Black and White and Floral

One of my cool-weather looks; the weather here is usually never THAT bad, but it can get chilly, so if I want to wear an outfit, I need my layers. Either that, or I pretend I am brave. (Which is like never, because I end up hating myself for being so dumb!) The piece this whole look is based around is the black and white dress with interesting floral graphics I am wearing. I found it at a thrift, but has an H&M tag. It has a strange shift-like cut, and the bubble skirt was a little off-putting at first, but I tried it on with a waist belt and I was sold. I used my snug black cardigan to create the defined-waist look I prefer, but I could see myself wearing it in the spring or summer with a waist belt and black ballet lace-up flats. I called the dress "black and white", but there are many values of silvery-gray and I played upon those values with my accessories: hence the silver scarf and earrings! I even tried skew the colors of the boots to play upon the overall look. Yeesh, when I have a theme, I really run with it! The outfit is nothing special, but it was fun, cute, and I really wanted to make the dress wearable for everyday events. So for that purpose, I think it worked out just fine.

It's funny how much "non color" I wore, considering how much color affects my clothing/makeup choices, but in my mind, black and white and silver and gray are their own colors when I am wearing them - although next time I might wear a bright lipstick for that little extra pop. ;)

The tree, cloud, and sunset photos were all taken the same day while I was hanging out with the friend who kindly took my outfit photos, and we hit up a park later on. It was so beautiful!

Dress, cardigan, boots - thrifted

Scarf - Target

Earrings - Tilly's

<3 The Magpie

Debate Crusher

This outfit was from the day I lead my team of classmates in a rousing debate, utterly crushing our opponents. It was a pretty glorious thing to witness. 25 extra credit points, heeeeyyyyy. This is one of those outfits I privately refer to as "ragamuffin-chic". Like I could be scrubby wild thing, but hey, I'm also cute. A lot of my outfits I wouldn't consider fashionable, they are more like a collection of odds and ends, baubles, and trinkets. It's definitely my natural habitat, but it's also weird to actually wear, because you are exclaiming "Hey, this is me!" in public and that can be kind of odd and scary. 

I obviously went for a lot of red and blue, but I also threw in some gold pins and gray boots because why not? The hat was a cheapie find at an Asian market where you only pay in cash, and it's a little ridiculous, but also fun. I wore the jean jacket to tone down the fanciness of the skirt, and matched my scarf with practically everything. Not sure if I would wear it again, but it's the kind of inventive outfit you make up and just go for it. Same old, same old. 

 Scarf - Old Navy

Pins, jacket, sweater - thrifted

Earrings - Flea market

Boots - Modcloth

Skirt - Ruche

<3 The Magpie

Green Skirt, Green Bow

I suppose it would be more accurate to call the color of my skirt 'chartreuse', but calling it green is easier for people to digest. I used to not be fan of this particular shade, or even of green really, but as I have expanded my tastes and wardrobe color-wise, I find myself wearing colors I previously ignored. I think it's good for me to expand my color horizons, otherwise I would still be stuck in my teal-blue sea. I found this skirt at a thrift and consider it one of my lucky finds. It's so beautiful and flowy - I've worn it in different variations, both in warm and cool weather. These photos were taken only a few weeks ago, when the day was sunny, but a chill hummed in the air. We have guests over, so I only had time to snap a few pics, but I love how the light lit up the grass and spun through the trees with a golden glow. 

Shirt, dress - thrifted

Boots - Modcloth

Necklace - gift

<3 The Magpie

Old School

It was kind of fun to show up at to class with a little cloche gray hat; it added an instant old-school vibe to the whole outfit. I've noticed that a lot of my outfits aren't actually vintage, but modern pieces worn in a way that gives off a vintage air. I (usually) don't even try to do it on purpose, I just put clothes together how I like to wear them and voilà, I suddenly look unmodern. Maybe because I like a lot of longer hems and play around with different shapes and silhouettes that don't seem very mainstream. Although, when everyone around you is wearing yoga pants or skinny jeans, it's not that difficult to stand out just by throwing on a skirt.

When creating this particular outfit, I knew I wanted to pair the gray turtleneck with the slip of a green dress; everything else sort of just fell into place after those key components. I loved the idea of looping a necklace over the neck of the shirt. It's definitely an idea I want to use again in the future. I love keeping track of little bit and pieces of fashion experiments, like a little mental collection, and then recycling them in new ways in the future. When something is fun, you want to do it again, right? That's my style philosophy anyways. It's using what excites and creatively stimulates you and reusing those ideas in more creative ways. Without the thought and ideas and layering of concepts to play around with materially, I feel like fashion or style, or whatever you want to call it, would just be static and boring. Instead of the focus being on looking "pretty" or "cute", dressing a certain way can be a happy celebration of textures and colors and proportions. A living, wearable architectural sculpture you can recreate every day. That is what intrigues me and keeps me motivated style-wise. It's the exploration of ideas that fuels me. I know it seems like a lot of thought just to go into something as normal as getting dressed, but why not? It's fun. :)

I also couldn't resist putting in a LOT of pictures of the nature I was surrounded in when these pictures were taken. I even cut back on them, but everything was so beautiful, it was hard to resist. Look at those colors! Those lines! That light! The world is just so beautiful and exciting.

Dress, shirt, hat, bag - thrifted

Jacket, socks - Target

Necklace - vintage

Earrings - gift

Boots - Modcloth

<3 The Magpie