I Mastered Effortless Style Once I Embraced the Effort
Look at Instagram and you’d think everyone woke up perfectly imperfect. Fashion, beauty, social media, pop culture, all cultivate a myth of effortlessness. In this package, ELLE.com acknowledges, dissects, and celebrates the effort. Because effortlessness is a privilege that not everyone can afford. And there’s no shame in admitting you actually love putting in the work.
A cropped black jacket with dramatically belled sleeves, a black silk camisole, years-old high-waisted creased-front black dress pants, re-soled black patent leather maryjanes, and a long-pined-for, finally-purchased, gold and blue enamel necklace with an “A” charm on it for my then-3 ½ month old daughter Ada. That’s the outfit I wore on my first day back to work after maternity leave. I thought about it. I tried it on the night before along with a few other options. I texted photos to my core fashion-vetting friends for their approval. I wanted to do everything I could to set myself up for success that day — to re-enter the world of “just following up!” emails and urgent deadlines and meetings and ideas and words and Twitter — and I knew that feeling good in my clothes would help make that first day back successful.
The outfit worked. I felt pulled together and excited to dive back into the challenges of this job…
