Marvelous Maxis - The Dress Edition - Week 4

If you are just joining me on the blog, this is week four of my Marvelous Maxis series, where I am looking at various maxi dresses and how to style them. The first week I styled a dress with a fun fluttery bohemian vibe (Week 1), the second week revolved around a comfortable blue and red number (Week 2), and last week I wore my Christopher and Banks dress with a columnar skirt (Week 3). You can click on each of the weeks to view the other posts. 

This week's post returns to a simpler maxi dress with a tank top bodice and straight skirt. This is a tee shirt type knit which pulls on and off just as easily. The waist is gathered elastic. This dress has no bells or whistles and most often I would not pull this out if I wanted to get dressed up. This simple black number says beach and lounge wear all over it. Of course that made me curious to see if I could actually dress it up.

I really have no idea what I am doing with my face. Just being goofy, I guess. Now that I am looking at this, I wish I would have tied the gray shrug higher up on my waist. The dress is more baggy by nature, so leaving the shrug more baggy, just makes the whole outfit look frumpy. There's that word again! Ha, ha.

Yes, my little photo bomber was still around for these photos, since these were all shot on the same day. To dress this up, I put on the gray, sheer shrug. I added some jewelry with bling, a sparkly clutch and my flat, thong sandals with sparkles. 

A simple black maxi like this could be a versatile piece to have in your wardrobe, but as I talked about last week finding a dress that fits well and looks good on you is worth paying a little extra for. I may try to make a few adjustments on this dress to make it more wearable. I feel that it is too long and I had some issues with the top being to loose and bulging in a few places. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this outfit. Leave me your ideas on how to style a maxi dress like this.

Thanks for stopping by the blog. Have a great day!

Photo credit Rebecca Trumbull. Make up Rachel Christensen. 

Marvelous Maxis - Playing it Straight

When I decided to do this series on maxi skirts I wanted to be able to show you, not only ways to style them, but variations on maxi skirt shapes. Skirts come in various shapes from A-line, and pleated, to circular and pencil. Just Google skirt shapes, and you'll see a number of images that explain the different silhouettes. Last week I featured a pleated skirt. This week my muse is a straight, or what can also be called, columnar, skirt.

If you are not a fan of maxi skirts, because of the amount of material involved, I would suggest trying a straight maxi. This shape is fairly figure flattering for most women and allows for some amount of camouflage for those areas we often consider problems, such as tummies and hips. The straight skirt, also does not overwhelm with loads of material.

Once again, I styled the skirt two ways. 

Look 1 - Casual

I found this pretty printed skirt at a thrift store. I love the summery blues and greens of the pattern. For my casual look I paired it with my fringe hem tee. 

To not make the look too busy, I kept my accessories simple. The lariat choker, was a new accessory I decided to try after seeing it on a few of my blogger friends. It's basically one long chord that you wrap around the neck to form a choker, then tie at the front. 

My other accessories included a simple charm bracelet and a canvas off white clutch. To keep the look casual I chose a pair of gold thongs with tassels. 

Look 2 - Dressy

For my second look, I swapped out the fringe tee for a simple pull over top with ruffles around the arm holes. I did the front tuck to make the outfit a bit more figure flattering. 

This cutie pie is my grand puppy Beatrice. She's being coy in this photo. Ha, ha. For my accessories, I wore a multilayer royal blue necklace, which picks up the blues in the skirt. I also wore royal blue heels. Instead of the casual off white clutch I chose my green tote that I got for Mother's Day from Charming Charlie. I also grabbed an aqua sweater for those overly air conditioned places. 

Here's another shot with Miss Beatrice. You can see how I did the front tuck on the blouse. 

Here are the two looks side by side. Which one do you like better?

I hope you enjoyed this post and that you have been inspired to pull out that maxi skirt and wear it. I've gathered a few printed straight maxi skirts below. This post contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own. 

Photo credit Rebecca Trumbull. Make up Rachel Christensen.

Monday linking up with Catherine of Not Dressed as Lamb. Tuesday linking up with Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge. Wednesday linking up with Sara and Hannah of The Perfect Storm Blog. Thursday linking up with Ada of Elegance and Mommyhood.