Loop Looks

Dress – The Limited (similar) | Cardigan – The Limited (similar) | Scarf – JF&A Show (similar) | Shoes – Nine West (similar)

It’s so cliché to say that a little black dress is a closet staple, but there’s a reason it gets said over and over again. A black sheath dress is incredibly easy to accessorize.  I’ve featured this dress three other times on my blog and it’s also the dress I’m wearing in my blog “logo”!

Wish you had a black sheath dress in your closet?  Here are a few that I think would fit the bill. Yes, the price on these might be sticker shock for some people, but if you think about the cost in terms of cost-per-wear you will get a lot of wear out of a dress like this if you work and it won’t go out of style. So it might be something you want to spend a bit more on. Still can’t stomach the price tag? Check out stores like TJ Maxx, Marshall’s, Ross, Beal’s or Burlington Coat Factory.  All typically carry a large assortment of dresses and I bet you’ll find something!

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Cardigan – Nordstrom Rack (similar) | Shirt – The Limited (similar) | Pants – Target (similar) | Shoes – Anne Klein | Scarf – H&M via Poshmark (similar)

When these pants debuted on my blog Jen told me she had actually bought the same pants!  After yesterday’s mind-meld of both wearing our striped blazers (totally not planned, I promise!) and the fact that we own the same pair of pants I feel we were destined to find one another in the blog world! And, of course, that meant I had to wear these pants at least once during our Mutually Inspired Series.

I took my cue from the comfy but fun pairing of patterns and textures that Jen put together and the fact that not only did I have the exact same pants, but I had a ridiculously similar striped long-sleeved shirt and, of course, a polka dotted scarf. Here’s Jen’s original outfit. Crazy that I basically had all the same pieces, right? I know this is more of a copycat than an inspiration, but I couldn’t not.

I think this is the perfect outfit for a slight casual outfit. The textures and patterns keep it from being boring and you could easily do this with just about any mixture of colors. Alternately, if you needed to be more dressed up, you could swap the cardigan for a blazer and the striped t-shirt for a blouse like this one. In fact, I just might do that in the near future!

Tomorrow is the last day of the Mutually Inspired Series! I’m sad to see it end. Especially because I had even more outfits of Jen’s that I wanted to recreate. And if you haven’t clicked over to see what outfits of mine have been inspiring Jen you need to do so right now!

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Blazer – Forever 21 (similar)| Sweater – Old Navy  (similar) | Jeans – Express via Poshmark | Scarf – Gift (similar) | Necklace – NY&Co (similar) | Shoes – Eric Michael (similar under $30)

So, there was a sort-of unintentional theme to my outfits this week.  Can you guess what it was?  Here’s a different picture of my outfit that might help.

Still stuck? What if I told you that this week’s Friday’s Fancies theme is…..

Polka dots!

Yes, I seriously wore something with polka dots four out of five days this week. How did that happen?  Well, I knew that Friday I wanted to wear polka dots. And Monday was my polka dot dress because it fit the Inspiration Monday outfit so well.  After that I thought, hey, why not wear something polka dotted every day this week (minus Wednesday when I had already sent in my contribution for Work Your Wardrobe). So, I did. Turns out that I went from hardly owning anything polka dotted to owning enough items that I could wear polka dots every day for a week. Seriously. This isn’t even everything I own! There’s still a shirt and a scarf and another dress that I didn’t wear. Crazy, huh?

Which was your favorite polka dot outfit this week? The dress? The blue suit? The pencil skirt? Or today’s casual Friday look?

And don’t forget, next week I’m pairing up with Jen from Librarian for Life & Style for our Mutually Inspired Series!  Be sure to follow both of us to see how two different woman inspire one another.  Jen’s also giving away a $25 Old Navy gift card so be sure to get entered before Monday.

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Cardigan – Nordstrom Rack (similar under $25) | Shirt – Gap (similar under $15) | Pants – Gap (similar under $25) | Boots – Ciao Bella via DSW (similar for $55) | Scarf – JF&A Trade Show (similar under $15)

It’s Friday!!!  Who’s excited???  This girl right here. After a really long week at work I needed to celebrate Friday by wearing something comfy yet put-together for work. I know you can’t really tell from the photo, but these are NOT leggings. They’re actually skinny dress pants. But they’re comfy like jeans so they’re really a win-win situation.

Flat boots, a boyfriend cardigan that covers my butt, and a soft scarf round out my casual Friday outfit. For many people there’s no way this would fly in the office, but I recently read somewhere that you should take your cues from your boss. If your boss wears it then consider it fair game (caveat: your boss wears embroidered sweatshirts. Please don’t wear those to the office). And my boss has worn outfits almost exactly like this so I’m in the clear!

Speaking of being in the clear, I’m still attempting to stick to my goal of giving you all budget-friendly options for items you might need to round out your closet. And in this week’s edition I give you this entire outfit for $128.62 including the boots!

So, if your Friday needs a pick-me-up, throw on a comfy but cute outfit. And if you don’t have one, then use the links above to partake in some retail therapy. I won’t judge.

P.S. I mentioned that I was going to trapeze class last night. Well, I learned a new trick (called a set whip). Here are some photos:

Linking up with Two Thirty Five Designs

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Scarf – Target (similar for $10) | Cardigan – Nordstrom Rack (similar) | Top – Target (similar and only $15!) | Pants – The Limited (similar) | Shoes – Nine West (similar)

One of the first style blogs I started reading was Jill’s Good Life for Less.  At the time she was putting together outfit ideas for people who contacted her and asked for her help. She was nice enough to share many of those outfits with her readers. One outfit with a black blazer, gray slacks, and a purple scarf caught my eye. And, I admit, I spent the next year looking for slate gray dress pants.

Until it hit me – practice what you preach! Okay, so I don’t have dark gray pants. But I do have light gray pants so why not go with that? Duh, Erin.  And, yes, I have a black blazer but sticking with the inspiration not recreation vibe, I decided I wanted to be a bit more casual today and tossed on the cardigan instead. Sometimes you just can’t deal with a blazer, you know? Especially when the only thing on my calendar for today is a coworker’s birthday and more trapeze classes!

Remember, when you see an outfit you like, try first to see if you already have items similar to it in your closet. They may not be exact but I bet in many cases you were drawn to that outfit because you like those colors or styles. And if you already like them, you probably already own something like it!

Linking up with Texas Lovebirds

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Jacket – Old Navy via Threadflip (similar) | Shirt – LOFT (similar on sale!) | Jeans – Express via Poshmark (use code HBAMM for $5 credit) | Scarf – H&M via Poshmark (similar) | Shoes – Sole Society (on sale!)

So many things to talk about today!  Like, mixing polka dots and stripes!  It happens to be one of my favorite pattern mixing options.  Or how about the fact that three of the items I have on today are technically thrifted?  I’ll be honest, thrift stores overwhelm me but Poshmark and Threadflip are so much easier for me to deal with.  Online thrift shopping?  Much more my speed.

And we need to mention that not only is today the last day I’m doing the Take One and Pass It On Challenge it’s also Copycat Friday.  Which means I had to find a look to copy that also incorporated one of my items from yesterday.  Those of you who guessed the scarf were totally right!

Anyway, now that I have this jacket in my closet I realized I could finally recreate an outfit I’ve had pinned for almost 9 months.

Source

Again, it’s the polka dots plus stripes that drew me to this outfit.  My jacket is a little bit more like a blazer, though, so I figured that with my nude flats it made a decent casual Friday outfit.  Don’t have a olive colored or military-esque jacket or blazer?  Try it with a similarly-colored cardigan.  Don’t like to wear stripes?  Any patterned black and white top would do.  Add riding boots and you have a great casual weekend outfit!

With that, I’ve reached the end of my participation in the Take One and Pass It On Challenge.

Outfit 1 | Outfit 2 | Outfit 3| Outfit 4| Outfit 5

I loved showing you how you can remix the pieces in your closet and pair them with other items to make completely different outfits.  I was worried that people would notice I was wearing the same things two days in a row but so far the only comment I’ve gotten was someone referred to my statement necklace yesterday when I was talking about putting together an outfit for an Oscar’s party on Sunday.  “You should wear that necklace you wore this week!” she said.  That was it.

Anyway, it was a good exercise in mixing up my closet.  And gave me hope that if I do a 30×30 challenge I will do just fine!

Also linking up with Texas Lovebirds | Two Thirty-Five Designs

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Sweater – Gap (similar) | Scarf – H&M via Poshmark (use code HBAMM for $5 credit!)(similar) | Dress as a skirt – The Limited (similar dress) | Shoes – Nine West (similar) | Belt – came with a top from The Limited (similar) | Tights – Target (similar)

As I sat at my desk eating my lunch yesterday I kept thinking to myself “don’t spill, don’t spill, don’t spill!”  Because, you see, I’m wearing the same red sweater as yesterday and if I’d spilled something on it then I’d be without my take one, pass it on piece for today!

Yes, I chose the red sweater to pass on.  Did you guess that’s what I’d wear?

Although, let’s be honest, I totally stole this outfit idea from Jen at Librarian for Life Style.  She also paired her polka dot dress with a red sweater and a black and white polka dot scarf and I thought, hey, I have all those pieces!

So here they are.  And huge thanks to Jen for the idea!  I’m still wrapping my brain around wearing dresses as skirts but this one works perfectly.

Also, in response to your comments on my reader survey I made sure that every piece listed today as a similar item is under $30!  In fact, if you wanted to recreate this outfit with all the items I linked it would cost you $120.49 (excluding tax and stuff).  And every single piece here can be worn multiple ways so they would all be great additions to your wardrobe.

And speaking of wearing items multiple ways, which item do you think I’ll be passing on to tomorrow?

Linking up with Marionberry Style | Texas Lovebirds |Work Clothes, I Suppose

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Emily emailed me a photo of a lovely purple and gold scarf and said, “HELP!”  While, yes, this scarf could be worn with black pants and a white top or a black dress, I thought, why not jazz it up a bit?  So below we have several outfit ideas that pair this scarf with everything from more purple to leopard print.

Similar original scarf

Sweater | Shirt | Pants | Shoes | Bracelet

Turtleneck | Dress 1 | Dress 2 (similar) | Cardigan

Cardigan | Jeans | Boots | Earrings

I actually love the last look so much I’ll be recreating it with a purple scarf I own!  I honestly didn’t realize I had all those pieces until I was putting this post together.  See, You Pick Wednesday helps me out, too!

So, don’t forget to submit your own style questions to looplooks@gmail.com!  Next week I’m tackling a really unique one but after that I’m wide open.

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Sweater – The Limited (similar)| Skirt – The Limited (similar) | Booties – Liz Claiborne via DSW (similar) | Necklace – The Limited (similar) | Scarf – H&M via Poshmark (similar) | Jacket – ZARA

Today’s Inspiration Monday is adorable and one I could have recreated much more faithfully by wearing my skinny black pants and a different scarf.  But, I’ve had this houndstooth pencil skirt in my closet for a month or so and thought it was the perfect time to wear it.  Why?

Blake Lively

The pattern on Blake’s scarf isn’t houndstooth but the fact that she has on an all-black outfit with a touch of pattern in one piece just screamed out for me to wear my houndstooth skirt.  And pair it with my new ZARA moto jacket.

Also, I’m loving the juxtaposition of the preppy houndstooth pattern with the rockstar look of the moto jacket.  Wearing it with my black skinny pants would have been just a bit too expected, I think.  Not bad.  I love Blake’s look. Just, you know, I wanted to bring a bit of my preppy side into the equation!

Do you like Blake’s outfit?  How would you interpret it?

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Cardigan – Target (similar) | Skirt – The Limited (similar) | Booties – Liz Claiborne via DSW (similar) | Necklace – The Limited (similar)

There are several ways you can use an inspiration photo.  For example, here’s today’s Inspiration Monday picture from Two Birds:

Leona Lewis

You could choose to go with the shape of or the items in the outfit.  A dress with a longer coat or cardigan and a scarf.  You could choose to go with with the patterns and mix several small patterns and include some plaid or something with a bird pattern.  Or you could do what I did and go with the colors of the outfit.  A brownish burgundy faux leather skirt mirrors the color of Leona’s dress.  A gray scarf echoes her adorable printed scarf.  And an oatmeal colored cardigan takes the place of her tan trench coat.

All of this to say that when you see a celebrity photo and think, “I wish I had her wardrobe!” you might be able to get closer than you think with items you already own.

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