132/ What I'm Wearing: Weeks 42 & 43
Joyfully mixing my separates + inspiration from Carven and The Row + the Shop Small Giveaway continues
What I’m Wearing is a series where I share all of the outfits I’ve worn over a given week (or two), along with styling notes, links and related thoughts. If you see an outfit you like on my Instagram, you’ll find it here.
The In Moda Veritas Shop Small Giveaway continues! Congratulations to
for winning a $300 Mine & Yours gift card1. Three more weeks of the Giveaway is ahead, and next week I’ll be giving away a $250 Rewind Couture gift card to a paying subscriber. All paying subscribers are automatically entered in the giveaway. If you’re not a paying subscriber already, consider becoming one today:Dear readers,
That’s sep-a-rates, not sep-a-ra-tists per autocorrect.1
This edition of What I’m Wearing captures my outfits up to October 27, the day my father was admitted to hospital. Since then, I’ve spent most of my days with him, living in my workout clothes in hopes that I can squeeze in a walk and some fresh air. All to say, I may not be doing a WIW for another few weeks.
In Moda Veritas will continue weekly, just with fewer outfits from the wild than usual, and more hatched up conceptually. I’m also in the process of putting together a fall/winter update to my non-colours colours experiment as well as holiday outfit inspiration (see last year’s posts here and here). I appreciate your patience!
Over the years, I’ve seen family and friends caring for aging parents while trying to manage the rest of their lives, and how challenging it can be emotionally, physically, financially and logistically. I don’t want to downplay those realities, but I want to share this: what has surprised me most is that, despite the circumstances, I feel like a privilege to be caring for my father during this time.
Onto my outfits from two weeks ago…
Sometimes I’ll do a WIW and realize after the fact that I didn’t love an outfit, or I should have done something differently. Not so this week — I loved every outfit I put together.
As a whole, these outfits were about taking my separates — foundational or otherwise — and putting them together in a way that felt fun, creative and resourceful. I was reminded that I have a closet full of clothes that I love, and that — for the most part — I’m still in the phase I wrote about in the spring:
I’m content with wearing and re-wearing what I already have and coming up unexpected combinations of what I already own….I guess I’ve realized that, for now, I’m content with smelling the roses that are blooming in the garden that I’ve nurtured over the years.
Next time I wear the rugby, I want to layer it as Oyule Muchura did here:
Carrying on…
This outfit from the Row’s spring 2025 collection seems deceptively simple to put together. The key to a wearing skirt (or dress) over pants isn’t about having these exact (or similar) pieces, but getting the proportions of all three elements in balance.
Obviously, I have a similar Hero Grey Sweater! But when I tried layering my hip-length, oversized jumper over the dress, the skirt was too bulky. In contrast, my shorter Proenza sweater worked well because the sweater ends at the dress’ elasticated waistline — before the skirt begins to poof out. Similarly, a slimmer pant felt off, so I ended up going for a (rare-for-me) wide leg pant. I capped off the outfit with my witchy Jil Sander flats, and…I love.
Note below that the Hero Grey Sweater works with the dress when belted because now the sweater follows the natural shape of the dress:
Do you subscribe to
? If not, he’s a master at separates and I highly recommend his styling newsletters! Back in September, Jalil asked me, “Who/what is on your fall 2025 moodboard”? Some of what I chose was entirely aspirational (hello, Alaia!), while others were ever so slightly more attainable, such Carven’s recent collections.(Jalil also asked
, , and - so have a read!)Here’s my go at recreating Look 6 from Carven’s FW24 collection using the existing pieces in my closet. Don’t have a chunky necklace? No problem, tangle up the ones you already own!
My husband had worn this sweater and tee combo the day before, and it was sitting on The Bench, as is, tee still inside sweater.2 The pop of the bright blue against the navy spoke to me, so I paired it with this navy Tibi wool skirt. This outfit may seem like it’s NBD, but I LOVED it!
I dropped into VSP Consignment earlier in the week and saw so many amazing pieces, some of which I posted on my Instagram stories. “How do you not buy everything!?!” is a question I get often, and my answer is usually this:
The one piece that withstood questioning was this deep red suede gilet by Akris. So, I took it home, making my Ferragamo Ring 3 dreams come true:
And, finally — gasp — a set!
Love and gratitude to all,
Irene
My all-time favourite autocorrect was perineum instead of premium — and it was almost published!!!
If you’re new here, this is The Bench:
The bench ☠️
Love the way you layered that dress!
Happy to muse through whatever inspires you if you have bandwidth to share that type of content while you're supporting your family and not 'getting dressed'. Get well soon Papa 🙏
Sending lots of love to you and your family Irene ❤️