Vicqui’s Edit: Can One Be Too Relaxed?

When I was growing up, my parents and grandparents always dressed up when they went to work, and since school was considered my job, I dressed up too. Clad in my turtleneck, sweaters, plaid skirts, tie-back button-down shirts, and jeans I sat in my classes, with an alert mind and stylish attire.

At my day job, as a Special Education Instructional Assistant, for LAUSD I’ve become perplexed by the students I work with who wear flannel pajamas to school instead of appropriate school attire that’s just as casual and comfortable. I can understand the dislike for dress codes, and stiff uniforms, but can’t a happy medium, be reached by, at least, looking at alternative forms of a leisurewear in solid colors they can easily be paired with a coat, jacket, and sneakers?

While looking for a pajama set, I could also wear outside, I found a beautiful ultra-luxe one by “Ekouaer” on Amazon.com for $24.99. Available in black, gray, navy blue, and wine red and made out of 65% polyester, 30% rayon, and 5% spandex I’m sure today’s students wore some thing as well-coordinated as this they’d get less flack by their teachers and feel much more prepared to learn and excel academically because while this set is just as comfortable as baggy flannels its appearance is less controversial and more acceptable.

Why Jane Birkin? Why Now?

Jane BIRKIN

By the time I get home from my shift as a Special Ed Instructional Assistant, for LAUSD, I feel like an over-heated pup. My hair’s usually a mess after the students I work with play in it, my makeup’s blurry and soft focus, and my clothes a little more wrinkled and uncomfortable.

To get around looking like a total disaster every work day I often study style icons who magically appear comfortable, chic and elegant and try to imitate their style. This past year, with my stressful work schedule and school demands, I’ve been drawn more and more to Jane Birkin.

Tall and thin, like me, her uniform of jeans, tees, button-downs, sneakers and straw basket carry-alls looked very appealing and accessible. The last time I emulated her I wore a beige cotton Banana Republic jacket over a navy blue tee, from Forever 21, a pair of 1970’s style Levi’s I found at Ross Dress For Less for $2,99, a yellow cotton hat, aviator shades, and a yellow foulard print silk neckerchief.

Exhausted from another tiring week, I was surprised when the teacher I worked for insisted I have my picture taken with the class for Picture Day!

As I sat for my individual photo, I thought about my blog Every Day Fashion: Style for the Mainstream, and remembered I’d started it for moments like this and why I admired Jane Birkin. While there are spectacular moments that call for grandiose costumes there are also small ones that require attractive, well-made clothing that last for years.

Testing Out My Hunter x Target Outfit at the “L.A. Zoo”

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My Zoo Outfit

Countdown to the Fieldtrip:

At first, I couldn’t believe it when I heard that the majority of the class I’ve been working with, as a Special Ed Instructional Assistant at Leo Politi Elementary School (LAUSD), had never been to the zoo. How could that be when going there is such a childhood rite of passage? When I was their age, in Kindergarten through Second Grade, my mother insisted on taking my brother and I to the L.A. Zoo, nearby Griffith Park, Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus, Farmer’s Market and The La Brea Tar Pits.

“For the kids around here, it’s a totally new thing, to go to the zoo,” said one of my co-workers. “They aren’t used to going to places like that.”

But this new generation, where constantly diddling on cell phones, wearing leggings as pants, and dropping out of school are the norm, the zoo is a foreign concept. As a representative of the baby boomer generation, whose childhood was far from perfect, I still felt it was my duty to share this one experience with them.

You Can Never Ask Too Many Questions

The L.A. Zoo

“Can we pet the animals?,” asked one of the students before our fieldtrip.

Following a series of obstacles, our class finally started the countdown to our trip at the end of March. To prepare the students, for what they were about to see, I bought an animal board book at the Mar Vista Library Book Sale and gave it to them to read and study.

“Will we see spiders and snakes there?” asked a student one morning.

“Can we pet the animals?” another one asked.

The questions were endless, with the book becoming old before its time, from beloved overuse and rough treatment.

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Dressing Comfortably for the Big Day

Simultaneous to the field trip, I had to do an assignment for my FSH 628: Mobile & Social Media Journalism class on “Social Listening”. I chose the internet feedback about the Hunter x Target collaboration. For my research, I went to check it out, as an event at the Target on LaCienega and Jefferson. There were plenty of clothes available, in my size and style, so I ended up purchasing quite a bit.

The first outfit I wore was perfect for our big field trip day- a red, pink and white striped windbreaker over a white and orange sleeveless top and orange and white track pants, accessorized with a pink sun visor, cream cat-eye framed shades, white Levi’s sneakers, a white and pink flamingo print tote and an orange leather hobo bag.

In addition to walking long distances, at the zoo while looking at the animals, I also had to help maneuver one of our student in a wheelchair when she needed to sit down, making comfort a necessity.

L.A. Zoo

“We didn’t get to see the hippos and the leopards!” some of the students complained at the end of our trip.

Walking in a well-organized, but a curious and active group, we saw the meerkats, a swan, ducks, lions, giraffes, snakes, spiders, exotic birds, turtles, tortoises, alligators, gorillas, chimpanzees and more.

“We didn’t get to see the hippos and the leopards!” some of the students complained at the end of our trip. “You’ll have to visit them the next time you come back, with your families,” I told them.

While waiting for the tram, after our lunch break, I met a little boy wearing a Junior Zookeeper outfit, complete with binoculars. He jumped up on the seating area and insisted on waiting for the tram despite his mother’s protests.

“He really knows what to do, and where to go at the zoo, doesn’t he?,” I said. “Oh yes, he’s been coming here ever since he was little,” his mother said. “We have a membership, so we can come any time we want, and stay for an hour or longer. It’s a great place to hang out.”

“It was the best day of my life,” said one of the teachers who went with us to the zoo.

Leo Politi Elementary School

A few days after the trip, I asked one of the teachers whose class went too, did he enjoy himself. “It was the best day of my life,” he said. I hope that’s how our students felt too, and it joins their other happy memories from this time.