But Rinka and Supernatural’s Abaddon just make a leather jacket look so good and so essential…

From Rinka’s blog featuring the new Maison de Reefur leather rider jacket. She had a similar one in last year’s autumn collection.

From this month’s issue of Baila featuring Rinka and the new autumn/winter Maison de Reefur items.

If you follow my Tumblr then… you know why… Abaddon everything for me.

So I ended up on H&M’s online store and noticed just how many various leather-style jackets they had up.

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve shopped H&M for various reasons. But Monday night made me feel like maybe I had been missing out. I went in and tried on all the styles. Found the one I LOVED but it wasn’t in my size. Not for sale online either. So, even though it was near store closing time, the staff offered to call other nearby H&Ms and tracked my size down for hold! Mike suggested we race to the other H&M that night to pick it up too. Made it with 15 minutes to spare! Totally worth it, haha! Really turned my whole day around.

This style looked the best on me with the banded style button collar. Supernatural has really made coat shopping with Mike extremely easy because now everything is a “Dean jacket” or “Castiel trench” with this one being “like Abaddon” because before saying “parka” didn’t really get my visual across. ;)

This will be a nice break from my blazers and red peacoat.

Clothes

• blazer (Zara)
• dotted blue striped shirt (Madewell)
• short-sleeved poplin shirt (Everlane)
• red tee (Madewell)
• chino shorts (Madewell)
• black bistro skirt (Madewell)
• black tights (S-leg)
• summer scarf (Everlane)
• cotton mayfair boxer pajama set (Victoria’s Secret)

Shoes, bags, misc.

• red sandals (Madewell)
• black flats (Payless)

• red tote (Everlane)
• eco shopper bag (Ne-Net)

• gold belt (Madewell)
• sunglasses (Anthropologie)
• maison de reefur hair tie
• emi jay hair tie
• double-sided perfume roller (Michael Kors)

Forecast claims temperatures to be between 66F and 85F hence the blazer and tights but not bringing denim. I also felt a dress would be a better choice but I really didn’t feel like wearing one. C’est la vie.

So, 12 possibilities.
- striped shirt + skirt
- striped shirt + skirt + blazer
- poplin shirt + skirt
- poplin shirt + skirt + blazer
- red tee + skirt
- red tee + skirt + blazer
- striped shirt + chinos
- striped shirt + chinos + blazer
- poplin shirt + chinos
- poplin shirt + chinos + blazer
- red tee + chinos
- red tee + chinos + blazer

Always keeping Tim Gunn in mind when packing still
:)

Hope continuing to share these is helpful too!

Spring Things

mint blazer (Zara)
gray blazer (JCrew)

denim dot shirt (Madewell)
blue pinstripe & dot shirt (Madewell)
red & blue striped shirt (Madewell)
sun kissed blue silk shirt (Everlane)
navy ryan tee (Everlane)
navy sweater (Everlane) *pictured here*

skinny skinny ankle jeans (Madewell)
bistro skirt (Madewell)

mountain blossom bag (Uguisu)
black flats (Payless)
hair ties (emi-jay, maison de reefur)
living grace perfume (Philosophy)

This was a long spring. It stayed chilly so even into late May this is what I’m wearing. However this week the temperatures are on the upswing from 60° to 90° so it’s likely full blown summer now. So this is maybe a look back at what I was wearing up until today. My favorite was really the ryan tee paired with the blazers. Some things will transition over into summer. I forgot to add my sweater to the photo. I quickly put everything together after getting home from work today.

I’m still obsessed with blue. I recently purchased a blue china-pattern like skirt I hope to get a lot of wear from this summer as well. It’s a mini skirt but I bought a size up so that it would be a little longer & office appropriate.

I’ve been wearing my hair up all spring and giving my eyes a break from contacts and wearing my glasses a little more often too.

Besides that I have some summer dresses still packed away that I’ll pull out. See how much I’ll wear them. Some things I pulled out for spring from last year I didn’t really wear much. That’s OK. They’re good items and I might want to wear them in the fall or next spring. Of course if they still go unworn I’ll probably donate them after that. :)

This blue MERCURYDUO tote is the free item with the latest issue of Sweet. It’s one of the recent freebies I’ve actually liked. Their “Take me to MERCURYDUO” reminded me of Kastane’s “Take me to ___” slogan from last year. And their text and choice of pastel color reminded me a bit of the Maison de Reefur shopper.

I’ve been using the Maison de Reefur tote lately on warmer days. The soft cotton fabric is so easy to sling around when running errands. :)

Tops:

• Madewell silk boy shirt
• CDG play long tee
• Madewell striped tee
• APC knit sweater

Bottoms:

• Madewell black skinnies
• Maison de Reefur jean pencil skirt
• Madewell black ruffle skirt
• Maison de Reefur dress

Others:

• Madewell trench coat

• Maison de Reefur black flats
• Repetto red ballet flats

• Everlane tote

• Madewell scarf
• Maison de Reefur umbrella
• Warm black tights
• etc. accessories

I love bringing things that can easily layer. So the silk boy shirt can go under the sweater or even the CDG tee while the sweater can be added over the dress for a red skirt look. :)

Some accompanying music…

What about pink & black?

Pink and black always remind me of my childhood days in ballet.
Well ballet, tap, jazz, dance, gymnastics…
Maybe faint memories of tap shoes nuzzled against ballet slippers sharing the same duffel? I don’t know but it’s a synapse I cannot unbind. Either way I’m really drawn to it right now.

Black & pink. DC in the springtime? Black suits against pink cherry blossoms? I could go on but I should stop, haha

The t-shirt is from Everlane. I have the white version of the Box Cut Tee and ordered the black version when it came back in stock.

I also haven’t been to the salon since November, so, my hair is long enough for short ponytails again. I’ve been growing my bangs a little longer and have been obsessed with this hairstyle for the past month.

Curled bangs, loose ponytail.

I was thinking about which pieces in my closet to switch out now that it’s March and I want to start making some small spring changes. It’s still pretty cold out though. Not drastically different from mid-February.

When I look at this Reefur shopper tote I really feel excited about spring and want to build around this pretty shade of pink (and the bag.) I think I’ll be gravitating towards a lot of sky blue soon. Hmmmm, I’m still thinking about it before going through the trouble of packing away things.

A sign that Spring is actually coming; decent bouquets are available again. :)

Playing around with the idea I put together this Relaxed Resort capsule wardrobe. Something more aligned with my personal tastes. It’s a mixture of Madewell, A.P.C., Maison de Reefur, etc.

Some accompanying getaway inspiration…

*above images from Tumblr

Maison de Reefur

Perfect for the DC seasons.
This would be more than enough to cover me on the coldest of winter days or the hottest of summer’s! Office appropriate looks included. Throw in some accessories like fleece tights, scarves, and sunglasses of course. I easily counted 33 different outfits NOT including the coats. Add either the wool coat or blazer to any one of those 33 looks and you easily double your options. Especially the blazer which can dress up an office look in a snap! And the dress can easily layer under a sweater in winter or a t-shirt in summer with the cute collar popping out. :deco2:

Items for summer.
Nine looks for even the hottest of DC summer days.

Ugh, have I mentioned how much I want to buy this whole wardrobe?! Hahaha

I toy with the idea of selling off all my current clothes and importing these! I kid, I kid. Of course. I’ll use it as a muse. I love to organize and focusing on clothing or style is a fun way for me to distress. It’s so far removed from my daily responsibilities. It’s somewhat of an escape at times.

I actually have a lot of similar pieces that Maison de Reefur puts out. I think that’s why it’s so easy for me to lust after. All the cuts are so classic and timeless.

It’s one of the few Japanese shops I’m always excited about lately.

Since getting more serious about the clothes I buy, the fact I live in the United States slowly set into my psyche. Not to mention taking a good hard look at what I felt suited me best and what made me feel my best when wearing. Madewell hit a nice sweet spot. For a while Madewell and Kastane lined up pretty evenly with style. Though Kastane has gone much more casual this past year.

I love Madewell, but I do having a sizing problem with them. They run a bit too large on me half the time. I’d even say 90% of the dresses are always too big with the waistline falling much too low and skirts usually aren’t much better. Just recently I took the risk of ordering an xxs in a boyshirt online only to discover I should have been doing this the entire time! Last year Madewell’s xs oxfords fit just right but this past year they’ve been a bit baggier of cut. Though sometimes I want baggy. I’m getting off topic but basically Madewell often seems like it’s for much taller girls than my 5’1” self! The flip side is the money I save by being sized out of items I want.

I also think I could get many similar items from APC. They at least ship directly to the US. But the cost is the same or higher than Maison de Reefur. Though New York for me is much closer than Tokyo hahahah. lolol

It might not do a whole lot of good to fantasize about clothes of which you do not posses. With December rolling in I’m actually transitioning my closet to a more winter “capsule” mode right now. It’s hard. I have some sweaters that I loved last winter but not so much this winter. Problem is I bought a little too much. I went Madewell sale crazy last year haha. I don’t have ton extra but, for example, I have 7 sweaters. I prefer to hover around 3 favorites to keep things simple. My fault. I bought 2 sweaters this fall. I’ll hang on to all of them for a while though until there’s a clear sign I’m never going to wear any certain ones again. :dizzy:

Though the “Real Clothe” collection best reflects actual my closet.

There’s a new video on her blog as well. A really vaudeville-quirky-french-aesthetic short for the launch of the new trench coat.

I thought I’d share a few of my favorite songs that sort of match this post’s “theme.”