An autumnal big 3

3 items, 5 ways each

We had a crisp 72° high in Phoenix this weekend for the first time since I’ve moved here! I figured it would be fun to play dress up with some colder-weather items that are new to me in the last year. Many of these outfits include sandals which are not going to be practical in most places, but very much practical to me all year round!

A Rainbow Sweater

I finished this sweater a few weeks ago — it’s the Rooibos Sweater made with Lang Cloud Yarn in shade 002. Super addicting to knit up because you never know what color is coming up next! I posted a TikTok about this sweater and many people had questions about getting it to stripe so well. This yarn just does that for you, and it’s super soft to boot. Once I had my hands on the finished product, though, I felt a little intimidated. Does rainbow go with everything or nothing? Here are my notes:

1. If you want a flattering pair of durable, structured shorts, look for a !vintage! pair of the Patagonia Stand-Up Shorts. My sister has no less than four pairs of these because they Just Feel Good. Also rave reviews from Caleb on his vintage pair.

2. These Cole Haan slides have to be at cents-per-wear.

3. I wore this to go see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice — if you need a Ludicrously Capacious (zippered!) bag to sneak Trader Joe’s popcorn and Scandinavian Swimmers into the theater, you HAVE to make the Blackbird Fabrics Bestie Bag.

4. Kind of boring! But I’ve seen the leopard version of these pants everywhere on Insta recently and I hate to say, they are devastatingly good looking in a side profile while not being so aggressively kick-flared as to be too trendy.

5. My favorite outfit of the set. You can’t really see but this skirt is also vertically striped, so I was terrified that it was going to look insane. It actually looks perfect under the sweater! I used to wear this skirt in high school with a shirt tucked in, which has put me off of reaching for it (remember skater skirts?). I think an oversized top makes it very preppy, breezy, and cute.

Lee Straight-Leg Brown Corduroys

Last year,

Leandra Medine Cohen

argued that brown corduroys were as versatile as jeans, and I was so compelled that I ordered these from Depop soon after. They are comfortable cotton and fit well, but I struggle to style them in a way that doesn’t make me feel like Paul Giamatti in The Holdovers.

1. This striped Uniqlo shirt… I bought it for 10€ in Amsterdam and I wear it every. single. week. I never imagined the power this shirt would have over me but it is so cozy.

2. Has anyone played Wingspan? It’s an “engine-building game” meaning that you try to establish a synergistic “engine” that allows you to get more points as it cycles over and over. There’s no one best strategy for setting up the engine, but it’s more important to make choices that work to support each other. Oddly enough I think this concept of engine-building flows nicely with

   Irene Kim (김애린)
   ’s idea that you should try to invest in items that give you not just one more outfit, but 10 more outfits — an investment that compounds. Maybe this doesn’t make sense unless you’ve played Wingspan, but I feel this way about the combination of this specific woven leather brown bag with these specific woven leather brown sandals. It is matchy-matchy, but they are a built-in pairing in my closet that I return to again and again. Anyways, this is my least favorite outfit of the bunch.

3. I never wear a sweater over my shoulders like this, but you wouldn’t have been able to see the purple tank underneath if I had put it on properly. You can see the grin on my face — I was shocked at how well this color combination worked!

4. I think this outfit could use a little more work. Throwing on a big scrunchie just felt a little lazy in an outfit with an otherwise Southwestern vibe.

5. Again, big smiles! I figured I had to include at least one fall outfit with a comfy sweatshirt, preferably the gray heathered kind. So fun and casual! (Chomp chomp)

Finally, the L.L. Bean Barn Coat

I thrifted this jacket last spring when I still thought I’d be living in Flagstaff come fall. As recovering victim of “Not Like Other Girls” disease and a born Aquarius, I think the absolute explosion of the barn coat since I bought it in May has made me feel intimidated to wear it — it’s also been just too hot.

1. I initially chose my chunky black flip flops for this outfit, but it felt too uninspired, too Pinteresty. With some less obvious, comfy sandals, I felt a little like Elizabeth Bennett in the part where she says “Your hands are cold.”

2. This outfit feels… practical?? These are the Everlane Gardener Overalls, which I bought last year and love. Again, I think the addition of Chacos (with the toe strap pushed down, and that’s just the way it’s going to be), an “outdated” shoe brings this outfit down to earth in a more accessible way for me.

3. Not much to say here — “if it ain’t broke.”

4. More overalls! An idea I stole from Pinterest that I copy over and over again is to wear these cream ones is with a white tank or t-shirt underneath, and I thought adding a tan jacket on top would be a fun way to compound that idea further. I feel similarly about my Boston Birkenstocks as I do about the Barn Coat in terms of trendiness — and also I can’t get over the idea that they make my feet look like as wide as webbed duck feet.

5. This is the point that I decided I was not going to do 25 outfits for this post, and that I needed to stop at 15 and eat lunch. Going for a threepeat of mitigating trendiness by adding something decidedly NOT fashion-forward, I added this black knit t-shirt dress from Old Navy that — honestly? I wear ALL the time. The easiest work-from-home outfit ever. It’s not chic, but I have often wondered if all of fashion Substack were to collectively get together and pile on their “not chic items we actually wear all the time” what that would look like. I would just be curious to see! If anyone has a recommendation for a better-fitting black t-shirt dress, this is probably one of the placeholders I’d be inclined to replace? If that’s an oxymoron for a t-shirt dress, let me know that too.

How is the season going for you? I am trying to get back to being a good Substacker, and after months of hemming and hawing on my part I think I will have an actual logo soon courtesy of my sister! It’s easy to say “ugh, design clients are so DIFFICULT and ANNOYING”, until you are the client and have no ideas and can’t express what you like in a way that’s helpful. So Thérèse, I appreciate your patience on that, lol.