030/ What I'm Wearing: 2023 Weeks 19 & 20
The three levels of effort I put into an outfit, re-envisioning an old favourite & Riand28's capsule collection.
Dear readers,
In my #workingmomlife, I put one of three levels of effort into an outfit:
zero, i.e. throwing on whatever clothes are on The Bench (mostly sweats) — usually for wearing around the house, on walks, going to close friends’ homes, and possibly for running errands
reasonable: requires thought, consideration and experimenting, i.e. most of the outfits I share on here which I wear to work and going out — but also, funnily enough, for wearing around the house, on walks, going to close friends’ homes, and possibly for running errands
minimal, i.e. what I wore on Days 1, 3, 5 & 8
Days 1, 3, 5 & 8
I typically haven’t shared my everyday, minimal-thought outfits here because I figured they wouldn’t be all that inspirational for you. But, I realized that the value in sharing them is to emphasize the importance of good foundational pieces to throw on and feel great in, even if the styling isn’t especially creative.
The outfits I’m wearing above (I wore the jeans outfit twice) are composed solely of foundational pieces which you’ve seen me wear many times in other more considered outfits. Depending on your take, you might consider them basic, but for me they’re individually interesting enough — whether in shape or fabric — to stand on their own and together with each other. Most importantly, they make getting dressed easy when I only want to put in minimal effort.
Day 2
I was saving this outfit for the symphony in the evening, but ended up wearing it to work during the day. It was a good reminder to me (and you!) that we don’t need to save our fancier clothes for special occasions. The blazer and the loafers did the heavy lifting in toning this dress way down so I didn’t look like I was showing up to a client’s closet edit — or the symphony, for that matter — in a cocktail dress.
In last week’s newsletter, I wrote about how our clothes bear silent witness to the different seasons of our lives, and the Sportmax dress I’m wearing is a great example of such a piece. I bought it in Soho 15 years ago, and it was one of my first big designer purchases. At the time, it was a huge investment for me, and even to this day, it’s probably in the top 5 of the most I’ve ever spent on any one piece even though it was 50% off! But as soon as I saw it, I knew it was special and a lifelong piece for me. For a good five years straight, I wore it to at least three weddings/events per year — the countries it has been to and stories it can tell, I’ll save for another time.
It moved to the back of my closet for a while, but it has come back out more recently. What strikes me today about the history of this dress is that not only has it seen me through many seasons of my life, but I now view the dress differently through my aging (failing?), more experienced eyes. Where I once only wore it as a formal dress, often belted and always with heels (below left), I now see that it can be more chilled out — and dare I say, versatile — as I wore it this week.
If you have pieces like this in your closet, I encourage you to pull it out and style it with your eyes of today, and not the point of view you had years ago when you first bought it. Hopefully, you’ll be delighted by the results!
If you have pieces like this with stories to be shared, I want to share them in this newsletter in a new series called Silent Witnesses! Reply to this email, or message me to submit a photo of a meaningful piece with a short (or long) blurb of where it’s been and why it means so much to you.
Day 4
I wrote about this outfit in detail in my newsletter from earlier this week — have a look! Also, it’s finally warm enough in Toronto to wear open-toe shoes, so I’ll be wearing them as much as I can from here on in. Note that by swapping out the shoe here for an ankle boot or loafer, this becomes a perfectly appropriate fall/winter outfit.
Day 6
So, the temperature dropped to the point where we got a frost warning — ugh! — so here I am in a wool sweater and blazer, tall boots and tights. Inspired by
, I’d been itching to find an occasion to wear lacy tights, and today is that day! When life gives you lemons…Day 7
I got a lot of questions about this set when I posted it in my Instagram stories. While I was in London last November, I had the good fortune of meeting Monica and Keda, the ladies behind Riand28, a brand doing small-batch collections using surplus European fabrics, and predominantly manufactured by a mother-daughter run atelier in Portugal.
Unexpectedly, I also got try on every piece of their capsule collection. At the time, I had shared details and styling notes on Instagram stories, so I went back to my archived stories and threw them into a TikTok so that I could upload it here for you to view (I still haven’t figured out how to upload videos otherwise - help, please!).
On the left, I wore three pieces from the collection together — something I rarely do — for daytime; on the right, I’ve switched out the blazer and bag to make the outfit more appropriate for a date night with hubby to the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Tosca. When I bought these (elastic-waisted!) shorts, I never imagined that I’d be wearing them to the opera, but it goes to show the power of accessories to transform the vibe of a singular piece. Of course, the fact that they’re a nice thick (vs. flimsy) cotton really helps. In the video, you can see I also styled the shorts with my husband’s belt which I was wearing that day (which is basically mine now), and dressed it up with silver shoes.
This is not an ad, by the way! It was such an unexpected surprise to meet Keda and Monica, and I was happy to buy these pieces and support them. They have also graciously offered you 10% off any piece from the collection using the code IRENE10.
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That’s it for WIW this week! Canadians, enjoy your Victoria Day long weekend. Americans, enjoy your upcoming Memorial Day. And everyone else — let me know what holidays are upcoming for you haha.
What a pleasure and true joy it is for me to write to you every week. Thank you.
Love and gratitude,
Irene
Honestly while I enjoy the more thoughtful put together looks I appreciate the more minimal effort outfit posts. In my phase of life I am more interested jn accumulating items that make the minimal effort outfit look stylish and intriguing.
I love this theme! What can I wear to be put together at school drop off/playground/life with kids and still feel like myself?
It's something I struggle with and regularly just turn up in activewear. I'm ok with this as one of my modifiers would be 'sporty' but it would be nice not to look like I'm constantly just fresh from the gym.