How to Wear a Pleated Skirt

The Scene


Delicious dinner at Tom Colicchio's Craft with the lovely Mr. and Mrs. Saint.

Hamachi with grapefruit to start

Duck Tortellini
White Corn & Mustard Greens

Washugyu Flatiron
Bone Marrow Custard & Morels

Winnimere
Apricot Mostarda

Nectarine & Blackberry Shortcake
Vanilla Crème Fraîche & BlackberrySorbet

And freebie Scooby snacks to take with us. 

Happy piglets went nomnomnom all the way home.

The Outfit
Banana Republic tank
BCBG Generation skirt
Louis Vuitton tote
Valentino heels
Canal street palm tree necklace
Forever 21 bracelet

The Grade
C+ (for super self-Conscious)

The Commentary

As I hurdle violently toward my 35th birthday, I am trying to come to terms with my aging body. I've accepted the fact that thanks to a slow thyroid, an appetite that rivals any hog's and a lifelong aversion to athletics, I'll never have a Kate-esque waist.

For this reason, I've avoided buying pleated skirts even though they've been everywhere for the past year. LOVE them on other bloggers. They come off as so flirty and lady-like. Especially on my girl crush Kate. Her whippet-thin waist and barely-there hips are ideal for the style, which inevitably adds bulk around the middle. My thick waist and child-bearing hips (barren and yet still broadening, ironically), not so much. 

However, I temporarily lost my mind a few months ago and bought this pleated beauty. In my defense, the print is pretty, it was on sale and the pleats are so thin that I convinced myself they almost made my hips look thin. I also blame my mom who is pretty honest with me in the dressing room and said it looked great.

Fast forward a few months and the skirt and its trickster pleats have been languishing in my closet like most things do when I'm not absolutely sure I've made a good purchase.  But recently on a warm spring night out with old friends, I decided YOLO. This side-by-side comparison of Kate and Kim in pleats might have helped me reconsider.

Paired the skirt with nude-ish heels to help lengthen the legs and balance the proportions.

Also decide to show off alot of skin on top to draw attention away from my mid-section. Since the girls are holding up, I might as well use them, right? Added the cute little palm tree necklace to further draw the eye up. Was in such a hurry that I didn't add a jacket or wrap sweater to give the look some structure and disguise the midsection - like I normally do.  Pretty ballsy.

Not one of my favorite looks of all time but I'm proud that I tried to embrace the skin I'm in as I enter my mid-thirties. Even prouder that I did it while enjoying a great (read: pig) meal ;) 

The Inspiration

How to Mix Prints: Polka Dots and Stripes

The Scene

First Twitter event in LA as part of the company. Biggie for me. And not just because our event happened to be held at the Petersen Museum, site of the shooting that killed Notorious B.I.G.!



Event went fantastically well and ends with roof-top cocktails. Life is good.





The Outfit 

H&M dress
J Crew belt
Zara heels
Marc by Marc Jacobs bag
Fashion District bracelets
Dior sunglasses




The Grade

A

The Commentary


The goal today: look professional without feeling boring – the perennial challenge of real women with real jobs everywhere. Prints and color are my go-to ways to create polished pop. Stand-out accessories help too. Enter my delicious new Zara heels. They were lust at first sight. Sold out in stores so got them online. 

They are dead-ringers for all those Prada Spring 2011 striped heels that I still haunt my dreams. 

The orange-magenta color combination is a personal favorite for summer – probably the mani/pedi I do most often during warm months. Love how the rafia makes them feel like vacation shoes but the shape and structure makes them pulled-together enough for the office.

Pulled out a go-to chiffon-y dress (worn before for another work event here.) Despite the polka dot print, I think of this dress as neutral in my wardrobe. The black and cream go with everything.



Added the neon orange belt to match my nails and the heels as well as a little neon bracelet I got in the Fashion District.  The final touch: the polka dot bag.

My trick to mixing polka dots – and really mixing any prints – is to find a color or colors that tie them together.  So, in this case, it's less about the dress and the bag both being polka dotted and more about the background of both being cream and the "print" being black.  

For example, the look wouldn't have worked as well if I'd worn the version of the bag that I got my mom for Mother's Day. The whole thing could have felt clownier because in that case it wouldn't have been about tying together colors, it would have been about the prints. Make sense?

Thankfully, I averted clowny and the outfit was a hit. The shoes got more compliments that you can imagine. A+ of a purchase. And best of all, I felt like I looked unique and memorable  – two keys to success in business today.  

The Inspiration