Over the weekend, I was revisiting the YouLookFab blog posts featuring Angie's incredibly stylish client Karen, and kept hearkening back to this outfit featuring a white jacket and a beautiful patterned mesh top. Then, when my black and white dalmatian print pumps arrived, I felt quite inspired to try a heavily black and white outfit incorporating a lot of pattern mixing.

I really enjoyed the second outfit in this post and have remixed it a couple times with my orange pumps; this time around, I felt like using the bold abstract patterned mesh blouse to create some hectic pattern mixing with the dotty shoes. And for good measure I threaded a black ribbon edged in white stitches through the belt loops of the black midi skirt.

Because I enjoy layering bold necklaces over this top and wanted to try something a bit different from Angie's former beaded necklace and brooch, and felt that I needed more white at the top half of my body to balance out and bookend the shoes. Instead of the black beaded necklace, I took all of the long pearl necklaces that I own and piled them on top of one another. With all of the layering, I certainly "clanked" a lot (kind of like when I wear my jangly metal feather necklace); but I liked the way that it looked.

Finally, for warmth (and thinking back to Karen's beautiful and inspiring outfit), I popped on my white blazer. While the weather app on my phone predicted warm, partly sunny weather, it really ended up being cool, humid, and overcast so the upper layer was helpful while walking outside, but I also made sure that my lower layers would be acceptable to wear around the office.

These shoes certainly passed my comfort test. Initially there was one slight "hot spot" at the back of my heel of my left foot - this foot is nearly half a size bigger than the right foot - but it was never to the point of causing soreness or friction, and softened throughout the day. The arch support is minimal, but I truly felt like I was wearing slippers and not heels.

My only uncertainty related to the shoes are the tassels. I rather like them with the leopard print shoes, but I'm not sure about them with the dalmatian pair. I certainly wouldn't return the shoe, and it could just be that I'm not used to the sensation of tassels lightly bouncing while I walk. Still, I'd like to solicit opinions: should I consider cutting the tassels off just above the metal, or should I stay away from the scissors?

(Perhaps all of the hack happiness on the YLF forum is getting to me!)