Paws & Poise Revisted

Take a step back in time with me.  The year was 2015 and I was over the moon styling my Paws & Poise dress from ModCloth.  Featuring a darling dog print on cream chiffon with a black embroidered collar, this dress was a no hesitation, instant purchase and thankfully so, because it quickly sold out and never restocked.  I styled it different ways, (mainly by changing the cardigan color) and posted lovingly each time.   And then?  The dress, as far as I can tell, has not been featured on the blog since then.  A decade has passed without at single post about this dress?!  A shocking revelation, I know.  Oh, dear, well I intend to rememdy that today.  Yes, I do in fact still own this dress and it is just as darling ten years on as it was that February long ago.

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THEN

NOW

I still love my cardigans and wear them all the time, but sometimes I prefer the more structured look that a blazer provides.  I also did the first few photos with the dress collar out, just to see how it looked, but I typically wear it with the collar under the blazer collar.  I also wear less color these days just to match the vibe of my current workplace.  

Outfit Info:  Paws & Poise Dress, Blazer, belt and flats are all old.

Trail Blazer: 4 Tips for Dress Up Your Casual Look

This morning I'm up bright and early for a meeting and I thought I'd grease the wheels and lift the spirits of all those night owls who had to drag themselves out of bed so early today by bringing coffee.  It doesn't hurt to bring an assortment and to stop at a locally owned place that serves amazing coffee just in case you have a coffee snob or two in the crowd.  And, rest assured,  I say “snob” in a loving, respectful way because I admire anyone who has distinguished tastes and truly knows what they like.  But this meeting isn't the only thing I've got on the agenda for today and everything else is going to require me to be free to move and to be a little more casual.  There's lunch with my niece at the pre-school, taking the dog to the park, and then a soccer game this evening.  I won't be playing soccer, but I will be doing a lot of jumping up and cheering.  While I'm sure I could do any or all of those things in a skirt and heels, I thought it best to wear something that is at once dressy and casual.  A lot of women today find themselves wearing many hats as we juggle work, family, and fun and I'm no exception, so today I thought I'd share some easy tips for creating a great dressy-casual look.

 1.      Ditch the graphic, but keep the tee.  T-shirts are soft and comfy and it's easy to see why we all love them so much.  The trouble is that tees can be too casual for work.  My office has a rule about no graphic tees and that seems to be common in the business world.  So, if you love the comfort of a tee then keep it, but look for solid color or classy print like my polka dots.  Another way to dress up that tee is by choosing something other than a crew-neck.  Polo collars, scoop necks, Vs or this square neck like I'm wearing are all dressier alternatives to that crew.

2.  Keep the Jeans.  Wearing jeans is something that a lot of places reserve for Fridays only, but with a stunning fit that's right for your shape and a dark wash there's no reason that jeans can't look office appropriate any day of the week.  I'm wearing some high rise flared leg jeans from FemmeLuxe with my top tucked in and a belt for a more clean cut look.

3.  Add a Blazer.  FemmeLuxe has some wonderful blazers to complete your professional outfit and make you look fierce.  A great, well fitting blazer is something everyone should have in their wardrobe.  For this look I chose the Black Rolled Sleeve Collared Jacket-Madison from FemmeLuxe and you can see that it really is the key to dressing up this look.  It is the only black blazer that I own and the only one that I think I'll need.  When it comes to blazers think of them as the whipped cream on the sundae.  Without the jacket, this would still be a stylish look, but not necessarily career wear.  Blazers adds polish and panache that just wouldn't be there without it.

4.  Kicks, Heels, or Flats.  Here's the part where you have some options.  Depending on your day and what you'll need to do and how you'll need to present yourself choose the foot wear that's right for you.  I'm wearing heels to the meeting, but I brought along a pair of black ballet flats for everything else going on in my day and there have been plenty of days when I've left both at home for a pair of burgundy converse that have been well loved, but still have  lot of miles left in them.  All of those options look great with this sort of outfit, it just depends on how polished you need to look and what kinds of activities you'll be doing that day.  When in doubt, stick with ballet flats that you've worn before so that you know you can be on the go all day without getting blisters.

I'd better dash off now to the meeting before the coffee gets cold, but I'm feeling confident and comfortable and relatively stress free about it all.  Funny how the right outfit can boost all those positive feelings and make you ready for anything the day has to offer.

Outfit Info:  Jacket from: FemmeLuxeFinery, Top from: SHEIN

Plaid Blazer: ootd

    I saw this blazer on ThredUp and loved it for no particular reason.  I don't have a lot of blazers, and this was a stand out piece with a vintage feel.    When I bought it, I had a much different vision for how I would wear it, which was with a long black skirt and boots.  When I put it all together, it just didn't work.  The boots were too high, the skirt was too long.  It just wasn't right, but it wasn't the jacket's fault.  I put it in the closet and waited for another idea.  

    My local thrift shop had a great sale and while I was rummaging through racks I found this awesome backpack.  It was new, with the tags still on, cost only $12 and was just what I was looking for.  Anytime we make trips to Tokyo, I carry my cross-body bag with my camera and all my other things.  It's so heavy it causes tension headaches that last for days.  I'm hoping this backpack will evenly distribute the weight and the headaches will subside.  Style and function?  I can't ask for anything more than that.

    Bringing home this bag, inspiration struck!  A blazer and a backpack?  It was meant to be.  Then it was just a matter of added a little more function to the outfit by switching out the skirt for shorts and tights and a comfortable pair of flats.  Voila!  It all came together.  Warm, comfortable, practical, love, love, love.

Shop the Look:

Jacket is from ThredUp  (use this link to sign up and save $20 off your first order http://www.thredup.com/r/WKVOY5

Top is from ThredUp

Shorts by My Michelle

Tights from ModCloth

Beret purchased locally ,but this one is similar

Backpack purchased locally

Belts, Blazers, & Cardigans: Closet Necessities and Your Waist Line's Best Friends

I've never been a belt wearer.  I've always stayed away from them, mainly because it was just one extra step that I wasn't interested in taking.  In the last year or so, I've seen the light and totally reformed.  I think back now to all those outfits that looked so frumpy that I gave them away, and I see now that all they were missing was a great belt.  Sometimes we have to look beyond something as it is presented to see the potential it has with just a little tweaking.

 Very often pieces don't start out great, they need to be tailored or personalized in some way to make them right for the individual.  I think of certain items like cotton dresses "the basics," they're a starting point not a finished piece.  The most frequent culprit in a blah waist line is the empire dress. So, I've chosen it to demonstrate the how to unlock the potential of a piece. 

An empire dress has its place in the world, but quite frankly that place is in Regency literature like Pride and Prejudice, and the closets of four year old girls.  However, every now and then I see a really gorgeous print, so versatile, so lovely, and so unfortunately attached to an empire waist.  My solution is very simple and one that I hope you'll employ before tossing out the next frumpy dress you find buried in your closet: Add a belt.    

There are of course some things to keep in mind when choosing this route.  First of all, forget about the belt loops on the dress and put the belt on the narrowest part of your waist.  Second, make sure that the belt is standout color.  It makes a world of difference in drawing attention to the narrowest part of your waist when you have some sort of visual contrast there.  

I know I've focused on belts so far, but if you've kept up with my blog for any amount of time, you've probably noticed all my cardigans.  I own so many of them for a very good reason; they are a relatively inexpensive way to that add pop and polish that make an outfit look complete.  

When it comes to cardigans, I have one in every color and length, but the opposite can be said of blazers.  I have only two blazers at present, and while it's true that blazers tend to be more costly than cardis, the fact is that a good blazer will go with just about anything and make it look classier in the process.  

       I decided to demonstrate the drastic difference these items can make on an outfit with one of my recent thrift store purchases.  This dress is by Maeve, a very nice brand by Anthropologie, and it cost me $18.  The pastel mosaic print is gorgeous and the cotton is so soft, I decided to take a chance and see if I could work with it.  

My reason for hesitating was, of course, the empire waist.  I had a pretty good idea how it was going to look on my frame and I was correct.  I don't mind saying that without a belt this dress looks horrible on me.  It feels like that awful, old style of maternity wear from way back when women were trying to hide their baby bellies.  In other words, it looks like I put on a circus tent.

At the back of the dress there is some smocking to give a more comfortable fit to the top, but again I look much wider without a defined waist in the dress.

Even though the dress came with a belt, you'll notice in the store photos that it's meant to be worn around the empire waist.  That's an absurd notion, so I didn't even waste time doing a photo of it.  However, even moving the belt to my natural waist was not the way to really fix this dress, because the belt is made of the same fabric and print as the dress.  This means that it is completely camouflaged and therefore does little to improve the shape of the dress or to bring visual interest to the outfit.

    Because the darker orange is such a standout color in this dress, I decided to make it a focal color and chose an orange grosgrain ribbon for a belt.  

I love to use grosgrain because it's not as slippery as satin ribbons, it's inexpensive, and available at most craft stores, so  I can easily and inexpensively accent my outfits.

    Right away there is a huge change in the silhouette of the dress.  Now there is some visual interest and the eye immediately goes to that pop of orange right at the narrowest part of my waist.

Since I was on a roll with the orange, I decided to take it one step further and replace the orange ribbon with an orange cropped cardigan.  This really brought out the colors, and created a smooth silhouette.  The poof in the skirt needed a little flattening around  the belt and this cardi did that perfectly.  

To give it just a little extra something at the waist I went back and added the original belt.

This is the finished look.  It was taken on a different day than the others, but there is such a huge contrast between the original shape of the dress and the finished look that I wanted to recreate my process when putting together an outfit in the hopes that it will demonstrate the value of belts and cardigans in your own wardrobe.