January

This is my favorite winter dress! There's  nothing like a cozy calf-length sweater to make any sub-zero day a little more bearable. A coat like this helps too.

I got the idea for this outfit from this chart that was all abuzz on Pinterest at the time. It illustrates some obvious ways to wear a blanket scarf (2, 4, 5,8), some questionable ways (3,7), and something that I had never considered, belting. The dress I am wearing has a belt attached, so I just used that to cinch the scarf at my waist. It looked good, but ended up hindering my movement throughout the day, so I ended up wearing it like a cape by midday.

I think I was inspired by my scarf belting experience above when I put this outfit together. I belted this bulky cascade cardigan to give myself a little shape and it really worked for this look. I'm also really enjoying the absence of color here with a pop of excitement from my sparkly statement necklace.

Here's that blanket scarf again worn a little more conventionally. I did not intend to wear this scarf all day, but in case you didn't know, January is a cold month.

I don't think I've had the chance to rave about these jeans yet, which is interesting because I've worn them at least once a week since I got them. These are some form fitting, super long, ultra-soft flares and I love them. Personally, I am very happy that flares have come back into style. I've always liked their fun retro appeal.

Goodbye 2015, You Were the Worst.

I got this cute little sweater as a birthday present and instantly envisioned an outfit similar to this. I imagined a long white button up with wide leg pants and I developed this outfit from that. I'm not sure why I didn't immediately pair the sweater with a dress or skirt, as I'm sure that is how the sweater was intended to be worn. This may be a sign that I'm aging and stuck in a style time warp as this look is very representative of how I dressed in 2005. For sanity's sake I'd rather think of it as a throwback, than a relapse.

Now this is more representative of my 2015 style. Roomy on top, leggy on the bottom.

I forgot to write "hat hair from hat", because, look at it.

I found this all black outfit very difficult to illustrate. In the flesh, I thought the layering of an allover sequined dress and a sheer flocked tunic was quite dynamic. Hopefully, you can imagine how that looked from this drawing. Trust me, it was dope.

My Style

I tend to wear many different styles and I like to dress differently based on my mood or circumstances. However, I would say that when it comes down to it, I have a distinctive personal style. The next two outfits are very representative of this style.

Black with a punch of color (puce), vintage mini skirt, friend-made earrings, sassy boots, a touch of comfort and warmth with a Henley and sweater tights. This is perfect.

Black and camel, my signature jacket, something from Poppy, big friend-made earrings, badass boots and a hat. This is me.

Feeling Blue

Blue is not a color that I wear very often, but apparently, I was feeling it in November.  The color is especially dynamic when paired with my new orange corduroy jacket.

I came up with this outfit in an attempt to wear this little blue sweater. I think it's OK, but it would be better in warmer weather so I don't have to wear the awkward socks. 

The chambray shirt is becoming one of my new favorite clothing items. I call this look, the cool professor.

Dress

This is a dress that I love, but have only ever worn for special occasions. It's not terribly fancy, but there's something about it that makes it more formal that casual. I wanted to wear it as an everyday dress, so I paired it with this corduroy jacket and I think it does the trick.

Vintage Dresses

Earrings - Dottir

This dress came from a garage sale that I recently attended where everything was free. Free I tell you! I'm really proud of myself for not pulling my van up to the door and filling it completely because believe me there was enough beautiful stuff at this sale to do so. It was hard because the "sale" was put on by a woman around my age with almost the exact same style as me. Same color pallet and a knack for vintage flair. She was however, a different size (petite 6, whereas I'm a tall 10), making it easier for me to take a reasonable amount of clothing. I contemplated each piece one at a time and determined if it would fit and how it would work with my current wardrobe. Once I got home and tried everything on, there were a couple of  duds, but mostly I feel like I made out like a bandit. 

Is this dress me or what? I didn't get it at the free garage sale, but I was wearing the above outfit when I bought this dress at My Sister's Closet. I don't know why that matters, but it gives me pleasure to make connections.

Chuck Taylor Love Story

Earrings by Dottir

For many years, Chuck Taylors were my go-to shoe. I would buy a pair, wear them for about 3 years until they literally fell apart and then begrudgingly buy a new pair that I quickly broke in to that perfect comfort spot. My last pair wore out nearly 5 years ago and at that point, I could no longer find my size in stores. I'm not too fond of buying shoes online, so I just didn't replace them. Finally, I was so sick of my lack of casual shoes that I gave in and bought a pair online. And I've gotta tell ya, I have no regrets. I bought the charcoal color, a first for me and I absolutely love it. The color goes with everything. Even though I didn't get to try them on before I purchased them, they fit perfectly. Now whenever I'm not sure which shoes to wear, I just put on my Chucks and that's almost always the right choice. 

Earrings by Layla's Elaborations

Ooh, lovin' on the dress. I got this trapeze dress at a Buffalo Exchange in Denver, CO. I love thrift shopping when I travel. I used to love to buy souvenirs, but now I just buy used clothes. I believe that every piece of clothing holds a story, not only my story, but the untold story of the previous owner. This makes me feel like I'm collecting a part of the town that I visit. Now every time I wear this dress I have fond memories of my time spent in Colorado, which is linked to the dress' hopefully fond times with it's previous owner in Colorado. Who knows, maybe this dress was abused, but I like to think it was loved in some way.

I got this dress because I was at a buy 2, get 1 free sale at Urban Archaeology and this was the freebie. It's too big, but the colors in the plaid are incredible. This outfit was OK, but I think this dress is gonna need some alterations to really work.

Two hours into the day and I ripped the heel of my boot right off. Super bummed and I let everyone know it throughout the day.

Bye boots.

You were loved.

Back to those Chucks making everything come together.

Notes on Puce

"Gettin' it in camel"

If I could commit to something like a "Fall fashion concept", this would be it.

Earrings - Layla's Elaborations

I'm not sure how to correctly portray the color of these tights. The packaging says that they're "olive oil". Olive oil is just a marketable Puce, which is what I call this color. However, when I googled the color puce, I found this color name to be quite controversial. Apparently, "puce" is a dark reddish purple, but when I took a small poll, the general public thinks puce is a dark greenish yellow. Maybe this has something to do with associations with the term "puke green". Now I'm left totally confused and ashamed of my color naming abilities.

Whatever you want to call it, I love the color and I love these sweater tights from Poppy. I'm going to be wearing them a lot this coming Fall and Winter, so I had better get a "puce" (or whatever) colored marker to better represent them in my drawings.

Necklace by LaLunette

I woke up this morning with thoughts of casual comfort. I was gonna wear some jeans and a simple top and feel great about myself. I don't know how it happened, but this is what I came up with: black slacks, a backless blouse and high-heeled boots. I'm so messed up. I can't not get fancy.