I must admit that moving to US brought more changes than I thought.
I changed lifestyle (from working from home remotely to office full time), climate (Ukraine has crazy dark humid cold winters, hot summers with thunderstorms and short spring and autumn and where I live in US it’s warm winter, hot summer, very long spring and autumn with almost no rains all over the year), and culture is different.
I knew that changes would be inevitable when I moved here, and some of them were very obvious (you don’t really need fur lined high boots and seriously warm gloves in California e. g.). But some of them were very unexpected: for example I’m not able to wear many of my jerseys which are perfectly work appropriate and in a good condition, because now I wear small cross-body all the time (it’s really practical in very large open space office for a person who hates pockets, but piling becomes horrible for longer cardigans and sweaters).
Not even 5% of my wardrobe, but you can get the feeling of it
So my wardrobe and I are still in the process of transition. The main trick is to make some changes to the wardrobe without changing overall impression. For some people to change overall impression is a main goal of buying new wardrobe, but I was quite happy with what my clothes say about me (I like to think that it was ‘creative professional woman at her 30s who likes comfort and cares about aesthetic”). But right now my clothes would say completely different things if I were wearing them the way I was wearing them at home.
Today staples of my wardrobe are button down shirts, jeans (slim, but not really skinny), tough looking boots on medium thick heels and leather jackets (black mid-thigh long and dark plum short biker jacket). I often add scarf. Nice, but I really need some more ideas for business casual.
So, what is my problem? My problem is that I’m bored to death and I wear the same boots 90% of time.
At home I had very long winter and quite long summer (well they were equally long in days, but anybody who lived in a cold climate with almost no sun November to March can easily guess what felt longer), so I have a lot of nice summer sandals, and I have several pairs of fur lined boots (totally don’t need them in CA). Other than that it’s sad: Diesel sneakers which almost died after a month of wearing them really often, old Nike sneakers which shouldn’t be worn to office, purple patent pumps and high heel booties (too dressed up obviously). Then I after many really desperate hours I bought Steve Madden boots and have at least something to wear. Actually I have a feeling that I’m living in a shoe desert. There are tons of shoes everywhere, but they are all wrong! Too narrow, not a good quality, there is no my size (8, sometimes 7.5, sometimes 8.5, nothing exotic!), cost like a Boeing wing, wrong color, colorway is not available in shops that ship to US etc etc. I almost feel like I’m going to accept ‘cost like a Boeing wing’ option. No budget friendly small Italian brands I loved so much, so I almost ready for Prada and Marni.
Problem is that here I have more casual environment and being creative about my looks wouldn’t be punished, but it wouldn’t be supported either. There is nobody who can appreciate such things as playing with textures in total black or nice combination of purple and cobalt of the same brightness and lightness in accessories. And this is just discouraging. Don’t get me wrong: I love California with all my heart: it still amazes me how beautiful it is. I love how warm winter months are and how much sun we have. I really like people: they are all different and they created really great atmosphere here. So I’m happier person now, but I’m not really sure if I can be useful as a source of style and sartorial advice anymore.Well, at least I can do bra reviews time to time ))
Nothing Ever Fits and Nobody Sympathizes 