Painted Tortoise

Hurricanes, am I right?

What a snarling, stinking, sloppy mess Sandy was. We were hardly even affected—the power was out for two and a half days, and once my office reopened, getting into work was an expensive challenge—but count me as officially over it.

Let's think about happier things, like July, and Painted Tortoise. This is another Buenos Aires piece, and it possesses the much-appreciated quality of looking better on a body that's filled out a little from six months of eating lots of pizza and pasta (Argentine cuisine is not particularly veg-friendly) than a more slimmed-down body.

It's the wrap element: it emphasizes any hourglass tendencies you might have.

It's not a full wrap dress—I'm still agnostic on that question—but it's got just enough of that feel that I have to keep adjusting and retying throughout the day.

I love the full sleeves, though, and the collar. The collar makes Painted Tortoise feel almost businesslike to me, as if I could wear it to work, in a world where there were parameters on what I could wear to work.

The print is also a huge part of the appeal; I feel like a fabulous reptile in it. Like, let's say you had a pet tortoise, and you came home to find your seven-year-old had carefully painted in the entire shell with the surprisingly expensive nail polish you'd picked up at Sephora the day before.

Would you carry your pet around like a humiliated, world-weary accessory? Would you try to get its new scalage off with nail polish remover? Would you Instagram it with a Kelvin filter? Would you feel okay using the same brush and polish to paint your own nails?

By the way, all these places in these shots (taken over the summer) were pretty much underwater during/after Sandy.

It was kind of a big deal. For a lot of people, it's still going on. Donate to your charity of choice.



All photos by Michelle Derden Edwards!