Breaking the Rules

I'm breaking the rules again today! I'm wearing white after Labor Day and I'm not matching my shoes to my hemline.

I've posted about this ponte knit white dress before (see initial review here).  You can see it styled here paired with gray, and here for a summery look paired with a coral blazer.  I recently wore it with a jean jacket, turquoise belt and booties for a very casual look that I will post soon.  It's been a great addition to my closet.  I was hesitant when I purchased it.  My stylist from Trunk Club suggested it, and I would never have considered it on my own.  White goes with everything though.  It can look as formal or casual as you want. And, contrary to passé rules, it can easily be worn all year long.

My cropped orange jacket is from J Crew.  It's been in my closet for a couple of years. It is made from a light wool herringbone fabric which helps make my white dress fall appropriate.  You can see it previously styled here with a houndstooth skirt, and here with a denim skirt.  The collarless style is so elegant and easy to wear.

Another passé rule is that your shoes and hemline should match.  Personally, I love the look of matching my shoes to my blouse or jacket, especially if it's a bright color.  I recently purchased these suede orange pumps to go with this jacket and a few other orange things in my closet.  I get lots of complements when I wear them, so that just reinforces my own "match shoes to jacket" rule!

Recreate the look:
White dress: Similar white sheath dress from Nordstrom
Orange pumps: Exact Marc Fisher Pumps
Orange blazer:  similar collarless orange jacket
Purse:  similar pre-owned one that's brown and black


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Leopard Skirt

I'm trying to dress for fall even though the weather still isn't cooperating.  Eventually I'll be able to get my boots out! 

I love this leopard skirt.  I recently saw another lady wearing it with a black silk blouse with billowy sleeves and black pumps; she looked so elegant.  It's a print that works with so many colors.  I've paired this skirt with black, burgundy, brown, beige, green, and pink.  You can dress it down with a white t-shirt and jean jacket, it can take you on a date with a silky black blouse like I described above, or you wear it to work like I'm showing here.

I've paired it here with a mock turtle neck in dark green and my camel blazer.  My suede shooties in dark green repeat the color of my top.  You can see the last time I wore these shoes here.  I added a long strand of cream and brown pearls to help elongate my bust, which is always helpful when wearing high collared tops.

Recreate the look:
Leopard Skirt: WHBM similar
Camel Blazer: J Crew Regent Blazer in Warm Camel
Green Shooties: WHBM Similar save, Similar splurge
Green Mock Turtle Neck: similar


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Bottle Green Ankle Pants

These bottle green ankle pants are from White House Black Market.  They are ponte knit so they are comfortable, yet still appropriate for work.  The matching green suede lace-up shooties are also from WHBM.  I purchased both of these items last year and have really enjoyed them. Bottle green didn't carry over into this year, though. It has been replaced by olive green.  The outfit idea still works paired with olive green pants and booties, so that is what I linked to below.

 

On top I have a beige and white stipe shell by Laundry. I got it from Neiman's Last Call a couple of years ago and it is still on heavy rotation. It is easy to wear under a blazer for work, but it works well with shorts and jeans on the weekends. I love versatile items.

My blazer from, you guessed it, WHBM, is the perfect topper for the outfit.  It's a longer jacket so it provides the little extra back side coverage which I think is needed for knit pants at work.  See it previously styled here with a dress. The waterfall lapel and collarless style keep this outfit from being boring, although, as we get further into fall I could replace it with my classic camel blazer for a different look.

Recreate the look:

Knit pants: similar option in olive green

Suede shoes: similar olive green Tory Burch wedges

Blazer: similar collarless ivory blazer

Top: similar with vertical stripes, similar with wider stripes

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Pinstripes and Cobalt

Here are two outfits combining cobalt blue with black.  Even though I'm wearing the same blouse and shoes in both outfits, and both outfits consist of a skirt and blazer combo, they still look different enough and create a different feel. 

My cobalt blue blouse is from Express.  It has vertical pleats down the front which I love.  It also has short sleeves so when it gets warm in the afternoon I can take my blazer off without being self-conscious.

My cobalt and black heels are by French Connection and I got them at DSW.  They are suede with a small platform and remarkably comfortable for their over 4" heel. 

In the first outfit I'm wearing a seasonless blazer from White House Black Market. I bought it last year and it has become one of my favorite blazers.  It has 2 rows of buttons that give it a double breasted look, but actually closes with hidden hook and eyes, so it doesn't have all of that extra fabric that a true double breasted jacket has that can be overwhelming on my short frame.  The sleeves are 3/4 length and there is a slight puff in the shoulder.  Sometimes puffed shoulders make me feel like a football player, but these are subtle enough that it just adds a pretty feminine touch.

My skirt is a black pinstripe that is the bottom half of a two piece suit. I used to always only wear my suits in the pairs they came with.  Then I started hanging the skirts and pants of my suits in one section of my closet and the blazers in a different section.  Doing this instantly increased the number of outfits I came up with because it became easier to mix and match.

My black Prada hobo and blue and white pearls are the finishing touches.

Recreate the look:

Skirt - pinstripe pencil skirt in plus sizes, JCrew Pinstripe pencil skirt

Blazer - WHBM current version of the above blazer, cute one with ruched sleeves, gorgeous crop blazer

Shoes - blue suede platform pumps, blue suede pumps by Nine West avail in several colors, blue suede pumps very sculptural

Blouse very similar, knit version

Purse Similar

 

In my second outfit I wore a different black blazer.  This one is Tahari and has a subtle snake print design in the fabric. It has a more classic cut than the one above, but still has the shortened sleeves.  This time I paired it with a straight houndstooth skirt and my Hermes belt. For my necklace I chose my short David Yurman choker, and it gives it a different look from the pearls above.

Recreate the look:

Skirt - Similar with black piping, Similar for under $20

Blazer - WHBM current version of the above blazer, cute one with ruched sleeves, gorgeous crop blazer

Shoes - blue suede platform pumps, blue suede pumps by Nine West avail in several colors, blue suede pumps very sculptural

Blouse very similar, knit version

Purse Similar

I use affiliate links in this blog. That means each time you click on a link to a product I get a few cents, even if you don't purchase anything. I have a full time job and I keep this blog purely for fun. All proceeds I make here I donate to charity, so please click away and know it's for a great cause! Many thanks!

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Bootie Trends

There are some trends that I never adopt.  Off the shoulder tops have been big this year. I think they are pretty, but who wants to wear a strapless bra? No, thank you! I'm not a big fan of cold shoulder tops either, they just don't look right to my eye.  And don't get me started on distressed denim! I know people think it looks edgy, but I think it just looks sloppy.

One trend that I'm all for though is booties! Although, I just realized booties might be more of a staple than a trend at this point; I just saw this post reviewing 3 years of booties and it was posted in 2012!  Anyway, I just started wearing booties last year so they are new to me!  Recently I've figured out how to wear booties with skirts too. 

It took me a while to get the combination right. The first few times I tried booties with a skirt my legs looked short and stumpy.  If you have average calves (14" around) it seems effortless! Erin from Living in Yellow recently posted about booties in every combination and she looks great! If you have bigger calves like me (16 inches) it takes a little more effort, but I have found two combinations that work.You can either (1) wear any style booties with matching opaque tights, or (2) you can pair bare legs with a skirt that hits the top of your knee (or shorter) with booties that have a deep "V" in the front to help elongate your leg as seen here.

Gray suede booties - exact they come in black and red too, similar, and I love these too

Jacket - White House Black Market similar, similar

Blouse - White House Black Market similar,  similar in lace 

Skirt - White House Black Market similar from JCrew 

Purse - Via Spiga similar  similar

 

What about you? Do you like off the shoulder or cold shoulder tops?  What about distressed denim: yay or nay? Have you tried your booties with skirts?

 

 

Charity - I use affiliate links in this blog.  That means each time you click on a link to a product I get a few cents, even if you don't purchase anything.  I have a full time job and I keep this blog purely for fun.  All proceeds I make here I donate to charity, so please click away and know it's for a great cause! Also, please tell me what your favorite charities are in the comments.  I will donate to the ones that are most popular. Many thanks!

Denim Skirt

It's the last days of August.  I wanted to wear these Guess Heels one more time before they get pushed aside for fall and winter.  With lots of colors in them they are fun to wear, and go with lots of things in my closet.  I like to wear them with my lavender pants too. They are still available and true to size.

 

I pulled out my denim skirt today, but I've worn this outfit with a white skirt and a khaki skirt also.  My blouse is a silk knit top in a lime yellow.  It's a hard color for a lot of people to wear, but I've loved it since I was in high school. I think it works if your skin has blue undertones, not yellow.

My white jacket with a mandarin collar and zip front completes the look.  The sleeves on this jacket are too long on me so I always roll them up, I should just get them hemmed to this 3/4 length, it would look so much more polished!

 

 

 

 

Denim skirt - White House Black Market

Blouse - White House Black Market

Jacket - Alfani

Shoes - Guess

Purse - Chanel

 

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Guess Heels

 

 After work I ran some errands.  I took my jacket off and and changed into these shoes and was good to go.  These wedges are by Vionic and they feel like athletic shoes.  They have a super-duper orthopedic foot bed just like my Nike's. I used to wear flats when running errands, but these days they make my feet hurt; I need a little bit of heel.  I replaced my leopard flats (that needed to be retired!) with these leopard wedges and I can go all day.

 

 

            

 

Vionic Wedges

 

Charity - I use affiliate links in this blog.  That means each time you click on a link to a product I get a few cents, even if you don't purchase anything.  I have a full time job and I keep this blog purely for fun.  All proceeds I make here I donate to charity, so please click away and know it's for a great cause! Also, please tell me what your favorite charities are in the comments.  I will donate to the ones that are most popular. Many thanks!

Black and White and Bold All Over

I love how black and white is effortlessly chic in any situation.  Here, I'm in my the little white dress I just got from Nordstrom via Trunk Club  (styled before here). This time I topped it with a black pin stripe blazer with short sleeves. I just buttoned the middle button and added a belt over the blazer. I've found that while models can pull off the belted blazer look effortlessly, I can only manage it with fitted blazers that are intended to be belted like this one!

The blazer is the top half of a two piece suit. I used to hang my suits in sets in my closet.  I always kept the blazer with the skirt or pants it came with.  About a year ago I tried separating my suits so I have just the blazers with all of my blazers and the skirt with my other skirts, etc.  I found that by doing that I found other ways to wear the pieces separately; giving me more unique outfits and more mileage out of my existing wardrobe.  It's been a great trick.

 

 

White Dress - Classiques Entier, available here it comes in four colors, regular and petite

Blazer - Tahari ASL (old)

Booties - Tahari (old)

 

I've had these black and white booties for many years; long before booties were all the rage and became trendy to wear with skirts and dresses. I still think they look better with Capri pants, trousers, or jeans, but I figured I'd give the trend a go.  I think booties with skirts work better on women with super skinny calves or really long legs.  I need that extra couple inches of skin to help elongate my legs!

 

 

Charity - I use affiliate links in this blog.  That means each time you click on a link to a product I get a few cents, even if you don't purchase anything.  I have a full time job and I keep this blog purely for fun.  All proceeds I make here I donate to charity, so please click away and know it's for a great cause! Also, please tell me what your favorite charities are in the comments.  I will donate to the ones that are most popular. Many thanks!

Gray and Pastels

Last week I blogged about a lilac and gray outfit I was wearing.  It got me thinking about how gray looks great with all pastel colors. So, I used the same  gray and pastels formula for today's outfit of gray and sky blue.

This is a sky blue leather skirt from White House Black Market that I got last season.
The gray zipper eyelet jacket is Armani Collezioni that I got at Neiman's Last Call, also last year.

 

I paired it with gray and navy pearls, and a wrist-full of silver bangles.  I learned how to stack bangles from growing up in the Middle East...looking at these pictures I'm not sure if that projects the successful business woman image I'm going for, but I am in very cosmopolitan Houston, so maybe it works!

 

 

Here are the shoes I'm wearing.  The are still available at DSW, and are on sale. The gray tied in with my jacket and it's not obvious in this picture, but there are shades of blue throughout the gray, so these are just the perfect shoe for this outfit!

 

 

I don't use affiliate posts, so I'm not making any money when you click on these links.

Minimalist Shinimalist!

There's been a real trend towards minimalism in the last few years. Fashion blogs and Pinterest are littered with how to create a Causal Wardrobe, or as some like to claim, how to dress like a French woman.

Then there's Marie Kondo's New York Times best seller that espouses that if you get rid of everything that doesn't spark joy in your life you will free yourself and only greatness will follow.

I've read numerous flow charts to help you decide what to keep and what to ditch. I've tried the system of turning all of your hangers backwards, the hang them back up normally after you wear something and after 6 month you'll be able easily identify what you haven't worn and get rid of it.

I've tried all of these ideas. In January after reading Kondo's book I did a big purge and took six bags to Good Will.  But I still have so many clothes.  When I started using my Stylebook Closet App, and it gave me an actual count of everything in my closet and the combined value...holy cow! 

I really started to weigh on me. The volume of my possessions was making me a little depressed. I started obsessing a little bit about it. Am I too materialistic? Am I a shopaholic? Am I hoarder? 

What is a reasonable amount of clothes to have anyway? Looking at my statistics in my closet app I have 502 items logged. And that's not everything, but it does include bags, shoes, necklaces, belts, and scarves. 

I've been using the app for 2 months. I haven't repeated a work outfit once, and I've only repeated a casual outfit once. Out of my 502 items, I still haven't worn 204 items after 2 months. About 65 of that 204 are winter items, so that doesn't really count. So, I have about 150 items still to wear.  That will probably still take me at least 2 more months to wear everything in season in my closet.

With those 502 items I've created 665 outfits so far, without much effort. If I really tried I could probably get up to 1000 unique outfits. And I'm not splitting hairs here and counting an outfit with different shoes or a different necklace as a different outfit. These are distinctively different outfits.

There's only 365 days in the year, though. I could go over 2 years without ever wearing the same outfit! My mom would say that's obscene (that's also how she describes our Christmases with 100's of presents, hmm maybe my comfort with excess stems from that!)! 

Anyway, I was lamenting to my coworker today about how I need to get rid of half my wardrobe because I have too much and she said, "Who cares?" I thought about that for a moment, and you know what, she's right! Who cares? 

I have the space for my stuff. I don't go into debt buying things. I wear my stuff. Why does it matter that I have too much, and who's to say what too much is anyway? I'm sure it's less than any of the Kardashions!

When I got home I changed out of my work clothes and into errond clothes as I do everyday. I created a new outfit combination that utilized 2 items from my never worn list, and a great pair of wedges that I've owned for years, but have also gone years with never wearing. If I'd had followed all that minimalist advice I would have gotten rid of these shoes years ago. Instead they were the perfect shoes for my outfit today and that brought me joy! 

 

Feeling Nautical

I haven't worn this white jacket in probably over a year. I've almost gotten rid of it a couple of times, but somehow it always made its way back into the closet from my donate pile.  My Stylebook Closet App manages to keep everything in my closet top of mind. Since getting the app I've managed to wear a lot of items in my closet that haven't been in rotation!  It's a great feeling. 

I got this J Crew navy skirt on eBay at the beginning of May and have already worn it 3 times. I'd been looking for a navy pencil skirt for sometime. You'd think it is such a wardrobe basic that I would be able to find one anywhere...and how do I not already own a navy skirt to begin with!? I even asked Sheila, my personal shopper at Trunk Club (Post 1, Post 2) to send me one, and

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and she came up empty too. So I headed to eBay, filtered by my go-to brands like J Crew and Banana Republic, and got this one for $37 including shipping. I love a good find! 

The yellow top was one of the items I kept from my first Trunk Club trunk that I got in April. It is so soft, like your favorite t-shirt, and the square neck keeps it looking like a blouse. Square necklines aren't flattering on everyone, but I've always liked them.

Navy pencil skirt - J Crew

 Yellow top - Lafayette 148

White jacket - Alfani

Blue silk stripe pumps - Badalino

 

Here's a close up of my shoes. I love them and wear them a lot. They are by Bandalino and I got them at DSW. Don't they look like they are made of neck-tie material? I love menswear inspired items. The only funny thing about them is you can hear me coming and going; the chain clinks with each step!

 

Outfit Formula: Matching Blouse and Shoes

Do you ever use formulas to get dressed?  I do. Here are some of the formulas I use most often for office outfits:

1) Matching skirt and blazer with contrasting blouse - this is your most traditional formula.  It is the most similar to a man's power suit where your blouse becomes synonymous with his tie.

2) Matching skirt and blouse with contrasting blazer

3) Matching blouse and blazer with contrasting skirt

4) Matching blouse and statement shoes with any combination of skirt and blazer

I use one of first three formulas when I'm pressed for time or when I have important meetings, because they are easy to put together and always look smart. 

When I'm I feeling creative or want to have a little more fun, like today, I'll use #4! 
Today I wore this black and white striped skirt with a pink blouse and matching statement strappy sandals. 

My skirt is from White House Black Market, the blouse is from Stitch Fix, the Shoes are Kelly and Katie from DSW.  My necklace is white topaz that I got in Sri Lanka (you can read about that trip in my Travel Blog). 

Here's a close up of the blazer.  It is by Elie Tahari, and has these wonderful ribbon details to really make it much more than your ordinary black blazer.

And these shoes are so fun!  They are by Kelly & Katie which is a private label brand created by DSW. They have enough elastic in the strap that I can get them on without having to unbuckle them which is convenient.  They are very comfortable except for a small spot on the top strap that rubbed against the top of my foot.  I actually just put a piece of tape under the strap and the problem was solved.