When Does A Tunic Become A Dress?

Bonjour, Directorate! Or, for those night owls who check-in Sunday night just in case there’s something new, bonne nuit. I can’t believe it’s June. I still have spring clothes to share! * Some might say this whole blog is an exercise in self-aggrandizement. But I think of it more as community organizing. And infotainment.

Wardrobe Challenge: Rain and Sweat

I was invited to an exhibit opening at the Renwick Gallery a couple of weeks ago. What to wear, what to wear? I wondered. I’ve been so few places in the last two years. It was an evening event and the invitation suggested “festive attire.” The forecast promised temperatures in the mid-eighties and rain. For … Read more

Is More Better?

Last year I bought an outlandish floral jacket — fuschia and orange — on the The RealReal and declared victory over darkness. In defense of myself, the fushcia jacket read brilliantly on Zoom: vibrant, cheery, non-threatening. It was a great idea.

Aunt Baby Battles Hot and Cold Spring

Spring in Washington D.C. has been like spring in many parts of the country this year: volatile. We’ve had (relatively) boiling hot days in the eighties and (relatively) freezing days with daytime temperatures in the forties. We also had serious tornado warning, which caused me to retreat (with Mr. Orange) to the only interior space … Read more

These Old Clothes, First Ed.

  I could have sworn I’d started a series of “These Old Clothes” posts, but when I scanned the index in alphabetical order, there were none. It’s such a good idea . . . how did I fail to follow through? I ordered these loafers in late December and it just occurred to me last … Read more

Straight from Crayola

  So pleased was I with my striped dress from Universal Standard, I ordered the same dress in solid blue. * I think these were called “Can’t Roll” in the 1970s — and they were cylindrical with a flattened bottom. Very awkward to hold. Today, the cylinder is shaped like a triangle — which seems … Read more

Puffed Up Consequence

  This post may be regarded as Apex Directrice — the Directrice at her highest (most concentrated? most absurd?) moment. A quick search on Amazon turned up many possibilities for stuffing and/or flotation devices as daily-wear.     Top: Brogger   * It happened like this. I was reading about the clothes that Selena Gomez … Read more

The Directrice Hearts Art Jewelry

  At the start of the pandemic, I — like many — had an initial instinct to reduce spending and economize as a hedge against uncertainty. Within a few weeks (early summer 2020), it occurred to me that I had a duty to spend like a Keynesian economist on shore leave — meaning that I … Read more