Christy's Weekly Wear

This week was not such a hit for me in the style department. Daniel and I moved into our apartment all weekend and I spent a couple of showerless days in Nike shorts (we're supposed to be honest here, right?). Here is one of my weirder ensembles.

THE WORST

This picture may or may not have been staged to show off our gorgeous new rug.

Couldn't even make it to the bed. As I have said potentially 4 billion times, moving is the worst. I was pretty exhausted and unpleasant over the weekend, and I hope you've gotten that from this photo. Here I am sporting an electric green short (comfy as the day is long) paired with a denim blouse. The top is actually one of my favorite items of clothing. You may even see it on the good side of one of my Weekly Wears, but this week, it was just my security blanket for a difficult transition.

What saved me this week was that I started my new job at ABC. This compelled me to get my act together. 

THE BEST

Top: Old Navy
Skirt: Old Navy
Shoes: HEB Plus (we'll talk about it)
Necklace: Gift from sis

This was on a walk that Daniel and I took after work, so it is a little dressed down. I get a lot of compliments on this skirt and people are often surprised to find that it comes from Old Navy. It really does. They have some cute stuff there. Don't discount them because of those performance fleece commercials from the late 90s.

The shoes are, once again, the story of the outfit. I searched all of New York for a solid pair of sandals and it wasn't until a trip to San Antonio that I found these. The beautiful thing about these shoes is that I purchased them alongside some bananas and tortilla chips because they are from HEB Plus! For any non-Texans, HEB is a one-stop shop for all of your grocery needs. HEB Plus is groceries PLUS tons of other random necessities. These sandals were right next to an enormous assortment of baby clothes. Love them or hate them, they were only $8, and I happen to love them.

The brand is appropriately named "Chatties" (the shoes with a story to tell!) and yes, that is my real shoe size. 

I also want to point out my favorite necklace I've ever owned. This was a gift from my sister, Jo, as I was leaving the great state of Texas for the alternatively great state of New York. It is a beautiful piece of wood in my favorite shape. While I'm not sure who made it, she got it at the Renegade Craft Fair. 

Incidentally, I don't even know the shape of New York (again, we're supposed to be honest here, right?)

Christy's Weekly Wear

This last week was a scattered one for me, style-wise. I spent the first part of it in Texas visiting my family and the latter part moving into our new apartment in Brooklyn. Not only was I dressing for two different climates (I would take Texas heat any day, by the way) but also for two different attitudes (relaxed vs. unapologetically stressed). Visiting the family was wonderful and so needed. I think they can vouch for my outfits during that visit, which were pretty solid. Moving to our new apartment was...yeah...not great. Moving is the worst. I was intensely sweaty, constantly hungry, and hopelessly dramatic. My attire reflected that.

THE WORST

Here I am with our laundry. The key feature in this outfit is the terry cloth short, which I bought at Old Navy a couple of weeks ago. I justified the purchase by saying that I needed sleep-shorts, but I knew even then that they would become life-shorts. Feel fortunate that you are only getting the front view. Terry cloth doesn't do me many favors in the back.

I've decided to take my "worst" pictures as though I'm being caught off guard. This is to remind me that if I ever become famous, these are the pictures that the paparazzi will capture. My husband and I had a big dispute over which picture adequately reflected my emotions, so I just posted both. Daniel chose the first one because of my pained expression. He was also very against the other one because he couldn't figure out where my teeth had gone. I was rooting for it because even though I look like a drugged cat, I am somehow finding my light and modeling through my anguish. Tyra would be proud.

THE BEST

Top: Forever 21
Skirt: Thrift
Shoes: DSW
Jewelry: Forever 21

I actually took this picture outside of the IKEA in Redhook. Despite how traumatic our IKEA experience was (I am complaining a lot today), I felt pretty great in my clothes. This skirt with its whale-embellishment is the new joy of my life. It is so whimsical while not looking like it belongs on a 90s pre-school teacher. I found it at a thrift store in the East Village whenever my mother-in-law and sister-and-law came to visit. Mama O'Shoney was not so into it. I don't really blame her. You don't see a lot of whales on the runways in Paris.

A better view of my whale friend

The shoes are also worth noting. Hold onto your hats because these shoes have a secret. The same company that made these flats also made THESE:

Wha?! My sweet, innocent flats are CROCS! Now, if you are Mario Batali or whoever it is that normally wears these dinosaur shoes, you already know that Crocs are crazy comfortable. These are actually my first pair, and I have to say, I don't think I sacrifice style in wearing them. I found them on a rainy day at DSW on sale BIG TIME. It was destiny. 

So that's the best and worst of my week! Did you dress well? Did you dress dumpy? Either way, I was right there with you. 

For more information on why we are doing The Weekly Wear, read this explanation.

Can I Pull This Off??- An Intro

If I had to describe this blog in one sentence, I would say this:

It chronicles two best friends living 1,640 miles apart who are committing to suppressing their fashion laziness and amplifying their shared love of style to look as fabulous and beautiful as they are.

Okay, that was a terrible sentence. Any decent English teacher would point out it contains too much information, so let me break it down for you.

Christy and I (Kaley) are best friends.

As in “talk for hours”, “watch ridiculous TV shows together”, “disagree and still understand each other”, “our kids will be friends or else” -type friends. If we were in middle school and had a top-secret-best-friend notebook, we would mean it when we wrote “LYLAS!” at the end of our notes.

This is a photo of Christy and me getting ready for her wedding. I am laughing at something hilarious she said, which is typical. I am also wearing an alien hat, which isn’t typical. I usually only wear it when I’m studying. And getting ready for weddings, I guess. I don’t want to concern you with my fashion choices too early on.

When Christy and I are together, one of our favorite things to do is go shopping at vintage clothing stores. We love looking at (and sometimes purchasing) clothes. Because we love fashion.

Not in the sense that you’ll see us at Fashion Week (do real people go there?) or hear us talking about our favorite designers or anything like that. We just enjoy looking good because, like most people, we like to feel good about ourselves. And we feel good when we can be fun, creative and expressive with what we wear. Fortunately, we both realize there are boundaries on how “creative” we can/should get. You won’t see us duplicating Lady Gaga’s wardrobe any time soon.

Well… At least not frequently...

Christy and I keep our style choices in check by running things by each other, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say few people can maintain this dynamic in a friendship the way we do. When I ask Christy, “Does this look okay?”/ “If I get this what would I wear with it??”/ “Can I pull this off?!?”/etc, she always has a helpful, honest answer.

But despite the fact that we are capable of being creative and super stylish, there is a dark side to this tale.

Unfortunately for us both- and for the people that have to see us- there are many days when Christy and do not feel very creative. We feel quite the opposite- completely uninspired.

And in reality, I’m just trying to come up with a nice way of saying we get lazy.

Here we are on a lazy day at the Cathedral of Junk in Austin, TX. I can't help but think it's a bad sign that I'd rather look at the pile of junk in this picture than myself.

You’ll hear more about that as we continue in this blog, but basically for me that looks like turning to the old, familiar jeans and v-neck t-shirts rather than taking time to coordinate an outfit that makes it look like I care about myself enough to put thought into it. My laziness makes me look boring and feel, for lack of a better descriptive word, completely “blah.”

And, as we all know, if we don’t feel good about the way we look, we don’t feel good about ourselves across the board. So on those days, how can I expect other people to enjoy being around me when I feel like this?

As Christy and I realized how much our fashion laziness actually affected us, we decided we both wanted to break out of our style doldrums. We made a commitment to hold one another accountable to outwardly displaying who we are on the inside, and we agreed to check in with each other to ensure we’re both being as fashionable as we can (and ought) to be.

The only problem is: Christy and her husband recently moved all the way from Texas to New York City.

I know, I’m jealous, too.

Every picture she takes makes me want to move to NY- the city should just hire her.

Thus, the blog.

Since I can’t really pop over to Christy’s apartment to make sure her outfit is slammin before she heads out the door each morning (unless someone wants to make a huge donation…. Anyone?), we’re going to save money- and the environment- by checking in here.

We’ll each write a post each week with our best and worst outfits (Lord help us), with a number of other goodies thrown in. For instance- fashion challenges, questions, inspirations, and maybe even a tutorial every now and then.

We’re excited to have a chance to write together. And to share something we enjoy with whoever wants to read it. Who knows? Maybe it’s something you can relate to. If so, we hope you’ll check in every once in a while and share your thoughts with us.

As we begin, you’ll get to hear from both me and Christy (who is hilarious- seriously, you’ll love reading everything she writes) as we explain our fashion histories and answer a few backgrounds questions- about us, our friendship, and the blog. So stay tuned! It’s going to be great!