Style Challenge: Socks & Sandals

I keep telling myself that I'll post what Style Challenge I will be doing ahead of time, but apparently my planning skills are pretty fail.  That said, when I had an opportunity to do one of the ones on my list yesterday, I decided to just go for it.  We were going to the first San Jose Eats event, where several food trucks congregated for a street food extravaganza.  The weather was temperate and mild, so I thought it would be a great sandals and socks type of day!

Outfit Details
Dress: Anthropologie Modern Abstract Dress
Socks: Anthropologie
Shoes (wedges): Vintage (gift from coworker)
Shoes (flats): Steve Madden P-Oxfords
Scarf: Vintage Fendi

The lines were so long!  You couldn't even tell where the lines began because it was just so crazy! The BF and I actually came a little later than one of our friends standing in the Filipino food truck line so we didn't have to wait the full 1.5 hours from the back of the line (don't judge, everyone was seriously doing it.  Unless you think little Asian girls can eat 10 orders worth of food by themselves).   We didn't even bother trying to sample any of the other food.  I honestly think they weren't expecting this kind of turn out.

This outfit was a little outside my comfort zone, and to be honest, I forgot to factor in 5 inch heels into a day of walking a lot.  Here are some of my personal tips for getting this to work for you: 

1.  Make sure your socks coordinate with your outfit (sounds dumb, but I had to think hard about what outfit would go with the socks I had).  
2. Pick thinner socks that will fit into shoes you typically put bare feet into
3. Make sure to walk before you leave the house to test  for slippage. The lack of friction may result in tripping -- something I did more than once yesterday.
4. High heels are best.  Socks interrupt the line of your leg, so you want to be sure you have actual height to compensate for that. 

I've done socks and heels one other time in this post.   Check it out!

Hopefully I'll be back with pictures of the food and a little bit of photo shooting that we did after eating yesterday.  But for now, thanks for stopping by!

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!

Style Challenge & OOTD: Is that your shirt?

Outfit Details:

Shirt: JCrew Shimmer Crinkle Shell

Cardigan: Anthropologie Sparrow Wind & Whirl Cardigan

Jeans: Gap Skinny Jeans

Shoes: Chelsea Boots

Belt: JCrew

Scarf: Vintage Fendi from my aunt

So I did it!  I wore a scarf and belted it today.  Mostly because I'm cool.  And that I don't care what people think. Actually...I'm pretty sure it's the latter.

In any case, I wore this outfit to work.  I had a coworker come up to me and tell me that she liked my shirt.  Then later, she realized it wasn't a shirt, but a scarf!  Conclusion 1: If you want new clothes, all you need to do is cover the old ones with a square of cloth. 

The easiest way for me to ease into this trend was to cover the front of my shirt with the majority of the scarf and then wear a cardigan over it.  The belt helps define a waist and keep the scarf in place. Hence the confusion with the coworkers as to whether or not I was wearing a really cool shirt vs. a scarf with a belt over it.  So here are my (not so scientific) instructions on how to pull this trend off:

You will need:
- A square scarf
- A skinny belt in a complimentary color

1. Pick a scarf with some color in it.  This way it becomes the focus of your outfit.  A square works best for this method.

2. Fold the scarf into a triangle.

3. Tie the ends along the longest side so that the knot is behind your neck.  Adjust the front into a cowl-like fashion.

4. Adjust the front of the scarf as necessary. 

5. Take the skinny belt and wrap it around your waist.  Belt it over the scarf, preferably with 2 inches or more coming out of the bottom.  Adjust so the belt is around the thinnest part of your torso.

I prefer this with a cardigan because it puts the focus on the scarf, but you can go without if it's warmer out.  You could also use a long scarf, but this method might not work as well.  You may just want to wrap the scarf around your neck once and then tuck the two ends under the scarf.

So what do you think about this Style Challenge?  Is this something that you're interested in seeing more of?  If you have some suggestions, post a comment under the Style Challenge tab!

That's about it for today, thanks for stopping by!

WDTBD & Style Challenge: A Walk in the Park

This is a combo What Does This Button Do!? and Style Challenge post.  We took advantage of the weekend and did another round of experimentation with the DSLR.

Style Challenge Details:
The first style challenge is using an article of clothing outside of its intended use.  I ended up using a skirt I bought from a small seller in the Portland, OR Farmer's market as a shirt.  The skirt is cotton with an elastic band, so what it took was a nice wide, leather belt and a strategically chosen long boyfriend cardigan.  I surprised myself by loving the result!

Outfit Details:

Cardigan: Banana Republic Factory

Skirt as Shirt: Portland, OR Farmer's Market

Leggings: INC from Macy's

Sunglasses: Kate Spade Riley

Scarf: Gift

Necklace: Imparted Time from Hello Friend

Belt: Anthopologie ???

Socks: Happy Socks from Therapy boutique

Boots: Anthropologie Pebbled and Primped Boots

Bag: Hobo International Touch Base

This experimental photoshoot took place on a cloudy day, and if you know Northern California, December looks a lot like Fall in other places (*ahem* Chicago).  So, we ended up with a pretty autumn looking photo shoot.   The colors of the trees were really vibrant and I loved what we ended up with!

We used the green sculpture to pull out the green in the skirt/shirt.  The background is a little bright, but the colors really stand out.

 

 The colors are so vibrant with the woodchips and trees, so I had to pop a squat. 

Peeking around the corner.

This was an attempt at a shot from above.  I had to play with the contrast a bit, but the belt really comes through strongly in this picture.   We're going to have to practice on this one.

We also tried some motion shots.  I felt a little silly running back and forth, but we had a few winners out of the many. 

 Taken at a friendship garden in a corner of the park.

 And a couple by a 3 neat looking benches facing the park.

BF contemplating.  He didn't let me take many pictures of him, but this one turned out pretty good. 

And one playing with brightness.  It was actually really sunny in the window behind, so I changed the contrast a bit, and it looks kinda neat.

And that concludes this post!  What do you think of the pictures?  Is BF getting better at them?  I sure think so, but I might be a little biased ;).  

Thanks for stopping by!  See you tomorrow!