Looking trendy

An acquaintance Susan who works in my office building stopped me in the hall today and said, "You know, me and (this other woman who works with her that I can't remember the name of) were talking the other day about how we always see you dressing so trendy and looking good." Surprised, I said thank you. But as I'm currently wearing kinda a cute outfit today (gray fitted flannel skirt with black ribbed sweater and black knee-high boots), I thought today's look wasn't really a fair assessment.

"But that's just today," I protested, thinking of yesterday's warm, casual, yet just ok outfit of black pants and purple argyle (?) sweater. She said, "No, yesterday, you were wearing those cute flats too and the whole outfit..." Now really surprised, I said, "No no, yesterday's outfit was just eh. And I always like your outfits!" A few more comments back and forth, me saying thank you, her repeating my trendiness, and we walked away.

I didn't even think that these women noticed me that much. They are two of the few ppl I make conversation in my building mostly because Susan is really friendly and kept insisting on making small talk with me in the bathroom and in the hall despite my halfhearted replies.

But the really weird thing is Susan is really trendy with the latest clothes, accessories, and styled hair. She sells expensive cars to assumedly rich people and has a great happy attitude with a polished look to match the job. Sometimes I think she's too chipper and peppy. But who am I to talk - I'm the sarcastic, realistic one. Susan, who dresses cute and always has the whole outfit coordinating but not too much, thinks enough of seeing me randomly for ten seconds to comment on my clothes? Wow.

So anyway, I started to write a post about how I don't have trendy nice-looking career jewelry because I either don't know where to find it or have a hard time dropping money on a necklace or a bracelet. And yeah I could search on the web but it's hard to fall in love with earrings on a site. And then it goes back to not wanting to pay for it! I wish I could outsource this - have someone buy me cool silver sometimes-chunky jewelry for work and fun, and I'd pay them back. Is that odd? Would I still feel like it's too much?

But then I remembered the interaction with Susan, and I still feel surprised especially as my current thoughts were on my lack of cool jewelry. I try to buy trendy clothes but I didn't grow up in any way stylish and will always feel a bit stylish-insecure. I remember talking to my friend Mark in/right after college about my clothes and that I would like to dress better, and he was like, "What are you talking about? You're totally trendy." Surprised me then too.

No, I'm not writing this to get compliments or critiques on my clothes!! But just an observation about what we think about ourselves doesn't always match how other people think of us.