Friday I overslept and needed to get ready and dressed quickly. Enter this outfit idea I'd (thankfully) jotted down a while back, and happily we had the beautiful weather to allow for it. About as simple as it gets, just a dress and pretty shoes with minimal accessories.

Although the outfit itself is composed of dark shades, it satisfies my current desire to mix "blacks" with "pastels" -- and as a co-captain of Team White I just couldn't leave it without any white, which comes out both with the shoes and the clutch. My skin acts as a pastel in this case as does, of course, the baby blue earrings, although hubby would argue that my skin actually adds to the white element With less exposed skin, I don't think I'd feel good in this much charcoal/black. Since I'm not very happy in dark tops with my hair down (it's just toooooo much dark up by my face) up went the hair which also saved me some time since hair-down is a lot more work than hair-up, even if it doesn't look it. Soft cherry-pink lip gloss, double-coated mascara and retro sunnies to add a little extra femme, and out the door I went.

Interestingly enough, dresses always seem to grab people as being more dressy. I got several comments about being "dressed up" and was I going out to something fancy that night after work? Nope, just a casual dinner out for Friday date night. This is a casual dress to me; the top half is jersey, and the bottom a semi-waxed lightweight suede. I'm always curious what it is about dresses that make them seem inherently dressier, more even than skirts seem to. Perhaps because they're not seen as often these days? I wonder if that is a regional thing.

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