Outfit Formula: Midi Dress and Stompy Boots

Raise your hand if you wore flowing midi dresses with Dr. Martens or rugged flat, stompy boots back in the ‘90s. Even I wore the look, but with brown boots instead of the usual black. My dresses were as floral as can be. Perhaps you wore a midi skirt with stompy black boots instead of a dress. However you wore the vibe, the outfits in the collection showcase a look that might bring back memories. The juxtaposition of pretty dress and tough boots is fun and interesting.

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Petersyn Lorna Dress
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VELVET Calley Skirt
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Muse Scarf Skirt
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The outfit formula is easy: 

Midi dress + stompy boots + topper + accessories

Midi Dress

The dress has to be midi length because that’s the point of this formula. Think smart casual, casual, or even cocktail styles. Sweater dresses can work too. Personally, I like the vibe best when the dresses are flowing as opposed to tight sheaths.

Stompy Boots

These should be flat with chunky or less chunky heels/soles, and with a higher shaft than an ankle boot. Black is the classic norm, but white looks fresh, fab and crisp. Metallic is sweet too.

Topper

If you live in a mild climate, motos, denim jackets, aviators and blazers look great over a midi dress. If it’s cold, you’ll need a puffer, maxi coat, or knee-length coat.

Accessories

Finishing off the look with hosiery for warmth is ideal. Wearing decorative scrunched socks is another way to go. A scarf and hat can work, and might be necessary for warmth. Add a bag that works with the look, and add jewellery and watch as desired.

Mango Tie-dye Shirt Dress

MONCLER GENIUS + 4 Simone Rocha Appliquéd Quilted Cotton-velvet Down Hooded Coat

Team Tapered or Team Wide Hems

This week’s poll is about your pants and jeans preferences, and more specifically about the widths of their hems. You are on Team Tapered Hems if you prefer pants and jeans with narrower hem openings. You are on Team Wide Hems if you prefer the hems of your pants and jeans a little or a lot wider. Note that the distinctions are trickier than they seem. For example, trendy pants and jeans at the moment can be baggy and pleated on the hips and thighs but taper to a narrower hem. This silhouette qualifies as a tapered hem even though the silhouette is roomy. Bootcuts are very fitted on the hips and thighs, but flare out from the knee to a wider hem. Bootcuts therefore qualify as wide hems.

Silhouettes like skinnies, jeggings, leggings, jodhpur pants, harem pants, lantern pants, cigarette pants, boyfriend jeans, joggers and narrow straight legs fall under tapered hems despite the fact that some of the silhouettes are very roomy. Silhouettes like bootcuts, baby bootcuts, wide legs, wide crops, palazzo pants, cropped flares, culottes and wide straight legs fall under wide hems because the hems flare out instead of tapering back in towards the body.

Despite the fact that fashion has generally been moving away from skinnies, cigarette styles and tapered hem silhouettes, I’m willing to bet that Team Tapered Hems will win this poll. Pants and jeans silhouettes with wide and roomy hems is where it’s at trends wise, but the tapered hem is more practical, streamlining, less fussy, and easy to style. Most of my clients have included wide hems back into their styles, but continue to enjoy tapered hems. A handful of clients only wear wide hems and welcomed the less trendy skinny and narrow straight leg with open arms.

I’m on a current wide hem kick. I’ve bought many pairs of cropped flares, wide crops, a pair of bootcuts, and very roomy straights over the last five years. I’ve also bought a few pairs of full-length denim wide legs. But I continue to enjoy tailored and dressy cigarette pants and straight legs and added a few more of those to my wardrobe this year too. I enjoy a wide hem as much as a tapered hem, so I’m sitting this one out on the bench with butternut and orange soup laced with lots of ginger and cumin, cheese tosties, a crisp green salad, and Greg’s delectable lemon meringue pie with perfect ginger crust for dessert.

Over to you. Do you bat for Team Tapered Hems or Team Wide Hems? Tell us why and no batting for both teams. But feel free to join me on the bench, although I have dibs on seconds of my favourite pie.

Double-Breasted Jackets and Coats 101

A double-breasted jacket or coat has wide overlapping fronts with symmetrical buttons. There is usually a double, triple or several more rows of buttons, and sometimes a single row. Double-breasted jackets and coats come in tailored, fluid and oversized fits. Their silhouettes can be very waist-defining, or comfortably and fashionably boxy. Some styles have an additional belt fastening for design detailing and structure. Here are some double-breasted topper examples.

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Mackage Elodie Coat
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The double-breasted jacket and coat can be magical because it looks awfully sharp, tailored, classic, a little maximal, dramatic, sometimes architectural, and quite interesting. The buttons can be subtle or make a statement. Tailored double-breasted toppers tend to fit a small and regular bust well. Personally, I find the strict and military integrity of the silhouette appealing, which is why I currently have six double-breasted coats, but no jackets. My exact items are shown in the collection, and the darks are ink blue, not black. Two of the coats are new this year, and two of them are in their TENTH year.

On the other hand, the tailored double-breasted coat and jacket can be quite un-magical when it’s ill-fitting because there is nothing forgiving about it. It can be a tough fit on a large bust and very apple-shaped body type because the overlapping lapels fail to provide sufficient coverage. The lapels can also lie unattractively over the bust and midsection, and accentuate the size of the bust. Tailored single-breasted jackets and coats are more of a slam dunk good fit. That said, fluid, boxy and oversized double-breasted toppers are much easier to fit because there is extra room and coverage all round. Those tend to fit all body types when the proportions are dead right, and there is structure in the right places.

Double-breasted toppers both tailored and boxy and without a belt can absolutely be worn UN-buttoned. Look back at the unbuttoned versions in the first collection for visuals. The overlapping fronts lie quite flat and create a nice vertical line down the centre front of the body which has a streamlining and elongating effect. It also looks interesting and architectural. The styles with a belt are harder to wear unbuttoned, but not impossible. I wear all my double-breasted coats open and buttoned up. It also used to be thought of as etiquette to leave the last button at the bottom unfastened.

Over to you. Any thoughts to share on the double-breasted coat or jacket, and how it relates or does not relate back to your style?

Roundups

Simpler Items

This week's list of top picks list is about basic pieces.

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Assorted Items

Items for Summer, both in and out of air conditioning.

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Casual Summer Vibes

This week's top picks are good for a casual Summer vibe.

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Summery Earth Tones

These items are for those who like to wear casual earth tones in warm and hot weather.

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Hints of Spring

Some tried-and-tested winning items to refresh your style for Spring.

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Dressier Items

An assortment of dressier top picks might be just what the doctor ordered.

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New Shorter Full-Length Flares with Heels

Last month we discussed the new trendy shorter length of flared pants and jeans worn with flats. This time round, we’re looking at the same wide, roomy flared pants and jeans silhouette sported at the new shorter full length, but with heels. 

The idea is that the flared hems rest just above or on the vamp of the shoes. No break line or scrunch, no soggy hems, and no sweeping the pavements with your bottoms. The length is ankle-covering and not cropped, so there’s insulation. This is full length, yet not floor-skimming and extra long. You see your shoes in all their glory instead of covering them up.

This collection shows good examples.

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RAILS Jess Pants
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Tsubo Kicker Jeans
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SLVRLAKE Grace Jeans
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Drama Fringe Pant
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Wearing the new shorter full length with heels is practical and easy, and that part I like. Visually though, I prefer the new shorter full-length flare worn with flats and sneakers. With heels, I like the look of extra long floor-skimming lengths, like these:

That said, the new shorter length with heels is growing on me. I like the length worn with a tucked or semi-tucked top that lengthens the leg line from the thighs upward. I particularly like the combination of these COS full-length wide pants worn a little shorter with the wedged boots. The lack of break line is clean, and the shape of the boot is a seamless continuation of the hem. Looks sharp.

COS Tailored Wool Trousers

Over to you. What do you think of the new shorter full-length flared pant or jean worn with heels?

Trend: Statement Headbands

Headbands are more on-trend than ever, and the bulkier they are, the more dramatic the fashion statement. They come in all sorts of fabrics, colours and patterns, and some are embellished with beads, ruched roses, and sequins. The collection below shows some good examples. 

These headbands take me back to the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. I wore them a lot back then, and particularly in velvet. I liked their classic and dressy appeal, although this time round they are far from dressy and classic. They are playful, fashion-forward, and worn with anything from cocktail dresses, ballgowns and jeans, to sweats, shorts, athleisure and sneakers. Some of the biggest outfit bloggers have made statement headbands part of their signature style, and they look great.

House Account Safari Headband In Black And White

Prada Silk-satin Headband

Statement headbands are not reserved for long hair. You can wear one with short and very short hair too. Their large size tends to make them look more like a hat or crown rather than a hair accessory. Sometimes, they remind me of Elizabethan headwear, especially when the wearer has long hair that is parted in the middle. To be inspired by 16th century attire in the 21st century is fun in itself. Why not!

I don’t want to wear a headband again, but like them on others, especially if it keeps annoying hair from falling forward into your face. Some of my clients and friends are rocking these statement headbands, and they are many decades older than these models. It’s a fab maximal look, quite unique at this point, a little regal, and not one that I think of as juvenile. What’s your take on the trend?