First fashion of spring!

The temperature today is expected to reach 70 degrees here in sunny College Park. Spring is on its way! And that means it's time to think about a new warm-weather wardrobe!

Actually, there's nothing new about the ensemble I'm wearing today—in fact, it's one of my favorite looks, that I've been rocking in some variation or other for the past three years.

It starts with a sea green strappy tunic. Tunics are tricky. If you wear them with the wrong pants, you end up looking like you're wearing a collection of designer pillowcases. Tight jeans work, but since my only tight jeans are pale blue, and since pastel on pastel is a look best attempted only by the thinnest of supermodels, I usually opt instead for my flared black dress pants.

Some people say that allowing your bra straps to show is a bad move. I do it anyway, seeing it as a means to achieve chromatic consistency throughout the entire outfit. Black on top mirrors the black on the bottom, endowing some unity to a look that would otherwise be divided by warring blocks of color.

Top (or bottom?) the look off with a pair of simple black flats from Payless Shoes (marked down to five dollars!) and you're done!

On days like today, when most of it will be on the chilly side, I cover up a bit with a white shrug (Kohl's—$12 on sale). This completely undermines my bra-strap artistry, dividing the outfit into discrete blocks of unrelated colors, but such is the price that one must pay to not freeze to death. Note: This works better if you don't have the shoulders of a linebacker, as some of us lucky fashionistas do. If you have a black shrug (as I do) you might find that a better choice, but if it's a slightly different shade of black than the pants (as mine is), you'd be better off going for the blatant and deliberate mismatch rather than the one that seems like an unfortunate accident.