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.

Another Year of Happy Part 1:

Chris casually said this to me as he flipped the self titled Velvet Underground record and I thought it encapsulated so perfectly my pangs of nostalgia for so many moments in 2009 and my optimism for more moment-making as we enter 2010.  Some of my favorite photographed outfits of the year will follow in subsequent posts:

I wore a variation of this outfit many times over winter and fall of 2009. The Alice + Olivia coat was among my favorite super sale purchases. The League of Women Voters "Good Government Awards" Dinner, my friends' intimate Pittsburgh wedding gathering at Lidia's Italy, to Max's Allegheny Tavern to watch Pitt basketball and to eat German food. I could go on...

I got this Tibi dress for a song on ebay in early February and brought it to New York over Valentine's Day.  I continued to wear it throughout the year but it reminds me of February. And I just wore it on Saturday, January 2nd to a family gathering.

This See by Chloé dress was another ebay find. I affectionately named it after Cormac McCarthy's book, The Road, which ignores some of the more whimsical elements of the print. But it mostly evokes an industrial landscape reminiscent (in my imagination, at least) of barren dystopia. I wore it to the Bloomfield Halloween parade and to see the filmic version of the book in the theater. It is far too large so I have to pair it with a cardigan or jacket to have a shape. But I love it regardless.

When I was reviewing my outfit photos of 2009, I noticed how swiftly my See by Chloe dress collection managed to grow. This white linen number was a summer favorite and I wore it with a variety of accessories to dress up or down. I wore it to see Magnolia Electric Company play outdoors at the Andy Warhol Museum. I wore it to see the Pittsburgh production of Sondheim's beautiful metanarrative play, Into The Woods at the Benedum. I wore it to dinner in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Labor Day Weekend, which was officially the last weekend of the year where I would wear linen with confidence. And as much as I love tights, sweaters, coats, and layers, it will be a treat to pull it out once 2010 warms up! As a consummate klutz I was a little terrified to care for a white linen dress but between Fels-Naptha (old fashioned laundry soap) and Oxyclean I think I will be able to keep this dress in good condition.