"Classic" to me means classic shapes: straight-leg and bootcut pants over skinnies, sheaths and empires over hi-lo dresses, tidy jackets and cardigans over angled-hem tunics.
"Colorful" means bright jeweled tones: turquoise, teal, purple, hot pinks, cobalt blue fill my closet. I have also invested in building up a fair assortment of neutrals, that now can either stand alone or blend well with my colors.
"Coordinated" means, as my co-worker complimented me this week, that I make sure that every piece of my outfit "goes" with the rest. The choices of jewelry, shoes, bag, and coat are made to go with the rest, not necessarily in matching colors but in coordinated styles and/or colors.
Most of the time that translates to a preppy, polished look.
But lately that's been changing,and I didn't even realize it. With the help of Gwynnie Bee, I have been pushing beyond that look, adding a little more edge and glam to my style, like Thursday's outfit.
The top is Edista, with a sheer neckline and ruched seams and arms. It's SO flattering and pretty and glam; I got a ridiculous amount of compliments on it all day, even from Hubby!
The cropped denim jacket is Old Navy; I love the collarless neckline because it makes the jacket seem more dressed up than a basic denim jacket would. The plastic ice necklace is Banana Republic that I bought a few months ago, and the bracelets are a bunch of cheap ones I got from Charming Charlies ages ago.
Black Gap straight-leg pants and olive suede Artisan from Clark booties, and the outfit is complete.
It's all my regular, classic, basic pieces, but when you add in the edgier top it veers far away from the preppy look!
When I look through my photos of the last few months (many that I never posted here), I can see that this has been happening more with my Gwynnie Bee items.
Alfani key-print peplum top
INC black knit drape neck top
Talbots cowl neck tee
Soft Surroundings cool cowl shirt
And many others. For me, Gwynnie Bee has definitely been a good resource for clothes. Not everything has worked, but a lot has. Here are my stats.
Gwynnie Bee stats:
Joined Sept 12, 2012
On average, items are out 2 weeks (includes shipping), several were kept 3 weeks.
Paid $351.83 (2/out for 3 months, 3/out for 2) since September
That seems like a lot, so I broke it out into cost/item and cost/wear.
29 garments in 4 months = $12.13/item
12 were returned unworn (mostly too big, a couple because of fabric issues), leaving 17 that did get worn = $20.69/item
Most get 1 wear, 7 pieces got 2 wears, one got 3 wears = $13.03/wear
I could probably cut down the $/wear if I was better about wearing it and sending it back sooner, but sometimes I like to let it percolate in my closet while I dream up the right outfit for the right day. I do want to get better at rotating too so I have at least one item in transit while one or two are in my closet; for a while there around Christmas I was shipping both out at once, then had both in my closet at once.
Since I buy retail and not thrift, if I had bought the same 17 items in the store the cost would have been $510 (assuming $30/avg top), and knowing me, they probably would have gotten the same number of wears in the same amount of time. Plus I would now have these 17 tops, some of which I loved and some I only liked (and some I didn't like at all) clogging up my closet. Instead I sent them back and already have another 30-plus new ones sitting in my virtual closet waiting their turn to be sent and worn.
Gwynnie Bee saves me money and guilt. Works for me!
As always, if you are interested in signing up for the service, send me your email and I will send you an invite. I think they are still doing a 30-day trial period.
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Now I am off to try on a new tunic that just got sent to me. Hope it works with my cords or jeans!
