Despite the scheduling going very wrong, I was able to get the nerves on the right side of my S-I joint burned down on Tuesday.  And of course, since it takes a few days for the nerves to actually realize someone electrocuted them, it still hurts for the rest of the week.  When I hurt, I just. Don’t. Wanna.

But I decided to make myself at least make an EFFORT.

Yesterday, I went with full-on early 90’s retro but did not wear overalls:

Turtleneck is from Catherine’s, many moons ago.  I could swear they still had these, but maybe it’s just the wrong season.  Anyway, it’s just your basic off-white shirt with sleeves that aren’t quite long enough and don’t have cuffs.  I think I bought it on clearance for like $6 anyway, so I wasn’t being picky.

Jeans are the non-premium boyfriend jeans, medium wash from Torrid.  Comfortable, don’t stretch out too much, good length (these are a 26 regular).

Vest is an ebay or Poshmark find, from back when Lane Bryant didn’t suck.  Note that it’s still in pretty good shape for being, at minimum, 20 years old.  I was going to say I didn’t wear anything black today, but there are a few black stripes in the vest.

Boots are Alegria Kylie.  It doesn’t look like the solid colors are available on Amazon at the moment.  These run true to size – I’m wearing a 41, which is a US 10.5.  At least EURO SIZED SHOES understand that a size 10.5 exists.  Unlike my other Alegria boots, this pair took a little breaking in…I almost gave up on them.  But since my brown Docs are really too big and I didn’t have any other brown boots, I persevered.  I’ve decided that, when it comes to breaking in shoes, you really need to make good sock choices.  If you wear socks with a rougher texture, they make the blisters worse.  The current socks not annoying me are these (which they also have at Walmart) and these (they’re not supposed to be matched pairs. If you want matching ones, buy two packs.  They fit my 17.25″ calves comfortably, but I don’t know how much bigger they could fit without binding).  I also have some Hanes socks that don’t annoy me, but the Amazon descriptions are bad and I would not want to lead anyone astray.  Also, I have had very bad luck with diabetic socks.  THEY DO NOT STAY UP.  I bought one kind in a 12-pack from Amazon that does stay up, but they’re not the softest material.  The rest?  You put them on, you put on your shoes, and then you spend the rest of the day pulling them out of the backs of your shoes.  If you lace your sneakers SUPER TIGHT, they stay put, but then that sort of defeats the purpose.  They might be good for people who don’t walk around a lot, but even just wearing them with slippers in the house, they’re useless.  They’re super soft, but otherwise, do not perform as intended.

Today, I again was going to default to smartass t-shirt and jeans, but then I remembered we had a client coming in.  Not that most of our clients are dressy.  Our client was wearing jeans and a hoodie.  But still.  I bought this dress a couple of months ago, but the weather has been all weird here and I haven’t worn it yet.  It’s probably more of a late spring/summer dress – it has 3/4 sleeves, but the material is really light, and it will be a good “throw on with sandals hey look I’m dressed up” dress for the summer.  Since it was kinda cold this morning and I don’t remember the last time I shaved my legs, I decided to wear the required wrestling uniform again (which fortunately stayed up instead of crawling down and therefore have been added to the pile of tights I need to hand-wash instead of the trash can).

I was goofing around and making jazz hands in the butt shots.

Anyway.  The dress is currently out of stock, but is from Torrid.  They tend to restock things and/or have this style frequently (it’s the dress version of one of their popular shirt styles), so I’m sure something similar will be available shortly.  The tank top underneath the dress is also from Torrid. In seeing some other blog posts, I realized that these low necklines that need a tank top for your own sanity and desire not to share the goodies with the class look much cuter with cross-straps. I’m wearing both of these items in a 4. The dress is just right, and the cami is fitted, meaning if I actually planned to wear it by itself I would probably buy a bigger one. The SHIRTS in this style run a size big, but the dresses are true to size.

The tights are from We Love Colors. I believe this color is teal, and they’re size EE, but don’t quote me on that. The size E’s actually fit me just fine, but I like sizing up because they’re a little more opaque. WLC is great about constant upgrading of their plus-size options & they actually pay attention to customer feedback. My only beef is that the colors DO NOT look the same on screen. They’re usually brighter in person. Needless to say, I love the splash colors. All of them do require hand-washing, because the colors bleed. Otherwise, I’d just do what I do with my black ones, and wash them on delicate & hand to dry. Once upon a time, the Store That Is Dead to Me had these awesome tights that you could dry IN THE DRYER and they would never run, lose their stretch, or otherwise malfunction. It took literally 10 years of abuse for them to get a hole, and then they no longer made them. I’ve accidentally dried tights from Catherine’s without problems, but I try not to because half the time they don’t stay up AS IT IS.

Finally, shoes are Dansko Harlow, size 42. These are more like the clogs, in that a 42 is really pretty short. I love that they’re cute (I also have brown ones), and they’re super squishy, but when you wear tights, your feet slide around a little. I had to put some super-thin terry insoles in them, which of course makes them a little snug across the instep, which means the velcro on the cross-strap comes loose. That would be why I’ve owned these shoes for like 5 years but they’re not really all the way broken in…I had my other ones, and those were softer & easier to break in, so, um. But that pair has about reached the end of its lifespan, I can’t find anything else I don’t hate, and so I am going to, in the immortal words of Tim Gunn, make these work.

For another styling take on this dress, check out Hailey’s look.  We both ordered this dress around the same time, and both of us got this “Torrid has canceled that part of your order” email.  Allegedly, Torrid is “improving” their shipping.  I never thought anything was wrong with it, really….stuff usually shipped within a day and was here within a week, and because shopping is how I deal with stress sometimes, I’m a Platinum member and shipping is always free.  But they started shipping from multiple distribution centers, and it seemed like they canceled stuff like three times in a row because somehow their inventory in the warehouse wasn’t reflecting online blah blah blah I DON’T CARE JUST SEND ME MY STUFF. The problem seems to be fixed now, and fortunately the dress came back, but don’t tell me I can have something and then snatch it away.

I can’t be falling on my back like Charlie Brown.  I have titanium screws to protect.