Today I’m combining a look with one of In Style’s 50 Best Fashion Tips of all Time: When you find a flattering style, buy in multiples. In Style used Jackie O as an example. She brought new meaning to the sheath dress back in the early 60’s and had multiples.
If you know me well, you might be surprised about this choice from the list. I’m always preaching encouraging variety. My clients have heard me say many times, “Do not buy the same thing three times over!” Yes, we all need several black and white layering pieces, but there is a limit. I see so much redundancy in closets. I’m not against the same style in another color. Make an effort to give it a different look.
This year I keep finding flattering dresses. They are comfortable to me. They camouflage my middle and I can feel very casual or dressy depending on the style. Dresses didn’t quite make my “Things I Love” series but I LOVE DRESSES! I previously had a thing for skirts, but as my middle thickened, I found them harder to wear. Don’t get me wrong–there is nothing better than a great pencil skirt (preferably ponte knit) and you’ve seen me in a few.
Dress: Cache
Jewelry: Stella & Dot, InPink.com; Divine Decadence Vintage, Pearls from Accentuate
Shoes: Lily Atelier, Sofft
Bag: Gigi Hill (I use this bag, the Sophia, ALL THE TIME for my laptop and a variety of other things. Check out their site for even more great sizes and patterns. Gigi Hill Giveaway coming soon!)
In the two poses I switched the jewelry AND shoes. This is a dress you could layer on the jewelry if you chose to and I probably will. The Stella & Dot Chelsea is a favorite. It catches a lot of light, sparkles; the photo doesn’t do it justice. It is simple, yet a statement. I have on a pair of vintage earrings which you will see more of in the post coming this weekend.
I purposely switched to the brown Sofft shoes that I’ve worn to death for three years. I still love them, but here is a great example where neutral shoes elongate the leg. The bracelets from InPink.com are a statement by themselves and really break up the brown, so I kept the necklace simple–two tone pearls and gold hoops.
I pop in Cache every so often. It’s a store that has more dramatic styles and bolder colors. I had NEVER stepped into Cache until 3 years ago during my stylist training. In July they had 50% off with an additional discount on multiples. Yes, I bought the very same dress in two different colors!
I realize I have a place to wear dresses. If you feel too dressed up, look for casual styles that are more versatile. I will show some before summer ends.
The wrap style dress works well for me. I think it hides a good ten pounds. I also liked a draped neck as I’ve found the typical sheath with a higher neckline to be unflattering on my body type.
Here is the other color dress taken with the point/shoot camera. I was in a hurry as usual and off to work. (My hydrangas are crazy tall this summer!)
I’m wearing the same necklace with statement earrings and a simple bracelet. I have only worn this version one time and I’m working on giving it a different look.
Same dress–note the differences between professional photos/snapshots. Let me reiterate–angle, lighting and posing. A topic for another post…
Thanks to all of you who kept reading the last five days! I appreciate your e-mails. One last note, my web designer and blog mentor wrote, “I think you should use the large vs medium option for the photos unless you don’t want giant photos of yourself which I understand! ”
Well Sherra, I am not sure what I was thinking because all week I’ve been frustrated that I couldn’t show enough details. Cropping just wasn’t doing the job! I went back and changed the photos. If you look at the posts again on the home page of my blog, I think you’ll see more details. As far as being worried about the giant photos–I guess I’m over that now!
So what do you think? Are you willing to give dresses another look?
All Things Chic has some great looks in python. Check it out!
