winter – Page 15 – L'ensemble du jour

January 24, 2018 – Return of the Brick Walls (OOTD #209)

Published on January 26, 2018January 26, 2018 by lensembledujour7 Comments

That title makes it sound like a Lord of the Rings installment.

Unfortunately, my life is significantly less interesting than either of the Bagginses’, and significantly less full of beautiful Middle Earth scenery. I also don’t have a magical ring that can grant the wearer unlimited but horribly corrupting power, so I guess that’s one point to me, at least.

Even though some Notre Dame buildings looks to be straight out of a Harry Potter film and the amount of snow we get makes it comparable to Winterfell (look at me go with these fantasy references), it’s still a lot of tan brick and fancy doorways. It’s fairly nice tan brick and fairly pretty fancy doorways, but it makes me miss some of the more variable, natural scenery I got in Kentucky.

Today’s photoset reflects my attempt to get some more variation in scenery of my Notre Dame photos – by including some snow covered bushes! It’s no babbling brook or rolling mountain range, but at least it’s not a wooden doorway with a brick border. I’m trying.

I must admit, Notre Dame is much more more varied in architecture than my high school ever was, not to mention the fact that it’s so much prettier. I never would have done my OOTD at my old school – partially out of the embarrassment of having to go through my various awaked fashion poses in the visibility of judgment teenagers, and partially out of the fact that my high school looked like a prison.

Good thing I’ve totally gotten over my embarrassment of having to ask a friend to go out of their way to indulge this narcissistic hobby of mine, and good thing it’s not all awkward anymore to have to pose in from to people’s dorms and classrooms! I’m so glad the end of high school meant the end of all my social anxiety!

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one! Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Jacket: H&M

Sweater: Forever21

Skirt: J Crew (thrifted)

January 23, 2018 – Boyfriend Jeans Instead Of A Boyfriend (OOTD #208)

Published on January 25, 2018April 8, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

If you had asked me this time last year if there’s anyway I could’ve seen myself with short brown hair, wearing a motorcycle jacket and boyfriend jeans, I’m not sure I would have believed you.

I guess a large part of my disbelief would have come from the hair – I think the Meilin of January 2017 would have liked to believe she could be long-haired and blonde forever. It was such a major part of how I defined myself that I even wrote one of my college application essays on it.

I’m not actually blonde though – I’m a brunette – and eventually, the bleach got to be too much for my poor hair follicles. We’ll see how long until I start assaulting my scalp with chemicals again, but for now, the plan is to let my hair rest and grow out for a while.

Just as surprising to my 2017 self would have been the outfit though. Boyfriend jeans and a motorcycle jacket? Not that I would have had anything against something edgier like that – my little high school emo self was definitely into anything that made me look like a scary teenager – but it was always still within a very feminine vein.

This outfit is much more tomboyish than I ever would have seen myself in before – and I think that’s actually a pretty great thing! I guess this is still more an observation than a passage of judgment, but regardless, I think trying out new styles and expanding on one’s fashion repertoire is always a healthy thing to do.

It’s definitely been for me getting to explore and investigate into this new boyish kind of style that I hadn’t really considered myself open to before. More options the better, right?

Jacket: Hollister

Top: H&M

Jeans: American Eagle

January 22, 2018 – Little Miss Grey Cloud (OOTD #207)

Published on January 24, 2018January 24, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

“On this grey Indiana day, you look so bright and colorful!” Shouted my friend, MaryKate, as she passed me on the way to class.

“Thanks!” I responded. “It totally matches my personality, how I feel on the inside, and is not at all ironic!”

If I actually dressed for how I felt every day, I probably would look like this – head to toe black, edgy hair color, sunglasses to avoid eye contact with people. But, as days like this one illustrate, I sometimes like to dress differently from how I actually regard myself. It switches things up, keeps things fresh, and prevents people from making generalizations about me too quickly.

That’s not to say I’m uncomfortable or somehow less genuine than usual when I dress brightly and colorfully – it’s just a different outfit, after all. The way I see it, fashion should be used for whatever you feel like doing with it, and, contrary to what a lot of people seem to think, it doesn’t always have to be about self-expression. Sometimes it’s more about self-creation – with each unique outfit, creating new identity, slipping out of yesterday’s personality and into some new character each morning.

In a roundabout way, maybe that is a form of self-expression – an expression that fashion can be both a reflection of your identity and a costume to try out different versions of your identity with. It’s a mirrored shield.

That, or maybe I’ve just too much time reading my philosophy textbook, and I’m trying to turn this into my next essay. This should at least be worth a little extra credit though, right?

Coat: Target

Sweater: Forever21 (thrifted)

Skirt: Pitaya

January 19, 2018 – Pippi Longstocking (OOTD #206)

Published on January 23, 2018January 23, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

I actually know very little about the Swedish children’s book character Pippi Longstocking – I’m just going off of the fact that a friend said I looked like her in this outfit.

I guess it was the short jumper and the striped motif that was reminiscent of the character? I don’t really know anything else about her, admittedly, though I do remember watching a TV series from the 70s about her adventures occasionally in my third grade class as a reward on Fridays when we were good.

The theme song was super catchy. Pippi Longsticking is coming into your town /
The one no one can keep down, no no no no…That’s all I recall from the show though. In terms of television from the 70s that my third grade class watched sometimes on Fridays, I was more of a Gilligan’s Island or Little House on the Prairie kind of person.

I much prefer to think of this outfit of reminiscent of the 70s themselves rather than of a Swedish character from a 70s television show, though. I’m a sucker for late 60s/early 70s fashion – it’s just modern enough to be relevant but just old enough to be vintage. This denim dress actually came from a vintage shop in London, so you know – I’m really authentic.

I’m actually going to a film series here at Notre Dame as a part of my Peace Studies class over 1968 and its 50th anniversary. I think the series is supposed to be a discussion of the impact of films released in 1968 on the social and cultural climate of the time – though I’m not really sure because when I went to the first one, a showing of Oliver!, there wasn’t enough time for the discussion portion and all we did was watch the film. I don’t really know what a film about a little boy singing and dancing through the streets of 19th century London has to do with America in 1968 (or peace studies as a whole), but I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

In the mean time, I guess I’ll just keep dressing like I’m from 1968 and see if I can pass the class on the merit of my authenticity and enthusiasm for the time period.

Dress: Vintage (thrifted)

January 18, 2017 – Just Bro Things (OOTD #205)

Published on January 22, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

Note to self: menswear + pixie haircut + minimal makeup = Meilin looks vaguely like a guy.

I don’t really think there’s anything particularly wrong with that – just that looking like a dude isn’t really what I’m personally after.

I forget what a difference in appearance this new haircut makes for me. With long hair, I really never had to worry about how masculine or feminine I looked; I could go out in guys’ clothing with no makeup and still look very definitively female (maybe not particularly nice, but female). Now, with the pixie cut, I have to be careful to actually wear lipstick, put on earrings – you know, the culturally-determined feminine things – to look feminine.

I guess it especially doesn’t help that the jacket I’m wearing here was found in the boy’s section of a thrift shop, and I’m wearing so many layers of clothing (it was a cold day!) that whatever vague hint of a feminine figure I have is hidden.

In fairness, I’m like, three feet tall, so I don’t think anyone’s ever going to actually mistake me for a male. And if they did, it probably wouldn’t be the end of the world either; I’m just a little self-conscious about how this new haircut makes me look. It’s taking some getting used to, you know?

I think part of it is that I’m going back to being brunette after having had unnaturally-dyed hair so long long. I was so used to seeing myself as long-haired and blonde (though I was shorter-haired and grey for a while) that it’s strange being brunette again – not to mention also having shorter hair than I’ve ever had in my life. I’m thinking I’m going to let it grow out again, though the low-maintenance of a pixie is particularly nice.

Or maybe I’ll dye it some unnatural shade of pink or blue for the fun of it while it’s still so short and easy to manage – because clearly what my chemically-treated hair needs is more chemical treatment!

Jacket: Thrifted

Sweater: Abercrombie

Shirt: Banana Republic

Leggings: Thrifted (from a second-hand riding apparel store, of all places)

Boots: LL Bean

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Basic Invite Stationery Review

Published on January 21, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

A long time ago, back before I had my own laptop (and actually, probably before my family even had a home computer – just my mother’s work laptop that she would bring home on the weekends sometimes) I was really into writing.

Okay, that was a lousy way of wording things – I’m still into writing, it’s not like that’s changed. I mean, what am I doing here other than writing (though maybe not very well, as evidenced by that last confusing sentence)? But back then, I was into…handwriting? Or rather, writing things out by hand?

I don’t know if this is true for kids today, since it seems like they’ve all got their first iPhone by 6 and are on Instagram by 7, but way back when (and by that I mean like 10 years ago), typing was a rarity for an elementary school kid. I remember having to take typing lessons in the computer lab to learn how to position my fingers correctly and get my WPM up, but that was about all we ever did. There were few typed assignments, and we rarely had computers in class.

Handwriting was the only kind of writing a kid did – and I remember really loving it. I think it probably had to do with that it was a relatively novel thing to me, having only learned to write at all a few grades ago, after all. I had really lousy handwriting – my third grade teacher, if I remember, rated it as “poor” once on a report card – but that didn’t matter to me.

I like to think my handwriting’s gotten better since then, even though I don’t do it as much as I used to, especially since I’ve entered college and just about all my assignments are typed in my computer.

But I want to do it more. Noticing this recent decrease in handwritten writing, I decided to order some cute stationery samples – some thank you cards, stickers, notes – to test the waters and see if maybe by getting supplies, I’ll convince myself to write more. I figure if my writing supplies are nice, maybe I’ll be more motivated to write, you know?

The website I went through was called Basic Invite, and I must say, I’m very satisfied with my experience. What’s great about this particular brand was the sheer about of options there were – options for different kids of stationery (wedding invitations, children’s party invitations, thank you cards, etc.), different kinds of paper, colors, you name it. Along with the vast customization features that allow you to create invitations that are perfectly tailored to your needs, I was equally impressed with the service I was provided. I was emailed when my order was completed, when my samples were queued for print, when they were being shipped out, and when they had a delivery date estimation for me. Everything arrived neatly packaged, undamaged, and ready for use.

Will these new supplies actually encourage me to write more? We’ll see. One of my professors has already specifically stated she doesn’t allow computers to be used in her class, so that’ll be a good motivation for me to work on that. I’ll have all my different colored pens, my stickers, my stationery – I’ll be so organized I may even forget to pay attention to the lecture.

Basic Invite is currently running a promotion for 15% off with coupon code 15FF51, so I would definitely recommend giving them a look if you’ve got any stationery needs. Or, if you’re like me, and you don’t really know if you have stationery needs or not, but want to order some samples to test them out, Basic Invite is one of the few websites that allows customers the ability to order a printed sample of their actual invitation so they can see exactly how it will print as well as the paper quality before placing their final order!

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

Disclaimer: This post includes products that were sent complimentary to review and affiliate links. All opinions are my own.

January 17, 2018 – Conclusions (OOTD #204)

Published on January 20, 2018January 20, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

I think this jacket is it – the last new article of clothing I bought in London that I hadn’t yet worn.

As of January 17, 2018, I have worn every single thing I bought over my summer 2017 London trip – I guess, except for a vintage riding hat I bought in Shoreditch, but I don’t think that counts.

I would say this is a bittersweet, sentimental moment, but it’s really not – I mostly just find it weird that I bought this jacket in the summer and didn’t find a way to wear it until six months later. It’s not like it’s a winter coat that just wasn’t seasonal to wear until now; it’s literally just a light jacket I honestly could have worn a day after I bought it in July in a Zara on Oxford Street.

Why did I wait so long to wear it? I’m not entirely sure. It was probably one of my favorite purchases in London, so I guess I was hoping to save it for something special? A certain kind of spectacular outfit that would deserve to have my finest piece from a great trip as a part of it, you know?

But then there were no spectacular outfits that deserved to have my finest piece from a great trip as a part of it, at least, none that I could come up with. The proportions were always just a little off, or I didn’t feel like the outfit did the jacket justice. So I waited.

And then I got tired of waiting. I woke up on Wednesday morning, the second day of class for the second semester of my freshman year, and I realized it was dumb to keep waiting for some kind of magical moment to prompt me to wear this jacket I liked. So I finally wore it with a perfectly average (average for me, at least) outfit, and brought my London fashion story to a close.

I think there’s a moral in there, but I don’t feel like figuring it out/putting it into words. Instead, I’ll leave you with this fun fact: I’m actually wearing the Zara jacket here with the exact same shirt I as the one I was wearing when I bought it and fell in love with it, meaning I’d known the right piece to pair it with all along. Haha.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Jacket: Zara

Shirt: Free People

Skirt: Abercrombie

January 16, 2018 – Golden Hour at the Golden Dome (OOTD #203)

Published on January 19, 2018August 14, 2019 by lensembledujour3 Comments

Okay, so I’m technically not standing at or near the Dome here, but whatever.

As much as I appreciate the Dome for being iconic and a huge staple of campus and what the outside world imagines when they think of us, it’s kind-of weird taking photos in front of it, you know? It makes you look like an outsider to your own school, even though I’m definitely a student here and I literal pass Main Building (super creative name, right? Our big famous building with the iconic golden dome atop it is literally just called “main building”) every day.

Instead, I take photos in front of boring locations like South Dining Hall or my own dorm building because I literally have no where else to go and it’s totally not at all awkward when people pass me posing in the middle of the sidewalk on their way to get food.

This lighting though? Amirite?

Last semester, I found myself usually forcing very kindly requesting that my friends take pictures for this blog after lunch every day, with some exceptions when I had to beg someone to take time out of their probably busy schedule and meet me somewhere to do them. This semester, or at least this semester as it’s played out so far, has turned out that I’m meeting people for dinner more often than lunch, meaning my photos have got to be done before sunset.

Today’s shots were taken pretty much literally at sunset – golden hour. It’s a little more orangey than I typically go for, but beggars can’t be choosers, so I take whatever I can get. Regardless, I do rather like the peachy, glow effect. It reminds me of the warmth of the sun that I haven’t seen since I left Kentucky and came back to the frozen cornfields of Indiana.

Jacket: vintage

Sweater: thrifted

Jeans: Abercrombie

Scarf: the LOFT

January 15, 2018 – Amelia Earhart, The Sequel (OOTD #202)

Published on January 18, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

So this was a thing that happened.

A little context: my mother has a friend who’s a big Notre Dame basketball fan, actually so much so that he used to play for the team. He was headed up to Notre Dame over the weekend for the game Saturday against North Carolina, and he offered me a ride back with him.

What was fun, though, was that he offered me a ride in an airplane. And not just a normal commercial plane – a private one, flown by his friend, a pilot.

Due to the snowy weather, our basketball fan friend decided not to go on Saturday, but he still very kindly offered to allow me to fly with his pilot friend up to South Bend on Sunday, just in time for the start of classes.

I’ve never flown in a private plane before – though I expect not many people can say they have. I did once get upgraded to first class on an international flight to London, but that’s as lavish as it’s ever gotten. I’m usually just lucky if I don’t get called out of like at the TSA security check for something stupid like having my phone in my pocket.

In many ways, the private flying experience was much nicer than flying commercially – no lines to wait in, no security checks, no accidentally going over the weight limit for your bags and having to frantically repack them in the airport. It also got me there much faster, as I didn’t have to fly to Chicago and then catch the several hour-long bus back to school. Going directly, I got from home in Lexington to campus in South Bend in like two hours.

I wouldn’t necessarily say it was super comfortable though. It was a very small plane, and with my parents and bags along for the ride, it ended up being pretty cramped. There was also no in-flight entertainment, bags of peanuts, or WiFi – it was much like a car ride.

We did get some really lovely views of the passing landscapes. It was all white and snowy, and at some point (though I don’t really know when), it transitioned from the hills of Kentucky to the flat farmlands of Indiana, which was interesting to see.

It was definitely bittersweet when we landed in South Bend because I expect I’ll never be able to afford to fly privately again.

Unless, of course, I somehow wind up fabulously rich and famous – which I suppose could still happen. 19 years and it hasn’t yet, but I still have time. I think?

Jacket: Altar’d State

Leggings: The LOFT

Boots: LL Bean

January 13, 2018 – Winter Shorts Part 2 (OOTD #201)

Published on January 17, 2018 by lensembledujour6 Comments

If you’re looking for context behind the meaning of today’s blog title, look no further than this blog from earlier this week.

However, unlike the situation from earlier this week, when I found myself in 65 degree temperatures in mid-January, making shorts an unusually rational choice, this outfit features shorts for no particular reason other than I couldn’t find anything else I wanted to wear with this sweater. Also, it was like, 10 degrees and snowing, so you can rest assured that I’m still as irrational about my fashion choices as ever.

I did opt for the tights-under-shorts look in a (mostly vain) attempt to warm up my legs a little. It might have also had something to do with the fact that I wanted to get more wear out of the patterned black tights I had worn the day before… but like I said – it was vain.

(Peep my dog)

The decision to layer a collared shirt underneath the lace-up sweater actually came from an LL Bean catalogue I saw my dad flipping through. Normally, I’m more one to get my fashion inspiration from Pinterest and Tumblr rather than print sources, but that’s a preference rather than a rule. I’ll take new ideas from whatever I can get – I don’t believe there’s any intellectual elitism in inspiration, only in how you explain the inspiration.

Anyway, I saw some model in the catalogue wearing a collared shirt underneath a lace-up sweater, and I thought to myself that I had to give it a shot. And that’s how we got here with me in a collared shirt and lace-up sweater with tights and shorts on a snowy, 10 degree Kentucky day: one part practicality, one part vanity, and one part inspiration.

Oh, and one part just frantically trying to pick out an outfit in time to take the dog for a walk with my dad before he got irritated and missed much of the Eagles game. Does that fit into the practicality category?