Battle of the Blazers
My philosophy of "one in, two out" is put to the test.
Preamble.
In case you’re new here, hi! I wrote last week about how this Substack is going to document my descent into madness be my excuse to talk about my fashion “strategy.” Last week’s post was an overview of how I’d arrived at the need to overhaul my approach to style. And I mentioned a few elements of my strategy when I add something new…
if I’m adding something entirely new: it’s one in, two out. The priority of what gets tossed here is what two items akin to it can I reasonably toss that I won’t wear because I wear this new thing.
Here’s a for-instance: I bought an older Yohji Yamamoto blazer (look 11). I know this piece suits my style (it’s a sculptural layering piece!) and I know there’s blazers from Pile 2 that I no longer want to wear anymore with this in my rotation. They gotta go!
Well, this post is holding myself accountable to the rule! Two blazers have to go by the end of this. (I have two blazers before me, but only one photo in my hand…)
The candidates.
There’s a few blazers I own that I like and want to wear for some reason or another, but they’ve been thoroughly neglected. I challenged myself to resist the “but I might!” pull of all of them and think about which ones I can realistically see myself wearing and styling regularly into the fall.
Here’s the contenders to be re-homed:
a tuxedo-inspired, cropped blazer from Leifsdottir (Anthropologie-owned).
a traditional, business-girlie blazer from Ann Taylor - Loft.
a twist on the traditional, business girlie blazer from hinge (Anthropologie-owned)
and (perhaps somewhat controversially) a vest with cap sleeves from BCBG (Max Azria). I consider this related to the genus of “blazer” - but feel free to fight me in the comments!
I isolated all of them for a photoshoot in the bathroom (lmao) so you’d see them in the clearest light. I’ll point out the things I find most compelling about each:
Leifsdottir was my favorite Anthro-spinoff for a long time. Similar to Rugby for Ralph Lauren, I think it distilled all the best parts of the brand ethos while offering something extra. In the case of Leifsdottir, the “extra” was better finishing, better materials, and more whimsical and risky designs. This was not your typical “boho hippie girl” Anthropologie brand. This blazer in particular has a really well stitched lining—peep the beautiful flat fell seams and fun bias tape selection. Even a minor mistake SHOUTS on a white garment, especially when the seams are visible through the cream silk lining; this garment is really clean and neatly constructed. No notes. (If you’re in the market for this, scoop it up in size 8 on eBay for 22 USD!)
I think Ann Taylor has a weirdly “bad” rep generally as a store that only older—and specifically kind of white, suburban, stuffy—women should shop in. I haven’t shopped there recently, but even passing their displays in the mall just screams a little bit of “Get Out” at me. It’s a shame, because I think on the whole they have a selection of stellar basics with solid construction; my mom had this blazer for years before me, and it’s in great shape after both of us have worn it (her regularly! me to any interview I had between like 2013-2018). Love the fun lining color. (Might have to write a whole post on the relationship of their core brand to their “younger” lou + grey collections—there’s something very strange about their marketing positioning.)
Another Anthro brand! There was an outlet near us that I frequented with my mom; so I think I have quite a few Anthro items. This one is just a fun play on a blazer—cute little peplum in the back, with the skinny lil’ lapels to make it kind of sporty. There’s a really nice looking bias-bound seam up the center; but it’s otherwise just serged, which IMO is a weird choice. If you have an unlined blazer and don’t bother to finish all the seams neatly, you’re better off just doing a lazy lining job to try to hide it from me. The style is very cute though, so I looked past it. I wore this a lot in college and in my early career (so it’s held up despite the lazy finishes); it just fell off when I started working remotely.
I love a cap sleeve. Controversial take to some; but I stand by it! It’s whimsical. Life needs whimsy; so I was glad to see that in this piece. This is another piece I’ve had since high school (I’m pretty sure I was like 3rd place at a DECA competition wearing this lol) and it shows now for the fact that it baaaaaarely fits. It was pretty fitted when I bought it, but it is definitely not something I can button properly anymore. It fit well enough to keep so far (I just left it open all the time anyway when I wore it, propriety be damned!); but it’s absolutely up for reconsideration.
The “logic”.
I had a job once that required me to learn workflow charting for anyone to take my planning seriously, so I’ll be including that here lol. If the answer to any “decision” (question) is “no”, then it’s eligible for tossing!
Decision 1: Does it still fit?
The answer was no here for the BCGB vest; so it was an easy decision that this be one of the two blazers that gets the cut. One down, one to go!
Decision 2: Do I still like it / do I like the way it looks on me?
I feel good in all of these other blazers—I like them, and I like the way they look on me. So no one gets cut here.
Decision 3: Is it well made? Will it continue to last in my wardrobe if worn more often?
All of them pass this test too—even with some having better fabrication that others, I trust them to hold up for many more years.
Decision 4: Is it very similar to other items in my wardrobe? Will I wear it less because I’ll choose the similar item more often?
This was the deciding factor! The Ann Taylor blazer was a very similar length and cut as the incoming Yamamoto blazer, and I knew I’d reach for the new blazer over the other. So, that’s that! Two out.
I had expected to have a more difficult time deciding here initially, since I had these for years. The decision tree helped; making my thought process concrete helped minimize getting lost in the emotion. (I can get realllll sentimental about my clothing! More on how to combat that tendency if you face it too in future posts.)
These blazers will both be re-homed to Mama Boots—I expect she’ll rock them both this fall at her local Target or a holiday party or two! I kind of stole the Ann Taylor blazer so it’s only fair I return it.
Other considerations.
If I had to go further down my decision tree because all the items were a “yes”, here are the other things I’d factor in:
Decision 5: Can I think of at least 5 different outfits I can wear this with?
Versatility is key! If I can think of at least 5 different ways to style something, there’s a much higher chance it’ll get worn throughout the season.
Decision 6: Does it suit more than 1 type of occasion?
Once again, I really need pieces that are versatile. I don’t attend formal events regularly in a year (if at all), so I need pieces that aren’t just suited to formal or otherwise hyper-specific events.
Decision 7: Is it especially hard to care for (dry clean only, only spot clean, etc.)?
I want to optimize for laziness. I don’t have a hard “no dry cleaning” rule—it’s easy enough to do and unavoidable for certain garment types—and I’m happy to hand wash a special piece or two, but I can’t build a wardrobe around too many of these pieces. It’s a good reason to use after all the other decisions are factored in.
Decision 8: Is it likely to discolor easily?
More on this in the TMI section.
Decision 9: Is it easy to pack?
I travel fairly often, and anything that travels well will inevitably be worn more regularly! This might not be relevant to you if you’re not packing often.
Decision 10 (the final test): Do I like it more or less than something else in the re-homing pool?
The ultimate question when all else fails: do I want to keep this garment more than the others I’m considering? If I wouldn’t pick this one over any other, then it has to be the one to go.
This is almost certainly TMI, but…
We need to talk about sweat. It’s a powerful force! And it’s one that has a big impact on your clothing. I don’t see a lot of folks speaking frankly about this in the “fashion style girlie” community (outside of Caroline Winkler keeping it real about foot sweat), so I will. (I welcome being pointed to other folks being real about this topic!! It can’t all be glamorous all the time.)
You are going to sweat (unless you can’t medically) and even if you reduce how much you sweat with botox treatments, you are going to be sweating. It will impact your clothing. So it’s worth being real with yourself about how and where you sweat most and thinking about the impact it’ll have on what types of clothes might be better or worse investments. Sweat will stain; depending on the color, composition, and length of time you let the stain set, you’ll see different shades of impact. But it will happen!
If you use any kind of deodorant with aluminum, your sweat stains will almost certainly be harder to get out. Again, you should do what you want here; just account for this in how you shop.
There’s a few very straightforward ways to address sweat, and deodorant-based stains on common fabric types to reduce their appearance. But when it comes to dry-clean only garments or really delicate hand-wash only ones; you’ll save a lot of strife in your life if you look up how you’ll need to handle sweat stains on them before you buy.
It can be valuable to make a list of fabric compositions you’ve had good results with to have on hand when shopping!
Bonus: Books are stylish too.
There’s been a fair amount of people being weird on Twitter online discourse about “performative reading” and my opinion can be summed up as: “why does everyone think women can’t read, including other women?” I recommend listening to Mina Le’s video essay on this for a more nuanced view on my opinion (and any of her other videos—love her approach to thinking about style and culture).
I can read! (I bet you can too, lol!) And I think it’s rather stylish to do so. :)
Here are some recent finishes and starts from my bookshelf:
Clockwise from top left:
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Finished this recently in my irl book club. We were all thoroughly saddened by the depth of destructive forces in the author’s life, but equally fascinated by her ability to navigate through it all to find meaning. Very challenging (esp. if you have your own family trauma) but well worth the read.
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily R. Austin. Absolutely hilariousssssss (esp. if you have anxiety, you will feel so seen but simultaneously laugh out loud at yourself) and finished recently. I stand by my Goodreads review for this one: “very funny, very sad, very easy to read and very challenging simultaneously. bravo.”
Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI by Madhumita Murgia. About 30% of the way through this, and being someone who’s listening to every single person around me talk about AI, I haven’t yet read something that surprised me but this is still a devastating read and a very well framed collection of stories. No tech bro evangelist bullshit has been included; so I’d recommend if you’re not up to date on the long arm of actual AI impact.
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor. Been very excited to pick this up! I haven’t started it yet, but was sold on this piece of the premise: “…combining everything from superhero comics to Nigerian mythology to tie together a story about a city consuming itself.” I love authors who aren’t afraid to go wiiiiide with their influence. (And have heard only good things about the author’s other works!)
You can follow me for realtime reviews on Goodreads, if you’re into that sort of thing.