I woke up on my fiftieth birthday with one thought: the first fifty years were just research.
Thirty years ago I was wearing a Hard Rock Cafe uniform. My thirtieth birthday ended with a wedding proposal at a roller rink β on skates. Somewhere between then and now came a decade of owning a bar, a divorce, and a relationship that needed an escape hatch entirely its own. I didn’t see it all coming at the time.
But today? Today feels like the real beginning.
The Outfit
I threw on a green-and-white striped dress by Shy Velvet from Amazon. I originally bought it for video calls β business on top, party on bottom β but it became so comfortable that it just stayed in rotation. The fabric has a slight sheen and elastic at the back waist, which makes it easy to wear around the house without overheating. It even reminds me of my old Hard Rock Cafe uniform, which feels like a nice full circle.
Since buying it I’ve noticed ads for similar dresses by Lily Pulitzer and Anthropology β there’s even a long or maxi version β at prices that are steep in comparison. This one has become a new favorite.
I paired it with a vintage Louis Vuitton Looping MM bag I’ve had for years. Normally my Marc Jacobs pillow bag gets the daily wear, but I wanted something in brown to match the shoes here.
The shoes are leather lace-ups by Trotters from Zappos β incredibly comfortable, though they did leave a small blister on my ankle by evening. The Gucci sunglasses on my face might be vintage now too; some of them were brand-new when I bought them over twenty years ago. It’s strange how everything suddenly becomes ‘vintage’ all at once.
For jewelry, I’ve been wearing a Classic Gold M necklace from AurateNY almost every day lately. And on the very day my name change became official, my mom handed me a little silk zipper pouch with her initial necklace inside β an ‘AM’ for AnnMarie. She explained it could be worn facing either direction, so what had always read AM could now also be MA: my new initials. I put it on right then and haven’t taken it off since.
There’s something about turning fifty that makes you want to carry a few good things with you. A comfortable dress, shoes that work, jewelry that has a story. I think the rest just takes care of itself.
