I recently ventured out in search of a closet spruce up. I stumbled upon this season’s plethora of new basics and style must have pieces that I decided needed a place in my closet. On my short excursion I found a variety of styles I would deem “basics” due to their simple, tailored and sophisticated aspects that I find essential to my closet.
Mustard Oversized Crewneck
Mustard is such a rich, forgiving color that it suits every skin tone. Pair it with endless combinations featuring your favorite shorts, moto jacket and crisp white Converse.
A flowy, oversized babydoll dress is in my book, essential for the warm seasons. I typically pair it my favorite bag, gold necklaces and vintage cowboy boots. It’s a fool proof look for any day out. Although this one isn’t on your everyday must haves list, its fresh and simple, and you can’t go wrong!
Cardigans are my favorite. Simply because they are so versatile, so easily dressed up, dressed down, layer-able and require hardly any effort to style. The possibilities here are endless, and for that reason, cardigans are on the forefront of wardrobe basics. Long cardigans especially, hold a special place in my heart for their easily achievable, effortless look that comes with wearing them with just about everything. Pair it with bell bottoms and ankle booties, a simple tank and some necklaces or a bandana and you’re good to go.
Cropped Black Button Up
I can’t stress my love for button ups enough! A distunguished, tailored look is easily mastered with these. Wear them alongside your favorite pair of jeans, skirts, and shorts. OR, go for something with a little twist, pair it under a pinafore for an artfully mastered chic appearance.
As you can probably tell, there’s a pattern to these looks. The 70’s revival is coming back. Aside from these funky basics, try a pair of vintage ankle boots, fringe backpacks and suede anything.
Perhaps you’re like me and putting together an outfit each day is a task that involves indecisive questions like; “am I going to be comfortable in this?”, “am I too matchy matchy?”, and “am I not matchy enough?”. Or perhaps you’re like my fashionista daughter Corrine and putting together an outfit each day is easy peasy so long as you have a few statement pieces! Oh she makes it look so easy.
Well then today’s article is for you! It’s all about taking ONE pair of shoes and remembering that whether you’re dressing them up or dressing them down, that you ARE creative and you DO have versatility skills! Sounds far fetched coming from someone who changes 7 times before stepping out the door *raises hand*, but style is all about being versatile. No matter your fashion skills, or lack there of *raises that hand again*, you can put together a killer look that meets your comfort level and is on trend. After all, confidence comes with how comfortable you are in your own skin, and confidence my friend, looks amazing on you.
As you’ve seen in our most recent posts, Corrine and I teamed up with DSW® to take you through festival season this summer and all of the fashion favorites coming out of it this year. We’re centering the conversation around bohemian themes for you frolicking princesses out there, and colorful trends for you movement motivated ones. What we’ve discovered is that it doesn’t have to be one or the other. You can be both; colorful and trendy, and bohemian bound and comfortable. Here’s what we did with our two most coveted shoe styles of the season, and how we paired them with our personal favorites in fashion.
Corrine’s style combines pops of color with vintage inspired pieces. This more formal ensemble features this bell sleeved white romper with mustard colored leggings for fun, and rose gold accessories. She topped the look off with these pewter booties, going sock less to show off the side cutouts and ankle buckles, and this Aztec backpack features similar hardware which tied the look together. It also showed off its own versatility by doubling as a tote and an awesome accessory.
My personal style is all about being trendy (on accident) while sticking to more flowy and free styles that I’m most comfortable in. I took the same booties and dressed them down with this bohemian themed outfit. Crop tops and kimonos were sprinkled all over the festival; some cool and colorful and others warm in tone and fabric. I followed suit and paired my black kimono with my Natalia Fedner Designs crop top, this ankle length hi-low skirt, and kept it casual with the booties, also opting to go sock less. For accessories I wore a simple bangle and a silver headpiece that went beautifully with the muted colors of the look.
Our second favorite style in footwear this season are these turquoise flat sandals. We love the color variations it comes in and the double strap that makes them more formal than a traditional sandal. For this look Corrine dressed the flats up a bit with these patterned socks which she wore beneath a pair of overalls and a 1960’s inspired tie dyed bathing suit. The vibrant pop of color came from this vintage scarf she tied around her neck that brought out the colors in the bathing suit.
The photo above was snapped of me on our last day at Coachella, and by day three all I wanted was to be comfortable . . . and colorful! Corrine’s style must have rubbed off on my by this point. I kept my look casual per the usual, yet super fun by styling the flats with an equally colorful jacket. I paired it with a simple white crop top, black skinny jeans, and accessorized with the Aztec backpack. I was all about silver this trip so featured here is a metal fringe necklace and some some simple bangles. Also, this was me practicing that ‘pro pose’ look we talked about earlier, while 90,000 people roamed about.
From this photo set you’ll notice that even though Corrine and I have very different styles, and our choices may be opposite from one another when it comes to styling themes and occasions, but we have the same outlook on footwear. The shoes we choose to style are comfortable, trendy, and versatile. They have to be when you have two ladies in the house who wear the same shoe size and it’s debated who gets to wear what! We’ve learned that it’s easy to choose the same pair and give them completely different attitudes by simply incorporating what makes us feel most comfortable as individuals.
If I had to give us each a themed name, it’d be, “Corrine- the vintage queen draped in color”, and “Jess- the trendy bohemian princess”!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this article and find a way to incorporate what’s trending this season while interjecting your own personal style. We love teaming up with brands to share with you how we approach our every day whether it be in style, travel, or dealing with the occasional fashion dilemma, and hope to have helped you with a dilemma or two while we were at it!
Let us know what your favorite styles are this season and tell us; if you had to live with only ONE pair of shoes for the rest of forever, which pair would you choose and why???
Thanks for sharing in our adventures and we’ll see you later this week!
At DSW®, we believe in the power of shoes, and in the power of shoe lovers. With thousands of fresh styles for men, women, and children, we’ve got something for everyone, no matter who they are or how they dress. Shoes say a lot about you. Say something great.
FTC Disclosure: Compensation was provided by DSW® via Mode Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of DSW®.
