style Archives - PhD in Clothes

Should your wardrobe basics be less basic?

Recently I’ve noticed a pattern in my closet: I feel great on “dressed up” days, but absolutely blah on casual days. Walking through the airport this weekend, I was experiencing a strong case of travel uglies and admiring everyone else’s outfits on the moving sidewalk. And this led me to a fashion diagnosis: my basics are too basic. So today, here are five wardrobe basics I am planning to swap for less boring counterparts.

Conference Shopping: Old Navy is 50% off today

Welcome back to “just one store” conference wear shopping, where we are picking academic conference outfits that you can easily load into one cart and hit check out. I didn’t expect to be back so soon, but Old Navy has a really good 50% off sale on right now. Here are some business casual items that might look good in your next conference suitcase!

Conference Shopping: Gap

Welcome to my new series where we make academic conference outfits from just one store! If you’re shopping for conference clothes I hope this helps streamline your cart and gives you some ideas for how to mix-and-match out of your packing list. If you’re shopping your closet I hope the outfit ideas also prove helpful!

Styling the university polo shirt for women

So you’ve been handed a university tee shirt, or, better yet, a golf polo (WHY). And it’s suggested that you wear it to a recruitment event, homecoming, a sport, or on casual Friday. The big question here is what to wear with a polo shirt for women? What to do if you dislike branded merch and love expressing your personal style in the office? Here are a few ideas…

Much ado about pink birkenstocks

In which I, the queen of overthinking it, try something new…

Comfortable women’s shoes for work and walking, aka shoes that will not betray you at conferences

Comfortable women’s dress shoes are so hard to find, especially if you need to be on your feet all day at a work, for travel, or at a conference. Seriously, why are office shoes so terrible?? I’ve run through boxes of bandaids trying to avoid blisters in the past and am now committed on 3-4 pairs of shoes that will never betray me at work. Here they are.

5 Leopard Skirt Outfit Ideas

I have really loved my leopard midi skirt–I bought it last fall and have worn it many ways since then! At first, I only wore it with white or black t shirts, but I’ve been surprised by how versatile it is. My skirt is a slip skirt but I think these would work well with any length, including mini skirts or pencil skirts. The trick is figuring out what colors to pair with leopard and how to layer items for added interest! Here are some outfit ideas for both winter and summer!

I tried copying Dakota Johnson’s outfits for a week

Last week Pinterest showed me an outfit from Dakota Johnson (yes, of 50 Shades of Grey). It was the type of outfit that made me say “hey, I can make that!” so I pinned it. By Friday, the Pinterest algorithm had decided I had an unhealthy obsession, and was ONLY showing me Dakota Johnson street style. But all the outfits were pretty cute and casual (not to mention she has an amazing loafers and sunglasses collection). So here I am, deciding to remake as many Dakota Johnson outfits as possible…

The week in tired mirror selfies, pt. 2

Hey, sharing all my outfits from last week was pretty fun! Here’s what I wore to work this week…

Style on a budget: Sezane lookalikes for cheaper

If you don’t know about Sezane you should probably skip this post, because I think the cool French clothing company is out to steal my whole wallet. They’re unsuccessful, though, because $120 for a shirt is noooooope not happening on a graduate student budget.

….but that doesn’t mean I can’t look.

Looking at expensive clothes is actually a hobby of mine. It could be purely painful, but I actually like looking at the inspiration and then keeping a phone note of items I want to find on sale or thrift. In the spirit of that, here are some Sezane pieces I have been coveting, along with cheaper “dupes” of those items. Now updated for 2025!