In Living Color

Basic black has its place but I love color - especially now that summer weather is here (even if the season hasn't officially arrived yet). Since my brain has summer vacation-itis from this gorgeous holiday weekend, I'll keep this post mostly to pictures.

I couldn't wait to wear this blue one-shoulder dress since I saw it Matthew Ames' spring runway show months ago and even posted a photo of it on my blog. I wore it to the MoMA After Party in the garden last week and am thinking already of the next chance to wear it again. After I took this photo, I put on a pair of dangling earrings my parents gave me for my birthday this year, but with this dress' color and shape, I wanted to keep it simple. (dress is Matthew Ames, shoes are Sigerson Morrison from a few years ago).


Pastels, on the other hand, require a bit of toughening up for me. I liked this little doll print dress with slouchy boots and a military jacket. (Dress is Philip Lim 3.1, jacket is Harvey Faircloth, and boots are Isabel Marant)


I like the all pale look too - but unless it's a light little weekend dress, I think it looks better to balance floaty with tailored pieces to avoid looking like a giant flabby marshmallow. (Hache jacket, Malene Birger blouse, Marni shoes, Ter et Bantine skirt).


And packing for my 4-day work trip to China was made easier when I remembered that "red is a neutral" - something my aunt said a while ago and which I think is true - at least, I thought my red shoes worked with every outfit. I expected (incorrectly, as it turned out) to be in over-air conditioned spaces, so wore orange stockings with the dress. Nude hose would have killed it... (dress is Ter et Bantine, red shoes and belt are Bottega Veneta, navy suit is Ter et Bantine, as is ivory blouse, black jacket is Hache, and olive silk top and pants are Hache. Orange tights are Fogal.)

A minor slip up

Sometimes the perfect wow outfit that looked great in the store turns out to be a bit too much for my real life. Plunge necklines, sheer dresses, wide-cut armholes, etc. look amazing, but how are you supposed to wear them in public if you're planning to lean forward or raise an arm at any point? Wrapping myself in double-sided tape is a pretty unappealing thought...

And you can be surprised by even the most innocent looking clothes.. A knee-length floaty lined dress - how sweet and demure is that? Oh very, until it's steadily crept up your legs while you're walking and gathered itself around your waist like a bunchy shirt. A nice look for afternoon in midtown! I speak from recent experience. Thankfully in my case, I was wearing a wrap coat that I could hold closed until I could rearrange. So while I may have looked like a flasher, at least I didn't look like something worse..

All of these sartorial challenges can be addressed, however, with a bit of layering. The solutions are out there, though it's surprising how hard they are to find, given how designers have sent out season after season of sheer clothing. Everyone seems to want to sell you Spanx or some "shapewear" item. Do they think women are only walking around in tight fitting jersey? Somewhere there's a designer/lingerie company disconnect because that's not how women I know dress... But anyway, I have managed to find some layering pieces that have worked for me.

The floaty dress (by Hache) was tamed with a plain half slip (Commando) that is essentially a fashion band-aid (a guy friend of mine called it "insurance").. not particularly lovely - but it works! I'm wearing it here with the coat that preserved my modesty (also Hache).


The plunge neckline (Matthew Ames jumpsuit) was made admittedly less dramatic (but modest enough for me to be more comfortable) with an American Apparel body suit. (American Apparel is great for layering pieces.) The shoes are Acne.

And I'm wearing this Hache sheer double-layer dress over a tank top, and under a Ter et Bantine tuxedo jacket. The boots are the Chloe buckle ones I wrote about last summer. And yes, I have definitely gotten a lot of wear out of them - and they've held up beautifully!





Now, I don't want to talk people out of being daring - I saw a girl on Saturday night wearing a tank top with wide-cut arm holes over a black bra. It looked cool (though my friends thought she looked like she was trying too hard). Maybe. It all depends on your comfort level. I'm a bit klutzy and tend to move my arms around a lot while I'm talking, so I want to feel like I have a full range of motion without having to worry about revealing a bit too much of myself to strangers (or friends). If you're more composed, or more daring, good for you! But if not, those are a few layering pieces that work for me.