Thank god for 3-day weekends!  I am relishing this day off.  I wasn’t sure what to wear today and decided to dig a little deeper into my closet for something I haven’t worn in a long time.  I decided on this very old long sleeve shirt from Target.  I think I’ve had it since the beginning of med school so it’s about 8 or 9? years old.  It’s front panel is made up a polyester blend and is sewn on in a quilted pattern.  To be honest it feels very cheap (and it was!), and it’s probably something I would not buy again today,  but I think it looks nice and it fills a small gap in my wardrobe repertoire, so I’ve held onto it for all these years.  You’ve probably seen me wear these Lemaire twist seam pants a few times already, but I cannot gush enough about how comfortable they feel, seriously.  These are hands down my most comfortable pair of pants.  The denim is buttery soft and the cut hugs but does not constrict in anyway.  They are expensive, but if you ever catch it on sale or find them secondhand, I would highly recommend going for it (and then tailoring them to your height because Lemaire pants tend to run very long).

What were you up to this weekend?  On Saturday we went to a matinee showing of the new PT Anderson film starring Daniel Day Lewis, The Phantom Thread.  It’s supposedly Daniel Day Lewis’s last film before he enters retirement and like most of his movies, it was really good!  Watch the trailor here.  It’s a dark unconventional love story about a master dress designer played by Day Lewis and “his muse”.  The characters are complex and the story unfolds in a refreshingly subtle manner.  Highly highly recommend.  (addendum:  The movie was really amusing to me also because Daniel Day Lewis looks strikingly similar to my psychoanalyst (I was in analysis a couple years ago).. his hair, demeanor, voice.. all of it, except for the attitude. Day Lewis’s character is anal and downright mean. My analyst on the other hand, had a kind, gentle attitude.)

In other news, I slacked a lot on work outs during the week.  Mainly because I got a keratin treatment to tame my wild hair and it required no washing for 3 days.  I really like the way my hair feels now.  It still has it’s texture and volume, but is like 50% smoother.  I went to Salon Riz in NYC because its the only salon that seemed to offer a light version of keratin treatments.  And the price ($200) seemed reasonable compared to the usual 400 dollar price tag in NYC.  To my surprise I was lucky enough to get the owner Mike to do my hair.  He’s an adorable scruffy Lebanese guy who had so much warmth and character.  The salon itself is very warm and home-like, and feels high end without any of your usual NYC pretention and snobbery.  Highly recommend that place if you are in the area.  But anyway over the weekend I started Barre3 back up again, and while balancing on one leg for one of the poses, I tweaked my left knee, and now every time there’s impact on that knee, it hurts.  I hope this isn’t the start of a bad knee.  Fingers crossed.  I’m going to focus on more upper body this week to let it heal.

OK, so back to this outfit.  Before I left the house to walk Freddy, I threw on my new replacement puffer and a pair of I-Don’t-Give-A-Fuck-socks-and-Birks.  It was warm enough today to keep the puffer open like this, which is my favorite way to wear it.

So as you may know, Everlane sent me a replacement long winter puffer after I emailed them about the button breaking apart on my old (first generation) long puffer.  The new puffer comes with a few upgrades that I’m enjoying now.  For the price, I think it’s a really good value actually, but it’s not without its flaws.  Here are all the ways the new version out performs the old puffer:

• The hood is larger — The hood is larger and more resistant to being knocked down by wind.  There’s also an interior drawstring that can be tightened around the neck.
• More pockets — The old version had two exterior pockets and one zip interior pocket (that got stuck often!).  The new version has 4 large exterior pockets and one buttoned interior pocket.  The pocket placement though is a bit awkward.  The side pockets are a bit too high to use as hand warmers.  The flap pockets are at a better height for hand warming but its vertical orientation and non lined interior make them not the best for hand warming.  I’m finding myself using the flap pockets for hand warming anyway because the height is right.
• Warmer — The new version is much warmer.  I start overheating within a couple minutes of coming indoors.  Above 37 degrees outside, and I’ll have to wear it unzipped to stay at a comfortable temperature.
• Better zipper — the newer versions have a double zipper, that can be unzipped from the bottom which allows you to create more wiggle room for your legs or reach into your pant pockets if you need to.  The old version always got caught on the loose fabric around the zipper but the new version has the fabric stitched down to avoid getting caught in the zipper.  Nonetheless, the zipper is NOT smooth going all the way and seems to get stuck on something invisible around the pocket area.  It usually unsticks with some tugging. This might be a defect that is unique to the particular coat that I received though.  I do like that the zipper is a matte black.  In my not so humble opinion, I think glossy metallic hardware on puffers can look kind of tacky, especially the kind with atrocious branding all over (*ahem, Michael Kors).
• Puffy-er — The new version is bulkier.  I wished I had sized down to an XS for this reason.  There is an option to cinch it at the waist with an interior string, but I prefer not to.  I like a straighter silhouette.  Straight looks modern I think. And whenever I see puffer jackets with a super cinched in waist it gives me the impression that there is too much concern over appearing skinny, and that just screams of a conventional desperation for thinness, when for god’s sake, it’s a puffer, so who cares!

Puffers can be really expensive, so if you are in need of a high quality, no non-sense puffer, that is extremely warm, and don’t want to spend a lot of money, I would recommend this one.  I think for the price, it’s going to be hard to find better quality, but if you can spend more, you could probably find better options.

[outfit:  very old Target quilted long sleeve, Lemaire twist pant, Levi’s socks, Arizona Birkenstocks, Everlane long puffer]