Actually, I blame this. Because of it, I found myself half-dressed in a J Crew dressing room, trying to simultaneously be French and figure out where my waist had gone in the skirt I was wearing. One of J Crew's personal stylists, Shellie, halted on her way to a client, looked me up and down, and said, "Hon, can I try a few things on you?", which inevitably led to:
Don't let the harem pants fool you. Their success depends greatly on body type; Shellie spent twenty minutes trying to convince me that I don't have birthing hips (I do) before convincing me to wriggle into them. The thing about harem pants is that they create curves, so if you already have them (I thought I did), they won't be the most flattering pair of pants. Also, styling is of utmost importance here: harem pants look best when they're pushed up on the calf and when paired with an untucked blouse, which hides the top five inches of the pants. I swear they look better in real life. My fellow interns deemed them "sexy," "womanly," and "YOU LOOK LIKE A STICK." Naturally, I don't really care what I'm wearing so long as I can be described as a stick. Shellie then slapped the flannel shirt on me (there was a lot of crying involved with this — I'm allergic to flannel), added the blazer, cuffed the flannel over the sleeves of the blazer, and cinched it with a soft brown belt. After I slipped into the shoes (made in Italy, which is a big thing for me), I looked into the mirror and saw the J Crew model version of myself. I liked it. I liked it enough to buy the harem pants, the shoes, the blazer, and the belt (but not the flannel). Instead, I'll layer a soft, crumpled blue blouse underneath the blazer to get the same effect of the rolled cuffs. It's perfect for work and offers a hint of androgyny, which is probably my favorite thing in the world. Even better, these pieces won't work with only this outfit — Shellie introduced me to a few more options to give me more bang for my buck, which will follow shortly.
Hope your week is going splendidly!