February Outfits: Color Combos - Cloudy with a Chance of Red

It’s the last week of February. I am glad that we are getting closer to spring, aren’t you? I am finishing out the month with another outfit that gives a nod to Valentine’s Day colors. Today’s look was actually inspired by an Instagram challenge to use a Pinterest pin for inspiration. You can see that pin here.

I have been wanting to get back to including a few style tips in my fashion posts to give you other ways and ideas to look at your wardrobe and what inspires you to dress the way you do. If you click on over to the pin that inspired today’s look, you will see that my outfit is not an exact copy.

Style Tip: Resources for fashion inspiration are meant to be just that, resources. Do not feel forced to buy more clothes or adopt a style that is not quite you. If it is an outfit you’d like to “copy” shop your closet for similar pieces and then add your own personal touches with shoes, bags, and accessories.

What drew me to this particular pin was the bold combination of red and gray. I love how it looks and thought it would be a perfect look to end the month of February. Plus, it is completely me: casual, cute and comfortable.

The first piece I chose was the gray cardigan. Just so you don’t think these combinations come easily to me, I spent probably an hour and numerous iterations of red sweaters and tops; gray cardigans and blazers, and washes of jeans, before I finally settled on what you see. Ha, ha.

This dark gray, cardigan is Gap brand and was thrifted a number of years ago. This is a v-neck, but a crew neck would work just as well.

Style Tip: Neckline’s are important, but that doesn’t mean you can’t wear any neck line you want. Here is a good article comparing v-neck versus crew (round). Because I am more broad shouldered, I typically reach for v-necks in my cardigans, or open fronts. I do have plenty of crew neck sweaters, but more often will choose a v-neck. While the points the author is making refer to a pullover, the same points are true of cardigans. I think it’s up to you what you like to wear, and how one versus the other works for the outfit.

Here are some cute cardigans for spring from maurices, Old Navy, JC Penney, Loft, Land’s End, and Kohl’s.

I tried on many of my red pullover sweaters and soon realized a sweater weight fabric was too bulky to wear under this lighter weight cardigan, so I began looking through my long sleeve tees and turtlenecks and settled on this thrifted J.Jill piece. An extra large, I snatched it up thinking it would look cute over cropped pants in the warmer weather, so for this look it was too big. Instead of doing a front tuck, I opted for a back tuck to make the top look more fitted. This works amazingly well, and no worries how it looks since it is covered by the cardigan.

Style Tip: Not everything has to fit exactly. There are plenty of ways to alter a piece without elaborate sewing skills. Tucking things in, rolling long hems up, using hair bands to gather fabric, and even using brooches and pins can help to make a piece more wearable. A great blogger to follow for more ideas is Jodie from Jodie’s Touch of Style. In my opinion she is one of the queen’s of fashion hacks and ideas for making your clothes work for you, no matter how big or how small.

Here is a page of red and white striped shirts from Amazon.

Style Tip: If you are looking for a particular clothing item from a regular retailer, just type what you are looking for into the search bar at the top of your browser and it will do the searching for you. This is a little easier than going to each retailer and searching through them.

I settled on this thrifted pair of Gap, straight leg jeans. Are you, like me, still trying to figure out what shape of jeans to wear? It seems so many things are in right now, but I have found that a straight leg, not skinny, and a boot cut are both reasonably spot on for anyone to wear. The barrel jean is all the rage right now, but I am not enamored with that shape. I would need to try some on to see if I like it or not. Do any of you have experience with the barrel shaped jeans? Do you like them, and do you have a retailer you recommend?

For my accessories, I went with a thrifted leaf necklace, a few bracelets, my thrifted Converse, a red and black second hand scarf, and a Buffalo print Arizona Jeans tote bag that I got from somewhere, but I can’t remember where. Ha, ha.

What do you think of this outfit? Is this something you would wear? If it is would you choose red or a different color? What color would you choose? I love to hear from you, so be sure to leave a comment if you can.

I’d love for you to also follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest if you aren’t already. Thank you for following along.

My Style: Leopard Print, Plaid and Denim

When I was thinking about an outfit for today’s post I realized I had the perfect inspiration in an Instagram challenge I was doing for the month of February. One of the prompts was Cheetah or Leopard, so I went with leopard since I don’t think I currently have any cheetah. I wanted to be cozy, and of course my go to is casual, so this is the outfit I came up with.

I started with this thrifted, open front, leopard print sweater. The brand is called Signature Studio. A few years ago these longer sweaters were quite popular and leopard print was just as popular then as it is now. I love that we can have all these beautiful animal prints without the harm that use to come to these beautiful animals. I know hunting still goes on for big game cats or other animals, but I’m hoping there is less demand for it with all the great prints we now have artificially.

I added a stretchy, brown belt to give the outfit a bit more of an hour glass silhouette.

I felt a bit of print mixing was in order so I grabbed this black and white Croft and Barrow, plaid shirt. This also was a thrifted piece.

Style Tip: Print mixing is easy. Try pairing plaid prints with stripes, florals, polka dots, animal prints, or other types of plaids like checks or Buffalo plaid.

Since it is my style, I wanted to keep it easy and casual so I chose these rolled, cropped St. John’s Bay jeans from JCPenney that I got a couple of winters ago. These are a boyfriend cut so very roomy and comfy.

Style Tip: Don’t put your crop pants away for the cold weather. Use them to show off fun, colorful socks or wear them with boots to help your boots take center stage.

For accessories I used the cognac color in the leopard print to inspire my necklace and my boots. However, I saw that for spring dark brown is the color of choice for bags and shoes, thus I pulled out my corduroy hobo bag.

This floral necklace is a new piece that I thrifted before I started my #75hardstylechallenge which is a buying fast for 75 days. I love this large, shorter pendant necklace.

My MIA boots keep showing up on here even though they are starting to look pretty ragged. They are comfy and fit well, making it hard to give them up. They were thrifted to begin with so for a few dollars I have gotten a lot of wear out of them and kept them out of the land fill for a couple more years.

You’ve seen this brown hobo bag numerous times here on the blog. It was another thrift find and has stood the test of time.

Did you like this outfit? Do you have any leopard print pieces in your closet? How do you like to style them?

I hope you enjoyed this post. Leave me some love. I always enjoy hearing your ideas and thoughts. I have included shopping links within the post. These are affiliate links. By purchasing something through one of my links I get a little bit of a kick back. I appreciate all of your support.

Have a great week!

My Style: Cozy Textures and Print Mixing Fun

When we think of winter, one print and one texture always come to mind: buffalo plaid and sherpa. Today’s outfit combines both the fuzzy, cozy texture of sherpa with the casual print mix of dark winter florals and buffalo plaid while still giving a nod to our winter color of burgundy. This outfit is one I might have worn to work back in the day, but would be perfect for lunch with a friend or a casual date night out.

My base pullover is one I got this last fall from Maurice’s online. It is so soft, and perfect to wear all winter long. I threw on a pendant necklace that also makes me think of snowflakes, but you can’t really see it. A shorter necklace would have been better.

My Gloria Vanderbilt, floral jeans were a Kohl’s clearance find a few seasons ago. I love dark florals in the fall and winter and with the burgundy color being popular right now I felt these fit in quite well.

I added this Sonoma sherpa jacket for the fun of print mixing, and it is a shout out to the wonderful textures of winter that keep us warm and cozy. This was another clearance find at Kohl’s a few seasons ago. It was marked way down and I think they were not very popular as there were a few left. I think the cut is a bit boxy and I got it more as a piece I could wear around the house on these polar vortex days. Ha, ha.

I decided on my thrifted, olive, hobo bag to go along with the bits of green in the pants. This is a great bag that I have had for a number of years. It is made of some sort of vinyl blend and really isn’t showing any sort of wear or pealing like so many of the fake leather hand bags show after just a few years. I added a fun snowflake pin for a bit of bling.

My ankle boots are the same ones I wore the week before last with the embroidered cardigan and burgundy pants. They are thrifted Forever 21 brand. Please excuse the dust and cat hair. Ugh! Real life.

What do you think of this outfit? Do you have a sherpa jacket? Do you like buffalo plaid? I always love to hear your thoughts.

I hope you are having a wonderful week.

I’ve interspersed shopping links throughout. These are affiliate links. I appreciate you taking the time to check out the blog.