Geometry

 The fashion world has been overrun the past couple years with what I might call, at risk of being culturally clueless, "ethnic" prints—basically a lot of geometric shapes and colorful patterns that look like they could have been loom-woven (although in our world of fast fashion, they are pretty much always printed instead). It's not really my thing (I generally prefer organic shapes and simple color schemes), but you know what is my thing? Trying anything once!

I had my chance to do just that when a friend donated me this maxi dress with a multicolored chevron pattern. Fortunately, I'd already decided to dip my toes in the waters by purchasing a number of geometric metallic necklaces from eBay. At a price of around 95¢ a piece, I wasn't risking much, even if I never took a shine to them. I broke out the biggest of those guns for this outfit—the in-your-face, gleaming silver necklace with tons of dangling strips. There are many necklaces out there with a similar metal fringe, but I was really drawn to this one because the fringe dangles from a perfectly straight bar and forms a V at the bottom, thus mimicking the chevrons in the dress! 

 

I added silver hoop earrings (because they're perfect circles, of course) which had a crisscross design carved into them, reflecting a smaller grid on the necklace pieces, and silver bobby pins to hold back my bangs, because they resembled the dangling strips on the necklace. Repeating shapes or elements in your clothing and jewelry can tie your outfit together and create a more intentional look.

When all the jewelry had been carefully selected, I took advantage of the riot of colors in the dress and chose a pair of colorful sandals to go along with it. 

 

 

In spite of my original trepidations about the wearability of the dress, I was pretty excited about the outfit. I felt like it was a fun way to bring the weekend a little early. And my opinions after trying the geometric trend? 1) At least I got to give it a go before it goes away, and 2) As long as I get to indulge my desire to make everything thematic, even a style that's not my style can be pretty fun!