I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve repeated the maxim “You should dress for the career and lifestyle you WANT to have.” While, generally, I think this is good advice to keep us all aware of the trajectory we are (or are not) on, sometimes it blatantly fails…

…like the time you almost lose your dress in the middle of a crowded city intersection.

Despite my being a stylist, I am a writer first. And at my heart, I am completely hapless and disheveled and like nothing more than to bury myself in a moth-eaten sweater. Once upon a time (or, rather, several years ago)—with the dawn of my new side-gig as a stylist—I started curating my every outfit down to the charm bracelets and waist-cinching skinny belts. I continued this up until the end of this last year—riding my bike in saddle shoes, a bouffant, and quirky-prim 50s-inspired dresses—to my 9-5. But at the end of last year, I was suddenly tired of the dress-up, tired of what seemed like blatant plagiarism of Zooey Deschanel’s wardrobe. And tired of having to handwash or dry-clean the multitude of silk-blend or synthetic (and expensive) dresses…

This year, I’ve reverted to easier, mostly-washable, and age-appropriate pieces. Unfortunately, I’ve also had numerous stretches where I’ve looked positively messy for days or weeks at a time.  So after a period lately of looking especially messy and dowdy, I put on a fussy wrap dress this morning and called it ‘progress’.

I forgot that wrap dresses require their wearers to be self-aware. That they require knees together, and the occasional bathroom checks/smoothings. As I ran out to get a late lunch—the horrible-yet-highly-predictable thing happened—the tie on one side of my dress slipped (I didn’t notice it), the wind blew forcefully, and soon I had exposed my pasty torso to the (poor) citizens of Somerville. Nothing worse. I slunk back to the office clutching myself until I could get into the bathroom to reorient what had effectively become a loose sheet of fabric. And by that time, I had lost my appetite. Embarrassment could be my diet fix!

Essentially my plight as I tried to slink back to the office, unnoticed…

But “The Case of the Almost-Lost Wrap Dress” was a good wake-up call. And I listened. Aspirational dressing can be good if it makes you more mindful and feel good about yourself (e.g. polished, composed, et cetera). If—(like me)—you have no time or little inclination for wearing a high-maintenance piece or outfit, choose a piece that  fits who you are and what you do RIGHT NOW.

A perfectly-pleasing tall faux-wrap dress by LOFT…

And if you are at all in doubt, just choose a faux-wrap. Sometimes the faux thing is SO much better….faux-real!

Hello, all you vertically-inclined sylphs!

Long time no see! How’s the weather up there?

Kidding, kidding. But don’t you love when people think they’re being so cute while asking that [unrelentingly banal] question?

Yeah, me neither.

(But the weather is really hot and humid up here. I sorta hate summer. I sorta hate sun. I’m sorta grouchy and sorta pale and sorta clammy. My definition of “good weather”? London in the winter. You read that correctly.)

Back on topic: I have been incognito/flying low for a few months now. I haven’t had a haircut. I haven’t been to the dry cleaner. I certainly haven’t had a manicure, a pedicure, any-cure OR had the inclination to break out the iron, let alone the camera.With my fiance and I running a no-fiscal-contributions campaign in Massachusetts for State Rep; my taking on blogging as a component of my day job; grappling with the initial stages of wedding planning AND working on an illustration project on the down-low, I have become terribly negligent with myself. Tall (and all) style mavens, I’ve missed you! I promise I’ll be better!

But as some kind-hearted, open-minded individual recently nominated me for Boston’s Best Fashion Blogger (not Boston’s Laziest Fashion Blogger), I feel even more called-into-duty. So I have been compiling a list of summer “finds” along the way—most of them ‘regular size’ pieces masquerading as talls. Hey—at this point, I welcome any well-fitting pieces that catapult me from “frazzled bag-lady/sociopath/possible hipster?!” to “land of the living”! So that list will be coming imminently.

In the meantime—I hope you will excuse this dose of heavy handed extortion—my fiancé and I have been nominated as 1 of 10 finalist couples for a honeymoon to Iceland!!! The only catch? We need votes now through July 22nd (We’re ‘The Mysterious Traveling Duo‘)!! Lots of ‘em. So in the name of love in/for Iceland (and not having lots of monies), we made this stop motion animated music video for you, dear readers and friends. There were some tears, papercuts, and “artistic differences”, but I like to think it all worked out, because now we have a little indie-rock memory of being nominated, regardless.

Please enjoy, share, and vote if you’d be so kind! And more content to come soon.