My Style Revelation: On Dresses

Yesterday I spent an egregious (my new favorite slightly improperly used adjective) amount of time browsing that famous blog The Sartorialist.  I’m not sure why I never followed the blog until now, despite the fact that I’ve been following other style blogs (Sea of Shoes and Style Rookie) for the past year.  My thirst is being quenched: yesterday alone I went through 8 months of posts on The Sartorialist.

The Sartorialist’s pictures are almost too beautiful.  Each perfect model is shown basking in golden rays of the late afternoon sun, aloof with effortless, captivating spunk, frizzy stray hairs radiant and halo-like…..

After an hour of browsing, I felt a sensation akin to eating too many sweets.  I had to pause for a while before I went back at it.

An overarching style theme conveyed in The Sartorialist’s pictures (and I realize that this is just his perspective) pierced me with a shocking clarity, as if I were convicted by a keen passage of scripture.  A few weeks ago I tweeted this:

just had a depressing revelation which im still not sure is true but is def intriguing: dresses = cheating/too easy. separates = real style.

The Sartorialist brought this suspicion gasping vehemently back to life with an urgency I can only describe as mildly insane.  But yeah, I’m now 100% convinced that this tentative thought I had is, in fact, the truth.

Here’s his line that set me off in this post:

So many of the shows thus far have highlighted tiny “It Girl” dresses that are fine for Left Coast winter but not for the weather we have in the rest of the country.

Nevermind the context of this sentence in regards to the seasonality of dresses.  I was struck by his characterization of dresses as “It Girl” dresses.  So true.  I own an egregious (see, there I’ve done it again) number of dresses.  Because dresses can automatically make you feel gorgeous.  They’re flattering and easy — a no-brainer.

And that’s just the point: dresses are no-brainers.  How much more difficult it is to find a stylish way to wear an amorphous cropped tank or a pair of menswear-inspired slacks or a silk skirt!  (Don’t even get me started on long cardigans — this is easily the item I’ve seen done the most beautifully on The Sartorialist and so unremarkably on most other people.)

I was totally blown away by the sheer depth of grace, creativity, and narrative that is possible with putting on clothes.  I feel compelled to begin diversifying my wardrobe and taking more risks.  I want to try pants (there’s a topic in itself: How many of us have honestly seen awesome pants that are not denim?  Or awesome denim for that matter?), I want to try more layering, I want to give prints more credit…

Sigh.  I feel so invigorated!!!!  And I want to hear what you guys think of all this nonsense I’m spewing!  Comment away :)

Photo from this post, one of my favorites on The Sartorialist