Week 3 Piles

At long last. Please forgive any tedium due to lack of photos.

Pants:

• Stalwart Staples, as Superstars are highly improbable, and VRs, TDs, Mysteries, etc, have all been eliminated in real time.
  
  
• Some gray and brown houndstooth from Kohl's last fall are winners - as Stalwart as a Staple could possibly be.
  .
  
• But both of them need repairs to the hems.
  
  
• Jeans: I have them. They're fine.
  
  
• Loungewear: some black yoga pants from Target to be presentable. 
  
  
• Before next winter: I really need to find new decent, ordinary, black dress pants (no, the yoga pants aren't enough).  I've been getting by this year with a pair of wide-legs that are slightly too big (and that I hemmed slightly too short), and a pair in a questionable fiber.
  
  
• A maybe: brown chinos.  I occasionally find myself wanting "non-jeans", and khaki is not particularly my friend.
  
  
• There is a brand that has fit me extraordinarily well in the past.  The pinstriped pair I've had forever is falling apart - enough that I've completely stopped wearing it, so it's not turning up as a Rabbit here, but I keep them on hand for reference.  I have tried finding others on Ebay and the like (though, based on that Google Product search, I should be going to Sears), but have had some difficulty identifying acceptable fabrics (thus the questionable black fiber noted above).  The problem, in addition to the whole midmarket-identity-crisis issue, is that a given synthetic/natural blend can be made to simulate either wool gabardine or ripstop nylon, depending on the fabrication technique, so knowing that an item is 30% polywhatsit only gets you so far.  (But it is better then the sweater I once owned made of "100% Mixed Fibers".)

Shorts:

• Again: Stalwart Staples, as Superstars are highly improbable, and VRs, TDs, Mysteries, etc, have all been eliminated. And what I have is definitely enough.
  
  
• Two pairs of walking-length (black and khaki) that I've had for a couple of years would still be improved upon if I hemmed them just a tad shorter. 

Skirts:

• Skirts are good.  I'll need some more to get me through the summer without dying of boredom. I've been thinking about brown corduroy all winter - though brown in something less seasonal would serve me better.
  
  
• Most of the ones I have are straight-ish or minimally A-line.  Which works for me, but I'm craving something moderately fuller, like the gray one that I bought in last Saturday's marathon.
  
  
• During that shopping trip, S2 pointed out that I also currently seem to be obsessed by pinstripes.
  
  
• It is possible for skirts to attain Superstar status, but I don't think any current ones have.
  
  
• Somehow, I have at least one more khaki-colored skirt than necessary.  I'll lose the one that wrinkles most viciously.
  
  
• One crinkly brown job is an uncertainty.  It may work for casual - I need to remove the beaded crocheted lace from the bottom (don't ask - it was a Panic Purchase) and see how it fares.
  
  
• The black skirt conundrum: Two black skirts on the dressier side.  One is a pencil skirt of an interesting length, the other is straightish with a back flounce but not quite as high quality as the other. (Also: it's stretchy, but has a non-stretch lining.  That seems odd.).  For the moment they're both staying, though neither fits quite right. 
  
  Over the past five years or so, my weight has fluctuated frequently, due in large part to repeated bouts of illness and treatment (nothing life-threatening, just something I have to deal with).  I've never figured out how much weight gain/loss is theoretically equivalent to a change in dress size, but at this point in life, I seem to have a range of almost 20 pounds in which I can mostly wear all the same clothes.  Things don't necessarily fit exactly the same way at both ends, but most still fit objectively well enough.  I know this isn't normal, but I assume it's a side effect of the way I dress and my personal construction.  Regardless, the black pencil skirt is one of the exceptions, and is a bit snug after a long, flare-filled winter.  (Also: it was once part of a three-piece suit purchased and worn as separates.  Same brand, same line, clearly intended to go together, bought on the same day, in the same store - the pants that fit were a 6, the skirt was a 10.)  Since history suggests it's reasonable to expect that to change, it stays.
  
  The skirt with the flounce, on the other hand, is visibly too large, suggesting that it must have been enormous when I bought it, and somehow I didn't notice.   Since I can style it in a couple of ways that make it look like it fits, and since I can't wear the other one at the moment, it also stays.

Dresses:

• Dresses suit me.  Almost any dress that fits properly, is an appropriate color, and is of a style and length I would choose to wear gets shortlisted for Superstar.  This does occasionally make me over-confident, resulting in Mysteries of Many Lost Shopping Trips, which are immediately removed upon exposure.   Exception noted below.
  
  
• I should have more for standard daytime wear.
  
  
• But I may have as many as I need for more formal (including actually formal) occasions. 
  
  
• I have a lot of luck with Calvin Klein, who's widely available as a department store and off-price staple.  But I don't always take the same size, and occasionally I find pieces a touch too long in the measurement from the shoulder to bust - which, since the bust itself usually fits properly,  makes for a very odd fit indeed.
  
  
• Shirt dresses are good on me, but they're sometimes hard to find with plain styling and/or that don't require a truly annoying amount of ironing.
  
  
• I've finally figured out some ways to make wrap dresses work for me without indecent exposure, so I'm on the lookout for the right one(s).
  
  
• Mystery of the Lost Shopping Trip:
  
  
  
  
  
  I have NO idea what I was thinking.  Short, puffy sleeves, empire waist, 4" above the knee, neckline to the bottom of my sternum.  It's jersey (rather nice jersey, actually) so it's kind of...Gothic Lolita sleepwear?  It SAYS it came from the Loft (Stay away from the Loft!) but I don't have a clear memory of purchasing it there.  I'm hoping, for the sake of my dignity, that I was drugged at the time. And, wherever it came from, I have no idea what it's still doing here. 

Lessons and Action Items:

• Stay away from the Loft.
  
• Acquire skirts and dresses preferentially, with an eye toward the office.  Target items as stated above.
  
• Beware of Dress Dazzle to avoid Mysteries.