This post is way over due…
On the first Friday of every month the MCA in Chicago hosts an event called First Fridays. It’s a big networking event where you can have drinks while checking out the featured exhibit and theme of the month. I love seeing all of the new pieces and I like any excuse to dress up.
On this particular First Friday my parents happened to be in town so the plan was to hit up the MCA and then grab dinner at a great French restaurant called Henri. Inspired by the evening plans I decided to go with an artsy French look (by French I really just mean all black) which is why I chose to wear fun tights and a slightly shapeless short dress. I also had to add in the chunky pearls and vintage baubles because pearls = class, right?
Everyone has their own ideas on what works and what is taboo when it comes to fashion. In my humble opinion, wearing tights with open toed shoes is a big no no. But for some reason on this particular evening it didn’t look like a Faux Pas to me, so instead I’m going to call it a Faux Posh.
Faux Posh– n- a phrase I created to describe something typically considered a “faux pas” or “social infraction” that happens to work in a particular instance and in my opinion looks pretty sick.
When I plan an outfit I have to invision it before I try it on. I don’t go straight for a look. Instead I pick one item I want to wear and then base the rest of the outfit and look around that one item. Sometimes that item is a hat or perhaps a pair of knee socks. This time I started with the heart printed tights. I then put on the big chunky platform sandals. I love the shape of them and even though they are open toed they are suede and so they felt appropriate as far as sandals go in the winter. I love how animated and cheeky the hearts and the shoes look together.
Next came the dress. I wanted to wear all black so I threw on this sort of sack-shaped dress. Dresses like this can be extremely unflattering if simply thrown on so I put a thin black belt tight on my hips and then bloused the dress over it to make it shorter and to give it a shape. If you are wearing something baggy on top, wear something tight on the bottom to show off some part of your body. I added all of the necklaces on top to balance out the outfit. I wanted to wear something bold and exciting around my neck to make up for the lack of structure of the dress and so that my upper body didn’t look bland in comparison to my lower body. Plus isn’t that whole purpose of having a neck to have another place to hang jewelry? Exactly.
xx
A
Dress: Theory. Belt: Betsey Johnson. Tights: American Apparel. Shoes: Cooperative. Bag: Urban Outfitters. Necklaces: David Yurman, Vintage, Unknown, The Vintage Twin.
