About Me

About Me - The Dressed Aesthetic

I should start off by saying brevity is not my strong suit…

I’m a coffee-drinking, vintage-loving marine biologist, who recently moved to North Carolina with my amazing husband Adam (who is an Apple App Developer by day and a musician/filmmaker/ mean-martini-maker by night), our one-eyed dog Willie (who is a shameless outfit photobomber), and our ginger tabby named Finn (who’s hobbies pretty much include lounging and looking concerned).

I’m also co-creater and co-owner of the wardrobe organization app, Dressed (which you can read all about here). The app was born from the need to organize my own overflowing closet, filled to the brim with vintage dresses. Through years of hard work, my brilliant programmer husband made it a reality!

I would call myself a conservationist, vintage huntress, amateur Calceologist*, arbiter of good coffee (and good beer for that matter), and total science nerd.

When and why I started a vintage fashion blog

I was asked recently in an interview to describe my personal style. I called it Vintage Modernism. Fit and Flare for the Dramatic. Floaty. Feminine. Donna Reid meets one of those Bond Girls with an evening gown under her wetsuit.

I wear a dress pretty much every single day and I think I started this blog to give a voice to all of the similarly-minded fashionable nerds out there. To acknowledge that we can be pretty AND smart and, honestly, anything else we want to be. To knock back some of the gendered stereotypes that exist in science (and every workplace)….and to share a whole lot of beautiful vintage that makes my heart sing.

Every day is an excuse to look and feel fabulous. Why not embrace your own aesthetic? This blog is about mine. I’m so glad you dropped by.

 

xo

 

(If you want to know more, best place to start is with my FAQs or my inaugural blog post)

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You can also find me on on these places around the web…

The Dressed Aesthetic

*Calceology, n., the study of footwear

 

11 comments on About Me

  • Rebecca Clams

    Hi Kara!
    I just found your blog and am overjoyed. Finally someone who has the same fashion tastes as me! I also want to say that this blog as helped me enormously in my sewing problems! Keep posting!

    Thanks,
    Rebecca

    • The Dressed Aesthetic (author)

      Awww that means so much – THANK YOU! Sometimes with the madness of my day to day the blog can be hard to keep up with, but knowing it’s useful always makes it worth it. 🙂 And please feel free to reach out if you have any sewing questions…so much of what I’ve learned has been due to lots of practice and asking for advice. 😉

      • Rebecca Clams

        I just want to ask – where to you get so many awesome patterns? I mean- they are really REALLY cool.

        Keep Blogging! Have a great day!

        Rebecca

        • The Dressed Aesthetic (author)

          I’ve been collecting patterns for years and make them up where inspiration strikes! I will say, a lot of my circle skirts are self drafted (ie – no pattern). They’re either based off of a vintage design, or something I just created myself. And a lot of the clothing here is true 1950’s vintage – there’s nothing that compares to those designs! 🙂

  • Rebecca Clams

    Hi! I love your blog. I think it is very helpful for those people who are beginning to sew (read, me). I also think your app is also very useful!

    Rebecca

  • Paola

    Hi Kara!
    I’ve just discovered your blog and I am absolutely delighted by your flare and the obviously meticulous care you put in it – your outfits are so vibrant and amazing, and your blog reads like a novel. I am about to start a fashion blog myself, finally choosing to wear what I like with the style I like, to hell with it! and it’s frankly heart-warming to know that smart, sassy women are proud to wear petticoats and vintage-looking dresses and OWN them, if you know what I mean. I also found your opinion about Chi Chi clothing very useful before I bought my first set from their website, so thanks (I am very petite and my chest is 83cm, I so hope I didn’t screw it up, because I made the regrettable mistake of looking at the chart after I ordered. That’s just how I roll =___=;!)

    You’ve earned yourself a fan!

    • The Dressed Aesthetic (author)

      Hi Paola – you’re comment seriously made my day. I’m so happy you found my blog! I’d love to hear about yours when you’re ready to launch – it’s always take so much courage to start a blog and put yourself out there, but I will say from my experience I found it to be one of the best things I ever did. And the blogging community is amazing and SO welcoming. I can’t wait to read it! 🙂 And please let me know how the Chi Chi London dressed worked out! I have a few from them now and I love them. 😉 Looking forward to following each other!

  • Porcelina

    What a vibrantly beautiful skirt! I love the energy in your photos. x

    • kara@dressedapp.net (author)

      Thank you so much! I like to try unique things in my photos…the ones that don’t work out are hilarious! 😉 xx

  • Francesca Patrick

    Hi Kara, lovin the blog very much and very excited to meet both you and sewinista in person later in the year. I have to say that I was blown away by the dress you made (i’m quite partial to that lovely cream bag you have paired with it by the way). This blog has renewed my interest greatly in Vintage…I had to laugh though, knowing your husband is an apple programmer and your app is for android…haha. Still, now I know why your sites are all super-dupa professional…what a magnificent team…keep up the good work. I for one am a HUGE fan and will be reading with delight !
    Hugs,
    Francesca (sunrich)

    • kara@dressedapp.net (author)

      Hi sweets – thank you so much! I’m very much looking forward to finally “meeting” you too. Thank you for such lovely compliments on the dress – it is 100% my proudest sewing achievement to date. And that cream bag is an absolute favorite! It was part of a window display in a vintage store in San Diego and I had to go on a waislist for it – but she was worth the wait. 🙂

      I do think there may be a bit of confusion about the app – Dressed is actually iPhone only and isn’t available for Android (yet). My husband and I designed the app together, but he is the programming genius who did all of the coding. You can read all about the app here if you haven’t already. He’s pretty amazing – and we are definitely a good team!

      Thank you so much for following along – and hope to see you at Sewanista Fashion Workshops soon! 🙂

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