Change and Predictability

Draft:

Composition:
black wool sweater (Loft)
grey trousers (Gap)
black patent heels (Nine West)
stud earrings, my latest favorites (Juicy Couture)
chain and fabric necklace (Icing)  -- Yes, it's shedding on my collar! It's definitively not high quality.
nail color (OPI "You Don't Know Jacques!")

Usage:
In response to Liz's complimentary post about my supposed ability to "manage uncertainty," today I'm sharing one of my most predictable ensembles.  Why?  Because, now that I'm spending more time in the classroom, I'm learning why experienced teachers like Liz prefer the manageable expectations of simple, go-to outfits.  For the first time, I get it.  Sartorial predictability is comforting when daily dynamics entail enough fluctuating factors.

Wearing this uncomplicated look took my mind off the clothes, allowing me to focus on instructing.  It didn't require the perpetual readjusting of layered garments, and it didn't necessitate the tugging on shorter hemlines or lower necklines.  The minimal jewelry and monochrome palette were less distracting for both me and, hopefully, for my students.  Which makes me think: there might be ways in which sartorial choices can detract from our abilities.  (Ah ha! An epiphany!  Don't laugh, I'm slow on the uptake.)  Sartorial boldness doesn't always allow for professional and intellectual boldness, that is.

Normally I subscribe to the opposite view.  I think, if I challenge myself intellectually, pushing myself to read new literature and entertain bold ideas, then why not also challenge myself sartorially?  Especially since, as this blog and your own attest, we consider issues of aesthetics an important component of education.  In the world of the mind, we like trying on new thoughts, and we welcome encounters with the uncomfortable.  Evolutions of knowledge and opinion are generally good things; they often indicate growth.  So it follows that we would consider personal style evolutions good things too; they can also indicate growth.

Cutting and dyeing my hair or pairing seemingly incongruous garments -- both enable experimentation with new articulations of myself.  Even if I don't adhere to them permanently or even long-term (as in the case of my cinnamon hair hue, which is merely a demi-permanent dye, I should tell you), at least I can test the waters.  How did Aristotle put it?  "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."  Perhaps it's the same with sartorial choices: dabbling in a hairstyle, or a print, or a bright color, without necessarily permanently accepting it into our self-concepts, is productive if only because the courageous choice allows us to think anew about the social spaces we occupy.  It's a worthwhile initiative, I'd say, to challenge ourselves aesthetically.  That's why I quite like blogging alongside you guys, and why I welcome the occasional dramatic hair transformation.

For now, as long as my substitute teaching endeavor lasts, I'll be entertaining choices on Liz's side of the style fence.  I have quite a bit to learn about, as she says, "preparing, preparing, anticipating, and preparing."  For me, resisting spontaneity will be a grand -- and worthwhile -- sartorial adventure.

Prompts:

•  How do you "prepare, prepare, anticipate, and prepare" sartorially?  I have no idea what I'm doing, so I'd welcome your strategies.  I've begun laying out ensembles the night before work -- does this count?
•   Liz asked this question yesterday, and I think it's a good one: how do you get yourself out of a rut?  How do you challenge your patterns of style?