Do you guys ever do that thing where you see a really cool gal when you’re shopping and you start following her around a little bit to see what she picks up and then before you know it you’re full-on stalking her, barely hiding the fact that you are single white female-ing her all over the store? Yeah, me neither.

Except for that one time I saw this new mom wearing a kimono over shorts and a tank with sneakers and I thought “I could (almost) do that.” And then I thought, “I wonder if she’d be friends with me?” to which I thought, “Don’t be weird and scary” and instead bought a matching dress and sweater to hers. #totallynormal

You can see that her look has made me intermittently cooler.

I’m not quite ready to try and pull off the kimono over shorts thing, mainly because it’s freezing here in San Francisco, but also because, on first glance, it seems a bit young for my 40-year old self. Instead I paired it with my trusty faux-leather leggings (I seriously wear them every day) and my new sneaks that I may or may not have bought because my new friend was wearing the exact same pair.

I’m happy to say that my half top-knot is ALL ME and had nothing to do with this collection of exquisite ladies rocking this easy do.

At this point, I’d like to thank my anonymous friend who inspired my new go-to outfit. It lets me eat what I want (I just realized I look vaguely pregnant in this photo so it would also work for moms that are expecting!), is easy to run around in, and, no doubt, has inspired of a legion of H&M stalkers.

Linkage: 

jungle kimono: Top Shop (similar!) // black tank: Old Navy // faux leather leggings: similar (on sale for $34.75!) // awesome black sneakers: Top Shop // cat-eye sunglasses from this AMAZING accessory store in New York City that I can’t remember the name of and is behind a bus on googlemaps. So (sigh), similar.

Photos by Erica Bean Photography.