Tomboy Rants: High-Low, Why?

Can't even see the hi-low hem on this one right away until you look closely.That's why the model has her hip thrown out like that. To hide her shame.Shame, Gap. Shame.

It seems like every promising sweater or even some basic T-shirts is falling prey to this ridiculous, unflattering trend. When it showed up a couple of years ago, I thought there was no way something this unflattering to something like nearly everybody would stick around.

Well, I'm not right about everything.

What's a high-low hem, you ask?

It's a hem like in the photo above, where the back of the shirt is a few inches longer than the front, also known by those of us who were snorting in disgust before the trend ever began as "mullet hem". This is an idea that mostly looks good on little kids or toddlers, whose bodies are still naturally fairly wiry and lanky. I have seen six year olds rock a high-low hem like nobody's business.

Unfortunately, they insist on making these shirts and dresses for adults.

The problem with high-low sweaters and shirts being all over the place?

I have boobs.

I know, I know; it's simply shocking that a woman might have something happening on her chest, and no fashion designers ever feel like they should plan for it. Instead, they primarily design shirts that only work if you're flat-chested, stick-thin, and have no hips. So if you fit all three of those categories and you are also 5'10", well, these designers are here for you!

If you're the other 96% of womankind, um, sorry.

The fashion designers didn't know people like you needed clothes that don't make you look like a lumpy potato! Whoops!

That's why I hate high-low hems. They ruin otherwise perfectly beautiful shirts, and they are basically taking over Loft, which has been one of my favorite places to get good basics. I can't trust Loft's basics any longer, though, because even your average T-shirt is liable to have been hit with a side-split high-low hem like this:

I'm so disappointed in you, Loft.I want to love you!Let me love you!

I love that T-shirt design. I WANT that T-shirt design. I want that Murky Blue color they have available on the website in my life. But high-low is just not going to work. Because I have a chest, it makes the front part of the hem ride even "higher", and trust me, nobody wants me flashin' belly at this juncture in my life. Unless you want me to go into a rant about how that whole "prevent stretch marks with moisturizer/coconut oil/cocoa butter" is a scam and whether or not you get stretch marks is basically genetic, so stop being so smug you moms in bikinis. Then the "low" part - which is meant to actually be, y'know, low - just ends up being the length the whole damn shirt should have been in the first place. They advertise it as a "low" hem, and it will still barely clear my hips!

And I'm supposed to think this is attractive!

And spend money to wear things that look like that!

Basically, Katie Angry, Katie Smash.

Katie Want Normal Hems to Be Trendy Again.

Et tu, Boden?

Do you have a "fashion trend" you feel is either awful for you or just sticking around way longer than it should? Would you like to rant with me about how stupid high-low hems on T-shirts are? Please, comment! I love rants! Rant with me! Join my angry club of women with boobs! Or without boobs! The angry club accepts all.

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These Are Not Gray Pants

Ten years ago, you could not have paid me to step foot into Gap or Old Navy to actually shop for anything. I went in occasionally with my family or friends, but I just wasn't interested in what they had to offer - everything seemed to be branded with logos, and I am a staunch believer in not giving a company my money in order to be a walking billboard for them. If I'm going to advertise a company by blaring their logo across my clothing, they had best be paying me for the privilege.

Well, I still feel that way.

Somewhere along the way, though, my passionate hatred of Gap and Old Navy faded and was replaced by me finding the occasional things I really like about them.

It's a pretty recent development - this post here over on the personal blog was the first time I had worn a Gap shirt in a very, very long time. And I've been adding Old Navy jeans to my closet here and there for a while as well. Then, I had a baby, and discovered the BabyGap is one of the few places that sells a decent amount of non-pink clothing for girls.

Gap, and Old Navy both have a serious length problem - I can tell they're mostly selling to teenagers and skinny college girls, because they just crank out the cropped tops like an assembly line on cocaine. Shirts are never long enough, and if they are, they're poor quality material that shrinks after one wash. Old Navy's exception to this rule is in their tank tops and camis, which I find hilarious - why would you make a tank clearly meant to be worn under your other shirts longer than the shirts it's meant to be worn with?

I'm obviously not the business genius that those running Gap and Old Navy are.

In any case, the tops just aren't long enough, on average, which means that when I do shop there I primarily shop online, allowing me to troll the 'tall' section to see if they have anything I like in a length that won't have me flashing belly every time I have to grab something off a shelf.

This stripe-sleeved top did the trick.

I won't lie - I mostly ordered this shirt in order to get to Gap's $50 limit to get free shipping. I had ordered a couple of things for the baby, and I hate paying for shipping if I don't have to. At worse, I throw something I'm not sure about in the cart and then return it later, right?

I figured this would be one of those shirts. The high boatneck and flat color on the body could easily make me look like a mack truck coming and going. I gave it a shot anyway, just to see.

Turns out, I love it.

I love the slightly faded darker blue color and that the shirt ends up emphasizing that my waist is narrow when compared to my hips, instead of flattening me out like I thought it would. I love that ordering it in the tall means the sleeves go past my hands and the hem is below my hips.

My only issue is that the thin cotton, while soft, is not terribly forgiving on a stomach that is still showing the after-effects of baby-havin'.

Ah well.

I love it anyway.

These are not gray pants.

But Katie! I hear you saying. They are clearly charcoal gray!

Nope.

When I bought them? They were flat black. I bought this pair because I wanted (and still want) black jeans, and couldn't find any at the time that weren't skinnies that were nothing less than terribly uncomfortable. Old Navy had these pants on offer - not jeans, but comfortable and a dressy black appropriate for a business casual workplace like the museum I used to work at.

Then I washed them twice, and now they're charcoal gray.

I keep wearing them because I just like them that much, but would still like a pair of inexpensive black jeans, NOT skinny jeans, to wear with shirts like this. Do you guys have any advice on that? They need to go into the lower plus-sizes.

I can't say I didn't get my money's worth, though, since I bought them on sale three years ago and I'm still wearing them pretty consistently.

I just wish they had stayed black longer than two months.

This necklace is a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law, kind of in honor of having had Audra last year. I wear it all the time. It's pretty funny, because I tend to buy large, clunky, insanely colorful necklaces but I love simple things like that that you can wear with anything and everything.

I have this, and a pretty starfish necklace (seen in the earlier link to the Gap T-shirt post from the other blog), and those are my two simplest wear-with-anything pieces of jewelry.

Well.

Um.

Other than my, uh, wedding band.



Outfit Details
Striped boatneck tee - Gap, available here.
Black pants - Old Navy, similar here
Shoes - Skechers at JCPenney, similar here
Necklace - Christmas gift from my mother-in-law





P.S. Please forgive the wonky lighting/focus issues. It's super gray, rainy, and dreary here today and I really did the best I could with what 5:45 pm light could offer me.






P.P.S. Today on the personal blog? I tell you a little story about my drive to work on Monday, and it's at least a little bit funny if I do say so myself. Check it out!

Tomboy Brands: SmartWool

Yeah, yeah, I know. I started a blog and then went a week without posting on it. Well, it was kind of one of those times where for part of the week I had the time but no motivation and then over the weekend I had all the motivation but no time. Or good weather, since the only day I had both it rained all day. Pffffft on that.

So I thought I'd take a moment to talk about socks, because that's totally a super interesting topic you've all been waiting to hear about.

One thing you're going to see a lot of on this blog is SmartWool.

I was introduced to SmartWool by my friends Stevie and Jason years and years ago when we lived in southern Illinois. What Stevie mentioned only in passing, but that is a serious truth and a warning everyone should be given, is that they're basically the heroin of the sock world. One pair is not enough, you will keep finding ways to buy more.

They're sweat-wicking, warm wool socks that come in about ten million awesome color combinations. They're pricey for a pair of socks, running from around $14 to over $20 per pair depending on what design you get and how tall they are. I try to find them on sale when I can, and have received them as gifts for just about every holiday imaginable.

Yes, I actually ask to receive socks on holidays.

And I am the happiest when I do.

My mother, who understands my addiction (we share a different addiction to coffee, which I would blame on her except for the part where I totally started drinking coffee as a teenager long before Starbucks ever reared its green head in our little Illinois city) even bought my baby her own first pairs of SmartWool socks.

She has outgrown those, and I sniffle a little bit when I look at them. I am part of the Mommy Economy, as I call it, passing around hand-me-down clothing as Audra Grace outgrows hers to other moms of little ones.

The baby SmartWool socks, though? They're not going in the pass-around pile. We're making sure we have those for Baby 2 no matter what.

I wear SmartWool all the time, probably wear them four or five days a week, with the other couple of days being dedicated to a similar brand called Solemates. Basically, I have made it a principled stand to never wear plain socks, because apparently that is what I have decided I care about.

That and trying to convince more retailers to make T-shirt sleeves longer, because who on God's green earth ever actually thought cap sleeves were flattering?

Our local Mast General store here in my city has SmartWool regularly on buy 3, get the 4th free so if I ever have the money to spend I go pick through to find my favorites. I pick them up at REI, Duluth Trading Company (you'll see that name again, I promise), and just about anywhere else I can find them.

I often suggest them when anyone asks me what I might like in a present.

Is it weird to like socks this much?

Okay, it totally is.

But there is nothing as warm in the dead of winter as a pair of SmartWool's thicker socks, like the Jovian Stripe socks. I take them with me for long hikes, wear them to work, just wear them all the time.

It's a fun way to put a little color into an otherwise all-neutrals outfit - even if I'm the only one who notices.

Work From Home 2: Electric Boogaloo

So, I ended up back working from my house on Friday. My loaner laptop died and it was sort of an undignified death. I ended up at home working on my desktop, which is fine since my new work laptop was coming in the mail anyway, so I was there to take the delivery.

It was kind of a comedy, in its own way. I drove to work, went through Starbucks (they have coconut milk now, so I am... probably gonna become even more of a regular because coconut milk), made it into the office, and went to turn my laptop on and... nothin'.

I tried a few fixes I know for similar problems I've had on other computers. Nothin'. Pulled out my phone and looked up some possible other solutions.

Nothin'.

So I turned around, went home, and logged on to work stuff here.

Now I feel like my nice pants are kind of wasted. Oh well.

They're from Duluth Trading Company, ponte knit, which means they look like dress pants and feel like lounge pants. Duluth is the king of secret pockets every place, so they have a nice little side pocket. They're women's pants, but actually have pockets big enough to store things in, which is a huge issue that women complain constantly about and people who make clothing just ignore.

They are the best pants.

THE BEST.

This sweater is from a company called Bear Creek, and it's a men's sweater. I buy one at Mast General each year around Christmas when they're on mega sale. I'm going to write a whole post on this at some point, but I prefer to buy men's T-shirts and sweaters sometimes because they actually acknowledge that human beings have torsos, which women's clothing often does not.

I love this sweater. It's warm but not too heavy, and the silver goes really well with basically anything I wear.

The tank top is just a cheapie Target tank. I buy tank tops from Target by the truckload, or at least I would if I could afford a truckload of tank tops. They sell them in a million colors and you can either buy the basic tank like this, or the "long and lean" Junior's tanks, which I prefer but often don't like the color choices.

I don't even need to tell you where these socks are from.

The shoes are Skechers, an older style I found on clearance at JCPenney when I was heavily pregnant and needed black shoes that were comfortable to stand on when my whole center of gravity had changed. I like them so much I've kept wearing them since.

One of my goals for this year (I really do need to write a post laying that out, don't I?) is also to get a really good, comfortable pair of basic black flats that are not tennis shoes. These are fine, but they're not exactly good for dressier stuff, are they?

That said: so so so so SO so so comfortable.

The scarf is from Lands End. I love Lands Ends' scarves, although they're a little pricy for what is essentially a rectangular piece of fabric someone spent 5.6 seconds hemming and then sent on its way. I usually wait for them to go on sale, or for a friends-and-family sale, and then snatch up two or three and call it a (happy) day.

This scarf was part of an exchange I did, and I deeply, deeply, deeply love it. Deeply.

Deeply love it.

It's the perfect teal color and I wear it all the time.

The outfit idea here was this outfit from Loft's Lou and Grey line, although the item I got the idea from is long since sold out.. I saw that when browsing one day and thought it looked perfect, and realized I could (kind of) recreate it. It's now become an outfit that is on constant winter rotation.

Outfit Details:
Sweater: Bear Creek, men's sweater, available here
Tank top: Target, similar here
Pants; Duluth Trading, still available here but selling out fast
Socks; SmartWool, Jovian Stripe, here
Shoes: Skechers, JCP, similar here
Scarf: Lands End, sold out but similar ideas here at Target
Hat: Urban Outfitters, here.

Too Dang Cold

So I grew up in Illinois.

In Illinois, it gets cold in the winter. Very, very cold.

When we moved to South Carolina, I was disappointed in the lack of chilly winters, because it really narrowed down the amount of time I was able to wear sweaters. I like sweaters, you see. I like warm and fuzzy knitted things and it's hard to pull off wearing cable-knit in 65 degree Decembers. Don't get me wrong, I still try, but even I acknowledge that I look ridiculous.

I try to embrace ridiculousness in all aspects of my life, fashion included.

In any case, every year I moan and groan about not being able to wear my sweaters enough. This year, South Carolina decided it was tired of hearing that nonsense and if I was going to complain so much, it would just give me what I wanted and see how I felt about that, then.

Well, South Carolina, I am actually super, super happy.

Blissful is how I feel.

Other than the logistics of having to keep the baby warm, I love a very cold day in South Carolina. I love the frigid cold, where it makes more sense to curl up under blankets than to wander outside. Oh, sure, I'll complain when my fingers fall off (I don't wear gloves) but secretly? I'm thrilled.

I'm thrilled because of the sheer fact that these days don't last for long. This isn't Illinois, where it goes on and on and on. This isn't our last year in Illinois specifically, where we lived in a hovel of a duplex with heat that only worked in fits and spurts and I once sent my mother a photo of me, sitting inside my own house, wearing two T-shirts, two sweaters, my winter coat, a hat and two scarves, and thick pajama pants worn over my jeans. Also two pairs of socks and THEN fuzzy slippers..

Again, that was inside the house, with the (baseboard, on an exterior wall under a window) heater running full blast.

So that kind of ruined me on winter for a while, until we moved to this magical green land where really cold days only last for a week or less and then suddenly it's 50 again and I'm running around in a T-shirt getting dirty looks from native southerners who are still wearing parkas.

Still, I especially love these cold days because it means I get to pull out my warmest clothing - stuff I really don't get to wear as much as I would like. Like this waffle-knit hooded top from Duluth Trading Company, which I wore into the office yesterday.

It is just the warmest shirt - it's two layers sewn together really well, so even the sleeves are super warm. The neckline is almost too high, but not quite, and the hood lets you sort of sink back into warmth if you need it.

Duluth Trading Company does what they call "Longtail T's", which are made a few inches longer than the industry standard. This is heaven for long-torsoed people like me, for whom basically all shirts forever are just too short and once they've been through the wash, become indecently so. I already own a metric ton of their elbow-sleeve T-shirts (expect to see those pop up here, um, a lot) and decided a couple of months ago to use a little bit of Christmas money to try out this waffle-knit top, too.

Then I wore it for two days straight after it came in, washed it, and wore it another two days straight over a weekend.

This infinity scarf was a gift from my friend Lauren, and another thing I don't get to wear as often as I would like. It's deeply warm and consists of my two favorite colors and another one that is in my top 5.

Guess which colors are which, I dare you.

I have about a million scarves, so if the weather is cold you can expect to see lots of them as well. I really do love handmade scarves - I have a few that friends have given me and I wear them constantly when it's even remotely appropriate and sometimes, even when it isn't. I have been known to be overheated in the pursuit of showing off new friend-gift scarves.

The hat is from Urban Outfitters, and it is the only thing I've ever bought from there, from the only time I have ever gone in. In January, Jason and I did an overnight trip up to Asheville, which is only about an hour and a half from where we live, if that. One of our friends was able to give us a great hotel room overnight and my in-laws kept the baby, so it was just the two of us, one of the best hotel rooms in Asheville, and Christmas money.

And Chai Pani. Every single one of you who reads this needs to promise me, promise me, that they will eat there if they visit Asheville. You must eat there.

Unfortunately, I did not plan for how cold Asheville was in early January, and ended up with incredibly cold ears walking around as the sun went down. We ducked into Urban Outfitters, which I discovered quickly to be Hipster Heaven and not altogether a place I have much interest in ever visiting again.

What they did have though?

Fuzzy hats. Fuzzy hats are apparently very in with the early-20's hipster crowd now, and that worked for me. This is the warmest hat and I love it and I even tried it on in the store, which readers of my personal blog will know is not something I normally do.

It's long enough to pull down over my ears, and it was the first thing I reached for yesterday morning, before anything else.

And finally, you've already seen these shoes. Get ready to see them very, very often. I'm not much of a shoes-person, and tend to rely on the same five or six pairs all the time forever. Right now it's these brown Privo flats.

And, of course, SmartWool socks.

Um.

You'll see those in basically any outfit post where I'm wearing socks.

I have plans for a couple of regular features - Tomboy Brands/Loves, where I talk about the clothing brands I like most or maybe individual clothing items I like the most. Which would you prefer to see? Budgeting Bloggers will be my other regular feature, although I won't be starting to track that sort of thing until March, which will be when I start giving myself a wardrobe budget again. I'm also going to do the occasional post about Style Bloggers I follow or find interesting. Some of them will probably be bloggers you already know about, hopefully some will not.

If there are any features you're interested in maybe seeing, let me know. I'm just getting this off the ground so if you have any ideas you want to share, now is the time, while I'm still fiddling around with ideas.

Outfit Details:
Waffle-knit hooded top: Duluth Trading Company, here.
Jeans: Old Navy, similar here.
Socks: SmartWool, available here at Duluth Trading Company.
Shoes: Privo by Clarks, some Privo can be found here on Amazon (thanks to my friend Jo for letting me know!)
Scarf: Made by my friend Lauren.
Hat: Urban Outfitters, here.