Color me happy

I love to wear bright colors, so the prompt to do so was a welcome one to me. My two favorite colors are green and coral. I went with coral today, since I've worn green for the past three prompts. I added this scarf, which was a Christmas gift. It's part of my effort to insert more pattern into my wardrobe. My Mom gave it to me, and I really love the colors in it. I've worn it several times now (every time I was going to be around a different group of people), but so far I've used it to brighten up brown sweaters. I liked changing it up by pairing it with the coral. I want to try it with my orange shirt, too. I also tied it differently today than I've been wearing it.

Sweater and scarf, gifts. (My mom said the scarf is from Charming Charlies) Trousers, Stein Mart. Shoes ?

Decadent

Last week I joined in the challenge at the last minute, so I wore all my outfits on the day of the challenge. This week I decided to get ahead of the game, and I wore this to church yesterday. The prompt was to wear an outfit inspired by a decade or region. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling very inspired, so I think this is pretty blah. But it's also very me, since I usually just put together basic (often green) pieces with not much accessorizing.

Can you guess what I took as my inspiration? No? It's the '50s. A cardigan over a tucked in shirt, and a long, full, skirt are the fifties inspired elements. I went modern by wearing it with boots. This is also very me. I wear skirts with boots constantly in the winter. I love skirts, but I hate to be cold. Heels mean cold feet, so even though that would have been a stronger fifties look, I stuck with my boots and socks.

Once I saw the picture I realized I should have added a short scarf à la Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday to jazz this up a little and carry the Fifties theme a little more strongly. Or layering the skirt to give it more fullness would have been a good idea, too. It may look blah, but it feels a bit decadent thanks to the fabrics. The skirt is velvet, and the cabled cardigan is a silk-cotton-cashmere blend. Even the shirt actually has some white, lacy looking embroidery, making the outfit a little more textured and layered looking in person than it came off in the blurry picture. I guess if I'm going to blog about my outfits, I should get more than one picture of them. :) Oh well, live and learn. I'm looking forward to bright colors and the OTI this week. I'm not so sure about the coat challenge or the last day, but I am sure the second week of the challenge will continue to be fun and educational.

Skirt, Target (old). Shirt, hand-me-down. Sweater, thrifted. Boots, probably Lazarus, which is now Macy's.

Mixing it up

I never got around to posting this last night, but yesterday the prompt was to mix patterns. After the rest of the prompts this week, this one felt easy. In actuality, most of my clothing is solid, and that goes double for my winter clothes. So the fact is, I didn't have all that many options. I put this together pretty quickly. I really liked this outfit, but I didn't feel like I was stretching myself with it. I don't bat an eyelash at stripes with patterns now. :) It was fun seeing everyone else's pattern mixing. Quite the stripy group!

The 10 Day Winter Challenge is weekday gig, so I'll be back Monday with another outfit.

Sweater, The Limited. It was a gift several years ago. Striped shirt, jeans, shoes, thrifted.

Anything you can do...

The prompt today was to channel someone--to create an outfit inspired by the style of a person or fictional character. So far the challenges have gotten progressively harder for me every day. I was so stumped with this one! I kept trying to think of someone whose style I admire, but I couldn't seem to build an outfit from there. Finally, I stood in my closet and tried to think about whether any of my clothes reminded me of anyone. That took me in an unexpected direction. I decided to channel the sartorial style of Annie Oakley. She definitely a had style of her own, and she was one of the first female American celebrities, in the modern sense.

Image Source

The reason I settled on Annie Oakley was I spotted this shirt. It was the fringe that made me think of her. The shirt was given to me by my grandmother when I was in college. I was completely befuddled by the gift, since it seemed totally outside the realm of my usual wardrobe. I couldn't imagine why she might have given me such a shirt. The only thing I could figure was that she gave it to me because of the Western look, since I went to college in Texas. She must have been on to something, though, since I still have it. I can't remember the last time I wore it, but I guess I have a sentimental attachment to it, so it hasn't ended up in the donate pile.

I was kind of nervous my outfit too costumey, but my husband actually liked it. An Annie Oakley look requires boots, and the shirt has all the shape of a potato sack, so it cried out for a belt. Thus, the same belt and boots as yesterday, totally different look. I added my twirly denim skirt, red tights, and I was ready to go. This was a pretty fun outfit to wear, and it was very comfortable and warm. Since James gave it the thumbs up, I may wear it again.

Shirt, gift. T-shirt & skirt, thrifted. Tights, another item I've had since high school (Express, I think. Can't believe they've lasted this long.). Boots, TJ Maxx, Belt, Kohls.

Orange you glad I didn't say banana?

I thought the challenge to embrace a trend was going to be really hard, since I am just not a trendy person. I like what I like, and I don't really worry about trends. Hey, I still wear clothes from high school!

And I read through Kayla's list of suggestions with mounting concern about my ability to meet the prompt. I rejected trend after trend basically because I owned no clothes that fit the bill. And nail polish wasn't going to happen. Fun fact: I don't mind toe nail polish, but I can't stand how it feels on my fingernails. My options seemed pretty limited.

But then at the bottom of the list was ”Tangerine.” And I thought, "Oh, yeah. Orange!” I knew all about the Pantone color of the year. And because I'm so in tune with the zeitgeist, I bought this orange shirt at a thrift store at the beginning of November, before the color was even announced. It's been in my special needs laundry pile ever since. So last night I gathered some other delicates and washed it.

Being as it's cold here, I layered it with this cream colored sweater. I decided to wear it with this blue skirt, because thanks to my knowledge of the color wheel, I knew pairing the orange with its complementary color would play up its orangeness. And you can't tell in the picture, despite the fact that I forgot to zip my boots, but my tights have a chevron pattern. So I believe that's actually two trends in one outfit, even if chevrons are like, so totally 2011.

Shirt, thrifted. Sweater, hand-me-down. Skirt, Stein Mart. Belt, Kohls. Tights, Target. Boots, TJ Maxx