Chanel Overdrive

All right, so I’ve read all your comments and held the skirt then shoes up against all my shirts and sweaters and think I can either do something funky with the color or the pattern, but not both at the same time. Professional stylists are very clever with mixing both colors and patterns but I still have to stay true to what I could realistically wear outside of my closet. So here are a few options I’ve pulled together so far…

Look 1: a very safe option with the crinkled gray embellished cotton shirt from JCrew. It’s a no brainer and I like the funky beading along the shirt placket, but it’s not going to win any award for imagination.

Look 2: I thought, well, what if I added something burgundy over Look 1 to play off the burgundy in the shoes? And what if this burgundy item were tweeded and fringed (and sometimes makes me feel like the Michelin Man on my bloated days) to give it yet another layer of texture? Too much mixing of patterns perhaps? Chanel overdrive, you say?

Look 3: Then I reached for more gray stuff, like this fringed t-shirt from last summer…kinda nutty with a totally different type of pattern in the shirt’s tweed fringe, right?

Look 4: When I’m uncomfortable with a color or pattern I have a habit of throwing a solid cardigan over what’s ailing me and pray it all works out. So to temper the mixing of patterns in Look 3, I add a dark gray Prada cardigan over it (no sleeveless look for me till I get back to my workout routine!)…but it’s really a dowdy look.

Look 5: But what if I went with a lighter shade of gray like in this JCrew cardi instead?

Yeah, still dowdy. Gray is gorgeous but it can totally un-cool you.

Look 6: Then I thought, what if I went all casual and wore a GAP chambray button down with it? I’d let my pearl lariat necklace dress it up a bit.

Look 7: In this final attempt, I’m trying to take your advice about color. You’d mentioned blush, green, yellow, aqua and I love all the suggestions with a checked skirt. I’m just scared to mix colors with a patterned skirt! So this is me being bold with one pop of color while keeping everything else toned down.

I’m not sure what these outfits will actually look like on, and as you all already know this, how you carry off a look depends a lot on how comfortable/confident you feel in that particular ensemble. So I’ll go try them on and submit my favorite photo in the next entry. And who knows, maybe inspiration will find me and I can surprise you with a completely different look :D.

January 13, 2011