An Outfit (Deconstructed) ...

You know this quote, yes?

"Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes."

Henry David Thoreau

Well, I've never been able to quite get the hang of that one...

No, I pretty much always *think* I need new clothes. Especially when I'm going somewhere that feels a little "out of my wheelhouse", say...a special event, a somewhat fancy place, dinner with a group of people I've never met. The irony is that in most of those situations (especially that last one) all of my existing clothes would be perfectly acceptable, given no one in attendance would have ever seen any of them before. But I'm not exactly reasonable when it comes to pressure dressing.

The dress in these photos was a result of one of those semi-crazed, event driven, sartorial quests. We had a party to attend that was:

• not in my wheelhouse
• at a somewhat fancy place
• and filled with people I'd never met before.

Clearly I needed something new to wear...

So I snapped up this number from Anthro, paired it with those Marni heels (which I had yet to wear) + a fun necklace and proceeded to the living room to hang with the girlies a bit before we had to leave. After about five minutes in the get-up, I decided I was uncomfortable, didn't feel like myself, and had to change immediately (never mind that we needed to leave for the event in approximately 2.5 minutes). So I ended up throwing on a black dress that I wear all the time (this one to be exact) and calling it a day. Upon returning to the living room, Audrey remarked that she liked my earlier outfit tons better, and when I asked her why, she said (and I quote), "it's more colorfulish and patterny and not so black."

Umm...ok. I still wore the black dress.

But I couldn't return the one from Anthro. I loved it. Love. I loved it's patterny-ness; I loved the quilted bodice; I loved the pockets. I just figured I needed to wear it under less pressure, to something low-key, no big thing. So a couple of months later (and in decidedly cooler weather) I tried again and threw it on for a date night with hubby. I dressed it down with tights and a cardi (which, for me, was the trick). And now, just like that, it's officially in the rotation.



The Details:

• Dress -- Anthropologie
• Necklace -- Urban Outfitters
• Cardigan -- J Crew
• Tights -- Wolford
• Wedges -- Old Navy