The Hero Blazer

Outfit savior of an unexpectedly long and chilly trip

I owe one Tina Boetto big time. Thanks to this post, How to Style a Secondhand Blazer [Lots of] Ways, I grabbed my secondhand Tibi checked blazer and threw it on for what was meant to be a long weekend trip to Durham NC. I’d taken it along before and it fits in there while also being me.

(Side note—Durham: not the South but also a little the South, a little dressy but not a lot, get out the floral dresses and skirts which I don’t own, home to Vert y Vogue, one of my favorite multi-brand boutiques and very much a place where people think about what they’re wearing.)

I wore the blazer 7 times in 8 days—because the trip went longer than expected. I wadded it up and shoved it in tote bags, I wore it over dresses and sweatshirts and workout clothes and over the top of everything I had to load horses in a trailer at 5am.

I’m wearing it now, 4.5 hours into our 4th 6+ hour drive of the trip. And… it looks as good as if I just walked out of the dry cleaner.

Basically, gold star to the all wool oversized suiting blazer—and I’m actually not a blazer person in general, I only own 2 and the other is a silky tux style. Although I have been—I had a cropped one I wore constantly about 15 years ago. It’s even what I’m wearing in one of my NYT headshots from my Motherlode era.

It just has to be the RIGHT blazer. Yeah, I know, super helpful—but I think when you put it on, you know. And then you have to commit and wear the hell out of it, which, having it accidentally be the only jacket of any kind you have with you for 8 days will do for you. I cannot gift you with that kind of serendipity. But I can tell you…

Pack the blazer.

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Just here for the books? I’m loving a couple of advances right now: Whistler, which is the new Ann Patchett, and Salt Sisters by Lindsey Palmer. I haven’t made it all the way to the END of anything for a month, though. I keep either a) leaving a paper book behind to travel or b) deciding it’s not for me, which sometimes happens as much as half way through something if it takes a turn. (For example, I was reading a thriller that went from psychological manipulation to sexual manipulation recently… and it’s not what Inwas there for, so, poof. On to the next one.)

I have a delightful stack of library books waiting for me at the end of this road trip… which, with any luck, will be in about 3 hours. Which should I start with?