Springtime outfit

The high in LA yesterday was about 80, and it was sunny, so I took advantage of the warm weather to usher in spring with a spring-y outfit. I pulled out my only spring-y dress and tried to figure out how to wear it. I was going to find a navy sweater since it would match, but I took a step outside my comfort zone and picked the pinky-purple one instead. It actually turned out pretty well I think -- the colors went together better than I expected. I also put on a really feminine white belt to pull it all together. Pretty good outfit, if I don't mind saying so myself =)


On another note, I finally got rid of my blush, which I've had for almost 14 years. I got it as a present in 8th grade for my awkward Indian ceremony (when I got my period). Yes, there really is a ceremony when that happens, and yes, it's really embarassing. One of my mom's friends who came had two sons that I went to school with, and one was in my grade. That was excruciatingly embarassing. Luckily the sons didn't come but still, they probably knew what the ceremony was for. Ugh.

Style Transformations

I promise to post more of these soon! I've been really bad about taking pictures...

Style transformation

I'm so excited to be going out to dinner with one of my college friends that I haven't seen in about a year. And it's DineLA so we can go somewhere fancy and trendy where I hope to see celebrities. And as not to pull a Katsuya, I put a lot of thought into the outfit I am wearing to work and dinner today.

I've been on a neutrals kick -- I've loved all the camel and taupe colors from last fall, and now that they're all on sale, I'm grabbing them up. So I put together a neutral outfit for today, and to keep it interesting, I tried to play with textures and actually wear some jewelry.

The pictures aren't great, but I'm basically warring a creamy pinkish nudish cardigan over a sort of mossy brown lace-overlay tanktop (texture), a shiny khaki skirt (texture), and a light brown suede heel (more texture!!). It's not super flattering with the sweater like that because my waist isn't defined, so I unbuttoned it later in the day, and as long as I don't freeze in the restaurant, I may go cardigan-less for optimum outfit impact.

I actually tried to put some effort into the jewelry as well, and played into the scoopneck of the tanktop by layering a few silver necklaces. I then had to try to find small earrings that coordinated, and luckily one of my friends had given me this tiny silver pair for my birthday one year, and I think it was the right size to balance out the other jewelry.

Here's a close-up shot of all the pieces in the outfit so you can get a better sense of the colors and textures I was trying to use. My lighting is not great and I'm a little jealous of other bloggers that actually set up their cameras and tripods. I've just been too lazy, but perhaps that's a good project for this weekend.

I am really looking forward to adding more neutrals to my wardrobe. Any thoughts on what other pieces might be good?

Also, this was my best attempt at accessorizing, but I'd love more suggestions.

Style transformation

Ever since I got to LA, I've been trying to up my style quotient. I feel like LA is a much dressier city than San Francisco and Seattle. SF is pretty dressy but since I was working from home for 6 months, most of my time in SF was spent in sweatpants on my sofa. I think people in Atlanta are actually well-dressed (something about Southern sensibilities I believe) but since I was a college student, and at Tech to boot, I think I was pretty insulated from all that. I mean, one summer I rotated through 4 pairs of sweatpants Monday through Thursday and then wore a skirt on Friday at a feeble attempt at not being hopeless.

Anyway, to amp up my style, I've been trying to modify outfits I would ordinarily wear to be a little more edgy or at the very least, put in a little more effort.

So for example, this is something I may have worn to work in the past:

It's not a bad outfit, but it's sort of plain. And I think the fact that the t-shirt is untucked makes my legs look short. And my shoes are a little to bright to wear with the tights, and match the skirt too much.

And here's how I modified it:

I tucked in the shirt and added a wide belt to define the waste. I also added shoes with a little more darkness to have less contrast between the shoes and the tights. I feel like the outfit is more put-together and I think my legs look a little longer -- which is important when you're all of 5 feet tall... I mean, 5'1" -- that's what my license says :)

I am still working on getting the fashion down, but what I am really struggling with is picking jewelry. Can anyone recommend jewelry that might work with the outfit?