Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Eleventh Hour

After my revelation yesterday that I had yet to wear 25% of my 30 items, I decided to build today's outfit around this lovely Orchid silk Martin & Osa dress. Usually when I build an outfit I choose one item to build it around, whether it be a pretty dress, a comfy pair of shoes or a piece of sparkly jewelry. I tend to quickly fall into style ruts--you will notice that I have worn my neutral cardigan approximately EVERY SINGLE DAY since I bought it, and ever since I have started pairing black and brown together that has been my failsafe color combination (with pops of red, of course).

I try to challenge myself to put together new combinations to avoid falling into a repetition merely out of a lack of awareness. The point that I am wrestling with is how to avoid falling into mundane repetition while still safegaurding my own sense of style. I am playing around with branching out my basic 'uniforms,' while keeping a sense of 'me' in all of my outfits. To this end, I am trying to only incorporate what I truly love into my wardrobe, but it's hard--I love so many different things! I think that keeping a general color scheme will also help me here.

Do you consciously put together your wardrobe to convey a certain feeling?
Do you have more than one basic 'uniform'? What (if anything) links them together?
Do you find yourself repeating many outfits you have already done? Do you try to avoid this, or do you actively embrace this repetition?

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Dress (worn as shirt): Martin & Osa via Goodwill
Long sleeved shirt (base layer): gray, Gap via Plato's Closet
Skirt: Brass Plum via Goodwill
Tights: Target
Shoes: Naturalizer
Sweater: Self-made
Scarf: Unknown via Goodwill
Coat: Jenifer via France

7 comments:

  1. Beautiful colors in that top and scarf! Looks great. I don't ever limit myself to a certain style. My favorite is to feel stylish in a modest, unique but not crazy way or to feel completely vintage! But it's fun to try a little of everything but put your own twist on it, thus making it "you!"!
    jewelscapes.blogspot.com

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  2. I really really like this dress tucked into your skirt! I also think it's okay to have a 'uniform', but it's also fun to try out new things, I guess the key is just finding the right balance and keeping that 'sense of you' like you said.

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  3. I love what the scarf does for this outfit!
    To answer your questions...No to the first one..I don't think so to the next, I like to change my outfit styles every day...although it's a bit of a rotation because I'm always repeating styles, but I like to try to have a few different influences per week..if that makes sence. And for the third question, I try not to repeat outfits for the sake of my blog...do I want to...yes!!...because when I come up with a fabulous combo I want to wear it over and over again...but now I've learned to switch up a few little details in the outfit and stick with the core.

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  4. Hey Plummy! You look great here! I love this vibrant top and it looks especially great with this scarf. For all the ways I wear dresses-as-skirts, I'm not sure I've ever tried wearing a dress as a top. Good idea!

    I repeat a lot of the same outfits and combinations of items. I quite enjoy re-wearing ensembles that I've already worn and liked, even though I know a lot of bloggers try to wear something a little different every day.

    I also wanted to say thanks for the continued comments on our blog. I read yours when I get a chance, and I often want to comment, but that requires me to sign out of google as myself and sign in as SSG (I don't like to use my personal family blogger account). If you were to enable the "comment as name/URL" feature, I think I'd end up commenting more frequently, because then I don't have to do the gmail switch. Just a suggestion!

    -Liz

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  5. Thanks for commenting! I always love to read your blog, and you guys have a knack for asking questions that are just itching for my two cents. :) I am new to this whole blogger thing, I didn't realize that the comment as name feature wasn't enabled! I will definitely go and turn that on, thank you for the heads up about that.

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  6. I definitely think about wearing an outfit to cultivate a mood, though I don't always succeed at doing so! I've noticed this has been a big shift in how I've approached getting dressed lately -- on the days that I most want to crawl back into bed, I've found that the "right answer" seems to be not comfy, beat-up "cop-out" clothes, but dressing to convey the image that I'd like to convey -- someone who is put together, well-prepared and ready for the day.

    I think I have a couple of basic "uniform" outfits, but I'm trying to work on expanding/mixing them up -- which was one of my major goals for the 30-for-30 challenge.

    I love this outfit, which seems very "you +" to me -- the color of the skirt, tights and cardigan and the overall silhouettes seem to reflect consistent themes in your styling, but the purple blouse is an unexpected "pop" that looks extra special. I think the scarf is the best part of this outfit, though -- it really ties it all together!

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  7. Thanks for the lovely comments, S! You're making me smile. :) I'm glad this outfit 'reads' as being me with a bit of pop--that's what I try to go for! It's interesting to hear how you also use your clothing to craft a mood.

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