Night Maneuvers

In case you missed it, I've been months trying to come up with some way to wear my grey ankle boots such that they get the spotlight they deserve. They always look silly when I try them with a skirt, and long pants cover them right up. Then inspiration hit me like a bus. Or rather, a person getting off a bus.

As I was riding my bike to work recently, I saw a girl debarking the campus shuttle, wearing high heeled ankle boots and capri length pants. I was moving too fast to get a good look, but I'm pretty sure they were tied at the bottoms. I knew instantly that that was the look I'd been searching for!

I have two pairs of capri pants—one white and one black, both bought at New York & Co. years ago, and they just happen to have drawstring bottoms. I had gotten an ever-so-faint military vibe from the outfit that was my inspiration, and I decided white would be just too angelic to succeed, so I went with the black.

Next step—a top to go with them! I tried black (the day I find two black articles of clothing that are actually the same shade is the day I join the ranks of gothdom) and purple (too many unrelated blocks of color). I tried grey and white stripes (too shapeless), grey and black stripes (too long), and straight-up grey (Ok, but I'd just worn it a week ago, and it didn't quite match the shoes, which in fact seem to have a slight purple hue, making them even more difficult to wear with anything). But finally I found it: a black and grey floral tank top I'd gotten in an eBay lot. Technically, it was dark grey and light grey, and with all the shades of grey, nothing looked too out of place.

Look into my creepy, soul-sucking eyes!

I toyed with wearing various pieces of colorful jewelry, but finally I went to my old standby - monochromatic color schemes - and chose silver. Silver bangles on my arms nicely reflected the shape of the silver hoops in my ears. I wore a silver necklace with flowers. If we want to be nitpicky, we can complain that the silver on my bracelets was dull, while the necklace was shiny, and the flowers in my necklace were roses, while the flowers on the top were more lotus-like, but who's paying that much attention anyway?

That day (last Friday) was also the day I tried out another fashion trend—the partially tucked-in shirt. Although shirt-tucking is not one of my favorite practices, in this case it helped avoid the belly bulge inherent in wearing a longish top over a drawstring waistband. And in my opinion, it also helps eliminate the dreaded height-dampening effect of wearing a top too similar in length to the bottoms.

I tried it on at home with the pants bottoms tied and untied, and the shirt tucked and untucked, but ultimately I wore them tied and tucked. Which do you think worked better?

 P,S. This outfit is not workplace-approved, so I covered my upper region with my homemade white shrug, which went so poorly with everything else that I refuse to show it!