Leopard Remix

I'm still struggling to pull together new outfits out of the clothes that I have and make them work for the office. My office is quite conservative with a "casual" Friday so with the exception of Fridays I'm wearing dresses every day. I tend to fall back on my go-to Cynthia Rowley dresses over and over again but I decided that I need some basic solid coloured dresses that I can accessorize differently.

I was out at ASDA to get a new smoothie cup since I broke mine after only one week and I noticed a grey flock-effect dress for just £10! So I grabbed it without trying it on and hoped it would work and luckily it fit. I think it is a great basic piece without being too boring that hopefully I can dress up or down with difference accessories.

Black & Blonde Glasses: Vivienne Westwood

Grey Dress- George

Sugar Skull Neon Pendant- New Look

Black Studded Bag- Thailand's Finest

Black Leggings- Marks and Spencer

Leopard Heels-Dune

I'm really not sure about this pendant. It was only £2 in the New Look sale and I bought it thinking I'd take the sugar skull and make it into a keychain but thought I'd try it as a necklace first. I felt like Joan Holloway with her gold pen necklace all day and ended up taking it off because it was bouncing off my chest I when I walked and my desk when I sat. I do like the pop of neon pink but I'm still unsure.

I've said that my bag is "Thailand's Finest" but that actually isn't a brand but just refers to the back that my FIL and his wife got it for me in Thailand! If you've never been to Bangkok there are lots and lots of purses; some with "brands" and some without. I love the studs and the bow on this bag and it's big enough for my stuff but not too big to take out to dinner.

Hopefully I'll get a lot of wear out of this dress and style it lots of different ways. How would you wear this dress? What accessories? Shoes? Tights? Let me know how I should style it next!

The most clicked on link last week was the ever so lovely Lauren from Real Housewife of Suffolk! Would y'all like to know who go the most clicks each week? I can also enable voting to pick an "outfit of the week" would you be interested or not in that option?

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