What I wore all week: The week my inner leather got activated.

Breathing in, breathing out.

The stress. I hadn’t identified it until

Grace Atwood

did, on her blog, The Stripe, by sharing Monica Lewinsky’s advice for calming down between now and the election. (TL;DR: the best one was sex — and if you’re flying solo, fly solo on it!) I was suddenly like — oh, that’s why my stomach hurts, but up very high, like almost to the neck area? And why I keep waking up too early. And feeling like maybe I have a pill caught in my throat?

On Thursday I had jury duty. I was ready to Participate! Capital P. My Uber pulled up. A Tesla. I had paid for Uber Comfort and selected cool and no conversation. I had a sh*t ton of work to get ahead in preparation for the many-week swampy, maybe meth-y Florida murder trial I expected to be on.

The driver announced that she had just voted and then: “I bet I know who you voted for.” She wouldn’t stop talking politics the entire time, and she was a conspiracy theorist. Who didn’t believe in news. Except the “news” that supplied the conspiracy theory.

When I brought up character (felonies, E.Jean, cheating, grab em by the pussy etc. etc) she said: “You don’t have to date him.” And ok, you could say that these things are the least of our worries (control of our own bodies being right up there) but the notion of someone representing our country, someone impacting our laws, the notion of just looking at that lying, cheating face every day. I can’t. I just can’t.

What does this have to do with leather? Bring me my bad in the form of big bad wrestling belts and Tell Me Lies — the show, only. I realize I crave to look a little bad while being (and hopefully doing) good.

Here’s how the leather looked.

MONDAY

What: Loewe Obi belt (old, secondhand). Second hand Marques Almeides denim shirt (close, size s. and another option here) Brunello Cucinelli wide leg denim (old - here is this year’s version). Sports bra — these are what I wear with anything backless!. Blu Scarpa sneakers.

Why: No meetings, just a working day. I love denim on denim, and I wanted to pull out this old belt and see if it could bring something “more” to the picture. It felt like it would be proportionally good. And I thought it would be fresh to use the sneaker versus say, a neutral shoe.

Outcome: I loved the way it LOOKED. I got all these compliments. I think it’s flattering. I just didn’t feel so “me.” It’s Miami, exaggerated. But not especially modern in silhouette as I styled it, not relaxed, and not dad-ish enough to feel like my DNA.