Friday, June 24, 2011

Fan of Friday: Week of 6/24/2011

Bangles!

If you were to look at my collection of jewelry, you’d probably assume that I’m fairly fluent in accessories. I’ve got dozens of necklaces, three racks full of earrings, and a handful of bracelets. Things like hats, belts, and scarves are slowly starting to multiply in my wardrobe, but that’s still got a ways to go (my goal this weekend is to find some place to wear the big, floppy hat I inherited from my little sister).

Anyway, even though I’ve got all kinds of jewelry, it all falls into two categories: stuff that looks exactly the same that I know how to wear and the pretty stuff people gave to me that I have no idea how to wear. The only three necklaces I wear are pendants with an aqua stone dangling off a silver chain. My wrists are usually nude because a watch or bracelet would interfere with working at my laptop all day. Although my collection of dangly earrings is huge, I wear the same pair of rhinestones, unless I get crazy and switch them out for some cheap, “silver” hoops.

I’ve become very aware of how little I wear my jewelry when I moved in with Dan. I have almost half a dozen jewelry racks or boxes, but the accessories I decorate myself with never really change.

My strategy has been three fold: cleaning out the jewelry that I have never worn and will never wear, planning my outfits the night before based on an accessory, and expanding the collection with accessories that can go with almost any outfit. While I love my R2D2 watch and my teapot necklace, it takes severe forethought to include them in an outfit (and tends to be impossible to do for work).

While the cleaning still has work to do, which will have to get done before Thursday when the in-laws visit for the first time since I’ve moved in, the outfit planning has been going great. My outfit today is very cute, mostly functional, and I’m quite proud of myself. (I didn’t wear those shoes to work, but ideally I would have at least worn it with a cute pair of sandals. Ahh, the joys of being an engineer and not being able to wear sandals in the lab…).


Thirdly, I went on a bit of a spree at Forever 21. They had sets of bangles and I thought to myself, “I could pull of bangles.” And I do, usually at my desk when I’m working, but I do put them back on when I get up. Anywho, I bought a pack in silver, gold, and some that are pastel enamel. I feel so fancy when I wear them. I can throw them on with jeans or my Calvin Klein thrift store dress that I wear to weddings. And I tinkle! Like a fairy!

So I know people have been wearing bangles for decades now, but I just found them and I LOVE them. (Sidenote: how does anyone spend like $100 a bangle? The ones I got from Forever 21 were $4.80 for a dozen. I can’t imagine blowing $1200 on bangles.) These are the ones I bought, in both silver and gold, but I couldn’t find the gold ones. I couldn’t find a picture of the enamel ones either, but these are pretty close. 

Image courtesy of Forever 21


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