What I Wore in January

A Few Looks from the Longest Month of the Year

Can we agree January felt like the longest month everrrrrrrr?

I was unusually—happily—busier than normal with clients, school was back in session (along with a new after-school activity keeping Mom’s Taxi in business) and it was the seemingly neverending month of post-holiday nothingness. Still, I continued to get up and dress myself in things other than leggings and sweats most days, making me feel like myself and putting my mind in a more productive place. As someone who’s exclusively worked from home for a decade, “getting dressed” has always been a must for me.

That’s why it’s so important to me to have pieces I love in my closet—specifically pieces that are flexible and play well with the other things I have in my closet. It makes getting dressed so much simpler.

Despite getting dressed nearly daily in January, I was lackadaisical about photographing my outfits. I took a longer-than-usual holiday break, not getting back to work until January 13. And once I was back to work, I had a really hard time getting into the swing of things. I felt pretty despondent overall and I just couldn’t get my act together. So I suppose that’s why I only took pics of nine outfits over a month that felt like 900 days long.

Here’s one of my favorites:

Sweater: NADAAM
Button-down shirt: Universal Thread/Target
Corduroy pants: J.Crew
Shoes: J.Crew - similar (several years old)

I can’t quite remember where I wore this—I know I was working at home but I’m not sure if I had anyplace else to be or not. Last fall I added the J.Crew sailor slim-wide pant in stretch corduroy in “rich coffee” to my closet; they quickly became a favorite. So just before the holidays, I grabbed another pair, this time in this “radiant ruby.” I wore them during the holidays and knew the bold red would be a good option to add some color to dreary winter days long after the tree was down.

Oftentimes, like many people, I automatically pair red with black—or an animal print. But for this combo, I paired the pants with a white button-up layered with a cream cashmere sweater and I really liked the palette a lot. The lighter hues softened the bold red and felt very wintry—but not “holiday”—to me. I splurged on the NAADAM cashmere sweater several years ago when I decided to invest mostly in cashmere sweaters. Living in Austin, I don’t get to wear sweaters that often due to the climate so I decided I’d buy less of them, but I’d invest in high-quality cashmere instead.

These are the same pants in the “rich coffee” hue (petite length). I wore them several times last month, too, which illustrates that I really do believe in having at least three ways to wear everything in your closet! Even though the looks on the right and left look similar, they’re slightly different. I could pair these same pants with the white button-up and cashmere sweater I wore with the red pants, too, for yet another look.

This is the thing that’s so important to me—and I try to instill in the midlife women I work with: have pieces you love in your closet, but pieces that are flexible and play with the other things you have in your closet. It makes getting dressed so much simpler.

I was largely uninspired much of the month, which one might argue is clear from the outfits pictured above. There’s nothing wrong with them, but admittedly I wasn’t excited to put them together or wear them. But that’s how it works sometimes. And that’s okay. Every outfit you wear isn’t going to give you pep in your step; sometimes you’re just going to be relieved to have put on something that fits, and you put one foot in front of the other and go with it.