An outfit to walk to the zoo

On a recent weekend, Mel and I had a couple of errands to run in one of the neighborhoods in which I grew up. We weren’t really planning to take any photos but as it happened we had along a little point-and-shoot camera. While my nicer DSLR takes much better photos, sometimes it’s either take quick snapshots or nothing. And since we’ve gotten pretty lax about taking a camera (mainly because I often don’t feel like lugging around the big one), we’ve been trying to take a little camera around a bit more often. So you get a few outfit photos on the end of this holiday weekend!

Outside winter outfit photos, I may add, and in fact it’s entirely just my outwear that you’re seeing. First with a giant ice cream cone no less, outside Margie’s Candies as we waited for the bus.

Sometimes winter is based more on outerwear anyway, isn’t it? You focus more on what you’re wearing on the outside than the inside, depending on your activities for the day. I was wearing a perfectly fine cardigan and dress combo underneath, but on this day it was all about my outerwear. I didn’t have any particular plans to go hog wild with the color blocking at first, but it just came together that way. I feel like color blocking is very “of the moment” but of course, I do it with my own vintage spin on things.

I went with yellow for my coat and purse, and then paired it with light blue knitwear (I knit the hat pre-blog, and the shawlette was knit as a gift from my mom), except for my yellow knit lace gloves. I topped it off with vintage confetti lucite earrings and a vintage brooch in similar hues. When the weather starts turning dreary, sparkly accessories always help cheer me up. I can’t recall where either of these came from they’ve been with me so long, but I adore them. And when I start to pile on the layers, I focus less on bracelets and necklaces (I find them more annoying to compete with necklines and sleeve lengths) and more on earrings and brooches.

We initially had plans to visit the Chicago History Museum that day after our errands, but felt we might be a bit pressed for time at that point, so we just opted to take a long stroll to the Lincoln Park Zoo instead. On the way we passed by my high school, so we walked around the grounds for a few moments and I sent my mom the below photo with the caption, “I’m late for class!”

Oh and in case you’re wondering why my hair is straight, I’d just had the color re-done the day before, so my stylist had blow dryed it. I definitely don’t love this shade as much as the previous one, so next time I’ll tell her to add in more ginger orange tones again (the beauty of dyed hair: choices). While I know a lot of people tend to go a bit darker in winter, this is obviously not first and foremost on my mind in terms of… pretty much anything.

Winter can be nasty in many ways. No reason not to be bold and thumb your nose up to it.

The Lincoln Park Zoo is a free zoo that’s open year-round, though in colder months you don’t see as many animals outside, of course. We just wondered around some of the grounds and didn’t go into any of the buildings, but we still got to see a few animals like flamingos and seals. If you’re bundled up, it’s a lovely place to take a brisk walk when it’s chilly. And if you’re me, apparently make goofy faces.

And take bad photo booth pictures.

The day was a nice reminder that even in early winter, it’s nice to get outside when possible! I can’t promise that in 5 weeks I won’t want to only be holed up in all the clothing I own, drinking warm beverages under a blanket, but for now, I’m trying to enjoy winter when we can!

outfit details

coat: Boden Lottie coat (got it on big sale, woo)
beret: knit by me (pre blog; pattern is Rose Red by Ysolda)
1950s lace gloves: knit by me
shawl: knit by my mom
1950s brooch: misc.
1950s confetti lucite earrings: misc.
purse: Coach
boots: courtesy of Sven Clogs