I feel like I’ve been looking for this exact skirt my whole life, and I finally found it this past weekend.

I spent the weekend with my girlfriends in Santa Monica. We’ve been putting a little bit of money in a pot each time we meet in the hopes that at the end of a year we would have enough to pay for the six of us to spend the weekend together at a hotel. I’m so glad we did because our weekend together was so much fun!

After some shopping on the Promenade, we had dinner at Musha on Wilshire Boulevard. It was seriously, seriously good. You need to go there. Order the lobster roll, yellowtail sashimi, and the risotto. (I’m salivating just remembering how good it was!)

I spotted this skirt at Zara on the Promenade while we were making our way to dinner. I’ve wanted a skirt like this forever, and I knew when I saw it in the store that it was perfect.

I wore it to work today, and my teaching partner commented on how fun it looked to walk in. And it is! I love how it swishes when I walk and how the wind plays with the fabric. I do have to be careful not to step on the hem when I’m walking up and down stairs, but that’s fun in a way as well. I’m not used to wearing long skirts, and there’s something nostalgic and romantic about the total impracticality of daintily holding up one’s skirt as you climb or descend a set of stairs. It makes me feel so very lovely.

I love this cloche hat too. I used to never feel comfortable wearing hats, but when I cut my hair super short a couple of years ago, I started experimenting with hats and other hair accessories. As it turns out, I really do like hats.

This one is made out of jute with a black grosgrain ribbon. While I love the vintage shape of the hat, I feel like the wide stripe gives it a more modern feel too. Still, I feel like this whole outfit has a very 1920s vibe, which is definitely a good thing in my book.

And I think this is one of the first outfits I’ve posted on this blog where I haven’t worn black as the dominant color, but just as an accent. I’m kind of proud of myself! My friend was telling me this weekend about how she’s trying to step out of wearing so much black by incorporating more grey into her wardrobe, which I thought was pretty funny, but it’s true! Black always looks good!

Isn’t the skirt just so pretty?? *sigh*

Shirt: Zara peter pan collared blouse
Sweater: Rag & Bone sweatshirt (hand-me-down from my mama)
Jacket: Madewell (also worn here and here)
Skirt: Zara pleated maxi skirt
Shoes: J.Crew
Hat: Anthropologie cloche hat (old)
Accessories: Mikimoto pearls (hand-me-down from my mother-in-law), field guided canvas bag
Nail Polish: essie licorice and deborah lippmann shake your groove thing
Lipstick: NARS Jungle Red lip liner and Red Lizard lipstick