Work Outfit to Help with Running a Workshop

Happy Friday the 13th! In my last entry, I spoke about how I needed to choose an outfit for work. I was helping to run a workshop about sustainable ecotourism in Africa and the Carribean, as part of my volunteer role as a sustainability ambassador, and in partnership with the company's group for empowering black employees, since it is black history month. I wanted to make sure that I felt confident in my appearance, but also looked casual enough for my work's casual dress code, yet well-dressed enough to look professional and like I was taking it seriously. I also didn't want to dress in a way that outshone the person who had created the workshop. This was the outfit I put together! It's not really lolita, since it's way too toned down, but Physical Drop is the perfect brand for this kind of casual, toned-down style that is still cute yet works professionally.

I used bloomers to add a bit of volume to the skirt, and I wore footless tights under my socks, so that I could remove them when I got into the office - since I knew that I would be too warm in the office. I wore red Dr Martens boots, these are the Jadon II with vegan leather, one of their earlier vegan leather releases. These were really heavy to walk around in, and I got so many blisters! But I think they worked well for the outfit. I did also bring a yellow scarf, to wear at the train station, but it ended up being a bit less cold than I expected which was honestly a massive relief. My necklace was by a local porcelain artist, it has a picture of a deer wearing a victorian style dress, which I thought was so cute and beautiful.

I think the workshop went fairly well. I was incredibly nervous, and I feel like I maybe didn't read as many slides as the other person did, but since she planned it I was worried about taking all the credit. It definitely highlighted how knowledgeable the other person was on the subject, whereas I was clearly less knowledgeable, but it was an interesting session and I felt like even though I was helping to run the session, I learned some things too. Despite my anxiety about a lot of people marking the event as "going", not that many people went, which I guess made me feel disappointed in a different way, and I was a little bit saddened when some people left on the virtual side, during the activities. Though it was a long workshop so I'm sure they just had other meetings.

The feedback from the people in the room was really positive, which I felt relieved about, and everyone felt that they'd learned a lot about some of the issues in ecotourism in these areas. Talking to the people in this session made me feel perhaps I don't travel enough, since while these places wouldn't be the first on my list, the amount of people who had wanted to visit these places that are just so far away to me - and just gone and visited them - was really inspiring, whereas for me I never even think to travel anywhere. I've travelled to somewhere on a plane only 4 times in my life.

Today I can feel how stressed this workshop had been making me feel, since I feel absolutely exhausted now, and all I want is to rest. I'm grateful to be home and spending time with my cats again. It was nice to meet a few new people but it really wore me out, and now I need some time to be alone/around only people who are close to me. The trip to eat Chinese food was moved to next week. I'm disappointed that I don't have an excuse to wear a cute outfit, but I'm also relieved, since I now have time to rest up and heal some of my blisters. I can eat Chinese food on another day!

More thoughts on cute work clothes that would work with lolita

I've been thinking more about lolita workwear, and I noticed that Physical Drop has released more of the Tuck JSK recently, in black. This would be such a good daily wear piece, especially for days when I need to go into work, it would be cute over a lot of different blouses, and the addition of pockets is really admirable in a design.

In the past, when I went into work every day, when buying clothes I thought a lot about whether I could wear them to work. I'm relieved that thinking about whether I can wear clothes to work isn't quite as consuming for my wardrobe decisions anymore, but I suppose it would probably be good to have a few more pieces that are wearable to work. For now, I think I'm fairly well covered, especially with Millefeuille JSK on the way, but I'm tempted to add this JSK into my wishlist anyway.