French Quarter | New Orleans
Joie Top (similar) | Vintage Velvet Pants (similar) | Gucci Sunnies | Gucci Bag
I talk a lot lately about how I’m over getting dressed up, how I never want to wear heels again, how I feel best in a t-shirt and shorts. All this is true. But for our New Orleans trip, I thought it’d be fun to bring a bunch of pieces that sit all forlorn and unworn in my closet for months (or years) on end because there is virtually nowhere that I go in my normal life where I can wear them. New Orleans has always seemed to me like the kind of city that lets you do and be and wear anything you want, so for a few days I thought I’d just…play.
I had forgotten how much fun it is to play. I got dressed up every single night that we were in the city. I matched my bags to my outfits, experimented with my makeup, put actual thought into what I was doing with my hair. And? I loved it. It’s not something I’m especially interested in doing on a day to day basis, but once in awhile? FUN.
P.S. This particular outfit includes a top that for whatever reason I never wear because whenever I put it on it suddenly feels too elegant for me, and my mom’s old velvet pants that I also rarely wear for exactly the same reason. This look is relatively dressy – or at least relatively dressy for me – and yet I wore it to go to the least dressy place we went the entire trip (other than, okay, the swamp. That was extremely un-dressy). We went to a place called Drago’s for oysters on our friend’s recommendation (and because it was a block from our hotel and our children were capital-D Done for the day), and it ended up being sort of a cafeteria-style oyster-delivery service. Truly excellent charbroiled oysters drenched in butter and garlic (as they should be) for an extremely reasonable price…but velvet-and-lace-requiring? Ehhh not really.
P.P.S. It’s always kind of fun to be the most dressed-up person in the place.
P.P.P.S. We also took a very scenic post-dinner stroll down the riverbank that felt like the perfect place to swan around in velvet pants (and have a jumping session with my son).
P.P.P.P.S. Totally wearing this outfit to Kendrick’s next holiday party so as to skip the whole last-minute-mad-dash-through-Zara thing.
This trip was a collaboration with New Orleans Tourism.
