Pinspiration

I have good news and bad news.

The Good News: I've been hoping to recreate this Pinterest pin for a while, and today's outfit was it:

I love Pinterest because it can give me some awesome ideas that are very easy to recreate with my own wardrobe. Sometimes pieces I might not have thought to put together, and sometimes just ways of putting them together I might not have considered. In this particular case, it's really the belting that I wouldn't have thought to do, but I really like how it changes the outfit:

I love the color of this skirt, and because it's such a rich statement color, it can be surrounded by neutral tones (white and gray, in this case) without getting washed out. The faux-floral detail on the sweater prevents it from feeling too plain, and the jewelry adds a little bit of "fancy" to an otherwise functional-looking outfit.

The Bad News: This outfit works much better in pictures than it does in real life. I don't mean that it didn't look good in real life when you looked at it - I'm pretty sure it looked quite nice to most people who saw me, although it is clearly designed for someone MUCH thinner (like the model in the picture). The problem was that the outfit just didn't move comfortably. The button-down shirt beneath the cardigan kept coming untucked, the belt didn't quite hit the skirt at the right place, and the sweater kept bunching up under the belt. Early in the day I opted to button the cardigan instead of leaving it open, but even that didn't fully solve the problems. I spent the vast majority of the day fidgeting with my clothes and feeling sloppy, and that is an abominable way to go through a Tuesday. (Or any day, really.)

So what did we learn from this experiment? Using photos from magazines and websites can be great for getting inspired and excited about new fashion possibilities, but they won't all translate to "real life" as well as we might hope. Some outfits are created to be captured by a camera, and never to be seen in motion, and those outfits we just admire and pass by.


Get the look for yourself:
Skirt - Target; similar here.
Shirt -Target; similar here.
Sweater - Old Navy; I can't find any similar sweaters, but you can create the look by adding a flower pin / brooch to any plain cardigan. I particularly like these three options.
Shoes - Payless; similar here.
Belt - hand-me-down; similar here.
Bracelet - Express, available here.
Earrings - New York and Company; similar here.