We at Directrice Global Industries Limited* are all about scientific improvement and growth. But how to improve and grow if you can’t remember where you started?
That’s not a trick question. You can’t! And thus, our annual look-back is not simply a content-stretching maneuver designed to temporarily satiate content-gobblers. Nay, it is a teaching tool for us and you.
Get comfy and let the learning (or re-learning) begin!
Since one theme of the year was Better Living Through Better Accessorizing, it seems right to start with the six best accessory posts.
As I sift through the year’s entries, I must reflect on what makes some better than others. I like almost all of them. My mother loves all of them. For our year-end list in 2019, I’ve selected the following Business Casual posts because I think they show an interesting silhouette or combination . . . something a little out of the common run.
And here are the best Casual posts, selected because they illustrate how a small idea (an accessory, alteration, or unexpected pairing) can make something good great. Except the last post, which was selected because that tattered denim shirt is awesome.
Reflecting on the year’s end, and five years of blogging, I will extend this invitation: It is incumbent upon all of us to expand the Canon of Business Casual and to shape the workplace, more broadly, to reflect our values, achieve our goals, and meet our needs. Here’s to 2020! Let’s make it a great year.
Please share your resolutions with The Directorate. If they are small but powerful,** others may want to borrow them!
From everyone at Directrice Global Industries, Ltd. and DGI, Inc. (our parent company), wishing you the very best in the New Year.
* Elvis was The Photographer’s beloved cat and companion before he met The Directrice.
** For example, one year I resolved to smile more at strangers. You’d be surprised how favorably people respond. Another year, I vowed to wear lipstick every day. So easy to do, and it made me feel much more polished.
My resolution is to take negative comments and find something positive to learn from them (I’m a school administrator… parents can be brutal).
Love the recap – it just reaffirms your talent for layering and accessorizing. Thank you for continuing to inspire!
My resolution is to look at the whole effect of an outfit, rather than obsessing over a part that might cover a portion of my body that I am less or more fond of. I don’t think I’m good at seeing the whole me. I am too good at scrutinizing discrete parts.
An excellent resolution! Don’t we too often see other people as a whole, but ourselves as cuts of meat? Icky cuts of meat?
Well put!
You make an excellent point, Hope — particularly because I think that others tend to see us as a whole and not fixate on some little part.
That is what I hope happens, anyway!
My resolution is to be kinder, even when unwarranted*, to my self and others!
*we’ll see how this goes…….
My resolutions are: to use the clothing I have or buy used, wear more accessories I have, give away what I don’t use, walk 10,000 steps a day, enjoy life more, visit the kids more, cook healthier meals, spend less, keep my st berdoodle dog mat free. Worthy goals every one and continuations of what was begun in 2018.
St. Berdoodle? I think you need to send me a picture. I have a feeling that this might be the cutest dog ever.
Thank you, Mme. La Directrice, for another year of impeccable style and wit. I never make specific new year’s resolutions because I’m constantly making (and breaking) resolutions the whole year ’round.
Resolutions feel like mean tricks you play on your willpower. But this year I’m thinking about a few things you have helped to inspire: authenticity, creativity, a lively sense of the absurd, and the ultimate Directrice paradox – disciplined exuberance. Oh yes, and cats, because, cats.
I love the concept of “disciplined exuberance.” If I ever make another set of coffee mugs (graphic: an org chart showing the relationship between me, Directrice Global Industries, Ltd. and DGI, Inc.?), I’ll have to add that to my tag-line.
My tiny resolution is to smile at myself in the mirror while I’m drying my hair. It is ridiculous, but that change in my countenance somehow affects my entire day. Granted, I have resting bitch face!
I love it. And after all, isn’t a smile just about a grimace?
I think this is a terrific resolution, Bette! Who is more deserving of your smile than you? No one! And clearly your receiving self is uplifted by your smiling self — just as if you were strangers on the sidewalk.
Happy New Year. I am looking forward to another year of inspiration from Directrice Global Industries.
My style-related resolution is to stand in front of my closet* and rapidly go through all my things, tossing them into two piles: things I wear, and things I do not wear. Then I will remove the things I do not wear to a remote location (upstairs in the little-used guest suite) and revel in my closet actually being functional, while working my way through the less-used items to try to discover their fate: keep, alter, sell or donate.
During this time of sorting, I have given myself a shopping ban. The time of sorting is allowed to take as long as it needs to take, including the whole of 2020, but at least 90 days of shopping ban must be observed.
* full disclosure: CLOSETS
Cynthia, this sounds like a great plan, I wish I had your willpower. Good luck!
You are completely ready to face the next decade! Let us know how things progress, Cynthia!
Thank you, Directrice, for another year of amusing, inspiring, and intriguing posts! I’m especially intrigued by the underwater photo, I’ve looked at it several times now trying to figure it out. I’m definitely inspired by those who have shared their resolutions. Happy 2020 to all!
I resolve simply to plan my outfit the night before! Though I’m also renewing my resolution to Be More Like the Directrice – in so many ways, but at a minimum, by mastering shopping on The Real Real.
My sartorial goal is to buy a few, well chosen, high quality pieces. Top of my list is a wrinkle resistant grey blazer for travel. (I could use help finding such a piece!) I also want to add more color to my wardrobe, weirdy green and cobalt, in particular. My other goal relates to turning 47 this year. I’ve been blessed with many opportunities, have been able to build resilience following crisis and tragedy, and have the wisdom to know that I’m lucky to have been able to build resilience — my goal to to step up my efforts to use my experience and skills for the greater good. On a lighter note, a weirdy green trench coat is my shopping holy grail.