Early Spring

LBD

Dress C/O SheIn | Jacket C/O Chicwish | Thrifted Belt | Secret Sheer Tights | Steve Madden Pumps

Little black dresses, like trench coats, blue jeans and other classic pieces of clothing, may change slightly over the years but will never really go out of fashion. There really is one that suits almost everyone’s tastes and personal sense of style. 

Some are a little flashy with embellishments, sequins, or beads. And some are more simple and versatile, like this one from SheIn. I prefer the latter, myself. Because it doesn't stand out too much on its own, it leaves plenty of room for you to style it according to your personal style by what you wear with it. I went with black pumps, sheer black tights, a leather belt in a contrasting colour, and a loose fitting army green jacket. 

I hadn’t had a reason to really dress up recently, so I spent a little more time than usual fussing over how to style this dress. A few years ago, I would’ve gone for all black accessories and red lipstick would’ve been a given. I’m still fond of all black, even if I don’t wear it nearly as often as I used to. Red lipstick, though... I keep putting on red lipstick only to wipe it off and apply something more neutral instead. Old habits die hard. I should really get around to changing the name of this blog.

Bell Bottom Blues

 Hoop Earrings from Forever 21 | Blouse from Suzy Shier | Thrifted Leather Belt | Bell Bottom Jeans by Mother C/O Shopbop | Steve Madden Pumps

In the interest of being totally upfront, I’ll admit that I’ve spent the past half hour trying to figure out what to write to go along with the photos above. You'd think after a few years of writing these posts, you would get a handle on it. You would think.

The most annoying part is probably that I can sit down and write pages and pages about other things -- thoughts, feelings, memories, and so on. And I do. The quality of such writing can be a bit dodgey from time to time, but that's why there's a backspace button. But when it comes to writing these posts, half the time, my mind is like an empty warehouse. And yes, that was a very little reference to Bowie's Five Years, except he had too much to say while I've got tumble weeds rolling around.

I’ve always been more of a visual person when it comes to style, fashion, makeup, and whatnot. I enjoy it. I think I’m okay at doing it. Shit at writing about it, though. How many times can you write variants of ‘I paired up X with X for an X kind of look’ before losing your mind?

Maybe I just need to take a different approach of some kind.

So, what can be written about an outfit like the one in the photos above?

The blouse is an old one from Suzy Shier. I've loved crossover style blouses for ages. I think they look feminine without being too girly, sexy without being too over the top. A kind of perfect in between. The jeans are by Mother Denim and feature a raw hem. I don't usually go for pre-distressed jeans, preferring to do it myself through natural wear and tear, but I feel differently about raw hems. To me, there's a difference between buying a pair of unhemmed jeans and buying a pair of practically shredded 'aren't your legs cold?' jeans. The belt is, like I said, a thrift shop find. The pumps are an older style by Steve Madden. And the hoop earrings are from Forever 21, one of my favourite places for cheap jewellery.

Another thing that could be said is that I need to carefully trim off a few inches from the length of those jeans. While I love how it feels to wear bell bottoms with pumps, it’s just not practical to be walking around on about 4 inches of extra fabric the rest of the time. Still, I’m tempted to wear them out with pumps once more before taking the scissors to them...

Overall, I was going for a 1970s influenced, effortless and casual but still slightly glamorous look. In my mind, there are two distinct kinds of glamourous seventies looks. There's the kind of glamour Jerry Hall and Bianca Jagger epitomised. And then there's glam, the kind of glamour Marc Bolan and David Bowie used to break the rules. This time, I was thinking more along the lines of the former. But that’s not to say I’m not down with sequins and glitter. There’s a time and place for everything.

P.S. Shopbop, one of my favourite online shops that I collaborate with on this blog is holding their first big sale of the year. The spring sale begins today, running until 11:59pm on 5 March. Perfect for group purchases, with big discounts available dependant on your total, or just doing a bit of spring shopping as there currently are thousands of items on sale. Click here for more information.