Flower Power

Summer is almost at an end, but before it draws its last breath, I have a few summer outfits I'd like to show you.

This first outfit was inspired by a shopping trip gone wrong.

Earlier this summer, Old Navy had a heavily advertised weekend tank top sale, with all tanks for 2 dollars. What they neglected to tell me was that they were having a pre-sale on Friday. So by the time I got there Saturday morning, all that was left was the boring colors: black, white, and grey.

Well, I thought I'd make the most of it, and bought a black and a white one, thinking I'd give them some permanent embellishments later.

In true unproductive Unfashionista fashion, I still haven't. But I did wear one one day, and I gave it a temporary embellishment just to make it mildly interesting. A fake flower.

If you are me, you have mountains of fake flowers squirreled away. You have trouble refraining from removing fake flowers from the garbage when you find them. (This includes the garbage at cemeteries). But you hardly ever use them.

This outfit was an opportunity to make use of my fake flower collection and make my boring tank top exciting. I attached the flower to my tank top with a safety pin, and finished it off with my secret weapon: Res-Q Tape!

Yes, rescue tape does just what its name implies, saving you from the embarrassment of peeking bra straps, too-low necklines, gaping buttons, and a host of other wardrobe malfunctions. In this case, it works wonders persuading flower petals to lay down flat. At the end of the day, I peeled the tape off my flower and tank top, and now both are good as new and ready for action! As soon as next summer rolls around.

Turquoise

As a designer, I confess an inordinate love of monochromatic color schemes. This tendency causes me continual conflict with my clients, who are always requesting "more colors" in my designs. More colors? Why? That's what shades are for!

Fortunately, as an Unfashionista, I can do whatever I want, including building an entire outfit in shades of turquoise.

I started with a dark turquoise cami top I bought on a vacation a few years ago at 5 for 10$ (This shopping trip remains the source of the majority of my tank top collection today). For an "occasion," I would wear this strappy top with a strapless bra to avoid the double-strap look. But for everyday wear, I allow my bra straps to shine out.

I paired the top with the dip-dyed (now the favored term is ombré) turquoise skirt (the second-to-last hippie skirt I bought before getting tired of them).

So now I'm wearing three shades of turquoise (two with a gradation between them), but I'm not done yet!

I have a matched set of old turquoise jewelry I acquired in New Mexico when I was just a youngun. I never would spend my hard-earned cash on that sort of thing today, so thank goodness I was less thrifty back then....Of course, it could have been my parents' money that paid for the jewelry – I don't remember – but either way, I'm glad I have it. The bracelet particularly is one of my favorite pieces of jewelry, but I hardly ever have a chance to wear it. It has silver beads and turquoise beads, and best of all, birds! And if you zoom in to the picture, you can almost see it clearly!

To complete the look, I wore my ubiquitous black flip-flops (basically, what I wear when I don't have any footwear that actually matches my clothes). But they were mainly just to cover my feet when going out in public. Obviously this outfit is best suited for running barefoot on the beach!