So I got this Lapis flared cotton midi skirt several years ago. It's got it all going on, sequins, beads, text, a gargoyle face, flowers, butterflies, architecture, you name it.

I normally I wear it with tall black boots and a short sleeved black turtleneck or a white sweater with dress shoes for a slightly dressy look, but I decided to see just how many ways I could style it. At the end of exhaustively going through my closet, not everything worked (not pictured, the ones that went down in flames), but because of the shear number of colors it contains it kind of ended up almost functioning like a neutral per Angie's recent post.

Special thanks to adorkable, as one of her comments (and her flowered shoes plus dress post) encouraged me to at least try the craziest pattern mixing I could find. Warning, it got pretty OTT.

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Pattern mixing:

#1 Madame butterfly - even though I can only think of a few places this would get worn, I included it first because of the shot of the full skirt. When faced with bling and butterflies, add more!

#2 Rocker candy skull - I've been resisting wearing this tee shirt with black skirts and pants. Also featured, a new silk scarf I hemmed.

#3 Turquoise whimsy - I decided to add bombs, mushrooms, woodpeckers and squirrels to the pattern mix.

#4 Jane in the flowering jungle - Does leopard function as a neutral?

#5 Italian countryside - a chiffon ruffly tank - not sure about this one.

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A little more rest for your eyes:

#6 White tee and denim - paired with subtle elegant bag

#7 Classic with purple - it's actually a cobalt/purple shirt, but if I adjusted the color right my skin looked jaundiced :p Two shoe options. I also tried with a rose pink button down shirt and silver pumps, but it was too classically sweet for me.

#8 Ballerina - silvery stuff

#9 Mohair pink - in both a winter wear and princessy version

#10 Black with a twist - two versions of trying for something besides the obvious classic black top/shoe options.

#11 Waist surrendered - Not sure any of these quite came together, I didn't have a long top with a welted bottom that worked smoothly over the bunches of cotton fabric, but I wanted to see how RATE I could push it.

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Which of these work? Which really don't? And anything else I should try? All feedback welcome!

ETA: because several people liked the button down in #7

#12 Rose garden - I think I'd like this better with a silver metallic belt (If anyone sees an inexpensive wider one, no texture/logos, let me know.) I do have the white belt in #1 I could use though. Also I'd probably prefer this with an edgier topper as a third piece, hmm...