the whole truth & nothing but the truth...mostly...

boots: Target. tights, shirt, & necklace: gifted. skirt: sam's club (wait, sam's club?! is she serious? yes.) trench: F21. scarf: a total tourist shop in Sweden.

The truth is: I love colored tights. These beauties (which I got in the mail yesterday from my cute friend Val) were absolutely my jumping-off point today. Here's the best part about them: they are super-dee-dooper bright. Here's the problem with them: their brightness.

My biggest challenge in starting with such a you-could-see-these-babies-from-space accessory [Editor's note: Are tights accessories? Hmmm...discuss.] was finding a balance of (a) more neutral items so I didn't become a walking disco-ball-o'-blinding-brightness and (b) at least a little bit of color so not ALLLL attention is on my knees.

 

Because, really. Knees? If that's a Top-10 physical feature, I'm toast.

 

I considered wearing some chocolate walking shorts with the tights. But I thought the darkness of the brown would be a little jarring right next to this particular shade of blue. Enter: olive corduroy skirt. Not too dark, not too light, not too colorful, not too dull. Just a little too big, but nothing a few safety pins in back couldn't fix.

 

[Editor's note: Most of my pencil skirts, okay, ALL of them, are too big because I bought them to wear low on my waist. This isn't where pencil skirts should rest! It's way more flattering to have them fit the woman's form (even if you're shaped like a certain square-pants cartoon character, like me--at least TRY to fake it), up higher on the waist. So. I've been tailoring all my skirts to fit...with varying degrees of permanence & success...]

 

A white cotton v-neck shirt with pretty detailing was a quiet yet feminine addition to an outfit full of solid, fairly masculine pieces. Neutral short trench coat, boots, necklace, and hairstyle. (I wanted to show off the little crimpies in my hair from yesterday's braids...they're subtle here, but I like them.) With the trench belt, aNOTHER belt would be overkill, but the eyelet trim of this shirt is visually interesting without being too bold. Add a feminine, patterned scarf (untied because there's already a lot going on around my neck; I felt like I needed something vertical) that gives purpose to the bright blue tights but in a more toned-down way, and a blue beaded necklace as a bracelet. Done and done.

 

I dunno, guys. Did it work? Still not sure about this one... 

 

Happy Wednesday.