The Dressed Aesthetic

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{Review} Shakespeare’s Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing

{Review} Shakespeare's Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing - The Dressed Aesthetic

I was a full-on theatre girl growing up (and why am I speaking in the past tense? I still am VERY much a theatre girl now). But, while these days my world is full of schedules and students and all of the science, I spent so much of my teen years and early 20’s on a stage. There is still something about the smell of a costume closet, or fresh paint and plywood, or the whooshing sound of a heavy velvet curtain that brings me right back. As strange as it may seem, I really found myself in the act…

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{Sewing} Kara in Paris

{Sewing} Kara in Paris - The Dressed Aesthetic

If you’ve been following for awhile, you know I tend to avoid things that are trending. Usually if something appears on a tv show (hello Carrie Bradshaw blue wedding heels) or is on every Influencer (ie, whatever the new It Girl handbag is), I avoid it like the plague. Perhaps it’s some form of reverse snobbery, but I definitely have an aversion to anything even slightly approaching popular, so deep is my commitment to an original style.

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Staycation Mode

Staycation Mode - The Dressed Aesthetic (Kitty Joseph Chroma Skirt)

I know what you’re thinking: “What?? An actual blog post?!?” Needless to say, it’s been more than a little quiet around here. So, why am I gracing these cyber pages with a splash of color, you ask? (or didn’t ask. But I have the microphone so….) Because I am officially on Spring Break! When you’re a professor, this doesn’t mean you and your 20 closest friends piling into a clown car headed for Daytona Beach. But it does mean time to breathe, time to sew, time to write a bit. A time where the endless demands blessedly cease and the…

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Something New

Pleated Paradise - The Dressed Aesthetic

Some fabrics are just destined to be pleated. It’s almost as if the print is one thing on its own, but she takes off her glasses and shakes out her pony tail, and becomes something entirely new once she’s pleated. I’ve decided to look at 2024 the same way. You might think it’s yet another year, but just fold and crease and press a bit, and it could turn into something unexpected.

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{Sewing} Checking You Out

{Sewing} Checking You Out - The Dressed Aesthetic (Gertie Landis Bodice)

There is no rhyme or reason for it, but I have been ALL about the separates lately. Not that making skirts is necessarily a new thing for me, but I’ve been completely enamored with making skirts and a matching top that can masquerade as a dress, but can also be split to mix and match to my heart’s content. With time at a premium these days, I am all for tricks that make my wardrobe serve double duty…

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Girl on Fire

Girl on Fire - The Dressed Aesthetic

I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way, but I swear summer days move more quickly than winter days. And I don’t just mean in a daylight savings type of way, but more a blink-and-you-miss-it-because-summer-is-much-more-fun type of way. Summer afternoons zip happily by in a fiery swirl of lazy cocktails, BBQs, and travel, without a care in the world. On the other hand, winter days crawl forward inch by frozen inch, reaching for a tomorrow that always feels just out of reach.

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{Sewing} In the Absence:
Roberts | Wood Bow Patchwork Dress

{Sewing} In the Absence : Roberts | Wood Bow Patchwork Dress - The Dressed Aesthetic

My eyes are definitely always on the lookout for color. I feel most people’s wardrobes are full of basics – the perfect black pant. The simple nude pump. Mine is overflowing with the exact opposite: the statement shoe. The print you can see from space. Call it years of being a wallflower or someone who struggled with confidence for a long time, but I hit a point after college and grad school where I was ready to be seen.

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Hello Spring

Hello Spring - The Dressed Aesthetic

There is no season I welcome more than Spring. I love the scent of azaleas and honeysuckle that hits me when I step out of the house. I am here for the sunshine that starts to peek through and hang around until early evening. But, most of all (and I know my fellow educators can relate), I’m pretty sure I wait for Spring with baited breath for the simple fact that I can see the light at the end of a very long semester…

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