Bicyclette

This outfit combines all of my very favourite things – a tuxedo stripe on the pants, touches of faux leather, a little oxblood mixed with black, sheer fabric, and a cute print. And, you can’t really see from these photos, but there’s studs on the shoes, another favourite of mine.

pants: H&M / shirt: Twik via Simons / shoes: Steve Madden / necklace: Aldo / blazer: BB Dakota

All the Frills: The Fall Jacket

One of the things I love best about fall is when all the great fall/winter coats start to roll out in shops. I seriously love me a good coat. So I couldn’t resist this one from H&M. I mean, I didn’t have a blue coat yet…

jacket: H&M / purse: Target / shoes: Steve Madden / pants: H&M 

Weekend Reading:

• This is awesome: Unsatisfied Women in Western Art.
  
  
• Inside an eighteenth century woman’s closet.
  
  
• Well, this is disgusting. Misogynistic internet trolls are the worst. The worst.
  
  
• This article about Sarah Jessica Parker’s inspired idea with respect to the costumes for the New York City Ballet is really cool.
  
  
• So Bill de Blasio has the blood of an innocent groundhog on his hands. I actually find this really disturbing.
  
  
• I want this vintage cape!!!!! I’m not entirely sure I can pull off a cape but I sure do want to try.

Hearted

I recently did a bit of back to school shopping and came away with this super cute heart print tunic-style stop from Simons. I wore it on a day of warmer weather when I was volunteering at a campus BBQ event for new students but I’m really excited to pair it with leggings, boots, and a blazer!

top: Simons / capris: Target / shoes: Toms / watch: La Mer

All the Frills: Problem Solving

I’ve always had a tricky time finding an appropriate place for my collection of art books and my helpmeet’s collection of graphic novels. Oftentimes they’re larger and bulkier than regular books and so they don’t fit easily into the dimensions of a standard bookshelf. So I was pretty happy when I saw this sideboard style piece of furniture at IKEA. The lower shelf was perfectly sized to hold all my art books…even though I did have to track down a block of wood to center underneath the middle of the unit as the books are heavy and it looked like the wood piece was bending under the weight. I’m a problem solver people.

Weekend Reading:

• I want to visit all these Canadian Airbnb locations!
• Shoes, glorious shoes!
• A Stanford linguistics professor analyzes NYC menus. I love this. 

Unsurprisingly I’ve been keeping a close eye on my beloved Scotland over the past weeks – not just because I love it so but because, as an early modernist, I’m pretty wrapped up in the shared, often contentious history of England and Scotland (hell, my primary period of study spans the period in which the two crowns were joined by James VI and I, a precursor to the economic and political “union” that was to follow). If you’re at all interested in learning a little more, I’ve assembled a few good links:

• A brief history
• Economic rhetoric
• The Scottish Wars of Independence
• The Act(s) of Union
• Scotland and Europe...and the Auld Alliance
• A little more about 1707
• And even more 1707
• Culloden and its aftermath

Plaid!!!!

Fall weather means I can bust out this plaid, Tilda Swinton-esque top from my closet! As you can tell, I’m pretty excited. I picked up this plaid number in the clearance section of the Zara website for about $10 last year and it's quickly become a closet staple. It's not really a true plaid pattern, I know, but I feel like it's a bit of a futuristic take on plaid, especially with the added element of the zippers.

top: Zara / pants: RW and Co / boots: Camper / bag: Target

Thrift Finds

I scored this Jacob skirt at Value Village recently – there’s nothing better than finding a great fitting skirt that’s perfect for work and costs less than $10. And it's the perfect opportunity to wear my new Camper booties.

skirt: Jacob, via Value Village / shirt: not sure of the brand, via Value Village / booties: Camper / watch: La Mer

All the Frills: Camper

Ack, I totally spaced that yesterday was Friday (I know, I know) and forgot to post. That's clearly a sign that I need to unwind this weekend (I finally got around to reading Gone Girl and am totally invested in it). Anyways, apologies and onto the real post!

This gal scored some awesome new Camper booties for fall – and, I swear, these are some of the most comfortable shoes I’ve worn…so, everything’s coming up Courtney!

Weekend Reading:

• Yale librarians have digitized and labeled Vogue’s entire record, 120 years and 400,000 pages. Too bad this didn’t happen when I living in the library 6 days a week writing my dissertation and desperate for a distraction.
  
• I need this cardigan. Especially since we got snow in Edmonton this past week. Snow!
  
• I can’t decide who my favourite is: Daniel, or cooler Daniel.
  
• This visual arts students reinforces my feminist pride.
  
• Putting butter in your coffee just sounds super weird to me.
  
• As someone who has had an abiding and deep interest in the Franklin expedition for too many years to count, this totally made my week. If you’ve never learned about the Franklin expedition, you should!

The Lost Weekend

So I’ve started on a new academic project (I’ve mentioned it here before, it’s a piece about strategies of insult among early modern elite women) and the research has just been intense. I’ve been going back through all the primary source material I amassed for my PhD dissertation (I only used about 50% of it in the actual dissertation and book project, so I thought I’d see what I had sitting there unused that might work for this current project) and it basically just led me down a rabbit hole of countless side projects. It was great fun (I’m a researcher at heart) but I lost an entire weekend on it! Them’s the breaks I guess.

These photos were taken a few days before Edmonton got hit with a delicious cold snap (we saw a bit of snow and, as I write this, it's -1 outside). I am so happy that proper fall weather is here - but it's weird to imagine myself being outside right now without sleeves.

pants: RW Winter and Co. / tank top: Target / wedges: ASOS / bracelets: Aldo

The Knick

Have you guys ever heard of the new show called The Knick? If you haven’t, you should check it out. Not only is the subject matter fascinating (and not just for a history nerd like me), but it’s been getting rave reviews and one of the actors starring in the project is none other than a dude I'm lucky enough to know, Eric Johnson. Eric is a really close pal of one of my exes and a lot of my other close friends – he and I aren’t BFFs or anything like that but I get to see him from time to time when he’s in Edmonton to visit friends and family and he’s a really awesome and incredibly talented guy. I wish him nothing but luck with his new acting venture (and he’s had a pretty rad career to date). Anyways, he was in town recently and this is what I wore to go hang with him and some other friends.

leggings: ASOS / tank: H&M / jacket: H&M / sandals: Spring / purse: H&M / necklace: Aldo / glasses: Clearly Contacts

All the Frills: Partial Parure

I picked up this necklace about a year ago from OASAP because I immediately fell in love with all the sparkle and vaguely Ancien Régime feel of it. And then I spent the better part of last year looking for semi-matching earrings so that I could create a partial parure. And I finally found them…at RW Winter and Co, of all places. Whatever, I’ll take it. And, in order to get a good close up of the “set” you are all treated below to some fetching close-ups of my resting bitch face. You’re welcome.

necklace: OASAP / earrings: RW Winter and Co 

Weekend Reading

• Want to read about another royal Kate (this one is from Braganza)? The subtitle to this is "I heart British history"!
  
• The mysteries of Stonehenge revealed?
  
• Jewels!!!! From Tsarist Russia!!!! You guys, these folks knew a thing or two about opulence.
  
• Well this is just awesome news for anyone interested in Vikings. And, bonus, one of my favourite former profs at Yale (Andrew W) made a great comment.
  
• Revelations: Hello Kitty is not actually a cat and there’s a recent academic study on Hello Kitty that I’m now dying to read.

Transitions

In my opinion, the only legitimately good thing about summer is that it provides opportunities for patio glam shots. Edmonton blissfully got hit with an almost autumnal snap of cooler air this past week which meant I got to gleefully pull out some of my fall pieces (scarves!!!!) and wear them about town. Now my appetite for true fall weather has really been whet!

pants: RW Winter and Co / top: H&M / scarf: can’t recall but I’m pretty sure it was from a street vendor on my last trip to NYC / watch: Swatch / bracelets: Aldo

Summer-esque

Well, this is it. This is as summery as I get.

Can it please be October now?

dress: Joe Fresh / boots: Kohls / sunglasses: Target / necklace: the Met