Schoolgirl Realness

via FT website

I sincerely dig the Catholic schoolgirl silhouette. Neat skirts and button-up shirts are the closest I get to a daily uniform, and I love the way a pinafore dress can tone down a crazily-printed blouse on days when I lack the testicular fortitude to wear it loud and proud. It's easy to squee over designers and clothing lines that do "updates" on the schoolgirl look, but how cool is it to go directly to the source? I've been poking around the French Toast website, and found more totally wearable things than you can shake a knee-sock at. The shirts and cardigans especially, seem like pretty bulletproof basics. I purchased the grey jumper you see up yonder there and I'm excited to find out if/how it works with the rest of the pieces in my closet.

Obviously, these are children's clothes, and I'm not interested in looking like anything other than grown-ass woman, but I think the key (for me) is to pair schoolgirl basics with wacky separates and bad-ass shoes, like so:

all pics sitting around on my desktop—from Romwe, Topshop, and some other place.

I will report back on my findings. If this works (the sizes go up to 20, but children don't have boobs and hips, so it's difficult to determine if the fit will be off) I might have to start ordering in bulk.