Another Year of Happy Part 2:

A frilly slip from Anthropologie became a staple layering piece this year as I explored the hint of femininity offered in the exposed hem of a traditional foundation garment.

A ruffle bib and pleated trumpet sleeves of the Manoush dress layered on top of the slip made this outfit the kind of silly, fussy one I would wear to run on campus errands on my off days from teaching. Specifically I recall wearing this to Piper's Pub in the South Side for someone's birthday dinner. The necklace and painted wooden bracelet were my mother's from the 70s. The shoes are Chloé. The bag is Balenciaga.

This See by Chloé dress made me feel like a mod clown.

I wore it to dinner at a bar restaurant in Wexford with friends. The cardigan is Design History and the shoes are Me Too (both from TJ Maxx). The bag is Balenciaga.

My inclusion of this dress was likely influenced by having just rewatched Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Tibi's Floating Feathers dress in brown and ivory.

It was one of my favorite buys of 2008 and I continued to wear it for teaching when I paired it with my Marc by Marc Jacobs Faridah in Fools Gold and Marc Jacobs purple suede pumps. I also wore this dress underneath my Alice + Olivia skirted windowpane coat to the League of Women Voters Good Government Awards Dinner.

This outfit is pretty simple but once I moved back to DC I was working with a limited closet. I wore some variation of this outfit with frequency once I bought the A.P.C. skirt from Barney's Coop in Friendship Heights.

On the particular date of this photo, I was on my way home from researching at the National Museum of American History. I decided to stop into Cusp in Georgetown, enticed by the large sale sign in the window. I tried on many sale items but walked out empty handed. That day I paired the skirt with an American Apparel deep v printed with hot air balloons by Etsy's Timberps.  I wore it with Tory Burch Lee Lee Reva patent flats and my Balenciaga gris fonce City from 2006.