2007
and it’s dinnertime and i’m sitting here
maura @ 8:55 pm
Today I had a somewhat-formal-business-wear-type-event, so yesterday I went to the drugstore and bought some knee-his. Does that phrase not send you careening right back to the ’70s? Say it with me: KNEE-HI. I can almost feel the polyester strawberry-print flares I sported as a wee tot.
But I digress.
At my old job folks dressed anywhere from jeans + sneakers to suits + stockings. I tended to hew to the middle — shirts with collars, mostly skirts in the summer, standard business casual pants in the winter. So it’s not that I don’t have any formal business type clothes.
Right now it’s the shoes that are tripping me up (har). I have a few pairs of nice flats that I wear in the summer, when things are all warm and sock-free. But in the winter I favor wing-tip Doc Martens. Just dressy enough for work, and so very cushiony, plus they go with everything.
Everything, that is, except when you are trying for just a smidge more formal than usual. Yesterday I realized that I probably didn’t want to wear the Docs today. It’s currently in the mid-40s here — brrr! — hence the trip to the drugstore. Those knee-his should give my feet and ankles a modicum of protection from the wind as I dress it up a little with my flats, right?
Technically, the answer is yes. But only if you weren’t hoping to wear the knee-his for the ENTIRE day. Reader, I had a run in those knee-his by lunchtime. Luckily it was on the heel, thus more or less invisible unless you really knew where to look for it. Who knew knee-his were single use items? BOO on them and their fragility.
Stockings, meh. What I need is the equivalent of knee-hi tights. Do these exist? For some reason the words “trouser socks” are popping into my head. A quick google search returns retailers named Therawear, Silkies (!), and Hue.
Hue! OMG! How very high school. They always had tights in the most excellent colors. I think I still have some lime green ones from the early 90s. Xmas is coming, off to make my list!
4 comments on “and it’s dinnertime and i’m sitting here”
Yeah, I remember that after Gus was born, feeling like I hadn’t worn my real clothes in aaaages. Now I have this problem of buying things then they don’t fit the next year, not to complain, but it’s pissing me off! But that is an issue for another post. Bah, stupid shopping.
When I was starting the job search this past summer, I had the experience of looking through my “work” shoes and realizing that they were all VERY late-90s: square toes, clunky heels, yadda yadda. I had quite a time going out and finding better shoes to make me look like I’d been shopping sometime in the past decade.
This is what happens when you telecommute, go back to school, and then have a baby: clothes end up in two categories: sloppy and dinner party.
I know, right? I’ve been shopping, but I still sometimes feel trapped in the 90s. Except for shoes — nothing I had before Gus was born fit afterwards, SUCH a bummer.
Yeah, Hue rocks! I loved those! I haven’t bought a pair in years (do they come in maternity? I just realized I haven’t worn my own body’s winter clothes since 2005-06!)
They used to sell Hue and all kinds of wonderful clothes at a store a few blocks from my mom’s. The place was once upon a time a fruit market, then this cool place. Now it is still a clothing store (the very window in which I saw the plaid maryjanes!) but not the same owners. They (the owners) were twins. For the longest time I thought it was just one driven lady!
Hue, Hue, Hue. I had magenta, dark purple, and I think navy.
OK I’m sitting here eating Eggs Benedict and doing work (this restaurant is too kind, I’ve been hacking away in here 2 days in a row! Friday deadlines!) but I really want to go shopping now! I think I will, later today, after the sweepstakes check arrives and all the kids nap at the same time and hell freezes…no, seriously, I might. :-)