November – Page 2 – L'ensemble du jour

November 9, 2019 – A Long Time Coming (OOTD #577)

Published on January 8, 2020January 9, 2020 by lensembledujour4 Comments

I mentioned in an earlier blog post that it took me a while to start having fun in DC.

And that’s true. I spent the first two months doing pretty much nothing but going to work, coming home, going to class, and then repeating the next day. Up until November, I wasn’t really doing anything to take advantage of my residence in DC.

But, as I also mentioned in that earlier blog post, once I did start having fun, I really went for it. Apparently, turning 21 made all the difference.

About a week after my 21st birthday, my best friend, Jane came and visited. Jane has been a good friend of mine since I was 11 years-old, and she’s the only person I still keep in contact with from my old Louisville days. She and I met through a mutual friend in choir in 6th grade, and, though we weren’t necessarily super close in 6th grade, she somehow wound up as the only person from Louisville who kept up with texting me after I moved to Lexington.

It’s kind of like my friendship with Amanda — Amanda and I were also not super close in high school when we actually saw each other every day. It was only once we went to university and moved to different cities that we became good friends. Wonder why that happens?

I’m a little surprised Jane hasn’t appeared more on this blog, given how often I go back to Louisville or up to Cincinnati. I guess it’s because I usually only see her for lunch or something short like that, so there’s never really time to take pictures worth making a blog out of. The last time I saw her in person, it was March 2019, and we just got lunch together in Cincinnati as I passed by on my way home for spring break. It was such a short trip, she didn’t even appear in any pictures. Then, I saw her in January 2019, and I was sick as a dog after having come home from Vichy, France — definitely not in any shape to take pictures for a blog.

The last time she actually appeared in pictures on my blog was the summer after I graduated high school. I visited her in Louisville for a few days just two weeks before I began at Notre Dame. We went to the mall, broke into my old elementary school, and ate doughnuts.

This time, Jane came and visited me in Washington DC over Veterans’ Day weekend. I had off from work that Monday, and so we had the whole long weekend to spend together from Friday night to Monday night.

And it was just as much fun as always! It was nice getting to be the hostess for once instead of the guest; I feel like most of the time when I see Jane, it’s me visiting her rather than the other way around because she lives in the more interesting city than I do (no offense, Lexington). Since I was spending the semester in DC, which is, for once, a cool city, I got to take her around to all of the cool places.

On Saturday, we went to the Smithsonian Botanic Gardens, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Wharf. Excluding my first week or two in DC when I went on a couple of back-to-back school trips to the monuments on the Mall, this was my first time in DC actually getting to go around and see some of the touristy sites. It’s funny how, when you live somewhere, you don’t actually get to see some of its famous sites unless you put in extra effort to go to them. The same thing happened to me in Rome over the summer.

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life this semester in Washington, DC. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Coat: A vintage shop in Budapest

Dress: thrifted (Buffalo Exchange)

November 7, 2019 – Still Emo (OOTD #576)

Published on January 7, 2020 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

Now that My Chemical Romance is back, you know what that means: time to break out my old Hot Topic band tees and smear black eyeliner down my cheeks.

I was a teenaged closet emo; I’ve discussed that before on this blog. My Chemical Romance, Panic! At the Disco, and Fall Out Boy were once my favorite bands (and I still like them — even though it’s now more like Brendon! At the Disco and Sell Out Boy). I never went full emo, at least, not in appearance because I went to high school in the mid-late 2010’s and if I tried to come to school wearing an MCR sweatshirt and knee-high Converse I’d be laughed out of the building.

I went to high school in the age where hipsters had replaced the emos as the “cool” counterculture alternative crowd. Emo culture was for the cynical post-9/11 early 2000’s kids; hipster culture was for the cynical anticapitalist Occupy Wall Street 2010’s kids.

I was never a proper hipster: I never knitted my own scarves, brewed my own coffee, or grew my own weed. I bought into the hipster look after it had been appropriated by all of the mall chain boutiques (ironic given how counterculture the original hipster subculture was trying to be) by wearing skater skirts and wide-rimmed glasses.

Like I said, in high school, I was a closeted emo. I wasn’t able to actually go full emo — the closest I came was dyeing my (already black) hair black when I was 17. I wish I had just gone for it though — pierced my eyebrow, gotten a tattoo, blasted my My Chemical Romance albums through the hallways, and beat some people on the head with a croquet mallet à la the “I’m Not Okay” music video.

Jacket: Banana Republic

Shirt: Banana Republic

Trousers: Banana Republic (apparently, I was dressed by Banana Republic)

November 3, 2019 – Firsts and Twenty-Firsts (OOTD #575)

Published on January 6, 2020 by lensembledujour1 Comment

The weekend of my twenty-first birthday, I didn’t do much productive.

And that’s not because I spent the entire time drunk. I really didn’t. I went out the night of my actual birthday (which, miraculously, was a Friday night), and the rest of the time, I was mostly sober. I got a mimosa at Sunday brunch just because I could, and otherwise, I was completely tame.

But nonetheless, I didn’t really do anything productive — I didn’t do much homework (not that I had much during my DC semester), I didn’t work on any scholarship applications, I didn’t study for the LSAT. For once, I actually went out and had fun.

It took me until November for me to find friends to really hang out with in DC. The Notre Dame cohort was small; only about 17 people, and for a variety of unimportant reasons, it took me a while to connect with any of them. Despite spending every Thursday together in class for the entirety of September and October, and despite everyone being very friendly to me, it still took two months for me to find my crowd.

The turning point was the weekend of my 21st birthday. I invited everyone out for dinner to celebrate (not just my birthday — there were a few other people whose 21st birthdays were around the same time as mine), and something just clicked. After that, I went out to the Nats parade the following day with some people, and then I went to a café that evening to study with someone, and the following day, I went to brunch with the same group of girls.

If you’ll remember, I had the same thing happen to me in Rome over the summer. I spent several weeks being bored and lonely before I made a solid group of friends to hang out with, and it wasn’t until literally days before it was time for me to leave for good that I made friends with the people I was living with. It seems that I always manage to make friends wherever I go, it just sometimes takes a while.

Jacket: Thrift (Goodwill)

Dress: Francesca’s

November 2, 2019 – Go Nats? (OOTD #574)

Published on January 5, 2020January 5, 2020 by lensembledujour4 Comments

I’ve never been a baseball person.

Okay, I’ve never really been a sports person at all. Over the years, I’ve developed an appreciation for college and professional football and college basketball, owing to the places I’ve lived and the need to be able to talk about Notre Dame football at Notre Dame and UK Basketball in Lexington.

But I’ve never understood baseball. I’ve been to a game or two, including a professional Mets game in New York City. I’ve watched it on TV. And I just don’t get the appeal.

It’s such a slow game! Whether you’re at home or in the stands, there just isn’t much to see. People only manage to hit the ball and then actually go for a run a small percentage of the time. I can appreciate that there can be enjoyment in a sport even if people aren’t running all over the field all of the time, but…baseball seems to be mostly a game of people standing around.

Apparently, most of the people of Washington DC agree with me. Their team, the Nationals, won the World Series, but you wouldn’t have known that in the months and even weeks leading up to their win.

Here’s how much Washington DC was not cheering on their baseball team in their games before the World Series: around late October, I began noticing a few people walking around the city with cursive W’s on their red baseball caps. The first person I saw, I thought okay, it’s just a man going to work at Walgreens wearing his Walgreens uniform. The second person I saw, I thought okay, I guess that woman works at Walgreens too.

It literally took until right before the first game of the World Series for me to realize that the cursive W hats were actually meant to be for the Washington Nationals. How was I supposed to know? There were no signs congratulating the team for making it so far. There were no shops selling Nats merchandise. None of the televisions in office lobbies or drugstores were playing Nats games.

Up until the World Series, the only cursive W logo I knew was Walgreens. Honestly, I think Washington people like Walgreens more than they like the Nats — you can find a Walgreens at every street corner, but you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who’s a serious fan of the Nats.

After they won the World Series, a bunch of people came out in red and white for a parade downtown to celebrate the team, but I seriously question how genuine the majority of the crowd was in their fandom. I’m pretty sure most of the people there at the parade were like me: just there to get dressed up and take advantage of a 60 degree day in autumn. We were all fake fans that day.

Jacket: Zara

Blouse: H&M

Skirt: Forever21

November 28, 2019 – Bowties Are Cool (OOTD #415)

Published on December 12, 2018 by lensembledujour1 Comment

A long, long time ago, back in the Stone Age that was 2013, I tried to get into the Superwholock fandom.

I was really into Tumblr at the time, like many young teenage girls, and there was nothing hotter to me than Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock. And back then, you couldn’t look at anything Sherlock-related without also coming across content for Supernatural and Doctor Who; for some reason, the fandoms often overlapped.

And so, for a person who’s never really been interested in Supernatural or Doctor Who, I know a lot about their fandoms by extension/ And by “know a lot about their fandoms,” I mean I know some of the major catchphrases and references — notably the 11th Doctor’s quip, “Bowties are cool.”

2013 was the age of hipsters: hipsters with horn-rimmed glasses, oversized sweaters, and bow ties. I’m not yet sure if I’m proud to admit that I bought into the trend. Somewhere out there on the Internet are probably images of me with fake hipster glasses, an infinity scarf, and a Starbucks coffee. In five more years, it’ll be horribly dated, and in another ten, it’ll look classy and vintage.

Anyway, this outfit was my tribute to my brief Doctor Who phase and the “bowties are cool” meme. Should outfits be based around years-old memes? Maybe not. The last thing this blog needs is a Grumpy Cat or Rage Face outfit.

But Karamo Brown himself complimented my outfit, so maybe it wasn’t such a bad inspiration. He was here at Notre Dame giving a talk (a talk that I helped organize, I’ll mention), and afterwards, a few of us from student government got a brief meet-and-greet. Little did he know, my outfit was based on 2013 Matt Smith. I’m not sure if he would have been so complimentary had he know that.

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life at Notre Dame. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Shirt: Banana Republic

Skirt: River Island

November 27, 2018 – Pacing (OOTD #414)

Published on December 11, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

I wore this sweater in a post from just a few days ago.

I normally try to avoid repeating pieces so soon like this — not that I think many people would notice, unless I said something, but it’s just not as fun to wear the same things over and over. Plus, I like to actually wear the clothes I buy. It’s wasteful just to let things sit in the closet.

In fairness, the actual amount of time between wears for this sweater was longer than this blog makes it seem. In truth, it was ten days in between wears — and Thanksgiving beak was a part of that time — though it was only four blogs.

If you’ll notice, I’m also getting caught up on blogs again. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing — good in that now my blogs should line up a little more with the actual calendar dates, but bad in that that puts more pressure on me to get content for my blogs more often.

It’s a little frustrating, because I get more views on LEDJ when I publish new content every day. But publishing new content every day is hard — I don’t wear cute clothes every day, and even if I do, I don’t always have an easy way to photograph them. Publishing blogs every day while also taking photos every day leads to blogs of lower quality — something I’ve definitely been guilty of before — and I don’t want to do that again if I can help it.

I guess that’s a reality that every Internet content creator deals with — of course you’ll get more views when you’re churning out new content. But since I’m still such a small Internet presence that I don’t really get much readership at all if I’m not posting, so I try to post every day.

I think that’s just something I’ll have to learn to deal with though. As I’ve learned, forcing myself to post and photograph my outfits literally every day is bad not just for the quality fo content I put on this blog, but also for my enjoyment of the writing process. This is still just a hobby after all.

Any other bloggers out there with how to pace oneself with how often to upload content? I’ve been doing the daily blog thing for so long, it would feel unnatural to stray from that — but I think maybe it’s getting to be time to find a regular upload schedule that’s not quite so chaque jour, as it were. I want to still post often, but avoid the burnout of a daily schedule. Thoughts?

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life at home. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Matching bra and underwear set: TomboyX

Sweater: Forever21

Jeans: Abercrombie

November 23, 2018 – Beginning To Look A Lot Like… (OOTD #413)

Published on December 10, 2018December 10, 2018 by lensembledujour3 Comments

…Christmas! This blog will start like fall and end like Christmas.

The day after Christmas — Black Friday — is officially the day I start listening to Christmas music. It’s been a tradition of mine since back in middle school, when Black Friday actually meant something, and my dad and I would go out shopping late at night/early in the morning. Once the clock struck midnight, I’d get out my iPod (or iPhone, depending on what year it was) and start listening to Christmas music.

Anyway, Black Friday doesn’t really mean much anymore, since it seems the sales aren’t even that great anymore, and — the worse offense — stores don’t even hold weird late night hours. That was the fun of the whole experience! It was so cool getting to wake up at 2AM to go shopping at 3, and then get breakfast on the way home when it was all over.

That era of Black Friday shopping seems to be over, sadly. I still like to go out, but usually just in the afternoon. I still like seeing the crowds. For as much of an introvert as I am, I like navigating crowds, assuming I don’t have to wait in long lines.

This set of photos was taken by my father while we were at the mall, and they’ll likely be the last set of fall-themed pics I post this year on this blog. From this point on, I’ll be making an effort to do Christmas- and winter-themed outfits.

Like these Christmas- and winter-themed pics here! Yep, these are all from the same day, just later at night. Some friends and I went out driving to check out the neighborhood’s Christmas decorations, and this house always goes all out. They went so all out that some photography seemed to be in order.

Shout out to my buddy Zach for getting these. He did a pretty good job, admittedly. Art students, am I right?

Jacket: Forever21

Sweater/skirt set: Vintage (Thrifted — Street Scene Vintage)

Shoes: Doc Marten

November 22, 2018 – Christmas on Thanksgiving (OOTD #412)

Published on December 9, 2018December 9, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

I like holidays where I get to dress up.

I almost always have — I remember distinctly the excitement when I was a kid of getting to pick out the dress I would wear for the Christmas or Easter at church. I’d also often change all of the clothes on my dolls to be similarly festive.

No offense to the holidays that don’t involve getting dressed up — like 4th of July or Labor Day — but a holiday to me is only as fun as the outfits I get to wear.

Christmas takes the cake thanks to Christmas sweaters and red-and-green motifs, but I think Halloween might be a close second. I don’t typically do weeks-worth of holiday-themed outfits for Halloween like I do for Christmas (though I will make an effort to go for fall-themed outfits, at least in October)

Thanksgiving, the day these photos were taken, can also be fun. Since Thanksgiving involves a big meal with family, I like to get dressed up, even if we don’t go out anywhere and do anything that exciting. Thanksgiving is always fun too, because it marks the division in my mind between fall and winter — between pre-Christmas and Christmas.

In fact, I even make Thanksgiving my marker for when I’ll allow myself to start listening to my Christmas playlists on Apple Music. Midnight on Black Friday, I bust them out and start jamming to my personal favorites, like Fall Out Boy’s “Yule Shoot Your Eye Out.”

Thanksgiving also makes a great opportunity to mix pieces that could lean Christmas-y or fall-ish. This outfit would look at home on a Christmas tree farm or an apple orchard, no?

Top: ASOS

Skirt: J. Crew

November 21, 2018 – Short Girl, Tall Grass (OOTD #411)

Published on December 8, 2018December 8, 2018 by lensembledujour3 Comments

I love to get pictures in this spot at the park by my home.

If you’ve been keeping track, I’ve used this location for photos many times — here and here, for example. Perhaps you’ve also noticed that the photos from the two linked blogs are definitively summer- and winter-themed. It makes sense then that this one is so fall-themed, right?

There’s something about standing in the tall grass that makes a photo look adventurous and whimsical. Throw a dramatic filter on top of that, and you’ve got a background worth a Lord of the Rings elf cosplay.

Realistically, though, I suppose I’m more of a hobbit than an elf. I’m short, lazy, and like to eat. Just call me a Baggins.

I suppose I also like the tall grass because there is no tall grass on Notre Dame’s campus. Why would there be? It’s a university campus, where everything, including the landscaping, is always neat and manicured. You hardly even see leaves on the ground in the fall.

So when I go to a park that has more “natural”-looking landscaping, even if it is only a little patch of unmowed grass around a small wetland, it’s a welcome sight. It’s little things like that that I hardly notice that I miss when I’m at school, but that I realize I really appreciate when I go home.

Dress: Target

Sweater: Vintage (thrifted: Street Scene Vintage)

Shoes: Target

November 17, 2018 – Très Froide (OOTD #410)

Published on December 6, 2018August 12, 2019 by lensembledujour1 Comment

The upside of winter fashion photography: lots of layers.

The downside: you often have to go coatless, and it’s damn cold out.

This is particularly unfortunate when you’ve decided to go with a cropped sweater. I mean, I guess I’m at fault here for choosing the cropped sweater even though I knew how cold it would be, but…it just worked really well with the carpetbag skirt.

I’m still a little bitter — I’d dressed like this today because I was supposed to be meeting someone for coffee, but they weren’t able to make it at the last second. I wasn’t so disappointed about not getting out for coffee, because I just ended up going alone, but I looked all cute for nothing.

That’s not true — I looked cute for myself, and that’s what’s important. I would be lying a little though if I tried to say that I only dress for myself. I dress primarily for myself, but the fact of the matter is that your fashion choices affect how others perceive you, and that perception is often something worth manipulating if you can.

Whatever though — today I dressed for myself. And for this blog, which, as much as I hope someone out there gets enjoyment out of writing, is also for me. I like writing here. At the end of the day, if I didn’t like writing, I wouldn’t still be at this a year and a half later.

Sweater: Forever21

Skirt: Forever21