MAR'25WK2: what to wear in Maine this week
a spring jacket 3 ways, notes on how to do the braless t-shirt look, and dressing like an old Mainer
Back in February I tucked my pants into my socks for the Lost & Found Vintage market, and it was one of my favorite looks I’ve worn so far this year. I was wearing black converse, black trousers, and peach colored socks, with a grey wool overcoat ft. a giant faux fur stole. With exuberant glee, I will acknowledge that we’ve moved past the point where I can wear a wool trench with faux fur (if there’s a rule that you can’t wear white after Labor Day, then there should also be a rule that you can’t wear faux fur after Daylight Savings).
However… there’s ample opportunity to continue tucking my pantlegs into things, which is exactly what I did for one of my “what to wear in Maine this week” ensembles. In my inaugural pants-into-socks moment, I was cruising around Lost & Found, completely amazed by all the fabulous vintage at the February market — and happened to find a few great pieces that I have yet to post about. Inspired by the past few days of sunny / warm / 50s type weather, I wove these new vintage finds into easy outfit ideas where the jacket and pants are the same across all of the looks — both are black, lightweight pieces, versatile across both colorful and monochrome pairings, and perfectly weighted for spring. Read on to see how I’m wearing them this month!
A spring jacket 3 ways
Entering into this new warmer weather is enough to make me stutter-step around my closet looking for just the right thing that doesn’t feel too heavy, but is still robust enough to buffer the inevitable chilly gusts we get in this early stage of spring. The idea for this jacket was born out of necessity: I was leaving to grocery shop when it was sunny and beautiful outside, and I absolutely refused to wear anything resembling a down coat or heavy outerwear. I finally landed on a cashmere scarf & sweater combo for the top half, with the black rain trench as my outer layer. So this is where we start — a black trench that you might as well throw over the bedroom chair, because it will be the best thing to reach for in this transitional not-quite-spring moment of time. There are lots of black rain trench coats in the second-hand circuit, but so many of them are double breasted, or adorned with cuff ties, waist belts, and sizable lapels. If I had to give you a *perfect* comp for the jacket I styled in this post, it would be this Y2K Vintage Gap Black Minimalist Tech Coat — basically something with simple shape, lines, and fabric.
WAY #1: The casual tee + baseball hat, with femme accessories
The first way to wear the black trench/black pants duo is to create a juxtaposition of casual + dressy. I’m wearing a vintage radio tee, via 508vintage at Lost & Found. It’s a perfect shade of faded cerulean blue and the eccentric maestro cartoon made me smile. I was pretty much sold on getting it the moment I touched the buttery tissue paper-thin fabric, a hallmark of all the best vintage tees. And speaking of tissue-thin fabric, I have to share that I’m at least a decade late on discovering that wearing nip covers is far superior to wearing a bra — especially with super thin t-shirts. The reusable ones from Victoria’s Secret are divine.
In my euphorically braless state, I used the tee as a central source for piecing together remaining accessories with playful juxtaposition. Leopard-print loafers and a chocolate satin tassel bag are feminine additions to an outfit that was otherwise skewing a bit masculine — and the cherry on top is actually a hat on top — a black yoga hat, casual enough to feel intentional with the tee, but also the right color to meld with the outerwear.
WAY #2: maximalist print + tucked in pants
Here are the tucked in pants! This time I used black stockings, worn with converse platforms for added height. It creates an entirely different silhouette to have the pants ballooning at the lower leg, leaving a look that is steeped in bagginess. And one maximalist piece brings this entire look to life.
An oversized silk buttondown, red with writhing dragons printed across the entire shirt, and perfect details like matching fabric buttons down the center, and 2 buttons at the cuff so you can size it to a small wrist. From Talking Threads Vintage via Lost & Found, this shirt is fabulous as worn here: oversized, untucked, and fully buttoned.
But the fact that it has side slits makes it just as compelling to wear tucked in — with the back left untucked — and buttons undone to allow for a few necklaces to peek out from under the semisheer silk. In the same vein as the gold & magenta Souleiado buttondown that Elsie wore in our post about maximalism, you really can’t go wrong with a brilliant out-of-the-box printed piece like this.
WAY #3: The practical Mainer, with a styled twist
The third and last styling of this spring trench is most closely aligned to what an old Mainer might wear out in the spring — namely, practical footwear + warm layers.
It’s entirely possible that this vintage field vest hailed from the closet of an old Mainer, with its quilted stitching and ribbed collar in various stages of charming deterioration. It was another pickup from 508vintage and has turned out to be the ideal layering piece of my late winter wardrobe.
A lightweight vest is an essential shoulder season garment because it goes over things and under things with equal ease. It’s a perfect companion for this trench coat because it keeps the core that much warmer, but doesn’t interfere with the tailored fitting through the shoulders and arms of the jacket.
The practicality of this look extends all the way to the footwear, Blundstones that are great for this melting-out puddly type of weather we are in, but also their workwear simplicity is in rhythm with the vest.
But — there’s no need to languish in layers of pragmatism! A styled twist might go something like this vintage YSL scarf and rectangle sunnies. Other vintage twists to consider: a long red tassel necklace to wear over your outermost layer, a raffia shoulder tote to hint at your knowledge of impending summer, or, in a last twinkle of winter-wear, a leopard-print collar.
In closing, I’ll share a quote from a profile on Gilles Clément — French garden designer, botanist, and writer. His thoughts when asked about gardens as an art form,
“the beauty experienced does not come from the adjustment of forms — the simple know-how of the landscaper — but from a living ensemble that interweaves humans with plants, animals, sounds, and lights … Such gardens should not be judged by their form, but by their aptitude to communicate the simple happiness of just being alive.”
When I read this last line, I couldn’t help but think of how we express ourselves to the world through dress. What living ensembles we create as representation of our selfhood. And in much the same way that a garden’s beauty is not merely a reflection of the landscaper’s “know-how”, the improbable ways in which we determine what to add to our wardrobes, followed by the idiosyncratic ways in which we interweave them together, is, in its own way, communicating something about being alive.
If you enjoyed this piece, please consider becoming a free subscriber. And follow on Instagram @geo.styled for more photos and life content — xo, Georgia
Can you style me? I want to look cool Mainer like you G!