Thursday, March 15, 2012

Near Miss: Limited Tweed Blazer

When I saw this jacket in the window of The Limited in the (early) fall of 2004, it was lust at first sight. I had just started working in the civilian world and was still building up a business casual wardrobe. I was also totally broke. I was working as an office receptionist for $10/hour at less than full time. I could barely cover rent, food, and gas, but I put the $100 blazer on my credit card.

Not long after, I landed a full-time job with better pay. I started in October and that blazer was put in steady rotation at the office. I wore it at least once a week with brown trousers or a brown skirt and a pink or green tank. I was still wearing it when I started the blog in 2006. And I was still styling in that same boring manner


As long time readers have observed, my style became much bolder and more experimental in the first year of blogging. I also grew my wardrobe, inexpensively, through swaps, thrifting, and sales. I started passing over the staid blazer in favor of more exciting pieces. The next fall, tried the blazer with jeans, but still found it boring:


I tried again, in 2009, but I felt like a linebacker in the jacket:


I stuck the blazer in the back of the closet and pulled it out again in 2010. I thought a little pattern mixing might do the trick.


I was starting to figure out how to incorporate such a classic piece into my new style, but I still didn’t wear it for all of 2011. Maybe 2012 will be the year this tweedy blazer makes it back into current rotation. After all, I’ve worn it seven times in 3 months.


Because this is such a conservative piece, I'm finding that I like it best when paired with something playful. It's turned out to be a piece that suits both my old, vanilla and my evolving, spumoni style.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I too love a few classic pieces and will probably be buried in one,lol! It just makes sense to have that one vanilla piece to play with....
I actually like vanilla ;)
It looks super with the white skirt/hot pink leggings combo!
xXx
Reva

Unknown said...

oh, PS, I meant to add I think the silhouette looks best with fuller skirts.
Reva

Angie said...

I have a very similar one and I still don't know what to do with it after two years. You seem to have found your way this year, though.Have you noticed how some clothes unfold their personality as the years go by? Please tell me you do or there might be a chance I'm going crazy !LOL!

Kasmira said...

Angie- you're not crazy! I know just what you mean.

Sarah said...

I find conservative blazers hard to style. It seems to help when I think of them more as a topper/coat than as an integral part of my outfit. But in the end I always feel like a linebacker :(
Yours is nice though and I think you should keep wearing it! :) You're certainly getting your $100 worth of wearings out of it.