It's the start of an unseasonably warm week in the SF Bay Area (70's in early February!) as well as the Year of the Monkey, my zodiac year. My mother asked if I was going to wear my qipao dress to mark the occasion... I wasn't going to but decided to take it as a challenge to dress down the qipao for an ultra-casual tech environment.

I was gifted this dress on my last visit to China in 2014 but have never actually worn it until now. The sizing is made-to-measure and I had the seamstress intentionally allow extra room in the waist because that's where I tend to gain weight. The result is more of a shift cut than the traditional curve-hugging style, but for casualizing I think it actually works better this way. This dress fits me perfectly standing up, less well for my sitting desk job... but as a special occasion dress, I do still love it.

To dress it down, I added a drapey long cardi from Anthro and tall black boots that have been neglected this winter in favor of booties. Later I scrunched the cardi sleeves for more structure, but this photo was taken right when I got to work. The dress is actually quite short after accounting for side slits; I'm glad that my office has no dress code, because it's a little too short for business casual. Overall though, I'm happy with the festive look.