Reflections on Planning Outfits and Documenting Creativity

You’re listening to Burnt Toast!

We are Virginia Sole-Smith, Corinne Fay and Dacy Gillespie, and it’s time to wrap up the #UnflatteringToast Style Challenge!

ICYMI: Dacy is an anti-diet, weight-inclusive personal stylist, who also writes

unflattering

. She helps clients examine the fashion rules they’ve been told to follow and unpack the origins of those messages, to let them go. She also helps folks find their style, edit their wardrobes, and shop mindfully. You can catch our first conversation about the Style Challenge here.

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Rule breaking ftw!

Episode 142 Transcript

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Week 1: Break The Rules

Corinne

So we’ve spent a lot of time over the past few weeks texting in a group chat about our outfits and our general ups and downs. And now you can join us.

Virginia

It’s like a text thread made live with voices. 

Dacy

Let’s jump in and start with week one. This is where we were all thinking of style rules that we could break. I have to say, some of y’all had some weird ones. Mostly Virginia. Just kidding. No, I definitely had weird ones, too. 

Virginia

I’m still not thoroughly over the Birkenstocks and skinny jeans rule. I mean, I broke it, but I think it’s still a rule for me. I was affirmed by—I’m not going to say an overwhelming number of people agreeing with that. But I think I heard from three people who were like, “I also have that rule.” It’s not just me.

Dacy

To clarify, the rule is Birkenstocks are too clunky of a sandal to put with a skinny pant?

Virginia

If the skinny jean covers your ankle. 

Dacy

So if it’s cropped, it’s okay. I didn’t know this aspect. 

Corinne

It’s very specific. 

Virginia

Well, that was the big rule I broke. 

Corinne

The place that I’m wanting to start is how actually hard it was to get dressed the first day. I had a pile of discarded clothes that I still haven’t fully put away. Because I wasn’t just picking up the clothes off the chair that I wore yesterday, I was trying to find stuff that felt like it was stretching my capacity.

I think I’m more comfortable wearing a fancier shirt with basic pants. So it felt like it ended up being some fancier pants with more comfortable shirts. Also I wanted to try wearing a dress and I kind of failed and also was like, “If I were going to wear a dress, it wouldn’t be one of these ones that I have in my closet, which I do not like.”

Dacy

Good to know. 

Virginia

That’s good intel to gather. Because you’ve been buying dresses that you actually don’t want to wear at all. 

Corinne

Well, a lot of them are from pre-pandemic life that I just haven’t gotten rid of. I was like, maybe I can like, style these? And then I was like, no. I can’t and I don’t want to.

Virginia

You also did the mesh shirt that week. 

Dacy

Which everyone loved including us.

Corinne

I now have that outfit in my back pocket if I ever have somewhere fancy to go. 

Virginia

Or even just the grocery store, whatever. That felt very versatile to me. And that was a very different look than what I typically think of as a Corinne Outfit. 

Dacy

I agree this all took a ton of energy. Not going to lie, halfway through that week I was like, I want to quit. I’m done. I was starting to get resentful of this thing that I had part in creating. Same as you, Corinne, when I was trying to push myself or stretch myself—I like how you said stretch yourself—it just took a ton of thought. It took trying on multiple things and trying different combinations. And you know, I hadn’t really done that in succession very often recently to remember what that effort was like. I mean, maybe back when I was working in office job, but that was pre-kids, pre-pandemic, all of the things. So yeah, it was draining. 

Virginia

And I want to say too, the fact that we were also trying to share and document our process was an added layer of labor because sometimes I would put an outfit on and then I would be like, “I don’t think this will make an interesting reel.” I was aware that was not part of the challenge, but it was hard to turn off that part of my brain. To be like, “This feels rule breaking but I’m not getting a good photo of it, so forget it.” And I hope other people doing the challenge or if you’re going to do the challenge in the future, maybe you don’t share it on the Internet. That’s fine. 

Dacy

Yeah, that was hard.

Corinne

I found that part of it to be very gratifying! I was really enjoying the sharing and chatting on Instagram and TikTok about it. I think also just because we all in some capacity work from home, so it was nice to actually have people noticing what I was wearing.

Virginia

Well, yeah, that’s the thing. If I just wear it in my house, it’s a tree falling in the forest. Did this outfit happen? It’s like suddenly we had clothing colleagues which was nice. 

Corinne

Part of what also was so interesting about this week was the creativity and effort that I was putting towards trying to find outfits—like, I didn’t buy anything the first week. I was just not feeling the temptation to browse. I was feeling like whoa, there’s so much stuff in my closet that I’m not wearing. How can I like be creative with that? And then week two and three, that totally disappeared for me.

Virginia

You and I both pushed ourselves, like you maybe with the mesh top, and me with the bare legs dress. We both pushed ourselves to wear things that were a little more visible than our day to day look. And it was nerve wracking to decide to wear it but then actually when I was out in the world wearing it, I was like, I like wearing a more visible outfit. That was kind of cool to realize. 

I do feel like I had a real personal growth moment about my bare legs hang up and I’m really I’m proud of that. I mean, obviously, it was cold because it was 50 degrees. I did identify the need for a coat, which I’m still shopping for, that works with a dress with bare legs. But it was really liberating. I really realized how much that rule was a voice in my own head and that actually nobody cares if you are seasonally appropriate in your aesthetic. It still doesn’t sound true when I say it out loud! But nobody was like “I’m wearing a sweater and you’re wearing a dress with bare legs, how inappropriate.”

Dacy

Because you were wearing boots, right? So you were wearing a full coverage shoe. It would have been different if you’ve been wearing a dress with bare legs and an open toe shoe and everyone else was wearing a jacket and freezing. Then you’d feel like you were on vacation in the tropics and everyone else is in New York state.

Virginia

The backstory on why I’m so hung up on bare legs is because earlier in my career, I had a brief stint as a celebrity ghostwriter. I cannot say who the celebrities were, but I can tell you that during one of these projects, I was out in LA with one celebrity who was wearing head to toe black, even though it was May in Los Angeles and like, 78 degrees. I was wearing a really cute layered cream and tan sort of sheath dress with brown Frye boots and bare legs.

Our picture was taken by the paparazzi because that happens to this person all the time. This was a very new experience to me, and it will never happen again. And when the paparazzi ran the photo of us, I was described as her gal pal, which many friends will never let me forget. But more crucially—next to this very tiny, famous, beautiful woman wearing all black, my legs appeared to be Twilight vampire sparkling white. It was just one of those moments. I was like, Ohhhh, that’s why she wears all black. That’s a smart thing that celebrities do because you have a lot more protection in how you come off in a photo. They’re very careful about when they show their skin because of the scrutiny they’re under, which is a terrible way to live and a whole comment on our society. But meanwhile, my calves were illuminated.

Corinne

I mean, I once had someone say “I like your white tights,” when I was wearing bare legs. 

Virginia

We’re a pasty people. 

Dacy

Maybe it’s changing with younger generations, but growing up in the 80s and 90s and the whole requirement of being tan anytime your skin showed. I mean, people were risking their lives for that. So that is a tough one to let go of, if you’ve lived through that. 

Virginia

But I did! I broke through! And I felt like oh, this was not a big deal.

Dacy

Virginia, just as you’re telling that story, it’s interesting to me that actually in the situation, you were the one that was dressed more appropriately for the season and the weather. 

Virginia

Not according to like LA celebrity standards.

Corinne

Because the LA celebrity standard is to ignore the weather.

Virginia

Correct. It’s hard to be with a famous person, period. And it’s a stressful event to dress to go and be around famous people, and you’re going to just be this fly on the wall in their life. I was stressed about it and thought I’d really figured out a cute outfit. Then when we met up I was like, “This doesn’t feel like the thing I should have worn.” So I was sort of already self conscious about it and then I see the photos and I am a neon sign of calves.

Dacy

I hear this a lot. It can be really traumatizing when you show up wherever it is wearing what you feel like is the wrong thing. 

Virginia

Anyway, I feel like I did a lot of healing and growth. I agree with Corinne, it felt like a very creative week. When I found an outfit I really liked, I felt energized by it. I didn’t feel like I needed to shop. It was hard, but those were some of the real positives for me.

Dacy

That’s so funny that you felt energized by it because I felt not energized. I felt very self conscious. It felt like it took more energy just to exist in the outfits that I was wearing.

Virginia

Is this because you were wearing red? Dacy hates color. 

Dacy

I’ve been trying to figure out exactly why. I am very high on the spectrum of introvert and so I don’t love a lot of attention. I do not want to be that person walking into a room creating some sort of attention getting spectacle or something. It just feels very uncomfortable emotionally. Then I discovered through this process that I have some sort of inner rebel—which is not my personality! My personality is very people pleasing. But I have some sort of inner rebel around the issue of style and particularly color. I said in one of my posts, I feel like a little girl stomping her foot saying, “I’m not going to wear red just because you want me to.” When I was growing up, I have brown hair, brown eyes. Everyone was always like, you should wear red. And I tried it a few times. And it didn’t feel great. So this is my first time trying red after probably 25 years to be honest. I didn’t die.

I wore a red shirt twice and I wore a chartreuse green shirt once as well. Some of it I didn’t mind and it definitely was a bit of immersion therapy, where you start to get a little bit more comfortable. So I think I could now wear a red shirt and feel better.

Virginia

But you might not because it’s just not your favorite?

Dacy

Well, I would say some of the outfits with the red I did really end up liking. I would love them if I saw them on someone else. The only reason why I did actually stretch myself to wear those colors is because I really am enjoying the look of that on other people and in images. And so, I did feel a desire to try it. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have done it at all. 

Week 2: Honor Your Comfort

Corinne

All right, let’s get into week two. Week two is where we honored our comfort and tried to find a safe outfit. Virginia, and I immediately got bored and started shopping.

Virginia

And Dacy was so happy.

Dacy

I was so happy. Oh my God. It was like sliding into a warm bath. 

Virginia

Again, I do think some of this was the pressure to make content around the outfits and then being like, “My safe comfy clothes just don’t feel that interesting to share with the world.”

Dacy

That makes sense. 

Virginia

That was part of it. But Dacy and I are polar opposites on this color conversation. If I wear comfy baggy neutrals, I feel like I have erased my personality. I feel so blah and bored by what I’m wearing. That was clarifying to realize because I thought Week One was going to be the really hard week and that Week Two would be so easy. It was fascinating that it was the opposite for me.

Dacy

And of course, it was the reverse for me, as well. Week One was so hard and then Week Two, I could literally go to my closet, grab two things, put them on and just move on with my day. I never had to change an outfit. I never had to figure out, “Does this work together?”

It’s interesting what you just said, Virginia, about feeling like you erased your personality. Think about the Vogue editors, right? The people who are creating these fantastical spreads and amazingly creative photoshoots and photography. They’re usually wearing all black.

Virginia

Just like the Hollywood celebrities who don’t want to be photographed that day. 

Dacy

Exactly. Or fashion designers. I mean, think of Michael Kors. Think of, we don’t want to bring his memory up, but Karl Lagerfeld. Any of these people, they had uniforms. Not to align myself in any way on their level, but I did start to feel this week like maybe  that is what I’m doing. This is easy for me to put on and then do my work, which is actually helping other people with this and being creative in that way. 

Corinne

I imagine that if I had your job, Dacy, I would feel a lot of pressure to look a certain type of way to try and sell people on myself.

Dacy

I’m glad you mentioned that, actually, because, I’ve been running this business for 11 years now. In the first six or seven years, I did feel that way. I felt like I had to show up perfectly every time. And it was exhausting. It was basically like Week One every week. So now I am just so so grateful. I mean, I have a ton of privilege in many, many ways. But I also have the privilege of working with the type of people who I know are not going to judge me because I’m not wearing the latest trends, or I don’t have perfect makeup or any makeup. I am constantly grateful for that.

Virginia

That’s really freeing. I like that. Corinne, what were your Week Two feelings?

Corinne

I was getting caught up on the duality of comfort versus liking how something looks. Like, Is this comfortable? And do I like how it looks? I don’t know, I couldn’t find the sweet spot there. I think it was on Wednesday of that week that we were texting and Dacy suggested, why don’t you try putting 50 percent as much effort as you put in last week. And then I was like, okay, I can see where this could work. I was kind of thinking of it as I’m just going to be wearing my most schlumpy outfits, but that’s not very fun. 

Dacy

I definitely thought of it differently. Comfort for me encapsulates not just that physical comfort but do I like it? I do feel like myself. 

Virginia

We talked in the first episode about how there is comfort in terms of physical comfort, which might be your sweat pants. But I think both Corinne and I would struggle to wear sweat pants out into the world. There’s the whole visible fat person thing. And so safe and comfortable outfits for those situations might not always be physically comfortable. So I think that tension was something I was thinking through a lot. Like, am I trying to dress for social comfort? Or purely physical comfort? Or can I do both?

As I’m saying that I’m realizing what I was missing from that is what you just said Dacy, which is: Comfort also means I like how it looks. Not, it will meet with the arbitrary approval of whatever bias I’m expecting to encounter.

Dacy

This idea of liking what you’re wearing does provide a real sense of security when you do go out in the world. It’s not always going to help everything. But for me—and this is one of my working philosophies with people—if you at least have a base comfort and confidence in that you like your outfit, you are a little bit more able to go out into the world and say, well, I’m comfortable. If other people don’t like what I’m wearing, I’m less concerned. Whereas, when you are maybe trying something new or you’re wearing something that you’re not sure if you like, you already have that level of anxiety, and then going out and being presented with other people and their potential judgments becomes like really stressful.

Corinne

Virginia and Dacy, did you feel like you found a safe outfit this week?

Virginia

The the outfit that I liked best of the week was what I wore to my kids talent show on the Friday. It was that blue striped Draper James shirt dress over skinny jeans and Birkenstocks. 

This was also a week where I was very visible on the internet and that was complicated. Then I was like, Oh, I have to go to the school function where I’m going to feel visible in this other way. I felt so good about this outfit because it felt polished, which somehow felt important to me. Like, I couldn’t go to the school event in sweatpants. Not that you can’t, you absolutely can. But that particular week, I felt like I needed a little bit of armor on. But it was also very physically comfortable. Those are my Universal Standard jegging skinny jeans that have an elastic waist. They’re not binding or falling down. They feel good. And I just felt like oh, I threaded a needle here—and I really liked how it looked! I had the pop of color. I had all the things that make me like an outfit. I felt really proud of coming up with that at the end of that particular week. 

Dacy

We were proud of you, too. That was the outfit that I was thinking of when I was kind of describing that you feel good and you can go out in the world. 

Virginia

I was able to navigate something that turned out to be utterly fine, by the way. But I was in my head before I went and I was able to show up in a way that I felt confident and that was satisfying.

Dacy

My safe outfit turned out to be leggings and either a chambray or blue striped button down over. That is an outfit that I can nap in. I honestly have worn the leggings to sleep in the previous night, but then by throwing on this chambray or this button down, I felt cool. I could go about my daily activities, but it required no effort.

Corinne

I struggled to find something that felt like a safe outfit uniform, but I feel like that’s because mine is just like, a t-shirt and jeans or something.

Dacy

I feel like you do have kind of a uniform of the button down short sleeve button down or short sleeve polo with the shorts?

Virginia

That’s peak Corinne Outfit. 

Dacy

Which hits all of our checkboxes of cool, and comfy, and also your style. 

Links to everything we wore in week 2:

Is Comfy Boring?

Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay

·

April 26, 2024

Read full story

unflattering

I guess easy outweighs boring for me

As you may know, I’ve collaborated with Virginia Sole-SmithandCorinne Fay to create a style challenge. It’s only a challenge in the loosest sense of the word, because what we’re trying to do is create an awareness of the style rules that live rent free in our heads, figure out our safe outfits, and then bring it all together…

Read more

a year ago · 30 likes · 20 comments · Dacy Gillespie

Week 3: Reflecting and Integrating

Virginia

Alright, so now we’re in Week Three. We are recording this on Wednesday. So we’re not quite through the week. The goal here is to reflect on the past two weeks, see if there’s any insights you can integrate into what you’re doing moving forward. I’m having a hard time this week.

Dacy

Are you really? Why?

Virginia

I think again, I’m like am I making content or am I getting dressed? That turned out to be a bigger struggle than I expected for me through this whole thing. It’s Wednesday and I haven’t yet posted an outfit. I will. I do feel like I’m starting to pull together some of the things that I’ve liked, what I thought worked in the past two weeks.

Do either of you feel like you’re noticing any major changes in how you’re getting dressed now versus when we started the challenge?

Corinne

I’ve definitely noticed some patterns. I’m more comfortable in an exciting shirt and less exciting pants. It’s also making me think a lot about my overall closet. I really want to pull everything out and go through stuff. It’s also made me think a lot about the infrastructure of my closet. I have a bad closet setup, guys. I just have to admit it. There is so much stuff that’s not getting worn because it’s out of sight.

Virginia

Stuff gets buried in the back?

Corinne

I basically just have a shelf and everything is folded on it. But if the folding gets a little bit knocked over, there’s a layer in the back that just never comes out. So yeah, I’ve just been thinking about how I could change that. Probably not a quick solution. 

Dacy

That makes a huge difference when you’re getting dressed, really. I mean, and it’s funny that you say you have everything folded, because I will usually if it’s possible, recommend that people hang everything because it’s just more visual. It’s just easier to see.

Corinne

I think that would really help. 

Virginia

I definitely hang way more than I fold. I have all my shirts hanging for sure. And dresses and some pants. 

Corinne

Do you even hang t-shirts? 

Dacy

I do. 

Corinne

Wow. Okay, that’s mind blowing. 

Dacy

Y’all should see Corinne’s face right now.

Virginia

I do have base layer tank tops rolled up and put in a drawer. That drawer contains only navy blue and white tank tops. So I don’t need to see those out. I hang any other kind of t-shirt that I might wear by itself. If I have it rolled up in a drawer, I’m not going to remember I even own it. 

Dacy

I have my loungewear and sleeping t-shirts in their own drawer. I don’t love all of Marie Kondo’s organizational tools, but if you do have a lot of T shirts and you don’t a room to hang all of them, if you do the file fold, then at least you can see all the t-shirts that you have.

Corinne

One of my other takeaways was that I want to accessorize more. I think I can really get into a rut where I’m just wearing a shirt and jeans or a shirt and shorts. It felt fun to think about like, okay, t-shirt and jeans is comfortable. How can I make it a little more myself?

Virginia

I had the same thought. Dacy is always putting a cool necklace on and I was like, wow, I own no cool necklaces. I haven’t bought a necklace since my younger child was born, I’m sure. When I was in the baby toddler phase, I stopped wearing them and they never came back.

Dacy

This is amazing guys, because I also had a similar revelation about accessories. Mine was I can wear my simple easy neutral outfits and not be bothered. But then if I do my accessories in color, then all I have to do when I leave the house is grab my bag and put on my shoes and all of a sudden now I have the pop of color. So my realization is maybe I am a pop of color girlie. Is that possible?

Virginia

But the tiny pop! Just a jewelry pop, basically. Just the necklace.

Corinne

I mean, I love that.

Dacy

It’s not by any means an original idea or anything. But I do always want to remind people that when you’re getting dressed and you’re working from home, very rarely are you fully dressed, right? I don’t wear shoes to work from home, I don’t wear my purse. So sometimes our look isn’t complete until we put those things on to go and enter the world. Those things make a big difference.

Corinne

It’s shorts weather where I am now and I feel like so much like accessorizing or styling stuff is like layering, adding clothing. And I’m like, no. I’m already hot. No more. I sent everyone this Tiktok about millennial socks. And so I’ve also been thinking can I accessorize with cool socks? Maybe I need to buy some cool socks. 

Dacy

I like that idea. 

Virginia

I feel like my other big epiphany—Dacy you mentioned wearing more color did help you adjust to wearing more color. I do feel like I am now much more comfortable in straight leg jeans because I wore them pretty diligently every day of the first week and then at least once or twice last week. And I was like, oh yes the volume is turning down on that. That said, my Universal Standard straight leg jeans that I do really like how they look get really baggy and fall off me by like two o’clock. So I did order them in a smaller size. But does that mean I can’t breathe for the first two hours of the day? We’ll see when they arrive.

Dacy

There’s nothing wrong with sitting and not buttoning your pants if that’s what it takes. 

Virginia

That’s another work from home perk. 

Dacy

When you stand up to leave the house you button your pants,

Virginia

You put on your purse and you button your pants. That’s how you accessorize an outfit, guys.

Dacy

Listen, pants are not made for sitting bodies. They’re just not.

Virginia

I mean, I just want it to be better. I’m just gonna say again, yeah, there are actually no good jeans. These jeans are cute and comfortable for a matter of six hours. And that is the best you can hope for out of jeans. 

Corinne

Meanwhile, I love them and could wear them every single day a week, but whatever.

Virginia

I don’t know what’s going on with me and my inability to get pants to stay on. But aesthetically, I feel like I’ve really come around on it. 

That being said, we have spring privilege going on right now where I could wear them with Birkenstocks and sneakers without socks every time. I still feel like come fall, styling straight leg jeans with boots is going to be another journey I go on.

Dacy

I really think the key is the pants length, the jeans length. So I really feel like with straight leg, you do need a little bit of an ankle length or a slightly cropped and you achieve that with the with the cuff. I do think when fall comes that you should be able to make that work that way. I personally really don’t think you should have a break in your jeans. You know how men’s pants will have like a fold over shoe? A lot of times when people say I don’t know what shoes to wear with straight leg pants or with whatever. It’s always about the length and the length is usually too long. 

Virginia

That is good insight.

Corinne

Gen Z disagrees!

Virginia

I am curious, would you both do this again, at some point?

Dacy

Big hesitation.

Virginia

I feel like if I were to do any style challenge again, this is the one I would do. 

Dacy

Sure. We spoke about this at the beginning, but that little rebel in me is bristling a little bit about having to wear a certain thing at a certain time. That doesn’t take into account what I want to wear at this particular moment. So yeah, I think style challenges may just not be for me.

Virginia

That’s valid. What about you Corinne? 

Corinne

I would do it again! Probably in like a year. I realized that it was helpful for me to do a tiny bit of planning in advance. I would do Monday and Tuesday and then on Wednesday, I would be like this is what I’m wearing today. This is what I’m wearing tomorrow. This is what I’m wearing Friday. I was really liking having it planned out. It’s actually so nice to just wake up and know I’m wearing something that I like the next day.

Dacy

That’s such an interesting thing because I think that’s why when I was doing the first week and I felt so just drained by all the decisions, there were a couple of days when I did plan it out and that made it so much easier. I think that is required for this kind of creativity.

I think the other thing I’ll say is that there were a few times when I wore an outfit over the weekend or wore it earlier than I actually posted it. What was interesting is like when I would put was the outfit that I actually wasn’t wearing that day. I was like, oh, but I could easily throw this on because it’s been thought out already. I have a photo of it and here’s what I could wear today. There’s no decision to be made.

Virginia

I do want to move all the photos I took of these outfits and put them in a folder on my phone for the next time I’m feeling like I have to get dressed and I don’t know what I’m doing. This is a very helpful record to have. I think I would do it again, possibly in the fall. I think it was very helpful to do that week of rule breaking and challenging myself before I thought about shopping for spring clothes. It did make me try stuff out, take stuff out of my closet that otherwise I would have been skating right past. And do that “shop your closet” thing for a while because I don’t feel quite as itchy. I mean, as Corinne said, we have both been shopping again the past two weeks. But that’s more of a personality trait of ours. I don’t feel like I have this long list of oh my God, I need everything for spring. I have nothing to wear. I feel pretty clear on like, actually, I have a lot of clothes that I can be wearing right now. 

Dacy

I guess one addition to my response would be, I would probably do this again if I didn’t have to document it for the public. Like if I was just snapping a photo on my phone to put in an album on my phone and no one else had to see it and I didn’t have to make commentary on it. I think it’s a useful exercise for me. The content creation, which is part of what I do all the time, but it also such a pain

Corinne

Meanwhile, I think I might keep posting outfits on TikTok. 

Dacy

Well, listen, I have a couple clients where like, they’re like, oh, I want to wear these cool clothes I own but I have nowhere to wear them. Nobody will see me. I’ve had several people create a private Instagram account just to post their outfits and 10 people follow them or something. 

Virginia

I feel like it’s fun to just text. If I was going to do an outfit and document it, I’d probably text you guys and be like, look at this cute outfit I put together. 

Corinne

I think it definitely felt fun and fulfilling to be more creative with clothing and also chat about it.

Virginia

I think you’re tapped into something. I think you are on your way to being a style influencer. I’m calling it right now. I think Corinne has always had amazing style. 

Dacy

It’s gonna catapult her. 

Corinne

Find me on TikTok.

@selfiefayHappy to be in the final stretch of this #unflatteringtoast style challenge! Wanted to try mixing up this comfy out with some different accessories but i ended up not loving it! Ans going back to my original look. Do we think the clogs need to be worn with socks? I couldnt decide. #ootd

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Dacy

That’s so funny, I think through this challenge, I just quit TikTok without realizing.

Virginia

I had already quit TikTok. 

Dacy

That’s so funny. What was the difference? Was there a different response on TikTok?

Corinne

On TikTok all the comments are just from random people I do not know being like, Cool. Nice. It just doesn’t feel like Instagram. 

Virginia

Well, we should also say that Corinne is working on a very cool new style related project that you will be hearing more about in a few weeks. 

Corinne

It’s a Substack. 

Virginia

So yeah, if you follow her on TikTok and Instagram, stay tuned, because there’s more Corinne style coming your way.

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Butter

Virginia

All right. Let’s do Butter. 

Corinne

My Butter is a pair of shorts that I got and wore during the challenge. They’re a stripy short. I’ve been seeing a lot of people wearing striped boxer-ish type shorts and I was wanting to try that trend. So I found some blue and white striped linen shorts from Old Navy that I liked and a lot of people on the internet also liked. Those are my butter. 

Virginia

I really loved those striped shorts on you, and I’m just never upset about a striped anything. That was a real insight for me from this whole challenge. 

Corinne

Yeah, striped shorts are a little more exciting than a striped shirt, but not fully striped pants, which do feel like a stretch. 

Virginia

Okay, my Butter is also striped. It is this Target maxi shirt dress that I have in the green. 

Corinne

This is so cute. 

Virginia

So Emily Henderson wore this and was like, “It’s great for all body types!” And I was like, okay, Emily Henderson, tiny blonde woman. I mean, I love her interior design, but you take that with a grain of salt, that advice. But I thought let me just order it because I was ordering cleaning supplies and whatever else. I have the XXL in the green stripe. And of course it’s sold out in some colors, but it’s a roomy XXL and it does go up to 4x. 

What’s rule challenging about this dress is I will get mistaken for pregnant in it. It hasn’t happened yet, but it will happen because it has this drawstring gather right over the top of your stomach. If you, like me, have not great posture and a belly, it’s going to happen. I have just decided, fuck it. I don’t care. That’s their issue. I really love this dress. It’s super comfy. I could nap in it. And if you are pregnant, this is a great option. It would be nursing friendly. 

Dacy

My Butter is this new style of paint well, new within the last year or two, of pants called the barrel pants or the balloon pant or whatever you want to call them. But it has this interesting shape, it almost makes you look bow legged, the style of the pant. I have just liked the uniqueness of it. And the modern newness of it. So I’ve been on a quest to find some that I liked so I tried a bunch on this week. There are some from Anthropologie that I liked that go up to plus and then from Everlane. They go to 2x but I had to size way down in everything I tried. So I would comfortably say that some of the Everlane pairs could go up to a 3x if you’re typical a 3x. 

Virginia

Thats exciting for Everlane. That’s usually not a brand that does that well. 

Dacy

I think I’ve found some winners.

Virginia

Alright. Well, this was a delightful episode. I do hope folks experiment with the challenge. You can do it anytime. You do not have to be doing it alongside us. It was really fun to see what other outfits folks posted. Some people really went to town with this. But if you do post outfits, use hashtag #unflatteringtoast so we can see them or tag our Instagrams or tag Corinne on TikTok. Dacy and I won’t see it but we’re happy for you. I hope people feel like they can break some rules and also be comfy. 

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Today’s Burnt Toast Podcast was produced and hosted by Corinne, Dacy, and Virginia. You can follow Corinne @selltradeplus. Dacy is @mindful closet and her Substack newsletter and Virginia is @V_SoleSmith on Instagram.

The Burnt Toast logo is by Deanna Lowe.

Our theme music is by Jeff Bailey and Chris Maxwell.

Tommy Harron is our audio engineer.

Thanks for listening and for supporting anti-diet, body liberation journalism!