Fall foliage

Today I had lunch with an awesome potential student, and two of my delightful colleagues.  I decided to wear a skirt, because the weather was predicted (accurately!) to get up to 65, making it one of my last few chances this season to go bare-legged.  I think this post barely qualifies as a “thrift store” post, because most of it is from my pre-thrifting days, but it was a fun outfit, so here it is anyway!

Campus really is beautiful this time of year.  All our deciduous trees are brilliant red, yellow and orange– there are a lot of sugar maples and ginkgoes, two of the best for fall color.  Going along with that theme, the skirt here is a pretty dark-gold satin with artistically painted black and red leaves printed all over it, with just enough sheen to be a little dressy.   It was a gift from Tom a few years ago, back before the Vera Wang collection at Kohl’s turned into “boxy clothing with doo-dads hanging off” express.  The top is a final clearance find from Ann Taylor Loft, just a basic black button down that I’ve gotten a lot of use out of.  The belt, which you can’t see very well and which I didn’t think to photograph, is a Banana Republic clearance find, on serious business clearance for like $5.

The shoes, we’ve seen before and continue to be one of my favorite fun accessories.  What you can’t see here is my other favorite piece, a ring that I purchased for myself years ago at Hecht’s, before it became Macy’s.

I generally do not buy myself “real” jewelry.  In fact I have remarkably little of any significant value, mostly because I feel like, if it isn’t really a stand-out, why waste your money?  I don’t really go for understated little things, and that means if I want something real, it’s going to cost quite a bit.  Thus the domination of costume jewelry in my wardrobe.  Besides this!  This is a topaz ring with mother-of-pearl inset into the 18 karat gold band, with little rows of diamonds along the sides.  I got a pretty good deal on it at the time; I found it on Ebay for more than I originally paid for it, a year or two ago.  It’s actually been repaired once– the mother of pearl on the side facing the photo fell out and was lost, so I contacted a bench jeweler on Etsy for a replacement.  She did a fantastic job and charged me a pittance, I think about $20.  This after my dad had taken it to his “real” jewelry repairman who told him it would cost more to replace the piece than the ring was worth!  I love the bold color of the ring, the cut topaz that looks like a Greek cross, and the combination of stones.

Lastly, this outfit gave me another chance to put on my awesome leather coat:

Wearing it with the red pumps makes me feel like quite the femme fatale!  When the young lady I was meeting for lunch saw me, she said, “that outfit looks like so much fun to wear!”  Exactly what I was going for.