Legally Charming Style

IT'S ALMOST HALLOWEEN!! YAY!

I am so excited to show y'all my costume after my party on Friday night. I want to keep it a surprise, because I do love me a little mystery, but I'm so enthused I want to talk about costumes.

Long before I decided law school was my path, I was in theater, which meant I was in costume a good chunk of my life between the ages of 13-20. I don't think I have all of the pictures uploaded (darn for you), but here's a few samples of what I wore as a theater kid kicking around in the background of shows:









As you might have noticed, I was old a lot (this doesn't even include ANY of my photos from high school, where I was at a pretty much 1:1 ratio of young to old roles); even if I wasn't, I was in serious makeup. And after a while, I got kind of sick of it. The kid who kept a huge dress-up box was tired of costumes. I don't remember dressing up in high school for Halloween (maybe once?), and I was pretty nonchalant about the whole thing for a few years after. I did some DIY costumes over three years, and I usually only went to one party every year, which was whichever one my roommate would drag me to. I think in my bachelor's program I attended two parties in one year one time, which was a church party and a party I am pretty sure I was unhappy about being DD for at the time.

"Kiss the Girl" Ariel

The lazy cat costume...

Lady of the 80's

But after school ended, and it kind of became clear that the party was ending, all of a sudden I was clamoring to DRESS UP and GO TO MORE PARTIES. I have no doubt this was the "you don't know what you have until it's gone" disease, but I wanted to engage in tomfoolery, and eat lots of candy while not wearing work clothes. I started going to Renaissance Fairs and keeping a costume box, which currently holds Ren Fair skirts and dresses, corsets, ears of varying types, wings...

Like last year, for instance. After a LOT of hard work, I wanted to go out and just have a good time with my friends. I got invitations to two parties and also went out with my roommate at the time, so I did THREE costumes--which is now a record for me in one Halloween (if only I knew where the vampire costume photo was at to show y'all...). Anyone want to invite me out this weekend a bunch of times so I can wear FOUR costumes (trust me, I actually have materials to do so)?

So long in short--I love Halloween. I love costumes. Dressing up is the bomb.com, and I wish I had more reasons to do it than once a year. So if you ever get the itch to host a costume party...don't forget to invite this VERY enthusiastic guest.

Referee

Jessica Rabbit :)

 xoxo

Carisa

Hello hello!

So last Friday I mentioned I had spent the whole week running kind of running helter-skelter from one place to the next (sort of like a well-dressed chicken with its head cut off). But Friday finally showed up, and it was the light at the end of the tunnel. A...bright spot, if you will. ;) I only had one class and then I would be FREE. It was a magical miracle. And to celebrate, I decided to throw on my brightest colors, wear flats, take some photos out in the sunlight, and do some solo thrift shopping for my Halloween costume (which you'll see sometime next week, I promise).

In short, it was the kind of day that I needed after a long week to recharge the emotional batteries so I can keep moving forward and doing my future-badass-lady-lawyer thing.





xoxo

Carisa

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

So unfortunately, there isn't a "pin-spired" post this week because the day I wore what I was going to post about (Tuesday) was super freakin' crazy and I didn't have five minutes to stop and take a picture of what I was wearing. I only wish I was kidding about that. This week has been like that pretty much the whole time-run from one place to another and work on this project and go to this meeting and this class and so on, and so forth, and yadda yadda yadda, I'm a 2L now, I should be used to it! 

The one day I have gotten pictures thus far this week was Wednesday. I'm glad I did, too-it was the perfect example of my on-the-run business casual style. It was also, quite impressively, put together in less than five minutes. I got this Calvin Klein dress recently at Goodwill, and I figured that since I love my black tee shirt dress so much, this one would become a new favorite. (And of course, I was right.) Paired with a blazer, a bright scarf to make me look less tired, and boots, I was ready to run from work to pre-registration clinic meeting to printing research to international law course roundtable to professor meeting to getting class reading done for Thursday without breaking a sweat over my outfit.

I wish I could say I was done, but the weekend is bound to be just as busy. But the good news about that is that at least I have things to do, and I'm making connections all over the Maryland map! (And I get to do some baking on Sunday!!)

I hope you guys have a GREAT weekend!

Did you get scared just reading that?!

Five or six years ago, I would have been terrified. I did NOT do mini-skirts, or mini-dresses, or anything too short. It was a negative, a big no, just not going to happen. I feel like there's this negative perception about people who wear them, and that's a problem. It's time we fought back against that patriarchal society that tells us bad things will happen if we show off our gams. Because me? I like my legs just the way they are, and I want the world to see them.

I've noticed that I throw around the word "casual" a lot on this blog. As a matter of fact, it might be suffering from overuse...maybe I should consult a thesaurus? (Has law school robbed me of my vocabulary? Probably.) I also overuse easy-going, too...but that's for another blog.

I think I like the word so much because I like to live my life in as carefree a manner as possible, and that reflects to my wardrobe. Really, truthfully, I like looking like it took a shit-ton of effort to get dressed without actually having put in a shit-ton of effort to get dressed. I'm not a formal person in much of anything other than legal writing, where it's required (and even then I like to sneak in a little levity and snark).

I live by the thought that getting dressed shouldn't be difficult; it should be as easy-breezy as humanly possible, because I place more priority towards things like sleep and food and friends and academic success. I love clothes, don't get me wrong. I love getting dressed. But seriously, does anyone want to stand in front of their closet for two hours trying to figure out what to wear?

Take for example this outfit. I decided I wanted to wear the shirt. Red and black gingham is perfect for fall. Then I put on jeans. But it looked so boring. So the easiest way to make it less boring? Toss on a patterned coat, bright shoes, and a mini arm party of bracelets. DONE. Ready for class on Friday.

My best advice for your wardrobe? Don't think TOO hard. You have better things to do.











xoxo

Carisa

Monday, why do you always come back so soon? The weekend and I were just getting to know each other a little better.

It's the end of the week. You're tired. You want something stronger to drink than a coffee, and you have no damn clue what you're going to wear to get through that final workday...