Abrooching Another World’s Accessories

When I penned that story, Do You Really Want to Dress Like a Bowl of Lucky Charms?, I renounced the pastel-pink-padded days of yore and lime green details and purple knee pads.

It was October, fall and winter were still but a mere drop in the bucket of novelty and frankly speaking, I just wanted to wear black.

Black and navy and charcoal grey and maybe once the liquid in the aforementioned bucket reached its brim, I’d have been okay with white and ivory.

I felt like an inflated version of a spokesperson for The Row plus or minus a few thousand dollars worth of thread count and that made me feel cool, which, of course, is exactly what it always boils down to: coolness.

But I think I’m ready. For those lucky charms that is.

This isn’t to say I’m looking to jump back on an electric bandwagon that could potentially re-render me a neon sheep of Fashion Week. But I don’t want to look so plain. Maybe I should say normal — I don’t want to look so normal. And a good way to combat that kind of monochromatic malaise, I think, is to place a greater emphasis not really on reacquainting my wardrobe with rollicking color but rather, on accessories. And where bib-style necklaces will fail — and trust me now, they will — or an arm full of bangles might present a grave fate for your sweaters, you know what won’t?

A brooch.

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A brooch!

Why has it taken this long for this totem of old world glamour to seep its way into our unapologetically informal lifestyle? We’ve brought everything else back from the dead — hair flips, red lips, art-deco style pearls. And for a people who have proven themselves masters of the disconnect (in fashion, Birkenstocks are best served with silk slip dresses, am I right?), why haven’t we resolved to pin things to our sweatshirts? Or to the pockets on our jean jackets?

You know, I bought a small linen table cloth decorated by embroidered daisies when I was in Croatia last month. I figured I would wear it as a sarong but when I realized my hips were too wide for it to be tied around my body, I took to Etsy, found a brooch and boom shaka laka: problem solved. So consider this a call to action — let’s solve all our problems.

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