And live like big city kids when the sun goes down

Dress: J. Crew;

Shirt, boots: Target;

Necklace: from Marilou;

Belt: Highland & Ponce,

Calivintage giveaway.

How I've worn the dress: here.

Photos by Jeremiah.

Listening to: "Coffee," by Copeland.

Wore this Friday night downtown on an impromptu dinner date with Jeremiah at our favorite pizza parlor. It's kind of a hole-in-the-wall place, but you get big NYC-style slices and drinks for pretty cheap.

This outfit is very similar to this one, but I decided to go more of a preppy route with the short sleeve collared shirt. I still think the belt goes perfect with the dress's color palette. This dress, as I've mentioned before, used to be hard for me to style, but I've become fond of the pattern. When I first ordered the dress, it was huge on me, because I wasn't familiar with J. Crew's sizing at the time and apparently ordered way up. I took it to a tailor who able to work some miracles by cinching it in around the waist to make it appear more nipped in and like a shift dress. Lesson learned: Find a great tailor. Also, don't buy things on final sale unless you really know your measurements.

Looking around downtown, so many of the college-aged women I saw were still wearing tons of summer clothing -- strapless dresses, sandals, shorts, halters. I felt pretty covered up in comparison. It wasn't a bad feeling or a judgment against them -- just an observation of how I feel like sometimes there's this huge disconnect between what I desire to wear/see in the blogosphere and what's really appropriate for the time of year in my sweltering summer town. I think because I'm more conscious of what I wear now, there's more of an emphasis on changing things up, and so I (and pretty much every other style blogger) have collectively expressed happiness for autumn being here, because we get to experiment more with layering. So sometimes I feel a little crazy when I get a little reality check of what others are really wearing around here, and I'm wearing my tall boots when it's still like 75-80 degrees around here. I guess I'll just keep on doing what I do and wear what I want, but I just might be a couple months ahead of the weather ...

Pin It