Here's 2 maximal outfits for you, Angie.
The first, in the photo, was worn to the recent Early Music concert (where I fell for the red shoelaces). I wore a long ditzy-print buttonfront dress with red flowers on a black ground, unbuttoned over a red ruffled skirt, and held together with a corset belt. Finished with my ghillie-laced pointy flats, and red princess coat. I felt a bit OTT, but it was a rare occasion, date night AND a chance to do a theme, so I had fun with it.
I was going to post separately on what I wore today, but no pic yet. I think the story fits here. It was warm enough to show a little ankle skin one more time, so I reached for my slim cropped plaid pants. These have a navy ground, and would be preppy if the rest of the plaid was in primary colours, but instead it's some sort of tertiary thing, like someone took a colour wheel and twisted it east by north-east: teal green, pink, and a caramelly orange hue. (The last time I combined colours like this deliberately was to sing backup to "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch") Styling these pants in summer was easy peasy: add a navy or white T, or maybe a pinstripe shirt, plus loafers and done. Today, not so much. I wore a navy shirt and navy block heeled loafers, and a tobacco brown belt. Then realized my red-white-and-blue plaid pea jacket was too much clashing plaid, so chose the trench coat -- but needed a layer under it for warmth. Red, white, or cobalt cardi wouldn't work. Then I spotted the leopard cardi -- that's a neutral, right? I thought it worked. DD disagreed but she has very traditional tastes.
