Romero at Phipps

I've been sitting on these photos for a while now, because I couldn't decide whether or not I liked them. (I'm trying to get away from the whole look-down-and-away moody blogger pose. In my defense, it was really bright outside?) But this type of outfit--a printed cotton 50's skirt paired with one of my Madewell tees--was pretty much my uniform for the last semester of grad school. Summer already feels over to me, since dance classes start up again on Friday, and I wanted to post this outfit before I'd completely moved on.

I wore this to go see Phipps Conservatory's corpse flower, named "Romero" after the director of the 1968 zombie flick Night of the Living Dead, which was filmed near Pittsburgh. Corpse flowers only bloom once every 6-10 years for 24-48 hours, and for 12 of those hours, they emit a strong odor that resembles rotting flesh (hence the name). Romero bloomed on August 20th, and I hustled over to Phipps right around opening time the following morning. It's a pretty strange-looking plant--like a 6-foot-tall prehistoric peace lily--and I'm glad I was able to catch it while it was blooming. There were also several families there when I went, and it made me irrationally happy watching little kids run around with their noses pinched, dramatically complaining about the smell!

Outfit details:
Madewell tee
Vintage 50's skirt via Very Vintage Store
H&M flats