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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Fight To The Finish



When: Monday, April 11

A Little History:
A lovely black maxi dress has been hanging in my closet for two years and has never seen the light of day. I purchased it because it was on sale and that particular summer I had several weddings to attend but let's get real here I bought it because it was on sale. I used to do this a lot. See something on sale and decide since it was on said sale that that meant I should buy it. Any who, I have since gotten away from doing this so back to my ignored frock...

The Challenge:
Every Body, Every Wear came up with the idea to have everyone show off their maxi dress styling so I thought this would be the perfect time to dust off my never before worn dress and strut my stuff. Well, long story short I had A LOT of issues trying to decide how to wear my dress. To a lot of people it may appear that getting dressed for the day is a no brainer and that they always look stylish and put together with ease. Truth is...IT TAKES WORK!

Problems:
First off, I knew that the dress would need to be tamed down for work since it has the potential of showing off a lot of boobage.
Secondly, it is a halter style which also meant it was a no no for wearing to work as is.
Thirdly, it is just a long black sack with nothing really special going on about it.
Fourthly, (Is that even a word?) What to wear on my feet?
Wow, I guess I know now why it has never been worn.

Solution: RESEARCH!
Step 1: I jumped on line and started to do some research. I did a simple Google search for Maxi dress styling tips and came up with a few good ideas. Then I looked at several different video clips of ways to style it and then found some images from magazines on line with styling tips.
Step 2: Try to think like my favorite bloggers. Once I had some key ideas then I started to think of some of my favorite bloggers and what I like about how they put their outfits together.
Step 3: Make It My Own= I then took a few key ideas and added them to my own style philosophy and Voila!

The Reveal: My Maxi Dress Styling= A Little Girly Edge
Boobage Issue: I found on one of the sites I was looking at that they simply wore a bandeau top to cover up their cleavage to tame down a low v-neck. Genius! I don't know why I didn't think about that. It was a easy fix that didn't leave bulk under the dress.

Halter Your A No, No: I added my lovely white leather jacket over the top of the dress. Not only did it work for coverage but also a pop of light against the black dress. Bonus: I am also staying warm today which is nice.

Plain Old Sack: I added my favorite corset belt to give me a waist and just started adding necklaces. The necklaces are all really long so I draped them to create different length. Since I kept the rest of my accessories simple the necklaces popped and lengthen me so that I didn't look like I was wearing a sack.

Feet What's Up: I tried heels but they looked ridiculous since the dress hits me a little above the ankle. I didn't want to wear flip flops since those would be to casual. I also didn't want to wear anything that would take the focus off of my upper body since I was trying to look long and lean so nude gladiators where my go to. I like how they kept my outfit light but also stylish.



Bottom Line: I am proud that I didn't let this challenge get me down. I was feeling beaten there for a while, but thanks to all of you lovelies out there, I knew that there had to be other people in my same boat so that helped pull me through. I am still not sure whether I really like this dress or not but at least it doesn't have the tags on it anymore. I am hoping that I get a lot more inspiration today from everyone else's dresses to help me out with whether I will be keeping it or thrifting it out. Enjoy!

XOXO,

J



Who:

Jacket: Baby Phat (Marshall's, Gift from my mom)
Dress: NY&Co
Belt: Mossimo (Target)
Shoes: R2 (Marshall's)
Necklaces: Pearl (Thrifted)
                  Black Triple Strand (Lia Sophia)
                  Silver Oval Beaded (Kohl's)
                  Opalescent and Seed Pearls (Gift from my sweet niece for my birthday)

5 comments:

  1. I am glad that this challenge didn't get to you...I love your look! The belt from Target is the star of this outfit! You did an excellent job and I will return to your blog!! I will also join your followers!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks so much! That is a really sweet compliment. My belt is my favorite. I have worn it with so many different outfits that I had to retire it for awhile. I love a cinched waist since wi don't really have a really defined one.



    I will be heading over to check out your blog:)



    Sincerely and with thanks,



    Julie

    ReplyDelete
  3. That belt is fierce, my friend! I would be wearing that ALL the time~Meredith

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great polished look!
    xxx

    http://gypsy-diaries.blogspot....

    P.S: I´m having a $100 Beauty giveaway (YSL, Chanel... etc). Just thought you might be interested! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love reading this! I'm so happy to hear that EBEW encouraged you to go into the depths of your closet to try something new. I'd say you pulled it off wonderfully!
    Thanks for joining us at EBEW!

    ReplyDelete

XOXO,

Julie

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