Baby, It's Cold Outside, But I Still Wanna Wear A Dress

Outfit:

- Dress & Oxford heels: Target

- Cable-knit tights: GAP

- Cardigan: Macy's (Christmas present from parents in '04 or '05)

- Pearl necklace: Family heirloom (Originally from an oyster in the early 20th century)

Today, the article of clothing from whence my completed outfit derived are the grey, faux-suede, heeled Oxfords. I wasn't in the mood to wear pants, but the 26-feels-like-18 degree temperature certainly stopped me from wearing thin tights. The weather outside is frightful! Rifling through my bag of leggings and tights I stumbled upon my pair of surprisingly warm thick, black, cable-knit tights. Next, I peered into my closet to see what dress could go with the Oxfords and black tights. Cue the green floral dress and the light blue 3/4 sleeve cashmere cardigan (it's a cashmere-acle!) and we got ourselves an outfit, folks.  

Accidentally Inspired by The Far East

Outfit:

- Top: X-Generation (Haight Street, San Francisco)

- Jeans: Seven For All Mankind (Thrifted at Wasteland; Haight Street, San Francisco)

- Flats: The LOFT

- Earrings: Old Navy

Even though my mother often told me that it did growing up, until recently I thought that red didn't look good on redheads. I was clearly a buffoon as a child and young adult. When I put on this outfit this morning, K (le boyfriend) told me that my top was very Joan (and that he could see my bellybutton). He's right. I've felt pretty all day wearing this shirt. I decided to add big gold earrings to my outfit and to put my hair up in a chignon (i.e. ballerina bun) to show off said earrings. I had originally intended to wear black shorts, black tights, and brown boots with the outfit, but opted for jeans and black lacy flats instead. I like this outfit better. 

Today, K's birthday present to me arrived (he and his family had already given me a beautiful bouquet of roses). He picked out a gorgeous pure jade braided ring for me as he knows that I don't particularly like diamonds. Given the red top, the gold earrings, and the jade ring my outfit now seems very Far Eastern. Hey, that's alright with me. 

The Joys of Thrifting

I have been shopping at thrift stores for years. Although there have been many times that I've gone into Buffalo Exchange, Crossroads, or the Goodwill and found nothing, there are times where I, or those that I'm with strike gold. My best friend bought these gorgeous heeled saddle shoes the other day at Buffalo Exchange in Berkeley. They were $18. I found them for her. She got millions of compliments at work the next day. Thrifting FTW.

Dolka Pots

Outfit: 
- Dress: Forever21
- Tights: Kohls
- Shoes: The New Yorker (from France)
- Scarf: Birthday present!

Now that my boyfriend has accepted my request to be my official Just Call Me Joan photog, my blogging will be made much easier!

As for this outfit, I started out knowing that I wanted to wear the polka dot tights in the hopes of making a smoother, more cheerful transition back into grad school after a week of vacation. When you're short and stout like a little teapot and like myself, the trick with patterns is to choose one patterned item (two max.) and make it the focus of your outfit. The rest of the outfit should remain relatively neutral in order to prevent the people seeing you on the street from having a brain aneurism due to too many different patterns and colors. I chose black lace up boots and an LBD to flow with the black background of the tights and then I added a red wine-colored scarf, a birthday gift from my best friend, to add a little punch of color. The scarf also goes with the color of the polish currently making an appearance on my nails.

My Style Icons

Joan Holloway

Edie Sedgwick

Florence Welch

Anna Karina

Zooey Deschanel

If fashion is your trade, then when you're naked, I guess you must be unemployed.

Hi, I'm Alexandra or Alex, whichever you prefer, really. Welcome to my blog, Just Call Me Joan. Last year a colleague and I ran a bilingual daily fashion blog called Totally Normal in which we would catalog our outfits. Sounds basic, right? PSYCH! Our blog was a play on the fact that we went to school in a town called Normal and that while both avid fashion fanatics and believed that you didn't have to spend hundreds of dollars to look cute, she and I dressed entirely different from one another. We had a lot of fun with our blog, but when summer rolled around I got lazy with my blogging, because I was too busy traveling Europe for eleven weeks. I'm a horrible person, I know. 

Anyways, I have decided to make a most triumphant return to the fashion blogosphere with a mission. Since the start of the schoolyear I've been dating this really awesome guy who got me hooked interested in AMC's television program, Mad Men. While the writing and acting of Mad Men is amazing, it's the clothing that keeps me coming back for more. It's the fashion of one curvaceous redheaded woman in particular, Joan Harris (née Holloway), played by Christina Hendricks that drives me wild. As a confident, independent, and curvaceous redhead myself, Joan is a role model of mine. She knows what clothing works on her figure, she knows how to accessorize, she does her makeup flawlessly, and she knows she's hot. 

This blog will track not only my outfits composed of affordable items, but it will also touch on accessories. For those of you who know me, you know that means big earrings, scarves galore, and lots of nail polish. I hope to boost the confidence of other bodacious ladies who need to know that curves are sexy, but skinny girls you can shake it, too. 

"You want to be taken seriously? Stop dressing like a little girl." - Joan Holloway

My man who loves my confidence in my curves

My gorgeous and equally stylish best friend and I (I'm the curvy one!)

Outfit (Pictures 2 & 3):

- Blouse & lace cami: H&M

- Black jeggings: Old Navy

- Boots: Target