Garden Party

There are two things I love in this world: Full skirts and enormous heels, but sadly, I just don't think they go well together. I paired this full-skirted skater dress with green high heels first, but all I could see was a thunder-thighed ostrich. For some reason, the silhouette of wide at the hips and long and narrow at the toes just doesn't work, which leads me to a new... The wider the skirt, the flatter the shoe.

I traded my green stilettos for more demure shoes in burgundy with mid-heels. Naturally they had roses on the toes, to tie in oh-so-unsubtly with the chintzy floral pattern on the dress. The lower heels went much better, anyway, with the 50's vibe the dress was putting out. I decided to continue in that vein with a classic round-neck cardigan.

I wanted my hair to reflect the retro look, and to my knowledge, long straight hair was pretty much never done in the 50's. Lacking the ability to do voluminous short waves, I decided to go with an updo. What I ended up with was some sort of weird almost-French twist (which I've never been able to do, but I have to say I enjoyed the effect of this failed attempt).

Lastly, I threw on a ladylike pink necklace (I considered the ubiquitous 50's pearls, but I didn't want to go overboard, and I wanted to wear this necklace because it's new) and some vintage earrings with – what else – roses embedded in the glass!