What I wore last week
and a few accompanying thoughts
SATURDAY
A lot of my personal style is shaped by the fact that I don't like showing my arms. Do I feel limited? Yes. But creativity thrives within limitations, and I've discovered countless ways to dress in clothes I feel pretty on while staying covered. In the process, I've questioned and rejected the notion that certain body parts need to be exposed in specific seasons or settings: full legs at the beach, arms in the summer. Why? In Barranquilla, we never wore shorts to college. We wore jeans and pants in 90-something-degree weather, and it was considered sexy. So, who says I can only wear cut-offs just because it's summer? If I don't want to show my legs, who says I have to?
Perhaps, yes, I would be better off embracing my arms; however, this is my version of body positivity and empowerment. Plus, I find it infinitely more fun (and easier) to get creative within my insecurities than to try and "love myself unconditionally at all times.”
SUNDAY AM
The power of a non-bifurcated closet that relies on antonyms is that you can be completely appropriate for Pilates and then head to the grocery store without looking like someone who just exercised
SUNDAY PM
MONDAY
I almost finished Dopamine Nation on my way to the beach. Upon my arrival, I decided to delete Instagram and was impressed by the number of mindless attempts I’ve made to re-download it. My logic is that I’m not addicted and that I shouldn’t deprive myself of something that gives me joy, as long as I am fulfilling all my responsibilities—feeding my kids, folding the clothes, etc. But rationalizing my behavior as harmless itself points towards an addiction. I have resorted to the limited willpower I have to abandon the thought of re-downloading and go to the news app instead. But perhaps what I need is to sit with my boredom—no anesthesia—and see what happens. When I was a kid, I would go to my closet and try on all my clothes.
TUESDAY
Does “cultural appropriation” need capitalism and the concept of “private property” to exist?
WEDNESDAY AM
Is the element of “cool” inherently within an item, or is it all about the meaning we assign to it? Is something objectively ugly, or is there something external that we absorb from culture that convinces us of an object's beauty or lack thereof?
I have been thinking about this forever. In 8th grade (1998), girls at school used to make fun of peachy-pink quinceañero dresses. Everyone thought they were cheesy and worn by girls with “poor taste.” Fast forward to 2015, and surprise, surprise—everyone is wearing that peachy shade of pink rebranded as “millennial pink.” Everyone loved it, including me and my private high school friends. Was there something wrong with millennial pink in 1998 that magically disappeared in 2015? Nothing inherently wrong with the color—only our perception of it, which was probably rooted in socioeconomic bias.
And I know—it’s very human to like, to dislike, to want to belong, or to stand out from a group. What I find fascinating are the people who can see through their biases and dismantle them when deciding what to wear. The rule-breakers. The ones who don’t care and look amazing in the process.
WEDNESDAY PM
THURSDAY
My brothers and their families will comeback home soon. And soon the girls will start 2nd and 3rd grade. Right before my husband and I celebrate 11 years married.
The thing about the ocean is that all life circumstances can be traced back to it. The deep, the shallow. The dark, the clear. The calm, the rough. The cyclical and the steady. The certain and the volatile. A constant, inexorable return. A fundamental metaphor. El vaivén.
Obsessed with your style!
LOVE all of these outfits! And I just love your writing. I’ve put the Tibi Calder sweatpants on my wishlist for after my 365 no buy thanks to your Substack 🥰