I have a silhouette.

That sounds sort of fashionista-y and maybe a little obnoxious, but it's true: there is a shape that I like my clothing to be, and so that's what I wear. Pretty much all the time, to the near-total exclusion of other silhouettes. It consists of a slouchy top half and a basically nonexistent or very slim-fitting bottom half, and for whatever reason it's how I feel physically comfortable and most like myself.

Like that plaid dress up there, which is actually a shirt (but we won't talk about that): loose up top, nonexistent down below, and there you go: happy me.

You know that piece hanging around your closet that's completely fabulous, and that you never, ever wear because you can't figure out for the life of you how to wear it? And even if you did…you have nowhere to wear it to?

For me, that's these leather pants. I mean, they're skintight. And high-waisted. And BLUE. All of these qualities make them not exactly the kind of thing I reach for on your average Tuesday. But since I haven't been getting out much lately (newborn, et cetera), I've been taking every chance I have to actually get dressed to really get dressed. The kind of "get dressed" that just may involve skintight, high-waisted, blue leather pants.

And something else I've learned about those weird pieces that feel unwearable: you have to just wear them. Just put them on, acknowledge that you might get a few stares, and get over it. I wasn't sure quite what to wear with these pants…but then I came across a leotard in my drawer that I think last saw the light of day when I was in high school, and thought "Hmm. That's a little Olivia Newton John-y.

The usual.

I spent the past couple of afternoons in Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall, helping Kipling celebrate the launch of their new Always On Collection. I carried a Kipling backpack all through high school - I have vivid memories of playing with the little monkey that hung off the side during class - and the new collection is a chic (but affordable) take on the classic, go-everywhere styles the brand is known for. Think burgundy with structured top handles; autumn-perfect plaids in sporty shapes; leopard and houndstooth accents.

There are some things that are wardrobe staples - pieces that you wear over and over and over again that go with everything. Those distressed black jeans, for example? The wear-everywhere black tote? Staples.

And then there are other things that aren't "practical," per se…but that are just too amazing to pass up. Like…I don't know: a huge, cozy sweater with an enormous faux fur hood. Cream-colored tops aren't what I usually pick these days largely because I'm usually carrying one or two human beings with a tendency to emit various substances onto my person, and I try to steer clear of dry-clean-only items, but...

But...

Before I start, let me say that this is not an outfit that I wore in my "real" life, as it were - it's what I put together to wear to the Renaissance Faire last weekend. I started out in this crazy long robe-ish thing, and then realized that wearing what amounts to a cream-colored ball gown to cavort around in a big, dusty field full of people waving swords and goblets of beer and CAMELS, for god's sake, is a fairly obvious disaster waiting to happen...and decided that flowers and a leather headband and a whole bunch of jangly jewelry were Renaissance Faire-y enough to make me feel like I was participating without heading into the wildly-uncomfortable-seeming territory of corsets and full skirts and such.

So this isn't exactly an outfit; it's more of a "costume."

But maybe…it shouldn't be? I mean, it doesn't look too far away from what I wear on any old day…and I felt so good in this. Comfortable and happy and free. And also sort of like a Robin Wright's character in Forrest Gump, which is never a bad thing.