Happy Friday with Back-to-School Fashion

Happy Friday! I hereby dedicate Fridays on this blog to random posts that may or may not have anything to do with music, but that simply make me happy. Today, I'm going to pretend that this is a fashion blog. I realize I run the risk of alienating my non-fashion-oriented readers, so I apologize if that's you, but really, if you've stayed with me this long you've already listened to an emotional ballad about a Shakespearean character, looked at photos and drawings of my cats, and had me use the blog as a place for dissertation free-writing. If I have any readers right now, I'm impressed.

Some of you who may know me as a respectable phd-student/bohemian singer-songwriter might be surprised to learn that I'm addicted to fashion blogs. They've replaced fashion magazines for me, for several good reasons. First, fashion blogs are free; magazines are not. Second, fashion magazines are filled with ads and models -- neither very good representatives of fashion (or body types) for the average girl. Fashion blogs, by contrast, are written by ordinary, interesting women with real jobs who have to walk around in those heels and be seen in public in that potentially risky color -- that's a much better reason to trust them.

I've always been a fan of fashion -- not so much in general, but on a personal level. I like the way fashion expresses something about myself. (I wrote a bit about this here, last fall) Ever since becoming addicted to fashion blogs, I've also started fantasizing about starting my own fashion blog, but after trying to take pictures of myself in my back-to-school ensemble, I know that there's a good reason that I don't often blog about my own fashion choices: it's really hard to take good pictures of yourself!

My first solution to the problem was to take pictures of the clothes without me in them. I have worn this green skirt (which I bought on our trip to Italy in 2009) for every first day of teaching for the fall semester since I started at UTD (also in 2009). It's become a tradition -- maybe even lucky.

This features the old "camera in the mirror" trick. (This was after the self-timer trick failed miserably)

After I got home, I tried it again with a photographer. Let's just say that the light in our study is great for studying, but not so great for photography. Also, those fashion bloggers make wearing shoes like those in real life look easy, but by the time we took these pictures, I needed to lean on the bookshelf -- for support! Teaching in heels looks great on TV, but it's not so great in real life.

Finally, a real fashion blogger has her credits: Cardigan: Target; Top: thrifted and altered using this diy tutorial (and my mom's mad sewing skills); belt: H&M; skirt: United Colors of Benneton -- Italy; Shoes: Target. 

Really cool fashion bloggers have current links to the stuff they're wearing, but since all these pieces are old, I can't do that.

So, that's my feeble attempt at fashion blogging. Some time, I'll do a post on my favorite fashion blogs so you can see how the professional amateurs do it. In the meantime, Happy Friday! I hope you all enjoy a restful weekend after this busy back-to-school week!