Rate My Look

Do you ever have one of those days where you just feel smokin' hot? You may think it crazy, but I felt totally hot in this outfit today:

While the above picture is not the most flattering  (and my eyes are all squinty), it gives you an idea of the outfit. I'm wearing my favorite high-waist sailor pants (love the buttons!) with a fitted purple plaid button-front shirt by Kenar. I got both pieces at either TJ Maxx or Marshalls at bargain prices. I pulled my hair up and back to emphasize the fabulous ruffle detail on the shirt. I adore the puffed sleeves, the ruffles, the print- basically everything about this shirt is a win for me. It actually has a really adorable peplum that makes it super flattering when I wear it untucked as well. However, whenever I choose to wear these pants, it's so that I can emphasize how high the waist is on them. Because my hands are in my pockets in the photo, it's hard to see how the outfit emphasizes my hour-glass figure, so you'll have to trust me when I tell you that it does!

I love this style of pants because it's really one of the first styles of pants women got to wear as fashion. When women truly started wearing pants instead of dresses and skirts, it was literally their husbands pants or their brothers pants. While the men were fighting in World War I, the women headed to the factories. They were the work force, so they pulled their hair back (or chopped it off), stopped wearing cumbersome skirts and grabbed the closest pair of trousers available- the ones in their husbands' closets. And of course we all recall Rosie the Riveter's iconic look of coveralls. But that's not really what I'm talking about. I'm talking more about the style of pants Katharine Hepburn made so iconic. Did you know she was the first woman to wear pants (as fashion) in a major motion picture? Her high waist, wide-leg trousers are at once incredibly rebellious in their masculinity and yet highly figure-flattering in the most feminine manner.

 

So my outfit today is a salute to women everywhere who can rock a pair of men's trousers, but project an "I'm all-woman" air about them while they do it. I don't want to wear menswear so that I look more like a man. I want to wear menswear because it's comfortable, convenient and when it fits just right, makes me feel like a smokin' hot w-o-m-a-n.