An Introduction

Hello Cohabitating Closet readers!  I'm Susan's friend and (finally) co-contributor, Anne.  Before I get to the fashion blogging, I wanted to introduce myself.  Where to start, where to start. I'm a cohabitator in Chicago, but I'm very lucky to not have to share my closet.  It's not that I wouldn't, but my boyfriend's old apartment didn't have a closet, so he bought himself a fancy IKEA wardrobe.  The wardrobe moved in with us, leaving me with my very own closet.

I guess I dress nice most of the time, but I wouldn't consider myself all that fashionable or trendy. Until I started reading the Cohabitating Closet, I had never even heard of such a thing as a fashion blog.  Anything I might know about fashion comes from watching things like What Not to Wear flipping through the occasional fashion magazine (I really like Marie Claire's recent addition of Big Girl in the Skinny World) and lots and lots of people-watching here in Chicago.  Rather than budget constraints, my biggest fashion challenge is finding ways to translate fashions into something that looks good on my somewhat plus-size frame.  I'm attempting to lose it, but that's slow-going the older I get, and I've realized that I need to really embrace the way I look and dress how I want now, rather than totally giving up until I get to be my ideal size.  I know a lot of women in my position tend to cover up and even think they can't be fashionable unless they drop like 20 pounds, but we can.  I think this is a lot of why I started really getting into clothes and shopping.  I mean sure, style is a way to express myself, but, if done right, it's also a way to camouflage the things I don't like about my body while accentuating the things that I do like.

this is probably my most stylish

I've been wanting to post for a little while now, but it feels silly to draw attention to what I'm wearing, much less dissect and discuss it, so I'm getting used to that idea.  Also, I only work in my office a few days a week, so the rest of the time I'm in sweats or pajamas.  My office has a pretty lax dress code - it's "casual," so most people wear jeans all the time.  Personally, I still like to dress up for work.  I've got a work wardrobe down, but I'm not so good with casual stuff.  So maybe this is a good opportunity for me to figure that out.

Clothes aside, I love accessories!  I guess because they always fit, but they're also just so much fun! :)

I'm loving long necklaces, even though I got on board with them a few years too late

It's important to match your surroundings (okay, not really, I just love this scarf)

I love some big earrings