denim delight

September 1, 2011

How many of you don’t have much time to get ready in the morning? I’m in that boat. Without the luxury of time to experiment with outfit combinations, I tend to get into a rut with my wardrobe. It can be frustrating. I spotted this denim grouping below and loved it. Going to keep it as inspiration for when I feel bored with my blues. It’s a great reminder that denim, although incredibly simple, can boast some serious style when paired with some not-so-simple pieces.

With the need to guard our pocketbooks a little more in this economy, building fresh outfits around the existing denim in our closet saves some bucks.

Whenever I want to add a dash of attitude in my denim, I like a crisp white oxford or simple fitted black turtleneck with some edgey booties or wedges. Leopard is always welcome in the mix. You can always buy a scarf and throw it with a white tee, jeans and booties versus buying a whole new outfit. I love this classic from JCrew.

Oooh and I like this muted silk one too, which is over here at Banana Republic. These muted tones would be great on a blonde. It also comes in a lovely grey version here.

Here is our leopard concept taken to the next level of sass. The red lips bring it home.

For those of you who may start to feel Fall’s first chill in the mornings, this jacket from Old Navy could be darling with our “jeans and white tee” idea. I’m shocked it’s only 60 beans.

Let’s break for some quick hair thoughts…

With these kind of combos, the cherry on the cake for me is wearing the hair in a messy twist or pony with pieces falling down. You can run a straightener over the strays then apply a teeny bit of styling lotion to chunk up the finer pieces to help inhibit frizz. Or you can make the strays a little more messy, kind of like this:

The first trick to creating the messy up-do is back combing the top for volume. Yes, you will look like one of the B-52′s when you start the process. The next step is harassing your hair after you pull it up – run your hands back and forth over it and keep messing with it. Don’t let it be slicked down and perfect (that’s a great look too but totally different than this). Tug on the hair a little, take it down and redo it, just keep moving it around with your hands until you like it. Once it’s up, lightly run your hands over it and literally mess it up. Just don’t pull on the pony or twist, because then it will fall and give you what I call the “tired mom ponytail” – a look I know all too well, ha ha.

If need more of a visual step-by-step on the messy do, check out this amazing tutorial written by Cup of Jo. It’s a photographed tutorial and very helpful!

Back to our duds. Here are a few more denim looks I like…