Seattle Sandy's Fancy Fleece

Certain items in my closet I only wear to the grocery store. One of these is a red Patagonia polar fleece pullover. It's left over from about 1994, and is in great shape, but...it's fleece. It's a remnant of my 90s life, which wasn't a bad one, but it's gone, baby, gone (thank goodness).

Is there any way that polar fleece can still work? Today while wandering Pacific Place, I found living proof that it can. From behind I saw Sandy and another chic woman talking, and I first noticed the shoes: one had sand-colored oxfords with metallic gold heels, the other fantastic spotted socks. When they parted, I saw Sandy's full outfit: cobalt jeans, an olive sweater with lime trim, and an orange bag.

As I rushed the poor woman to request a picture, I saw the Patagonia tag: fleece! Not a sweater! Well smack me with a ham sandwich.

Sandy makes it all work by keeping it tidy and bright: slim jeans in whiz-bang blue, wowza-holy-cow sockies, and a simple bag in a color that hits your eyeballs like an Olympic Mountains sunset in August.

My particular likes about all of this:

• If you're going to show some sock, don't pussyfoot around (ha!): go for it, sister
• Do without the brazenly branded purses (the logo show & tell thing has always puzzled me); choose a classic
• Pair a well-fitting fleece (nothing oversized & sloppy here) with things that make it serve as the complement: here, the olive color is the low tone that makes the jeans, socks, and bag the foci
• I am steadfastly pro-orange

It also helped that the pullover had that lime trim; really set off the super-shiny silver earrings and necklace. She knows what works for her, she's keeping it carefree, and she wears her individuality with confidence.

Okay, it also helps that one of her daughters works at Coach (she was the one with the cool oxfords!), and the other at J. Crew. Waahh! Why don't I have kids who work in Retail Funland? Oh, that's right...I forgot to have kids.

So, ready to follow Sandy's lead and show everyone that good taste runs in the family?

Polka-dots are sold out (boo hoo!), but check out J. Crew's Chevron Stripe Socks:

Here's Coach's Classic Duffle:

And here are Sandy's daughter's Coach Jocelyn oxfords: