Kickin' It with Kimonos - Orange Floral

Today’s look involves some bold print mixing, but why not? It is fun to think outside the box when it comes to building an outfit and one way to do that is to mix prints. This might not appeal to you, because it is a little busy, but there is something about this I really like. I think it might be that this outfit has a bit of a bohemian vibe. The colors do lean a little bit more towards fall, but seeing as we are now in the month of August, I think it is a great transitional look.

This chevron print dress is Sonoma brand. I just loved the colors of this thrifted piece and knew I had to bring it home with me when I found it. You can see how I styled this same piece with a pair of crop pants in one of my previous Pantone series.

I am not sure what I was doing with my mouth, be these sorts of pictures have been pretty typical throughout my whole photographic career. Ha, ha.

I ordered this orange floral ruana from a boutique retailer called Glamour Farms. I used to follow several bloggers who featured a number of their pieces and I thought they were cute. This ruana was on clearance and I loved the color and the pattern. Unfortunately when I got it, the seams they put at the sides to make it more secure and have sleeves, made the piece too small. I just removed a few inches of stitching and now it is perfect.

The above picture also gives you a closer look at the thrifted necklace and my beaded bracelets. I thought this necklace was a very unique blend of brassy metallics and wooden beads.

My thinking is, a good boho outfit always should include some fringe, thus this thrifted bag. This is a very simple hand crafted piece, but I just love the fringy layers and it definitely appeals to my inner hippy. You can see this bag with two other boho looks on the blog: medallion print skirt and denim outfit.

I have had these Montego Bay Club sandals for ages. I used to wear them quite a bit, but more recently I haven’t really been wearing sandals as much. I’m glad I thought of these, however, and I think they work just right for this outfit. What do you think?

What did you think of this outfit? Would you do a print mix like this? Why or why not? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so be sure to leave me some love in the comments. I appreciate all your insights and ideas.

I’m including a few shopping links. These are affiliate links. Every time you click on a link, I get a few cents. Every penny counts. All opinions are my own.

Photo credit Rebecca Trumbull.

Transitional Spring Outfit

Spring time in my area is a carousel ride of fluctuating temperatures and weather which makes getting dressed any given morning like playing the lottery. The best way I have found to adapt to these changeable days is to think layers. As opposed to winter layering that is full of heavy long sleeved tees and bulky sweaters, spring layering is more about lighter layers. Fabrics like cotton or cotton polyester blends are ideal for light layers and still give you mobility while keeping you warm.

Today’s outfit was what I wore on Saturday for our Easter celebration. I wanted something casual and comfortable, but still flexible enough to cook a big dinner and do all the clean up afterwards. I also wanted layers that would be warm, but not so warm I would be peeling them off when the oven was on cooking the turkey.

Transitional dressing usually means you are moving from one season to another and you are in between one wardrobe and another. The move from winter to spring in my area is usually still chilly and even downright cold. Rain, snow showers and wind are common place during the months of March, April and once in a rare while into May. Many people who have a capsule type wardrobe can have all of their clothes in their closet at one time. For those of us who are clothes horses, we need to move out the winter wardrobe and move in the summer wardrobe. I usually don’t do this until the weather is consistently above 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Cold weather clothes spend much more time in my closet than my warm weather clothes, unfortunately. Ha ha.

In this outfit I am wearing two lightweight cotton long sleeve tees. The striped tee you can see is a.n.a. brand and was a purchase this past fall from JC Penney. They had a good sale on long sleeve tees and I bought a few. Underneath the striped tee is along sleeve thrifted light pink tee which is Old Navy brand.

My pretty floral kimono is David & Young brand and a DSW clearance find. Don’t be afraid to look at the accessory sections at different stores. You never know what you might find. The thing that drew me to this piece was the print, the colors and the tassels.

My jeans are Rock & Republic from Kohl’s. I have several pairs of these and love all of them. These are more stretchy and like jeggings rather than jeans. My other pairs are regular denim.

Once again, my chunky burgundy necklace is making an appearance. I love the way it looks with this outfit and I also love the print mix of this outfit. Stripes and florals are one of the easiest and most popular print mixes.

I thought these Spirit ankle boots were a good choice for this look. They are comfortable and yet stylish with a faux suede finish and low heel.

This Massini saddle bag was purchased from clearance at Meijer a while back. I’ve styled this with an outfit before on the blog. You can see that post here.

I hope you enjoyed this outfit. What do you wear to transition from winter to spring? Are you still wearing layers where you are, or is it warm? I’d love to hear from you, so be sure to leave a comment below.

I hope you all are well and managing to stay healthy and mentally sound, which isn’t easy to do in these times we are in. I have good days and bad days, but we all need to give ourselves grace. These are difficult times, so set small goals and try to get outside.

I’m including a few shopping links. These are affiliate links, but all opinions are my own. Thanks for stopping by the blog.

Outfit Inspiration - Monochrome Look with a Kimono

As I have mentioned on other occasions, the inspiration for my fashion posts, comes from all different areas. A lot of times it comes from a picture in a magazine, or an add I get in the mail. I have a notebook where I keep the pages from these magazines and catalogues, of outfits I’d like to try to mimic. Today’s outfit was inspired by a JC Penney add from last fall.

In the add, the model featured a rust colored tee, rust colored corduroys and a kimono with a beautiful fall pattern full of those colors like rust, teal and burgundy. I have numerous kimonos, which I am always lamenting I don’t wear enough for how pretty they are. Kimonos, ruanas, ponchos or capes can all be such beautiful statement pieces, so why not make that statement piece the focal point of the outfit.

Since we are well into winter, I decided to use a more wintery colored kimono. This is truly a great piece for all year round, but since I decided to make the monochrome part of the outfit black, it seemed perfect to top the dark under layers with a piece full of bright tropical pink. This kimono was thrifted and is Massini brand. Before I had any kimonos, I never really saw what the draw was, but now I am sold. This beauty was one of the first ones I bought.

I know my black pieces do not match exactly and while that would drive some people nutty, I figure the kimono is getting the main attention in this outfit, so it didn’t matter as much. The thrifted black skinny jeans are Mossimo brand and the back cable knit turtleneck sweater was from Kohl’s a number of years ago and is Croft and Barrow brand.

My black, slouch, Massini, boots are also a Kohl’s purchase, but a clearance find. I had been looking for a pair of these soft, faux suede boots to wear with skirts and dresses. I have a wider calf, so quite often I cannot get these softer types of pieces. They are usually made thinner to stay up, otherwise we’d have panty hose ankles like our grandmas use to have, but with our boots.

With my recent walking activity while employed seasonally by Kohl’s my legs got much more tone and I lost a few pounds. Now I can wear these boots over skinny jeans, as long as the material isn’t too bulky.

I styled these same boots and the black turtleneck in my 20 Days of Christmas series back in 2018. You can see how I used those two pieces with a slip dress here.

For my accessories I went with silver, black and gold. These days there is no worry over mixing our metals. I enjoy pendant necklaces and reach for these longer pieces more often than my short ones. This one has a number of charms dangling from the end of the chain.

You can also see the layers of bracelets I threw on my arm. Most of these are cheap stretchy beaded types, but I don’t think we have to pay tons of money to have interesting and unique pieces in our jewelry boxes.

This bag was another thrift store find. It is Libby Edelman brand and is genuine leather. The leather is soft and supple and I love the wide guitar like strap and the riveting. My hubby thinks i have two many purses, which is true, but how can you pass up a winner like this one? I also love the bright reddish pink color.

What do you think of this outfit formula? What inspires the outfits you wear? Inspiration can come from all sorts of places, including bloggers you follow, other people’s Pinterest pages and like I found, even pictures in an add or catalog. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. I appreciate each one of you.

Photo credit Rebecca Trumbull.

I’m including a few shopping links. These are affiliate links. All opinions are my own.