Built by Wendy blouse, old Gap shorts, Campers sandals
Normally I really don’t like shorts. I think there was a stretch between age 18 and age 25 where I almost avoided wearing them entirely, though I’ll have to verify by looking at old photos. I usually skip over shorts for skirts and dresses, but when the thermometer rises above 80 degrees sometimes putting on the slightest sundress seems like the biggest effort. I crave simplicity and an outfit I don’t have to pause to consider, plus something that’s cool and functional. Enter shorts. I really hesitated to wear shorts to work, but decided I could dress them up with some heels or classy oxfords and a structural blouse or a white, slouchy, eyelet blazer. This blazer was my one concession to the summer trends, and I ordered it online from Built by Wendy. On sale, naturally. One thing that guarantees dressing up a simple summer outfit is red lipstick. J. (who graciously took these iPhone photos at work) said, “Hey, it’s cool, you’re not casual, you’re wearing lipstick.”
Built by Wendy slouchy eyelet blazer, Brooklyn Industries shorts, Vintage Eitenne Aigner oxfords
Where I really feel self conscious about shorts, however, is short shorts. When you have curves short shorts can be less than flattering. Sometimes they just make me look a whole lot wider. No one needs to see that part of my body like that, okay? But you know what, it was hot last Sunday and I was biking to Williamsburg for my weekly writing date so I thought I’d take a chance on these blue striped shorts I got from Built by Wendy (also on sale, see a pattern?). You know, it worked. Would I wear these to work? No, but I’ll feel comfortable rocking them at the cafe, the beach, the barbeque and in the park for the rest of the summer.
Petit Bateau t-shirt, Built by Wendy shorts, Sunglasses purchased and photo taken at In God We Trust in Greenpoint, Brooklyn using Instagram
Killerfemme 
Eleanor, you look great!!! I can totally relate to this — this is the first year I’ve been comfortable wearing shorts in, um, I don’t know how long. I have a pair of snug, kind-of long cutoff shorts from the Gap that I would wear every day if I could, and two pairs that are shorter (one jeans, one nicer black pair that are dress pants material). I’m totally anti-pants in the summer, so it’s nice to have a non-pants option besides skirts and dresses (especially for biking)!
Thanks, Laura! That is so sweet of you. Though I try to rock biking in a skirt or dress, it sometimes just does not work! I also have a pair of cut off shorts and I love them. I can’t believe I feel comfortable wearing them. It’s a good thing, eh? Thanks for your support!
I like these a lot! And good for your for your short shorts! Woot! I did the blazer and oxfords with the short look. Way cute.
I am not having a good shorts summer. I am more out of shape than I have ever been and I’m carrying it all in my thighs! I hate to be all body-policing on myself but it’s such a change that I have refused to wear my short shorts this year! Which has proved an issue with biking. Now I have a pair of longer cut-off denim short and basically…really short skirts. I need to get longer skirts to bridge the gap. My professionalism will thank me for that, at least.
Oh, btw. The aux police unit you guys now have was what they had stationed by us on 18th and 5th post-rapes…until the night after we had our CB7 safety committee mtg, where they pledged continuous police presence. The day after the meeting they moved it down by you guys – surprise! No more cops near us any longer.
The cops who were stationed in our neighborhood barely spoke to any of the women walking around, save the 1 flyering day, where they proceeded to miss quite a few women anyway. They were so “engaged” in our community the whole time the cops were placed there that when an attendee at the mtg referenced the flyers I hung with other women re rape incident awareness, the cops told everyone that they had posted them until I corrected them. (Uh, and also why was it so hard for them to figure out that more people see flyers if you post them? Or send them out to community email groups? Way to go, dudes. Also they argued with me and told me I must be in the minority of women they didn’t speak to until 2 other women who attended piped up and said no one had spoken to them either. And frankly, I told them while posting the flyers, women walked up to us and thanked us because they hadn’t heard about any of the incidences before. So, they didn’t do nearly as good a job as they thought.) When we explained what our flyers were, they had not seen them despite 60 flyers still being up on 4th Ave between the 25th/Prospect subway stops with some on 5th Ave for over 4 days at that point. Since the mtg chair thought it was a great idea, the cops asked for a copy during the meeting and then not one of the cops/community liaison cops spoke with me post-mtg. The “update” also included a lot of what women could do about rape, instead of speaking as a community response. (Again, thanks!)
I’m glad they’re at least trying to be proactive with your area. They have been pretty lax with ours and barely seemed open or proactive about ideas to improve the things we brought up — the board chair had to ask them to use the community list servs to get the word out because they weren’t even going to volunteer to do *that* simple thing.
Thanks, Jesse Anne! I really appreciate you sharing such important information about what’s happening in our community and for standing up and educating and informing your neighbors and standing up to the police! It’s so random and scary what’s happening, but the best we can do is organize and speak out. I really get mad at the cops a lot. I want to say, “Hey, you work for me, I pay your salary with my taxes, okay? Serve and protect!” but we all know it doesn’t work like that. I’m still blown away, however, that the community affairs officer of the 72nd Precinct called me back after I made a noise complain about the mobile unit. I really felt like this was amazing responsiveness of local government! That man should be given a huge promotion. If only all were like him…