grad school style – Page 2

My choices for the Summer 10×10

The Summer 10×10 starts Friday, so I’ve picked my 10 items of clothing out to get ready to make my outfits. Here are my picks (some not pictured):

-4 tops (boho, knit tank, tie t-shirt: all thrifted, and chambray: J Crew investment)

-3 bottoms (linen pants, white midi skirt: thrifted, jean cut offs: here)

-1 dress (here, on sale for $40)

-2 pairs of shoes (converse, sandals thrifted)

No black clothes!

I tried to pick lighter colors this time around and gave myself the challenge to pick no black clothes. Black is my go-to neutral color and I’m trying to move toward tan and white in the summer.

On my agenda

My 10×10 this time consists of nothing but dissertation writing and social time. I need outfits that are appropriate for field work (I am doing qualitative research in a casual, but masculine, environment–I usually opt for muted colors and pants in that situation), but that’s my only constraint. I tried to pick fun items to remind me to go outside, downtown, and away from my laptop in general.

The other challenge of my 10×10 is that it’s so hot that all clothes seem like bad options. I picked linen and other soft, breezy items for that purpose.

That’s my 10×10 kick off–see you on Friday with the first outfit.

Power outfits for defending, pt. 2

I’m so excited to say I passed my prospectus defense yesterday–I wrote 100 pages about what my dissertation will be about (1/3rd of the length of the full product!) and had to defend that before collecting data. Here’s what I wore…

Defenses are really weird. The build up is big and then the let down can be…like nothing even happened. As one committee member likes to remind me, a defense is just another meeting for professors. Fair, but it also DETERMINES MY ENTIRE FATE so yeah it’s a little scary.

This defense was also downright weird–we talked for 1.5 hours and then were running out of time, so everyone was just like “yeah, good meeting!” and left…but usually at the end of a defense in our dept committee members meet without the student and then announce to you if you’ve passed or not…and they just…didn’t do that?? So I left the room like “ok! that’s over!” and then got half way down the hall before I was like “wait did I pass?” I spent the next 2 hours on an emotional rollercoaster about that before my advising meeting, where I asked my advisor, who replied “yes, wasn’t it obvious?”

Um, no. I am in grad school. Validate me always. Thanks.

So with that flood of relief, I promptly changed outfits and went out looking for wine and a patio.

All in all, a fine day. Weird, but better than the time the department lost my comprehensive exam answers. But that’s a story for another time. To anyone else defending as the semester ends: good luck! 😀

A bunch of adult things no one told me you should do to take care of clothes.

So it turns out that when you stop buying all of your clothes from Forever 21 (ok but still some of them..), they can also last a lot longer…and they can last even longer if you do some basic maintenance to keep them looking nice. I feel that no one ever told me this?? In the last year I’ve been taking some baby steps toward being an adult when it comes to clothing maintenance. Here’s what I’ve been up to that I’ve found worth my time/money.

How I buy business clothes on Poshmark

It all started with a suit. I stumbled onto the Poshmark site late last summer, thought, “huh, like Ebay, but only clothes,” and probably would have just left…but then I found it. A gently used J. Crew suit, in tall sizes, for $40. Could this site be for real?? I weighed my options. I figured if I lost $40 in some scam, I would be a little sad. But not as sad as I would be buying a $200+ suit for my impending time on the academic job market. I got out my credit card.

Cheaper business clothes: What I’ve thrifted

This week I’m talking about my search for affordable business clothes–today I’ll talk traditional thrifting, later this week I’ll move on to my current app-addiction, Poshmark. But today: thrifting.

Christmas ootd. Happy day everyone!

Busted out the first sweater of Fall today

Teaching when it’s hot out pt. 4

CULOTTES FOR PRESIDENT

Hi all. Just popping by to say OMG IT’S AUGUST I BETTER MAKE A SYLLABUS. It’s also the last week of summer school so here is one more outfit I’ve been relying on frequently to get through teaching when it is sweltering outside.

For about 2.5 years I resisted buying culottes because they reminded me of middle school (my mom bought me a pink pair in 7th grade and I thought I was the sh*t). But then after a couple glasses of wine I went into Madewell (Wine shopping is highly recommended, btw) and tried these on and I was like WAIT culottes are awesome. Just goes to show that you should always try things on!

So now here I am, combining these culottes with everything imaginable, including this button up from Target, which has lots of cute fall business clothes if you are in the market.

I hope the August grad school panic is treating you all well. ❤

Teaching when it’s hot out, part 3

You know when you have to walk to campus because the university has disabled your bus pass because they are evil fee collectors, but when you get to your classroom it’s a little chilly?

Or perhaps you are opting to walk to campus all summer because all winter you put on a lot of stress weight?

My outfit solution to this is a sundress + blazer. I put the blazer in my bag or leave it (along with all my high heels, deodorant, dry shampoo, a desk sweater…) in my office to put on when i get to campus. Instant professionalism!

One more outfit idea to come, then maybe I’m joining the Summer 10×10 challenge! What are your go-to “it’s way too hot” outfit combos? I’ve been enjoying making these outfit plans in between studying for my Fall comprehensive exams.

Teaching when it’s hot out, pt. 2

Happy almost July! I start teaching in 12 days so I’m obviously gearing up by planning my first week of outfits instead of the first day of class (#syllabusday).

The joys of teaching 5 days a week in July are…none. It’s really hot out. I usually teach 3 days a week. Now I can’t repeat outfits as frequently. But I can repeat outfit formulas over and over again, and that’s exactly what I plan to do by doing vest + sundress combos.

Vests are so magical. I didn’t own any until last year when I realized that they make everything look somehow pulled together without causing me to overheat. Now I’m a vest enthusiast. Here I’ve picked out one of my many Old Navy sundresses (so cheap! so plentiful! come in tall sizes when you’re trying to look professional!) and paired it with a vest from Target.

I hope your summers are the perfect combination of productive and unproductive so far!