The weather here has been extremely humid and muggy. The temperatures haven’t been all that high, but I hate that muggy feeling when the humidity is in the 90% range. I decided to wear something on the cooler side to try to stay comfortable at work, and picked this dress and jewel toned cardigan from Ann Taylor Loft. At first I was going to wear a pair of black sandals but decided to play off of the blue in the cardigan and wear these blue heels instead. I felt very polished and professional.
Where to get the look:
Side Shirred dress – Ann Taylor Loft $69.50, currently 50% off
3/4 sleeve pima cotton cardigan – Ann Taylor Loft $44.50, currently 50% off
I followed the cards provided for each item and tried everything on. Here were the results.
Crochet Top
The card for the crochet top suggested pairing it with jean shorts and a teal cardigan. I don’t have any jean shorts (see previous post about the perils of finding shorts for a pear shape) and despite the fact that I have a rainbow of cardigans hanging in my closet, I do not have a teal one.
Crochet Top ideas
Since I wanted to try a summer look, I modified this a bit and went with a pair of khaki shorts and metallic sandals instead. The top itself is pretty comfortable and soft, and it looks okay with this outfit. It will probably look better with jeans as the second outfit suggested.
Crochet Tee outfit
Dotted Blouse
I loved the print on this right off the bat. I love anything navy with white.
Dotted Blouse Ideas
Again, trying to mix it up I decided to try the skirt idea, but I don’t have any red pencil skirts, so I went with a red a-line skirt I had instead.
Dotted blouse and red skirt
I mostly went with the suggested accessories, but swapped out the black pumps for nude sandals. I think that works better with this type of skirt. I think this top will look great with red skinny jeans, or mustard skinny jeans. (Both on my current wish list. I hope Ann Taylor Loft makes a curvy version this fall!!)
Tie neck blouse
For this one, I really love the idea of this with dark jeans and a red cardigan, but decided to try the pencil skirt since the only pencil skirt I do own is black.
Tie Neck Blouse ideas
This outfit is awfully dressy and a little outside of my comfort zone, but I like it and I know the blouse can be worn other ways. Now if I’m in the mood to look like a Mad Men secretary, I know I can pull together the look.
tie neck blouse and pencil skirt
Funky Wrap Blouse
This one was tricky. On the hanger, this blouse was all open in the front, but when I put it on it looked more like the picture. They suggested pairing it with light colored skinnies, so I tried it with my mint skinny jeans from LOFT.
Wrap blouse ideas
And the verdict… not a fan. It is super boxy in the front doing nothing for my shape and really long in the back. I love the necklace, but decided this top needed to go back.
Wrap blouse and colored skinnies
So overall, I ended up keeping 4/5 items at a total cost of $202. It would have only been 8 dollars more if I kept the last top since keeping all 5 items gives you a 25% discount, but I didn’t want to keep something I didn’t like. (Less closet space!)
I already went ahead and scheduled my next fix and can’t wait to see what they send me next! If anyone is interested in trying it out, I have a referral code. Thanks!
Today is the last warm day for a while according to the forecast, so I decided to pull a pair of shorts out of the drawer. I rarely wear shorts because as I’ve mentioned before it is incredibly hard to find ones that fit my body. The ones I wanted to wear today were from Ann Taylor Loft, but not the curvy fit, just regular fit. I had to do what I’ve described as “creative mending” to the waistband to get them to come in enough so they aren’t gaping a ton. As long as I wear a long enough top it’s okay because the poorly done stitching doesn’t show through.
I’ve seen a lot of looks in magazines where the models will be wearing a blazer with shorts that I wanted to try to replicate. While it looks good, it never struck me as practical, because if it is cool enough to wear a blazer wouldn’t you be too cold to wear shorts? (Especially the tiny ones they show on models.) Nevertheless, I thought it was a cute look, so when I’m in a store with air conditioning I’ll throw on the blazer, but for most of the day I’ll just be wearing the white tee by itself.
Shorts. I think they have been the single most difficult thing for me to find for my body. If they are roomy enough in the rear and thighs, then they gape so much at the waist that you could fit another entire person in there. I’m not sure what it is about shorts, or why they seem to be made so different from pants, but this has been my experience consistently across almost every brand I have tried. Most summers I just try to avoid them by wearing skirts and sometimes capris (which are almost as difficult to find), but this summer I decided I was going to search until I found something that worked without needing a ton of homemade alterations.
What I found is that shorts with a partial elastic waist band, or a “tummy control” feature, tended to nip in more at the waist and were more likely to fit the way I needed them to. Some of the brands advertised things like “slightly curvy” which I found to be not at all and not even close to working.
Unfortunately, it seems that you must shop for shorts sometime in the month of June, because when I looked in May the inventory was not there yet, and now in July it’s almost non-existent. Next year I’ll have to target June as the month to shop for shorts if I want a decent color in my size.
The pair I’m wearing in the picture below are classic Bermudas by Lee and I found them at Kohls. Here are links to a few others that I found that worked:
Lee Blitz Knit Waist Easy Fit Walk Short – Boscovs $19.99
Gloria Vanderbilt Mara Cuffed Short (the only colors left are blue and pink) – Kohls $21.99
How to put together an outfit with shorts.
Where to get the look:
Lee Classic Fit Jackie Bermuda Shorts (only colors left seem to be yellow and white) – Amazon $26.99
Last weekend I was ecstatic when I stopped into Ann Taylor Loft and discovered the “Julie” pant. These pants were made for people with curves on their lower half and felt like they were tailored for me. On top of the pure joy of finding pants that actually fit and were flattering, they were on clearance and on sale on top of that! (I always appreciate a good bargain.) I ended up buying 2 pairs of these linen trouser style pants, one in black and one in khaki. I also found a pair of navy capris in my size in the same “Julie” style that fit like a glove with just enough stretch and room to comfortably move.
Here is how I decided to wear these to work. I paired the trousers with a black and white striped tee I bought at Talbots years ago, and a collarless blue jean jacket. I also thought they’d look better with a bit of a heel (I typically wear flat shoes) so I grabbed these Me Too sandals with a T-strap.
Black Linen Trousers from Ann Taylor Loft paired with a striped tee and a cropped collarless jean jacket
Where to get it:
Black Linen Trouser pants – Ann Taylor Loft (In store, clearance section)
We had a lovely warm end to the week and after a morning out on the boat, I grabbed this striped swing skirt from the closet and paired it with a simple white tee and an old flower cardigan from Old Navy. I also threw on my favorite flip flops from Crocs so I could comfortably run some errands. I find that skirts are a great way to even out my proportions and are so easy to throw on for a summer weekend.
A Pear to Remember 