Oh goodness. It’s been a very long while since I’ve posted! I feel very badly about that! The honest truth is that I’ve been quite busy as of late what with Thanksgiving and Christmas bearing down on me… I just haven’t had the time or extra motivation to write anything for my blog since Thanksgiving! I’ve actually been a lot of places, seen a lot of things and have had many ideas for blog postings, but alas… nothing has been written. All that to say, I haven’t completely forgotten this blog or my love for it and I do plan on picking up my pace a bit when the Holiday’s pass and my days are just life as usual again.

In my time away from She Strikes A Pose, I’ve thought a lot about how much I write and what I write about and perhaps a better way of organizing it all. ‘Look of the Day’, though very fun to research and write about, takes an awful lot of time to compile and thusly I’ve decided to re-make it as ‘Look of Now’, which would allow me the freedom to post everyday or every other week if I so choose.

I also have a few friends who are very fashionable and creative and often they come up with awesome ideas for posts which they tell me about but I seem to either promptly forget them (‘cause lets face it, I honestly have a whole list blog ideas already and I have trouble keeping track of those!) or I just don’t have the time to write them! I’ve attempted on at least one occasion to persuade one of those friends to write up an article or at least a rough draft for me to edit and post, but again, the time it takes to brainstorm, research, write and finally publish a post, takes a lot longer than most may think! It can be very overwhelming.

I was sent a book to read and review for my blog and I feel horrendous for not getting to it yet. It took three straight days of almost non-stop work to review the last book I posted about and I just find now that I’m a tad too busy even to think about reviewing this book. However, if it’s the last thing I do, I will review that book and post about it ASATHAOP… like as is in, “As Soon As The Holiday’s Are Over Possible.”

For all my readers who still bother to check my blog for new postings, I am truly sorry for neglecting this for so long without so much as an explanation. Please forgive me. I will be up and going again very, very soon.

All right, I’ll be honest, up until about a month ago, I loathed the ankle boot. I simply failed to see the beauty in hacking off the calf section of a boot and then wearing what was left with a mini skirt as to expose the hideous mutilation that is the ankle boot. Try as I may, I couldn’t get with it. That is until I was flipping through my fashion bible, aka Vogue, and saw a glowing ad, full of purple goodness, and lo, there on the oversized feet of the giant model, what did I see?

Purple suede ankle boots.

The look had me at purple, and I was in love… and in denial! I really wrestled with myself for a minute, resisting the thought that I too was falling prey to a trend that I had, at the on set of my journey through Vogue just five minutes before, hated. I was feeling weak, and as I gazed longer at the glossy page, I felt weaker.

And then, I caved.

What can I say? I truly liked the look, and honestly, I hoped then and still do that the ankle boot is here to stay. I think at a root level I had been resisting the ankle boot because it was a throw back to the 80’s and I’ve never heard anyone say anything nice about 80’s fashion! (And thank goodness, because there is nothing nice to say!) I guess I felt like the problem was that designers were getting bored and regurgitating forgotten looks; looks that should have stayed forgotten! However, perhaps the problem lay not with the designers, but with my perspective. Instead of seeing ankle boots as a hideous mutation, I needed to appreciate them as an inspired revival; one that looked much better the second time around!

That said, I feel there are a few guidelines one must keep in mind when attempting to wear the ankle boot. To me, it seems that though the ankle boot has shed its calf, it cannot stand alone. Meaning, the ankle boot looks better when worn with a legging of a similar color. The ad in Vogue supported this idea as the purple ankle boot was worn with purple leggings. The picture I’m showing here also show this.

Perhaps it’s that I haven’t researched the ankle boot thoroughly or that I just haven’t seen many women wearing them in Austin, but I think the boot looks best when worn with a skirt, more specifically, a mini skirt.If y’all have any other ideas for this fabulous shoe, please let me know!

Today’s look screams “ Paris” (the city, not the heiress...please!) with its sleek lines and red, black and white stripped scarf. I love the use of the scarf in this look as it really makes the black pop by avoiding a monochromatic look. Nearly anyone will look slim and chic while sporting this little number, and I must give a shout out to my ever favorite, ever faithful black flats. Represent!

Pull this look together with some black Jackie O shades and slicked back hair. I say, “Oh la la!”

A Note:

I originally saw this look with a red and white stripped turtleneck worn under the dress. I L-O-V-E-D the look but had the darnedest time finding a red turtleneck to show here. What I’ve learned as a result is that substitution is the result of necessity, and necessity is the mother of invention. My motto is to think outside the box, especially when forced to do so, and this is a perfect example of just that. There has been many an outfit created because I haven’t had the exact piece to create the look from which I mooched! Try it and have fun!

I found this picture of Drew Berrymore on one of the celebrity news sites I stalk every now and then.

She is so pretty and I really, really like this picture. I recently saw a dress at Target that kind of looks like the shirt she's wearing, though I couldn't find an example to show you here. Obviously she's filming a movie, but I think "yes" for the blouse at least!

A few weeks ago on Oprah, I heard a stylist say that black on black was really in right now. I guess that would mean I technically didn’t “spy” this trend myself, but I spied someone else spying it so that counts! Anyway, this trend actually struck me as an odd one as I have been taught to avoid wearing a lot of black as not to appear that I am in constant mourning of a lost loved one… Thusly, until last year, I didn’t own a single piece of black clothing save a black tee shirt that was lost long ago in the back on my closet. I’d seen the epidemic of women wearing only black, or mostly black, or using black with every color under the sun with which to coordinate and it seemed to me that style was quickly being sucked down a black hole so to speak! I made a concerted effort to wear as much color as I could in hopes that it might counter act the mindless outfits most women were wearing.

My wardrobe started to change a bit though, as I began to understand the importance of essentials; it was then that I embraced black as a timeless and chic tool (when worn rightly) for every woman’s closet. At the time when I saw Oprah, I still wore black infrequently, but because of that stylists wise words, I’ve since embraced black a little more and am now rocking the black on black look.

The greatest thing about black on black is that the options are endless! When I began to think about what pictures I would feature, I saw that I would have to limit my options as not to have a mile long post! This look really is relevant and workable and I’m SO glad to have in my life… I hope y’all enjoy it as much as I do!

P.S. This is also my ‘Look of the Day’.