Better Than Expected

Dress as Skirt--Saturday, 10/17/15

Focal item:  Sleeveless faux-wrap purple knit dress from Target, approximately 100 years old

Well, maybe not that old, but I've had it for a long time.  I remember wearing it on vacation at the Outer Banks (as a swimsuit cover up), and that was over 5 years ago.  I consider this item fully depreciated, but I wasn't sure whether it was something to keep in my closet or get rid of.

The top part of the dress is both too tight and too revealing these days (the wrap dress and faux wrap dress are notoriously immodest) but the bottom half still fits well.  Could I layer something on top and use it as a skirt?

Here are two Reverse Inspirations based on the outfit I came up with.

First, a super fancy version with a full skirt.

From cuteandlittle.com

Second, a super fancy version with a lace top.

From veronabrit.com

By comparison, my decidedly not-fancy weekend in the summer-to-fall transition version.

Sleeveless purple knit dress (Target)+
Cream pullover sweater (Kohls), $2.82/wear+
Purple/aqua/black/white chevron scarf (Target), $3.84/wear+
Rose gold ballet flats (thrifted, Old Navy), $1.00/wear (yay)

Outfit total: $7.66/wear

I was surprisingly happy with how this turned out.  The sweater was comfortable over the dress, and the top of the dress did not bunch up or cause any weird lumpiness--to my eye, it just looked like a sweater with a skirt.  And of course, I loved the scarf with this combo--it's that critical third piece that takes an outfit from fine to marvelous for me.  I eschewed the more typical black or teal shoes and went with rose gold ballet flats for an extra sprinkling of summer-ness while the temperatures stay above 70 F (in my apartment on a sunny weekend, that's not hard to do).

Sometimes things just come together very quickly and easily and take you a bit by surprise.  Other things, like these Japanese gardens, require painstaking effort and multiple attempts to reach a pleasant simplicity.

In other news...The end of this article about "Asian" performance at universities (and how this affected some college ranking systems) resonated strongly with me.  Sure, in California, "Asian" means "high-achieving American-born children of Indian or Chinese engineers" or whatever.  In Snowville, "Asian" means "desperately poor immigrant children, born in war-ravaged countries, who may not have any living parents, who have had inconsistent schooling in the past, and who don't speak English."  In our schools, Asian students struggle a lot.

I found an unpublished blog post entitled "Blah."  It was empty.  Hah.