Frugal and Fab: 1 $15 dress worn 3 ways

In one of my earlier style diary posts, I wrote about how Olivia Palermo’s outfit inspired mine that day. 

And it all started with this H&M cheap and chic find from the sale rack for only $15.  In the above picture, I’ve winterized the classically cut sheath with tights, booties, a hat, cardigan and belt.  (For outfit details see earlier post).

As you know I try to never wear an outfit the same way twice.  It’s my somewhat ineffective way to keep myself from getting bored of my clothes.  How do you keep from getting bored of your fashions?

I constantly need to edit and update my wardrobe.  Perhaps it is a side effect of working in retail.  After all, there is constant temptation by the latest, newest and more fashionable items.  You’re constantly in want of what’s new and suddenly the old clothes sitting in your perfectly fine closet at home just don’t seem good enough or enough period.  But really, before I worked in retail, my personal obsession has always been fashion.  I’ve always struggled with being satisfied with the overflowing closet already at home.  It’s so easy to tire of what’s in your closet, isn’t it?  Aren’t you always craving the next new thing?  I never understood how people could stand to wear the same thing over and over, year after year.  My husband wears out his clothes until he bores holes through them and even then, he’ll practically throw a fit if you try to convince him to stop wearing it.  I. do. not. understand.

To keep my budget in check and to keep the inevitable boredom from setting in, the personal styling challenge helps keep things interesting!  Here are a couple more ways that I’ve worn the same dress throughout the past year.

For work, I’ve paired the dress with my black blazer as well as my more summery white blazer (also from H&M).  It’s pictured here.

I got these crazy white/black heels while on a trip to Shanghai, the black biker cuff was from Claire’s of all places, and the purse was a gift that I’ve since given away.

For the summer, I took the same dress and color palette as the first outfit except I switched out the winter accessories for bare legs, sexy stilettos, a BCBG suede belt and then ditched the cardigan.

I find this dress to be so versatile and am happy to report that I’m not quite done with it yet.  I can do so much with the black and white graphic print.  Add a pop of color with the accessories, purse, shoes or cardigan and you have a bolder overall look.  Layer a shirt on top of the dress and convert it into what looks like a graphic skirt – in fact I think that will be my next fashion move.  This $15 investment is going a long way!

 

 

Style Diary: 1 dress, 3ways

Today I wore a Calvin Klein cowl neck sheath dress with patterned tights, an Express chain necklace, Ann Taylor leather jacket, Aldo booties and Fendi tote with my cloister hat.   The whole outfit costed around $250 without the tote.   Where I work, you couldn’t even find a dress for that low of a price.   Here are the pics.

I got tons of compliments on my tights today but I can bet I got some strange looks too.

I’m a secret fan of Express.  They have edgy and trendy accessories for cheap.   Here, I’m wearing a Chanel knock-off style with a blinged out camelia and leather chain accessories.  I just wish Express had a frequent customer card.  It would have come in handy when I was buying hundreds and hundreds of shirts for my the booth models I used to hire.

This dress is the dress I wore on my first day at work but with a softer, more romantic look.

And lastly, here it is with a black H&M cardigan, black chanel purse, flower pin, and ankle strap heels.

Speaking of heels, that’s my shoe closet pictured there.  It got a pink makeover when I moved.  I couldn’t decide on the wall of curtains (which hid my makeshift closet) so I started out with pink (shown here) but have since opted for the white/black striped tweed curtain shown in my first picture.  Yes even my shoe closet got a makeover…

This last look is much more conservative and could be a safe, appropriate choice for various work environments.

The other way I’ve worn this dress in the past four months is with a short-sleeved, chocolate brown cardigan, belted with the metallic belt that the dress came with (shown above), brown croc boots, and my silver Prada lady purse.   Sorry I must’ve gotten lazy and not captured it on film ‘cuz a photo was nowhere to be found.

This Calvin Klein is such a basic go-to dress which is why I wear it once a month (more than I can say about  most of my dresses).  Sometimes the most basic dress is the most versatile.  I hope I showed you that one basic dress can have lots of styling potential.

So there you go, 1 dress worn 4 ways, pictured 3 ways in very different styles.  Which outfit was your favorite?

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to enter my vintage dress giveaway!

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