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Today’s outfit is another attempt to inject some pattern into my looks for this challenge. My original plan was to wear a skirt over the patterned dress (kind of like I did with this look) but I ended up really liking the printed dress on it’s own with the wrap dress as a duster over it. I think the fact that it snowed this week (and that it’s now magically wintery white outside instead of just gross and brown) has me really feeling the white, navy, and grey color palette of this look.
Before I embarked on my one dress, thirty ways challenge, I was actually planning on doing more blog posts showing how to wear pieces from my Contra Collection with more casual, everyday clothes. Because as much as I love dressing up, I also love comfy casual clothes. (I have a shocking number of oversized cardigans from athleisure brands like Lululemon and Athleta.)
So yesterday’s snowfall seemed like the perfect opportunity to show you how well pieces from the Contra Collection work with more casual style. Like this sweater layered over a sweater. (Because if I’ve learned anything from my one dress challenge, is that layering is almost always the answer.) And adding a Contra necklace (like this one, which I’m wearing with a 2” chain extender) is a great way to make even the most casual outfit look a little more put together.
Every since I started this one dress, thirty ways challenge, I’ve been wanting to style a sweater over the dress like my friend Stasia, who is a master at wearing sweaters over dresses. But the reality is, Stasia and I are built completely differently, and every time I pulled on a sweater over the dress, it only ever looked ok. The reason for this is that I have broader shoulders than Stasia, so while she needs width up top, I tend to look better with styles that have vertical lines. (To break up my broad expanse of chest.) This is why the wrap dress as duster thing works so well on my body.
Still, I was determined to successfully style a sweater over the wrap dress. And then, I unearthed this military vest from the back of my closet. I actually originally thought about just wearing the vest over the dress, but it came off a little blah. But the sweater adds a pop of color and the vest adds the vertical lines to make this an outfit that really works for me. (Plus, it helps that I just got my hair colored. Vibrant red hair makes anything pop!)
After looking back on last week’s outfits, I decided for the third week of my one dress, thirty ways challenge, it was time to add in a little pattern. (Beyond stripes, which I’ve worn in a few outfits.) Of course, my first choice for adding in some pattern is this pleated wrap skirt, which I made a few years ago, from fabric based on one of my paintings.
Unfortunately, I really didn’t love the way the wrap dressed stuck out under the bottom of the skirt. (I couldn’t make it feel sort of intentional like I did with this look.) At the start of the project, someone on Instagram had suggested I cut the bottom of the wrap dress to make it shorter, but I actually love the length of it when I wear it as a duster, so scissors aren’t an option.
My original plan for this outfit was simply to wear the grey wrap dress as a duster over this green shirt dress I have. I thought it would work as the reverse of the dress and military jacket look I wore on Day 1. But the shirt dress is a high-low cut, and I really didn’t like how short it was on me in the front. So I decided to throw this pleated skirt on over top, and I’m so glad I did, because this may be my favorite outfit yet! (Yes, even more than the jumpsuit.) And yes, the front of the shirt dress was cut even shorter than this skirt. Waaay too short for my comfort zone. But the skirt is pretty much the perfect length to really make my legs look long.
And because I really didn’t want to disrupt the navy waistband of the skirt, I opted to just tie the straps of the dress as duster in the back as a loose bow. It still gives me the duster effect, but without losing the way the skirt actually emphasizes my waist. (And if you’re keeping score, that’s now four different ways I’ve tied the dress as a duster.)
A few days into the challenge, a friend of mine hinted that she thought we’d see a leather jacket coming up in the future. And while it seems like an obvious choice, I’ve never really been a leather jacket wearer. And since one of the rules I set for this challenge is that I’m trying not to buy anything new, I figured it wouldn’t happen. But then I remembered this faux leather jacket I had bought years ago for a model photo shoot.
As soon as I styled yesterday’s look, I knew it was going to be a challenge to top it. So I’m not even going to try. Instead, I’m following it up with a look that I’m not totally sure about. But as I mentioned in another post where I wasn’t sure how I felt about the outfit, part of the creative process is that you have to try a lot of things, and not every result is going to be a slam dunk.
In the case of this outfit, my goal was to try something a little bit different. It would be really easy to just keep wearing the wrap dress as a duster over other dresses I own (because I really love the way that looks), but that feels like cheating the creative process. So I’m pushing myself to experiment with different ways of layering the dress, which in this case, means putting a tank top over it.
When I was a kid, my mom would never let us shop at Old Navy, because she said that all the clothes always got super wrinkly. She may have had a point with this linen jumpsuit, but I’m willing to overlook any wrinkles because I actually managed to find a jumpsuit that is flattering on me. And the wrap dress over top just takes it to a whole other level. If I ever have to fight crime, I’m totally doing it in this outfit. (And yes, that includes the chunky heeled boots and bold Contra necklace!)
This black and navy strapless striped dress may be one of my favorite summer dresses, (I actually like it so much, I own it in a few colors, but the stripes are my favorite.) and I love how wearing the wrap dress as a duster let’s me extend this dress into colder weather.
Because I really like the way the striped dress gives me a waist, (which doesn’t always happen for me) I decided to experiment with tying the wrap dress a slightly different way. I started by tucking the belt under the wrap dress and then tied it just around the dress underneath. (When you’re styling the same dress thirty ways, you start to look for little details you can change!)
After my foray into color yesterday, I couldn’t resist styling today’s look with just the dress and oversized charcoal sweater. To mix things up, I added a second belt over the sweater to help give it more shape. (Side note: now all I can think about now is that episode of Friends where Gary Oldman plays Joey’s co-star in a movie, and he shows up to work drunk and slurs “I’m wearing two belts.”)