'Cool Cobalt & The Emerald City'
featuring layered necklaces and statement clothing.
I laid out all 11 weeks of outfits that followed the Spring Trends and had them hanging ever so peacefully on my future-outfits-for-the-blog garment rack at the foot of my bed. I’ve had my “cool tones” outfits laid out since mid-February, changing them every couple of days until I was satisfied enough to shoot them and share how to achieve the same look with you all. I ordered a risky pair of pants, and fell in love with a scarf print shirt at Macy’s that was surprisingly WAY cheaper than I thought it would be. It was still more than I would usually pay for a shirt but with a little patience, and some sale stalking, I got a 100% SILK blouse for $25! Yeah, be jealous. Anyways, I finalized my cool tones outfits, and had my pretty silk blouse paired with a beautiful cobalt blazer from the adult “contemporary” line at Forever21 (Love21). THEN one day I’m walking around Penneys on lunch, and see these beautiful cobalt corduroy pants on the clearance rack. So naturally I'm thinking “NOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I love you pants, and you’re only $10 but I already have my cobalt blue look picked out, why did you have to come into my life and be the perfect color for my Spring Trends Series!?” They WERE a size too big but pants are one of the easiest things to tailor so naturally, I bought them! Well, when I got home I started thinking, now I have to pick between pairing my beautiful new shirt with these pants or with the blazer for the blue look, until I decided.....screw it, I’m wearing both. Which brings me to today’s fashion lesson...
'Cool Cobalt'
How to Create a Contemporary Monochromatic Suit for Spring!
(3 pieces, 3 stores, and discount jewelry)
So the first thing you want to do is pick your color, for me it was the
obviously cobalt blue. Now, pick your top and bottom “cuts”, do your
legs look good with a trouser cut, skinnys or even flares and does your
top look good with a slouchy button up, a peplum, or a tank top? I would
highly suggest picking your pants and top first, and make sure they
compliment each other. Now that that’s done, all that’s left is picking a
blazer, make sure your blazer color is a spot on match to your pants, which you CAN do,
trust me. After all my pants and blazer are from two different
stores, it’s do-able to get the colors identical. We all know you don’t
have as many options when it comes to cuts of blazers, but to lump them
all into two categories, consider them as structured and fitted versus
loose and open. Now that you can identify your blazer as one of two
things, my general rule of thumb is that if your pants are fitted, go
for a loose blazer, and if your pants are wider legged, or trouser cut,
go for a fitted, tailored blazer. There is nothing wrong with wearing
structured, fitted clothing on the top and bottom at the same time, but
that is going to lean towards a business professional type suit, and the
point of this look is to create a contemporary type "suit" for
Spring. This look is more something you could wear to brunch, or even a
wedding. Now for accessories, I would highly suggest choosing a heel.
Sandals or even wedges just won’t look right with this type of outfit.
Stick to either nude, metallic, or pastels since it’s spring.Now on to how to layer necklaces, both looks have them in this post. For the layered jewelry in this look I chose a ceramic beaded blue necklace that I happened to score from a second hand store called Clothes Mentor, which my co-worker introduced me to. Although it’s smaller in size, it is our statement necklace for this look, and it’s counterpart is our Prabal Gurung necklace, (previously featured here). Even though the PG necklace is by far more unique, it’s clear and rather simple, so the blue necklace takes the cake for this outfit as our dominant piece. My ultra fab talon cuff is from Ebay! I finished the look with an AMAZING thrift shop find, this silver leopard brooch, that I snagged for just $7.50! I think there is a common misconception that brooches are outdated and for old women, but I love wearing them.
One last thing to consider when styling something as bold as a suit is that, naturally, being "matchy matchy" head to toe, you WILL be noticed and make a statement. You often hear of statement pieces, whether that is jewelry, shoes, or even oh, I dunno....pants? But in this instance, your WHOLE OUTFIT is a statement, so although we have two necklaces, a cuff, earrings and a studded clutch, keep your accessories simple. Not necessarily boring, but simple.
Emerald City
How to rock a statement pant and playing up your curves!
I am O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D with leopard! No joke, I mean I had what, 3 different pairs of leopard shoes in my Spring must haves article? Yeah. Anyways, I not only have a fashion blog but I avidly read other women's as well. Fellow Fashion Bloggers are some of my biggest style icons and inspiration so when I saw some of them rocking the same leopard harem pants I died....in a good way. But once again, tiny little skinny chicks can look good in virtually anything so you can imagine my hesitation to buy some. I wear skinny jeans pretty much every day because that's what looks good on me, so to squeeze my rather um "fluffy" thighs into a harem pant was not going to end well, it would just make me look bigger, and no women wants that. But hell, I'm stubborn so I hunted them down anyways and I found them. Leopard Harem Pants, from Zara.com.......$90. WHAT!? HELL NO! So that was that, I will never pay that much for a pant. Until Forever21 came out with some for less than a 3rd of the Zara ones (similar here), I pounced on that deal a.s.a.p (no pun intended).
So to style them, I'm following my rule for any outfit: half your clothes loose, half tight, for a well balanced look. But since I always wear tight pants, I have an abundance of loose shirts, and not a lot of horrendously fitted ones. So I went on the hunt for a peplum. I knew it would look great with the outfit I was envisioning. Peplums look great on any woman, with any body. If you have big hips, rock that shiz. If you have a little extra love in your belly, you can easily conceal it, and if you're built more masculine, create curves that aren't there. Even people who may have "muffin tops" can HIDE it with a peplum. For me though, and women with a similar body type, a loose, high waisted pant, plus a peplum created this outrageously VA-VA-VOOM exaggerated hour glass shape, with I think looks really fun, and extra sexy! If you got it flaunt it right?
During my hunt I stumbled upon a faux-leather peplum, and decided to get it just to give the outfit a little edge. I would definitely suggest getting a solid color top if you have a piece as bold as a leopard pant, or any printed pant for that matter. That is actually the key to this whole outfit, is keeping everything else solids. It's not that mixing prints is a no-no, hello... I do it all the time and I love it, it's just that for this outfit in particular, we are trying to show off and accentuate the leopard pant, so we don't want anything to distract from it nor do we want it to blend in. To rock the spring trend, we are pairing the look with an undone, emerald green, long sleeve button up shirt, that we probably have from winter/fall sitting in the back of your closet. It adds a pop of color that's not a neutral. It serves many purposes though other than the color pop, it can be used for women who may want to hide their arms and it's great for a little extra coverage for those cooler spring days. Since we're already going there with the leopard and leather, I let the outfit take on a full fledged edgy vibe and finished off the look with sky high, patent leather pumps and a spiked emerald-crystal globes necklace, that I scored on clearance. Hell yeah. But to add a necklace layer, and just the slightest bit of girly, there is a little bow necklace. Obviously the dominant piece is the spiked necklace here so for layering necklaces in this outfit, or any similar outfit you may have in the future, it's about mixing edgy with girly. You can achieve a similar neck look by pairing a shorter, petite pendant necklace, with any longer, statement necklace of the same metal. Some shingled, Aria earrings complete the look, and for a handbag, we're using the same one from Outfit 7....to add fun bit of stripes.
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| The wind was CRAY the day we shot! |
I hope you all enjoyed these ideas for rocking the Spring Trends Cool Tones, Cobalt & Emerald. Just remember, suits can be worm other than to a business interview. Necklaces can be layered. And pants can be the focus of your outfit if paired properly! Have a great day everyone! Thanks for reading.
xoxo -Viktoria
*Want to win my jewelry? The first giveaway was such a success that I wanted to give other readers an opportunity to win a small prize too! To win my bracelet and necklace (2 separate winners) All you have to do is leave a comment below AND 'Share' this article to your Facebook wall by click in the
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| Flash Giveaway open 04/11/13 through 04/18/13 at midnight* |
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