Back to black

So two days ago was the boys' graduation at my school and I also decided to dress a little more fancy for that. Instead of going brightly colored, the way I had for the girls, I went for my more comfortable color palette: black.

I bought this dress at a store in Boston called The Hempest. It's 100% hemp and feels like a sort of scratchier linen. I got it right around my wedding two years ago and it's become a summer basic since then. I packed it to Greece last year and it was definitely a staple for any event: I could dress it up with shoes and jewelry [my baptism, my mother-in-law's name day, dinner out with friends] or dress it down for a hot, dusty day of walking around Athens. The only thing I don't like about the dress is the strap situation -- I like a slightly less fussy strap instead of the ties. They're never even and if I wear a sweater (the way I did for work, bien sûr), I feel as if the bows' bumps are very visible. I do love the neckline of the dress and the way it makes me feel slim and pretty. My husband, who can sometimes make amazing fashion analyses of my outfits, says that when I wear it over the summer, I look like a theatre actress on her day off.

Anyway, for the rest of the outfit, I just pulled on the bright red wedges and some matching carnelian jewelry and called it a day.

Because of wanting to fancy it up, I wore contacts both that day and the day before. I wear contacts so infrequently now that it was kind of a big deal for me, but go figure -- no one else noticed. When my husband and I first met in early 2006, I looked pretty different. I had very short, Mia Farrow-esque hair and never wore my glasses, only contacts. As you know, I only started wearing glasses regularly when I got my last pair in February of 2008. I sometimes felt as if I had tricked my husband by turning into a four-eyes who deviated a lot from the girl he met two years earlier. However, Thursday night, my husband -- who claims not to prefer contacts over glasses or vice versa: he just likes variety, he says -- complained that I'd been wearing contacts too much and that he missed my glasses. I'd like to point out that I wore contacts only twice this past week and once the week before, for his birthday. Before that, I hadn't worn any since late April. I'm glad that he said it, though. I'm starting to feel as if I look a little naked without my big Ray Bans now.

With that, I'm off -- bye!

Black dress: The Hempest, a hemp-oriented store in Boston
Red wedges: CL by Laundry, by way of DSW, remixed