It's summer!! And not metaphorically in the "I'm out of school!!" and "School's out for summer!!" sense. It's actually summer, according to the sun and how the earth rotates and whatnot (science was not my best subject). And what does this mean? It's hot. Sweat dripping down your thighs hot. Forcing yourself to wear sunglasses even though your sweat makes them slip down your nose but you have to protect your eyes from that blazing sun hot.
Now do you understand why I hate summer?
It's a heavily discussed topic on Fractured Aesthetic.
But we're going to change that!! No, not the idea that I hate summer. I'm never going to enjoy 95 degree weather. However, we're going to find ways to work with this heat. Well, I'm going to find ways for this first trial. Your part in all of this can be to give suggestions/tips in the comments below for future summer looks (there's still 83 days left of summer!!).
And to test out my first attempt at summer I went into the city -- not THE city (NYC, that is), like Hamilton sings (do you get my title now?), but Atlanta. The city seems like a perfect place to test this -- the excessive amounts of walking and high concentration of pavement make it feel like a literal oven come July. Also another factor: I've been wearing my Calvin Klein overalls and denim shorts with T-shirts practically every day because I live in a magical land of suburbia, where summers are filled with boredom and poorly made outfits (a.k.a. my excuse of having a fairly dry blog this season). But the city!!! What a place to actually put effort into what you wear!!
I didn't realize how hard it was to dress for this season until the twenty minutes before I was supposed to leave hit and I had no clue what to wear. Dressing for 95 degrees is hard. I've discussed this. And I still have not found the solution, the final answer to all our problems. I first took out this top I recently purchased from Nasty Gal in L.A. a few weeks ago -- a top I would've never bought a few months ago, but the heat forces us to make irrational decisions in fashion. It had awkward cutouts and buttons and made me practically immobile from the waist up, but I bought the top, thinking it would pair perfectly with the tight denim skirt I found at a thrift shop that same day but soon realized that I could not walk OR raise my arms a few inches above my torso.
Attempt 1: failed. This reminds me of when I did another fashion experiment a few months ago, where I tried to make denim cutoffs work for a non-festival occasion. I failed twice, but succeeded on the third attempt. So I kept going.
I kept the top because I spent too much money on it for it to go to waste. I dug through the back of my dresser drawers, hoping I would find the perfect bottoms to pair with such an awkward top, then I continued to find my most awkward pair of shorts. That should be a perfect match, right?
Top by Nasty Gal. Shorts by J. Crew (or try these). Shoes by Adidas. Sunglasses by Madewell.
Plot twist: it was!! I've owned these shorts for over a year now and they've continued to collect dust for the past 12 months. They're those shorts that fall into the category of "too big for the waist but too tight on the thighs", so I let them sit there, hoping they would magically change shape or maybe I would change shape. I slipped them on a year later, and they somehow fit. It's like the shorts themselves knew I was in a fashion dilemma. I quickly tucked in a portion of the top to give that ~asymmetric~ look but to actually allow my arms to be mobile (two birds with one stone!). As I was rushing out the door I realized I was barefoot and still waiting on these shoes to arrive (which they did the next day, of course). I think back on this day, which was over three days ago, and imagine the perfect summer look with those espadrille slides that now live on my feet because they're that comfortable (and perfect for summer). So instead, I quickly grabbed my Stan Smiths because I like to call them my safety blanket and wearing them in Atlanta, of all places, made them more fashion-forward.
This is the first time that I've felt, well, good with what I was wearing this summer. Comfortable in my own skin. Summer can really mess with your personal style, and I know traveling to places like L.A. doesn't help one bit. But I actually felt like me! Even with this strange top that I still can't seem to grasp the concept of. And with the sun glowing off the metallic gold stripes on my shorts, I felt ready. Able to take on the heat. Take that, summer.
Photos taken by my friend Averie (yes, I know you noticed they weren't taken with my DSLR. I'm sad about it, too).
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