PhD in Clothes

Virtual coffee: Art, dancing, and other adventures in solitude

Welcome back to week 2 of virtual coffee dates, featuring outfits, some lighthearted links, and other things that made me smile this week.

Virtual coffee: Playing dress up, one month of budgeting, and some fun links

Hello friends–we’re at the end of week 2 in our home over here and I’m just looking for any semblance of normal. Toward the end of this week I found myself clicking through my favorite blogs hoping for some frivolous content, so I have decided to craft some myself. Because the rest of my relationships have gone virtual, may I introduce: virtual coffee hour.

The search for reasonable clothes to work from home in: My virtual work uniform flowchart

I wrote this post in December after a solid semester of working from home every Thursday and Friday. I didn’t hit publish on it at the time, but given world events I am now getting even more familiar with my work from home wardrobe. Even better, I’ve narrowed my work-from-home getting dressed approach down to a simple decision tree. Consider this my flow chart of what to wear in the morning…

Engagement Outfit Ideas for 2020

I’ve been doing some complex mental math this month that I did not know was a thing until wedding planning started: picking engagement photo outfits. It turns out, Trevor and I are BOTH immensely picky and we don’t fit into most Pinterest tropes for engagement photos. We did not want to be matchy-matchy, we did not want to wear Americana plaid, and we did not want to look like a 90s prep photoshoot. These photos are cute, obviously! They’re just not really our style. So the question became: what do minimalists wear for engagement photos without looking totally austere? What do we wear in 2020 for such occasions? Besides the obvious answer, which is WHATEVER YOU WANT, we took this time to wear things that are fun, a little colorful, and still very us. Here are our ideas…

Everlane Day Glove Reknit Review–are they comfy, true to size, and how they compare to Rothy’s

All the questions listed in the title of this blog post were my exact questions when considering the knit version of Everlane’s popular Day Glove flat. I saw these on the website several times and didn’t give much thought to them until I got wedding shoes on the brain and there was a blush version. So here are all my thoughts on the knit Day Glove: how they fit, if they’re true to size, if they’re comfortable, how they compare to Rothy’s, how they compare to the leather day glove, and, yes, if I kept them for my wedding. Phew!

A Review of the Universal Standard Mystery Box

I wrote last month that I’ve had a Universal Standard dress on my wish list, specifically the Geneva dress. The colors are so good and the coverage looks perfect for work. There are certainly more scientific ways to get the dress (like, directly buying the dress), but when I saw that Universal Standard was doing a “mystery box” promo I found myself totally willing to gamble to get the dress for less money: the dresses mystery box was $90. So, being a pretty bad minimalist, I hit add to cart really fast. Here is my unboxing of the Universal Standard Mystery Box, the reveal of the dresses I got, if I’ll be keeping them or not, and whether I think the box was worth it!

Five Early Spring Work Outfits

I think I have season amnesia…it’s suddenly 65 degrees out and I’ve entirely forgotten what to wear to work in the spring. To ease the transition, I decided to play dress up a bit and find some spring outfits for when it’s still cold in the morning, a little breezy in the afternoon, and not quite sandal weather. The window to wear spring dresses with sweaters is small, after all, so might as well embrace it!

20 in 2020 update: Month two of my low buy year

We are now two months in to the 20in2020 challenge, a delightful instagram community of people trying to limit their clothing purchases to under 20 items this year. This month…I bought more things. I dealt with some guilt. This post is me letting the guilt go because there’s NO LOOKING BACK. Here’s what I bought, what I learned, and what’s on my March wishlist. Plus my thoughts about the extremely philosophical question: Do I shop end of season sales?

My Spring Work Conference Packing List

I’m back on that academic conference grind this month. This time, the conference is in Florida. Humid locations always make me wonder how to dress professionally. Here’s my conference packing list and outfit ideas for spring conferences. This is a 3 day conference, too, so I’m trying to pack it all in a carry on!

Academic book club: Books for graduate students and professors

This is a guest post by my friend Mackensie!

I love reading. I also feel incredibly lucky to be one of the few people that have not been ruined by graduate school in that the mere sight of another book doesn’t leave me in a panic. I typically read before bed because my insomnia is terrible, and it’s either read or stay up late into the night, remembering every embarrassing thing from childhood I’ve ever read. As a result, I’ve read a lot of great popular press books that aren’t academic but may appeal to academics–books about productivity, books to read before starting grad school, and books for aspiring researchers. Here it is: the first (possibly last? We’ll see how motivated I am…) post of Academic Book Club. I’ve included five extremely different types of books, depending on what you’re in the mood for.