How I wore it: too bad, so sad

Yesterday I took the day "off." I didn't go to the gym, I didn't work on my dissertation - I just spent time with my home-returned husband. Since he has crazy jet lag and has Tuesdays off, there was a lot of napping involved on his end. However, we did go out to run some errands and I decided to dress up for the fact. I had long been thinking about how to transition my striped maxi dress into the fall; since the dress is long and not particularly summer-themed, I thought it would be a cinch. I imagined cardigans and boots (shock!) and I decided to try it out as early as yesterday. Most of the time my boots (since I go for slouchy) look terrible with ankle/floor-length hems, as it creates an ugly, chunky line for the eye, but I've discovered that, with narrow enough boots, the look is much cooler. So, of course, I chose my Greek boots! I also decided to enter the world of belting...well, enough hesitating - here it is:

I. Loved. This look. I felt slim, elegant, fashion-forward, and - with my long dress and my tall hair - surprisingly regal. When I went into my husband's office to announce that I was ready and that I had done some new things with my look, he cringed at me. He fucking winced. He hated my outfit. This is how I felt about it:

But I did not change. When we left the house, I made a disparaging remark about how he didn't like my outfit, to which he replied, "Nope. Not at all." Which, of course, led to a discussion about how he was free to have and state his opinions, but he could do it in a slightly nicer way. The only aspect he liked about the outfit is how the dress went with the jewelry (the set he bought me for my name day); ironically, that's the only part of the outfit that I didn't like, as I didn't think the jewelry went well with the  tobacco-colored leather belt and boots. His argument was that nothing "went." Let me start off by saying that Greeks (or, at least, my husband's immediate family) are obsessed with matching things. Since I love being all matchy-matchy with my jewelry (and yesterday I did match my belt, boots, and bag to each other - Tom and Lorenzo would HATE me!), usually this doesn't affect me, but the fact that his eye didn't register the deliberate anomalies and pairings of my outfit in a positive way, well, that was perplexing.

I have to admit that I was stymied by my husband's animosity toward my outfit. He's usually so into my clothes (he's the one that suggested I start a blog) and he has such a good eye that I thought that I must look awful if he hated my outfit. I almost, after our "discussion," went back into the apartment to change, but then realized that it was highly unlikely that a resident of Cambridge would yell "Hey, lady! Your outfit sucks!" on the streets to me. And, indeed, it didn't happen. I just told him that his sneakers were stupid (ahh, young love) and went on with the errands and walk, where my only enemies were the weather. At first, walking in a shady park and once it started pouring, I was glad for the extra layer that the cardigan provided (although worried about my beloved boots); however, once the rain stopped and we trudged back to our home lugging many groceries and 28 pounds of cat litter, I was a little warm.

Whatever. Y'all don't know the adversaries I had to face for fashion yesterday. You just don't know.

In other news, I'm in a really good mood right now despite yesterday's hardships: it's my dad's birthday, I made some delicious almond-pear bread (yes, I know!), and three books that I ordered on Saturday arrived this morning: Patrick Olivelle's translations of the Dharmasutras and the law code of Manu, as well as Barbara Stoler Miller's translation of Bhartrhari's Satakatraya! Remember when I told you guys I was a Sanskritist? Yeah, I wasn't lying.

Well, I'm off to geek out! What are your plans for the day?

Black cardigan: Ann Taylor Loft, remixed
Belt: Urban Outfitters
Striped maxi dress: Gap, remixed
Boots: a store on Ermou Street, Athens, remixed
Necklace and earrings: gift from my husband from Sparta, remixed