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It’s been a hot one here in Marin County today! Tabs has been running the ceiling fan ragged all day long. I’m heading out to meet my friend Courtney for dinner, and since it should (fingers crossed) cool off a little this evening, I’ll be wearing this seersucker jacket by Ann Taylor, a linen tank, skinnies and few of my current favorite pieces of jewelry (including a pair of cat lady studs El Hub got me for my birthday!).
For all intents and purposes, I have been living in this J. Crew Factory Gingham Shirt.
Gingham, like ’90s lips, is having a moment right now (I’ve been seeing it all over the place), but even though I think this shirt seems pretty trendy and “now”, I also think it might last me a few seasons (I hope). Because print-wise, gingham’s also a classic.
But the print isn’t the only thing I love about this shirt. It also breathes, because it’s 100% cotton and feels very comfy. I brought it with me to NOLA last week, and no matter what I was doing or where I happened to be, whether on a frigid air-conditioned plane or slogging along a humid French Quarter street, it felt good and stayed pretty wrinkle-free throughout the day, which is a huge, huge plus.
Wrinkly clothes are the bane of my existence, I swear…
It’s available in a range of sizes, both petite and regular, and different prints, too.
Today I’m wearing it with a pair of coral LOFT Riviera Sailor Shorts I picked up a while back.
DUUUUUUUDE, I love these shorts. The color feels so summery, and I love the button detailing on the front.
FYI: the front doesn’t have pockets. Those buttons are just there for display, which is kind of annoying (because I’m all about pockets, because where else am I gonna keep the cat treats?!), but at least there are a couple of real-deal functional pockets in the back.
The shorts are available in coral, black and a gingham print, and they’re currently 40% off right now online.
I’m just sayin’… 🙂
These lace shorts from LOFT almost didn’t make it home from the store with me. I was a little unsure about them at first because I don’t usually do lace (the tabby claws get stuck in the little loops, boo!), but I’ve been trying to break out of my comfort zone lately…and my BFF Jen gave them a thumbs up. 🙂
Seriously, as it pertains to last-minute fashion advice, thank goodness for texting and the ability to send pics from your phone. If it weren’t for those two things, I’d still be in stretchy pants and covered in cat hair.
So KUDOS FOR TECHNOLOGY!
The shorts, by the way, are the $49.99 Scallop Lace Riviera Shorts by LOFT, currently marked down from $59.99.
Actually, as of this very moment, it looks like they’re an additional 50% off on top of that! That’s $25!
Doesn’t look like there are many sizes available right now, but if you can’t find your size, these other lace shorts look pretty similar and cute.
Here I’m wearing the shorts with my new favorite necklace, this multi-strand Pearlized Crystal Statement Necklace by Ann Taylor (LOVE), and an old white button-up shirt from Halogen.
I have to be honest about the shirt, though… It drives me a little nuts. It wrinkles easily, and it’s super sheer, so I have to wear a cami under it, which makes me feel bulky around the middle.
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I recently had a fashion revelation, and by recently I mean a few days ago. If you throw on a cute jacket and a pair of shoes with a snazzy print, you can pretty much turn any standard-issue outfit into something pretty darned cute.
I’m not sure why this trick works, or what the fashion-based scientific logic is, but it does. Something about the different shapes, lines, textures and patterns on what would otherwise be a ho-hum canvas…
Take this white tank and skinnies…
Super casual on their own, yes? But instead of wearing them with “the usual,” also known as my favorite black Zella hoodie and a pair of flip-flops (seriously, most of the time I’m tempted to dress like I’m going skateboarding by the beach), I put on this casual beige and gray zip-up jacket with these cute cat-print Vans.
The addition of the jacket and printed shoes slightly dresses up the outfit but doesn’t make it look overly dressy. Perfect to go to a baseball/basketball game, a picnic or a barbecue.
You might remember these shoes… I got them last year when Vans did their ASPCA collaboration. You’d think that a pair of shoes covered with cats would only interest a minority of crazy cat ladies, but I get a surprisingly high number of compliments on these shoes, and not only in pet stores, LOL!
I think in the case of these particular shoes, the cat print works with so many different outfits because of the preponderance of neutral-colored kitties. The gray, beige, tan and black go with almost everything in my closet.
See how the gray and beige in the shoes matches with the beige and gray in the jacket?
Ooh, matchy-matchy…but not ridiculously so.
The jacket, by the way, is from LOFT (big surprise), and it’s very soft and cozy. Feels almost like high-end sweatshirt material. I’ve wanted to upgrade my casual outerwear situation, and this achieves that nicely. It goes with jeans and tees, casual dresses, shorts, rompers…and you can even wear it with workout clothes, too. It’s very flexible!
And it’s on sale online right now for 60% off with the promo code FLASH, if you’re interested.
Here’s another example of the same jeans and tank, but this time with an oversized alligator green jacket with big pockets, and a pair of leopard-print flats.
As Tabs likes to say, “Mrow, meow-rrow-wow.” Translation: stripes are always a good thing. 🙂
Yes, my hair is still dark in these pics because I took them before I left for the salon yesterday; hence the chocolate brown.
This striped “strappy” flare dress is yet another find from LOFT that I’m absolutely loving. (I swear, that store needs to stop having sales every five seconds, because they’re very hard to resist!) I got it on sale on their website a while back for 40% off. Woop-woop!
It’s soft, comfortable cotton, for starters, and you know me. If something pinches or binds, or if it’s itchy or otherwise uncomfortable in any way, I’m SO not having it.
It also has some stretch to it, so the dress moves as you do, and hello, jackpot! — you can throw it in the washer at home. You don’t have to take it to the dry cleaners.
I’m wearing it here with a white collarless jacket because I was in the mood to dress it up little, but it also looks pretty cute with a cardigan or a denim jacket, or all by itself on a warm day.
Do all boys love mint chocolate chip ice cream? I swear…I think they do.
I love mint, too, but not so much the ice cream (I’m more of a dulce de leche/pistachio gal). I’m all about the wearable forms of the color. 🙂 There’s just something so fresh and springy about mint clothes and accessories.
I actually wore this outfit yesterday, so officially it was my outfit of the yester-day, and not my outfit of today (I’m still decided on that). I wore it to the doctor’s office (clean bill of health, woop-woop!), and now that I think about it, the mint in the lacy top slightly resembles the color of the scrubs I used to wear when I interned at a hospital about a billion years ago…
I’m also wearing my new favorite jeans in this pic, the terrifically soft, uncommonly comfortable LOFT Modern Skinny Jeans. The fabric has a bit of stretchiness to it, and it maintains those stretchy powers as the days wear on, so by the end of a long day, the jeans are still effectively stuck to my bum and not hanging off it (always a good thing).
I also like the moderate distressing on the thighs.
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Homegirl! I’m totally in love with these shirts. I’m not even usually a button-up collared shirt kind of gal, but these super soft shirts from LOFT have shown me the light!
I don’t know if you’ve been thinking about a spring wardrobe refresh, but if you are, throw one (or a couple) of these Chambray Softened Shirts up in the mix. You can wear them with jeans (denim head-to-toe? Yes you can!), white skinnies or shorts, and/or as layering piece on top of tanks, tees, or thin sweaters…
So many possibilities.
Products mentioned in this video…
As always, thank you for watching!
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
It started with a pair of shoes… A pair of high-heeled caged shoes in a blush color to be exact. I spotted these high heels by INC International Concepts at Macy’s last week and was overcome with that special tingly shoe feeling — you know, the one where you know you have to get a particular pair of shoes in your life.
But I’m getting a little ahead of myself… This story actually starts a month ago.
I woke up one morning, opened my closet doors to pick out my clothes for the day, and realized that everything I own is gray or black.
Not that there’s anything wrong with those colors. Black is always chic, and gray effectively hides the tabby cat fur. But I came to the realization that I just don’t want to be clad in black and gray from head to toe right now.
Spring is coming, and I feel like bright colors! — like a blooming garden with flowers all over the place and rainbows and a teal pegasus soaring across the sky. 🙂 It’s time to update my clothing garden/game, and I’ve been looking for floral pieces that both match these shoes and also work with things I already have in my closet.
What do you think of this floral peplum jacket?
I love the different shades of pink and how they vary from soft blush to intense hot pink. I think the peplum also gives it a very ladylike sweetness, while the zipper gives it a bit of an edge.
It’s also pretty versatile. I dressed it down here with a pair of ripped boyfriend jeans and a white tee, but I think it would also look super cute with a gray pencil skirt, or perhaps on top of a white flowing dress… Or maybe with a pair of mint green skinnies, because there is a little mint green in the pattern.
I’m affectionately referring to these tapered printed soft pants as my Blanche Devereaux pants because, hello! — Blanche would have totally rocked these in the Golden Girls era, and they still look good. They’re like an updated version. They’ve got that draping, hugs-your-curves-in-all-the-right-ways vibe to ‘em.
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