March already and time for another installment of my Ocean Park project, where I am picking an outfit a month inspired by a painting. I heard the first meadowlarks of spring today, there is hope for warmer weather. It's also time to start thinking about Easter, graduations, spring weddings and dinners with sweethearts. Even if there's only one pretty dress in the closet as an emergency back-up plan, it makes sense for our imaginary BFF to have something nice ready to go.

We've already got a suitable coat, so this month is simple. Dress, shoes, bag, amazing brooch on Etsy. I think our BFF would really appreciate both the retro feel of the resin bag and the flower pin made out of recycled plastic bottles collected from Arizona golf courses. I imagine her stumbling across it at an art festival and knowing it would fit into a future outfit. This dress could support a lot of different accessories, and with the right sweater, jacket or shawl, could be pretty seasonless.

Fancy frocks are my weakest area of shopping and I learned a lot this month from selecting this outfit. I found loads of lovely dresses, accessories, shoes, but getting the whole package together took a lot of shopping. My finds are littered with things I like on their own but weren't harmonious together. I can understand better why some of my IRL attempts have been so hit-or-miss: not allowing enough time to test everything together or a plan for returns. And for myself, I've got to face facts and start with the shoes. Have them on hand before the dress, or at least be able to return both and start over. But there are more dresses than shoe options that work for me. I myself could not wear shoes with that high of a heel, I will post some in the comments that I could wear, not sure how they would go with that dress. But this is aspirational, and my BFF has unfussy feet and a party to go to.

Does it still hang together?

February - last month's outfit
January - the original plan
entire collection so far