these blue socks are the only thing i like about my winter outfits

friends who don't mind when you copy them >

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Hi. How are you? How is winter treating you?

It feels like I’m not doing anything noteworthy or interesting enough to share. Laundry. Groceries. Clipping my nails. Picking at my eczema flakes and watching them float to the ground. A dermis blizzard for the dust mites. I just took a hot shower and put on old faded Clare V. sweatpants with the eyes graphic on the thigh and old blood stains on the back. Before my shower I yanked out barrettes a bit too violently so a patch of hair came out with it. I’m also trying to work out a knot in my neck with one of those gooseneck massage kneading canes, wondering if my flesh, under the skin, looks like the gelatinous beef tendon in my pho from earlier. Winter makes me acutely aware of my animalism.

the writers meetup. shot with low exposure to imply mystique and coziness etc

I’m so bored of my winter outfits. Yesterday was the local Substack Writer’s Meetup I hosted and I wanted to put effort into my outfit, you know? I changed countless times before covering my outfit with a long coat and sweater-scarf which hid whatever I was wearing underneath. And I packed my chunky reading glasses in my purse meaning to wear them as a semi-ironic Joan Didion cosplay, only to forget about them the whole evening. I wish I had outfit photos from the night but I didn’t feel like taking them. My body doesn’t want to do the work of being photographed.

Honestly—the only thing that’s brought a semblance of novelty and inspiration for my sartorial spirit is a pair of electric blue socks. Ethaney was helping me film a video project this weekend in San Francisco and we left the store with matching pairs. She saw them first and noticed they were a “pretty shade of blue.” I get very influenced by her fashion opinions and am grateful she is not annoyed that I copy her. We both wore them to the writer’s meetup the next day.

If you want this shade of blue socks you can find them at Le Bon Shoppe. Of course, buying a pair of socks isn’t going to heal seasonal depression or solve any real life problems. But I find myself laying low in winter and I like the zap of blue when I look down.

There’s something really endearing about shoegaze photos (really just a fancy word for feet pics):

They don’t show the whole outfit, just two appendages with personalities of their own. I examine these feet pics on my phone. I zoom in and think about my feet are angled, what it says about my mood and body language in that moment, how they look sitting in a car vs. standing gingerly in the cold. Feet are just as emotive as hands.

<3

viv