Classic Is ALMOST The Same As Classy

One of my favorite bloggers, Big Mama, has started a Fashion Friday post on her blog. I always enjoy reading them even though I don't always agree with her advice and personally can't imagine asking someone for fashion advice. I know fashion. I know what to wear and what looks good. I wouldn't say I am on the cutting edge of fashion; in fact, my daughter and nieces might even venture to say that I fell off the cutting edge long ago, back when I continued to wear tapered leg jeans because I know they make my legs look longer and slimmer even though they are completely out of style. I still wear them.

I don't believe in trends because I know as soon as I buy several of that trendy something they will go out of style in about 30 seconds. Plus, everything trendy does not look good on everyone. Some people have a hard time grasping this concept. I wear classic clothes, like jeans and a turtleneck with a blazer. I have been wearing this same style for about 30 years now. It goes in and out of style and I just keep wearing it. It's a classic look that looks good on me and, in reality, never goes out of style.

All this is a prelude to the fact that I have to go to a wedding this weekend. This, of course, required a new outfit. During the course of shopping for this outfit, I came to the conclusion, once again, that it is extremely difficult to find attractive, well-fitting, stylish clothing that does not require you to sell your first unborn child as a down payment if you are over 50 and slightly overweight. It is possible but it requires a great deal of time and just a little common sense.

At this point, I wanted to show you a picture of a twenty-something wearing a mini skirt and boots to illustrate my point that these are not the kind of clothes we should be buying and wearing (and having that said, I'm sure there are some women my age who look fabulous in these outfits), but I got sidetracked when I found that you can actually GET THROWN OFF A PLANE IF YOUR MINISKIRT IS TOO SHORT and also? That you can totally make a miniskirt out of duct tape. The Internet is truly a wondrous purveyor of information, isn't it? Anyway.

I had a vision of what I wanted to buy. Not like a Joan of Arc vision, but a mental image of the outfit. I do this often, unfortunately, and then of course I can't find just the exact same thing from my vision. I have often sighed in many a department store and wished I could twitch my nose like Samantha and just MAKE the outfit I have in my mind. But alas. That only works on late night TV.

What I wanted was something like this.



Only not exactly. My dress would have been looser, redder and my boots would have been low heeled and black. But I couldn't find anything that even remotely approached this vision in any store and, after several unfortunate online shopping tries which involved clothes which revealed back rolls exposed for just anyone to see, I don't buy many clothes online. So, I erased the vision and began again. I tried on approximately 6,581 dresses before I remembered that there are very, very, VERY few dresses made anymore that look good on anyone. Look at the next woman you see wearing a dress and you will see what I mean. What was she thinking?

Finally, I decided that I might be more successful if I switched to pants and that's when I found this beautiful, cream colored pants suit that fit perfectly, except the pants are too long. Who do they make these pants for? Giants? Really. I am 5'7" and they are too long for me? Anyway, hemming them is a small price to pay for the fabulousness of these pants. I was trying them on tonight and Tom (unprompted) said they made my butt look good. Is there higher praise? I think not.

Here it is.

Then, I had to find a top. I mulled over a jewel bright turtleneck in emerald green or sapphire blue, but then I had a vision of a gold and cream striped sweater. The gold would be kind of sparkly to dress up the outfit and the cream would match the suit perfectly. I sighed when I realized that, once again, I had a vision that I would not be able to find.

And then I saw this.

I couldn't believe it. It was perfect, fit great - and was on sale! And sparkly. It was sparkly.

See how great it looks with the jacket?

And pearls?

So, I'm good to go. I have cream colored strappy shoes and a cute, matching shoulder bag with gold buckles. And I will look good. Classic. AND classy.

Unless we have a blizzard. Which probably won't happen. Probably. Because I do not have cream colored boots. Dammit.