The background on this dress: back a year or two ago, when I was picking up stuff for a dollar at Value Village and then trying to sell it on eBay, I picked up this dress, but never sold it. It’s French Connection, tags still on it. The reason I have never worn it? I have never been sure whether it was elegantly drapy or sloppy big.
Until today. With Peter Pan opening tonight, of course I wanted to wear something elegant. And I have a peculiar preference for thematic theatre dressing. Hence, the green is ideal.
(And, as some of you may have picked up, I am positively smitten with this color this year!)
What makes the fit work:
- pulling the belt firmly across the high hip, effectively changing the silhouette from baggy dress to drapy shirt and A-line skirt.
- cuffing the sleeves. Nothing makes something look too big faster than sleeves that are too long. I actually think they are supposed to be worn cuffed.
- Wearing it with heels. This is probably a proportion thing; with flats boots, I would have needed to be able to push the sleeves up to 3/4.
So, here’s my problem: I have only one belt which fits through the mini belt-loops, and its color will not work. No time to shop. Do you prefer the brown sash belt or the print? One consideration: I definitely look better in smaller belts at the hip (and if only I understood why). Or do you have another improvisational belt suggestion?
If I don’t hate this dress by the end of tonight, I will probably wear it to the office Christmas party this year. But with dressier shoes.
THE PRINT! Adds a certain splash to it! 😉 lol I like it.
I have some things that don’t work with flats either. That’s why the last year of not being able to wear heels has driven me batty.
The printed belt looks prettier w/ the ensemble, but it would be helpful if we could see it ON you! A gold sparkly necklace would be the finishing touch. I know what you mean about shorter sleeves — i’m always having to shorten/fold up my sleeves, it just looks better that way.
I would wear brown unless the print matches particularly well with your hair and skin tone. It’s distracting; I keep trying to see whether the print matches the boots and the brown in the neckline.
LOL
I decided to wear the brown UNTIL my hero asked me if I was wearing pantihose in my belt loops! So I changed to the print. It probably didn’t distract anybody, since I was pretty much in the dark theatre. And I neglected to mention that the finishing touch was a pair of pearl necklaces, which work really well for me (because of my hair). 🙂
Pushing up sleeves adjusts for shorter legs. In this case, wearing heels was a more elegant strategy. 😉
3/4 sleeves makes your legs look longer and you look taller.
Without seeing it on I’d have trouble deciding on the belt.
Heels work better with a longer skirt as a longer skirt on shorter legs really needs heels to add that extra couple of inches to make it work (without looking dumpy or frumpy).
So. Put it all back on and take a picture:-))
Yeah. The problem these days with pictures is this: nobody’s home during the days to take pictures of me and I don’t know how to toggle back and forth between flash and no flash. So the camera gets left on flash, which is good because then I can take pictures of stuff I’m not wearing, but if I tried to take a picture in the mirror …
And I just have no interest in learning anything more about operating the camera, or anything else technological for that matter.
Maybe you’ll get to see it in person sometime! 🙂