March 20th, 2026

Welcome today to the Fashion Edition of my blog!  

Okay yeah, I said that with a straight face but now I'm laughing.  The Audacity of me calling anything related to me a fashionable is hilarious.    The only times in my life that I have ever been considered stylish or in fashion as been were a total accident.

That said, I do believe in dressing appropriate to the occasion and like most ladies, I think it's very fun to, every once in awhile perk up my wardrobe.  Sometimes that little perk comes by way of a hand-me-over from Joy, once in a long while I actually do buy a new pair of shorts or a new top, but this time I went in a different direction.

I noticed, as I was going through my closet recently, how many oh so very plain round necked blouses and sweaters and etc that I have. In the olden days I might have filled in that "negative" space between the end of the garment and the beginning of my skin with a necklace. But for several reasons, I don't do that much anymore.

The reasons: 1) It's hot here.  And jewelry is metal. which heats up in the hot.  Also it sticks to me in the humidity and well, it's generally less comfortable to wear necklaces here in Florida land which is probably one of those 'princess and the pea' things  but it is what it is and I am who I am. 2) Old lady neck.  Can't get around it, at 72 I am old and one of the things that happens to most old ladies is we get that very unattractive crepe-y neck thing.  Round neck, u-neck, square neck, pretty much anything other than a turtleneck, shows the crepe-y skin off and seriously, it is not something that ought to be showed off.  I find that a necklace highlights the crepe-y (not creepy. well sometimes maybe) skin rather than detracts from it, so no.  3) for whatever reason, most of my jewelry is silver. Silver tarnishes. When exposed to the salt air/hot and humid air/island air/Florida air that we have here, silver tarnishes a LOT and very quickly. No matter how careful I am, how often I clean my jewelry, or how it is stored, it tarnishes. And sometimes for whatever alchemy/chemistry reason the tarnish cannot be removed. Which means I have fewer and fewer pieces of jewelry - necklaces in particular - to wear anyway

So the issue remains, how do I dress up, change up, address the round neck issue?  Sometimes, especially when the weather is cooler, I can tie a pretty scarf and that little change not only provides warmth but also a pop of colour,a little change-up that makes an older top look newer AND hides the crepe-y neck.  win/win/win

But once the cooler weather is gone, now what do I do?  Well sometimes I pretend I don't notice my crepe-y skin and just wear the shirts anyway. Other times, I wear a different shirt underneath. Specifically a shirt that has a collar. Looks snazzy and solves all the issues. BUT once summer arrives in all it's hot and humid glory I do NOT want to wear two layers of shirts. I would feel as if I were trapped in a sauna!

And while considering this issue, my brain wandered back to fashion in other centuries long ago when things like collars and cuffs were detachable. That was a clever idea.  And that made me wonder if such a thing still existed.   Enter mystical Google.  He (or she) knows all!

Turns out you CAN buy just a collar. Well sort of.  Back in my youth, it would have been called "a dickey".  Don't know why it as called that, but it was.  I only ever owned one.  It was turquoise - which is a beautiful colour as long as I'm not the one wearing it.  Makes my skin look yellow which in turn makes me look jaundiced and everyone around me wonders if I have some liver disease.  I'm fairly certain I did not choose the colour.  It was worn with a vee-necked white sweater that I had because lord knows that a female's clavicle should never be on display (insert much rolling of eyes here).  

I hadn't thought about that old turquoise dickey in decades but as soon as I looked up women's collars and the results popped up there it was in my head immediately. I was not a fan of that old heavy knit turquoise thing, but these new ones looked so very different. Lightweight, pretty, feminine and perfect.  

I scrolled through the possibilities (there were nearly endless choices) for a long time and ultimately ended up getting a set of 4 because I couldn't seem to choose just one.  I tried them all on with the shirt I was wearing in the moment which was a purple tee-shirt and honestly they even made that tee-shirt look good.  So Excited to wear one for real in my actual life and see how it worked out.

Wednesday, which is known is this house is Museum Day, was the maiden voyage.  It was a cold, windy day so I knew I would absolutely be wearing a sweater and ended up in a somber outfit of black slacks and a plain back sweater.  Boring but toasty warm.  Jazzed it right up immediately.

Still, the question remained, how comfortable would it be worn all day while moving around, walking, gesturing ( as I do while talking), driving, cleaning, etc.  The answer was, it went great!  Loved the way it looked and how it dressed up a very  monochromatic  and far too often worn look.  Bonus points it was perfectly comfortable and easily washed.  

I think I've found my solution!  I'm excited for the opportunity to wear each one in turn and see how it changes the look of my old outfits.  A success story for sure.  Big Yay!  And it harkens me back to a rather vintage phase of fashion and that is definitely my style - fashionable or not!

Have a terrific weekend y'all. See you next week!