Monday night HB and I went out for dinner to one of the best restaurants in Charlottesville. It's restaurant week, so we wanted to use the opportunity to get some good food (that failed miserably with HB's corn allergy, but that's a different story).
For the night I got all dressed up. Cute little black dress, hair down, sparkly earrings, etc. At dinner, we discussed the differences between Monterey, San Diego, and here. One of those differences was the style of clothing women wear.
Here you see a lot of women in more conservative, classic looks or more natural looks. You are more likely to see a woman with jade or pearl jewelry than something sparkly. The style of clothing is just different, and I feel like I don't quite fit in anywhere (this feeling is only magnified at my new work place).
Though my style didn't always fit in San Diego (because I wasn't blonde), I still felt like I could rock my style. Here I feel like I totally stick out. I know, most of it is probably in my head, but things like the lack of sparkly, gaudy clothing and the different styles of dresses here vs. the things I've bought in San Diego are not in my head.
So the next day I went to work, and after a long day I felt like doing something to nurture the style that is all my own. The style that sticks out of the crowd. I needed a little extra sparkle. And I remembered this project.
This pair of shoes is hella old. The pictures of the side of the wedge came out too blurry, but they were scuffed up to the point of being unwearable. I rarely wear heels because HB and I are the same height, so these shoes are about 5+ years old.
And this is how they turned out!
I love them! They are a bit overboard, but I wore them with jeans to work today, and I got so many great comments. I was worried that the mix of conservative and natural women at work would think they were too gaudy for day time (and they kind of are), but they all told me how great they looked, and how much they liked them. And it wasn't that I feel sorry for you praise, it was real.
One thing I learned doing this project was that I didn't put enough glitter into the modge podge. This project ended up taking me about five layers, so in places it's clumpy and the glue didn't dry as nicely as it should have. Since the project calls for a final sealing layer of modge podge, I probably could have used WAY more and gotten a nicer look. But since no one is looking that closely at my shoe, I'm not that worried about it.
Hooray! I love them!
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel. I moved here from Boston and having worked in an office in the same industry up there, I thought my wardrobe was pretty conservative (I also worked in a nice, women's clothing store in grad school and had a pretty good work wardrobe as a result).
One morning, early in my time here, my "mentor" (a Cville native, but someone who had less time in my industry than I did!), came into my office, closed the door, and told me that a dressy shirt (I almost wrote blouse, but blouse sounds matronly) I had worn the day before wasn't appropriate. She said there was a probably just a difference in culture between "the city" and Charlottesville.
I was so embarrassed. The top was a flutter sleeved one from Banana Republic...before Banana went uber trendy.
I retired a few other items after that day...a lace jacket that I used to wear over a silk tank was the item I was most sad to put away.
But, I think things have gotten better around here. I don't dress "up" for work as much as I did in Boston, but I think people are a little more open to different styles here these days.