OOO #50: Outfits, Ohio, and Other Things I Like

Thanks!, THE best sweatshirt, and our first home project

Outfits

You’re bow-legged.

Ohio

On June 23, 2022, New York Times journalist Daniel Victor wrote: “While athletes from other schools may simply say they went to Michigan or Penn State, a Buckeye rarely cuts corners: “The Ohio State University,” they’ll say, usually adding a dramatic pause after stressing the ‘the.’” I have become well-acquainted with the “post-the dramatic pause,” and have even found myself doing it when talking to people back on the east coast about Ohio State. The word “the” has no higher place of honor than in the Buckeye State, particularly after Ohio State’s 2022 success in trademarking the word “the.” A triumph indeed; no sight word has had quite this cache since the word “is” in 1998.

That being said, I knew nothing about “the” trademark while walking into the Ohio State Student Union bookstore last weekend. I went in with my mother (an OSU alum!) with the goal of finding Ohio State sweatshirts, as I could use one for football season (I may have worn a Wellesley sweatshirt to the last Ohio State game I watched 🥴) and mom wanted one in honor of her time in grad school.

The first sweatshirt I saw was the first sweatshirt I bought—a bright red crew neck with one word: “THE.” I love it because 1) it is cheeky 2) I adore the pride that Buckeyes have in that three letter word and 3) it’s almost an inside joke; I don’t expect anyone outside of Ohio State fans to get it.

It is THE sweatshirt for me, and I can’t wait to wear it on Saturday while watching the big ga❌e versus that team (tea❌?) up north!

Other Things I Like

I am very lucky to be married to both a kind and handy human being. As you can probably tell from the premise of my substack, my clothes are indeed important to me, and when the bar in my closet collapsed in August, my husband graciously offered to build the closet of my dreams.

I am a huge fan of wallpaper, and I knew that I wanted a bold and feminine pattern, so I started from there. I ended up finding a floral pattern from Graham & Brown that I loved, and I found a shade of purple at Sherwin Williams (and shout to the Sherwin Williams on South High Street for its fantastic customer service) that matched the purple background of the wallpaper. At first I worried the wallpaper might be a little much once we put it up, but I reassured myself that the reason I chose a bold pattern to begin with was that I knew it would still shine through behind my clothes.

I got a little bit worried at this stage

After we painted and wallpapered (a first for both of us), my husband started building the actually closet. We found a closet system from Lowe’s (I married into a Lowe’s family and now I accept it as my home improvement store) that I liked and tweaked it a bit: we added a base to help remove some weight from the walls, and found a nine-slotted shoe cubby. My husband continues to amaze me with how talented he is at most (if not all) things, and I’m very grateful to have become a homeowner with him (if it was just me, the house would already be crumbling less than two years after I moved in).

I finally finished organizing the closet the other day, and I’m in love. The sweater cubby is my favorite part, and I tried my best to model it after the Sezane knitwear gallery.

You may spot some Naadam sweaters in there…

I decided that, after resisting for years, I’m now organizing my closet seasonally and storing what I know I’m not going to wear in the near future. Up until the closet face-lift, I was a staunch supporter of the “have everything in your closet all at once” approach to closets, but now, I want to know that when I open my closet, I can wear anything that I can see, because it’s all seasonally appropriate. I think this approach will help with the “I have nothing to wear” problem (which is so far from reality) that I know most people have run into at least once in their lives.

I know that this closet is antithetical to the idea of the modern dream closet: it’s dark and colorful rather than white, and it’s not a walk-in, but I can’t imagine a closet that would make me happier. I hope Kirsten Dunst would approve!

That’s it… have a great rest of your week!