I regret being a late bloomer. For those of you who don't know me personally, I not only looked like a boy throughout my childhood, and early teenage years, but I hated fashion. I was a tomboy in every sense of the word, and I wore a lot of thrifted clothing. Needless to say, when I went to Paris during junior year of high school, I barely paid attention to the fashion, and instead focused on the statues, the museums, and the architecture. The fine artist in me took over, and I hardly cared to go into all the amazing stores I passed by, or shop for clothes at all. But that doesn't mean I don't
REMEMBER the fashion, the women, and the clothes.
Parisians have this reputation for being well dressed, slender women with a fashion sense that is very on point, 24/7. And for the most part, that
is true. For this look, however, I'm referencing the well known Parisian woman stereotype, you know what I'm talking about. We've all seen her in low budget t.v shows, and Disney movies. The woman with the red striped blouse, tight black bottoms, black stilletoes, a baret, who's walking a poodle in front of the Eiffel Tower. In fact, to paint the picture a little better, she looks a bit like....... this:
Yeah, now you
really know what I'm talking about. Well, I'm sure at some point in Paris, some woman somewhere wore this very outfit, but that's not what I noticed while I was there. They look like the rest of us, but slightly better dressed. Anyways, back to
my outfit. I'm referencing her as inspiration for today's look and I'll tell you why. Sometimes, you just need to sport a different look and the best way to do that is to get some sort of inspiration. Whether that is Pinterest, an outfit you saw at the mall yesterday, a look from a magazine, or her. And today, I'm going to look like her. And this is how....
It's not very literal, the outfit that is, but you should be able to see the "Parisiain Chic" vibe just from the close-up above. Now let's zoom out so I can show you how I styled the whole look, top to bottom.
You've seen most of these items before, except for the scarf which plays a crucial role in today's look. It, in and of itself, has multiple patterns but we can easily mix it with the pattern on the shirt and the skirt. Since the pattern of the shirt is bold, and the ones on the scarf are smaller and less obvious we can easily pair them together, and they both blend seamlessly into the skirt because it's a textured pattern, not a printed one (skirt worn
here and
here too).
Another thing that I have done a couple times already is matched Cognac brown with Black. In my opinion, as I have said before, it is one of the easiest ways to wear a brown and black in the same look.
Another thing that I did with this outfit that I rarely do is mix leopard prints, but you can barely tell unless you look closely. I have leopard on the scarf and leopard on my watch, from Express.
The watch also helps to tie in the cognac brown and black together, matching the brown purse with gold hardware perfectly.
*Vik Tip: If you get too hot as the temperature changes throughout the day, tie your scarf around your purse, so you don't loose all that thoughtful planning, and you can still rock all your pieces. Especially if your scarf is the very piece that ties everything together :)*
So as you can see looking at me from far away, even though we have so many elements and thought out pieces with this look, it all come together seemlessly for a cohesive outfit for a spring day.
I hope you all are inspired to use international looks as inspiration for your outfit one day! Thanks for reading, stay stylish.
xoxo
-Viktoria
