OOTD & Style Challenge: Sweater Over Skirt

Today was a busy, but productive day.  I slept in for the first time in weeks and the BF and I met up with some friends, did some shopping and then spent a few hours in a coffee shop getting our respective work done.  Working on things in a coffee shop is something I've loved doing since I started college.  There's just something about the surrounding business inherent in a local coffee shop -- hearing snippets of conversation, smelling freshly ground coffee, taking in the aesthetic of the space itself -- that gets my juices going.  Anyway, here's today's outfit:

 Outfit Details:

Sweater: Gap

Belt: Anthropologie Gift Bow Belt

Dress: Zara Empire Waist Dress (still on sale in stores!  See product details here.)

Shoes: Zigi Soho Mixer Boots

Bonus drinking picture!

Today is the day I completed my latest Style Challenge -- Wearing a sweater over a dress.  I've had trouble with this idea for 2 reasons - 1) I'm on the shorter side, and wearing a sweater over a dress lowers the waist of my outfit, which makes me look shorter, not taller.  2) I was worried about the bulkiness of a sweater over the extra material of the dress -- it makes a whole lot more sense to me to wear a sweater over a skirt.  The awesome part though, is that this type of layering expands the versatility of your wardrobe -- all of a sudden, intensely patterned dresses are now candidates for skirts!  Think of the possibilities in your closet!

In order to make myself comfortable with this style challenge, I realized I needed to fulfill a couple of requirements:

- Ensure both the dress and sweater chosen are of generally thinner material to reduce bulkiness
- The sweater chosen needs to be relatively form fitting or I would look like I was wearing a sack
- Include a belt to raise the waist the eye sees to an empire waist level

I went with a neutral black sweater because the dress I chose was so busy.  I then picked a belt of a complementary color on the dress, threw in some boots, and viola! 

What do you think about this Style Challenge?  Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for stopping by, see ya tomorrow!