The Accessories Make the Outfit

Sometimes you put together an outfit where the pieces speak for themselves and other times the outfit comes together with the accessories. This is one of those instances where the outfit takes shape from the accessories.

Worn unadorned this is just a simple brown dress with a purple cardigan. A fine outfit, but nothing special. Add some textured tights, boots, a hair fascinator and my new sweater clips and now we're talking.



I think I may have been especially encouraged to accessorize this outfit because both the dress and cardigan are hand-me-downs. The dress was a gift from my very well endowed friend who bought it and subsequently realized that it would not work with her chest. It is a size Large and it's by Velvet, one of those luxury cotton brands that I love so much but rarely buy due to the price. Instead I wait for hand me downs from my generous friends.

The cardigan is also a large and is a from Anthropologie via the wonderful JLR. I love Anthropologie, (especially their cardigans) but it falls into the category of far too pricey for my regular consumption. When I shop there it is almost exclusively on the sale racks. I'm actually heading there tonight after work to return some stuff, but I may be lured into full price shopping by this cardigan that my co-worker owns that I have been coveting for months.


The textured brown tights are from Target and I've become a recent convert to their Merona brand tights which go up to a 1x/2x and fit me really well. They're only $7 a pop and it's always good to find some new inexpensive tights option that fit my hips and ass. For new readers the purple cowboy boots are my most prized material possession and you can read about them in an earlier post.


Finally the outfit really comes together for me due to my hair fascinator and my brand new, worn for the first (and so far only time) sweater clips. I had never even heard of sweater clips until I recently saw someone post about them on fatshionista. A few weeks after that I was at the 2009 Bust craftacular and saw some guys selling them and purchased my very first pair. I'm loving them already and think they really tie the outfit together. If like me you're now obsessed I recommend searching for them on ebay or etsy.