Does This Work?

Yesterday, I went to Salzburg to soak up some X-Mas vibes there. The city is pretty all year round, though I’d argue that it does Christmas time exceptionally well.

The afternoon I spent there was lovely, I had some tea, looked at the window displays, and reveled in the holiday spirit.

My outfit, though…I’m only medium sure whether it worked. It was maybe 75-85% there and I felt a little uncomfortable throughout the afternoon.

Do you know that feeling, when you leave the house in something you think is smashing, 10/10, until you start pulling on the fabric in all directions? That’s what happened. Something was off.

Initially, I was hesitant to share this with you. After all, so much fashion content online is focused on perfection. I figured it may be refreshing to have a conversation about getting dressed that feels more real, though.

So, let’s try something new.

Does this work?

First, the outfit: 

A vintage alpaka coat, vintage leather pants, vintage fox stole (for my perspective on wearing vintage fur, read here), a Max Mara hat (from their outlet, so technically under their i-something-something outlet brand), and the boots are by German brand Gabor.

I want to give some extra love to the knit sweater. I bought it in the central handicrafts market in Bogotá’s Candelaria district 13 years ago. A friend and I were headed to the mountains and I needed something to keep me warm. And keep me warm it does, toasty actually. Every winter, I’m excited to wear it again. I wonder which Colombian grandma made this fabulousness. I think of her - in abstract - fondly every year.

So, does this work?

It’s a decent outfit. Though I’m only somewhat on board with it. The pants are technically a bit too long for flat boots (see how they’re bunched up at the ankle) and the darkness of the boots breaks the long vertical line in my outfit I was going for. [Sidenote: I figured out how to dress for the lines in my body a while ago (more on that soon). Now when I forget to do it, something feels off visually.]

You can notice it more when the coat is closed, see below. Now the bunched up leather around the ankle and the darkness of the shoes shrink me visually, which is quite the accomplishment because I’m a tall giraffe. The top and bottom parts of the outfit are disharmonious.

The coat is also about 3 sizes too big for me. I got it because the material is top notch and I knew we (my tailor=my mom, and I) could turn it into a great piece with some changes. We yet have to do alter it, though. I’ll show you the before and after soon.

[Sidenote: I wrote more about buying vintage pieces for the fabric here.]

How could this have been better?

Three ways:

(1) Wear it with darker pants, so there’s only one colorway at the bottom to create more elongation.

(2) Put on my cream-colored jeans with light brown shoes, instead of the leather and burgundy combination I chose yesterday. The weather was less-than, though, and I anticipated we would be walking on sloshy, sandy ground at the X-Mas market. Less than ideal territory for cream-colored-anything. Probably a good thing I skipped that.

(3) Go all out in beige like a puff of whipped cream with beige pants and beige pointy boots. I think this would have worked really well together the aforementioned with cream jeans. I have something in mind like the boots below I found on Google Image search. Alas, I yet have to get a good pair and am waiting for the sales for this. Even if I had them, though, I likely would have passed on an all-beige-everything in yesterday’s weather.

What do you think? Did this work? Somewhat?

Have a lovely day,

Johanna