Today is, sadly, the last in a short but glorious string of really warm days; tomorrow will be cooler, and next week quite a lot cooler. Hubby and I had thought we had tickets to a baseball game tonight, so I'd planned on a warm-weather-with-layers outfit... but we were a week off and they're actually for next Thursday! That, along with the fact that hubby doesn't like these shorts nor the pomp-pony AND Fridays are date night, prompted me to wear what I was going to wear tomorrow today (mouthful!). As a result, I'm doing something I almost NEVER do: wear the same shoes two days in a row. I like to give them a good rest between wears, but also wanted to wear this outfit since it's entirely likely that it'll be a good while before we see temps in the 80s again!

Wearing so much black is not something I've done often in spring/summer the past several years. In fact, I rarely even wear black footwear in spring/summer so this is all kinds of different! That said, I've been into the idea of pairing pastels with black for a slightly less graphic feel over black and white. The shorts aren't really pastel but they are muted, and my skin being pale also gives me a "pastel" to work with. I'm also into the idea of pairing black with my very faded denims, which isn't something I've done in a good while either. This particular color combo isn't much of a stretch when I think about it since orange+white is one of my favorites, and my hair is always going to add some black; I've just got different proportions of those colors here.

To ease into the black top thing, and to pick up on the white in the shoes, I did feel the need to add the big cream necklace which does double-duty as a bit of filler for this low cut mixed-media shirt. I chose my white clutch to keep it springy, copper pyramid studs to go with the rust, and while I tried my darker-framed retro sunnies initially I settled on this peachy pair because it felt appropriately lighter. Finished the look off with candy coral-pink lipstick because it was just so opposite everything else in the outfit.

And just for fun, more typical faces; I tend to have rather *ahem* animated expressions ^^

Available items collected below. Comments, critiques, thoughts and questions welcome.

EDIT: Well wouldn't you know it, hubby invited me out for dinner so he has to deal with the shorts and hair anyway!