What to wear for Valentine's Day

You're not really an Unfashionista if you don't dress up for the holidays—red and green for Christmas, pastels for Easter, orange and black for Halloween, and so on. For the past several years, my Valentine's Day outfits are the ones that stick out in my mind the most—thanks, no doubt, to my ever-rotating collection of pink clothing. Ready for a retrospective?

2012: I wore a chunky fuchsia sweater dress to work during the day, and traded it for a brighter pink tank dress for my dinner date with the BF.

2013: I can't remember why I was in such a bad mood when dressing myself that morning, but I chose to channel my inner Rizzo with a tough-girl outfit and pink cropped sweater. In the evening, I wore the same pink tank dress as the previous year to an anti-Valentine's Day singles party. Here's the dress, though not exactly how I wore it that day.

2014: Weather notwithstanding, my short-sleeved red dress carried me through work and even the drive through heavy snows to our cabin in the woods for a weekend ski trip. Fortunately we had a blazing fire to keep us warm once we arrived.

2015: Another Valentine's Day, another ski trip! Although I spent most of the day in a blue athletic top (trapped at the ski lodge for hours because of a snow storm—did I ever tell you that?), I changed for dinner into a pink sweater and jeans. I'd actually worn the sweater much more festively the previous week.

2016: Finally, after a needlessly sporty two-year hiatus, I actually had plans for Valentine's Day that would allow me to get dressed up! My boyfriend and I had reserved a table at a V-Day Sunday brunch. And, as I discovered 3 days before the event, I had nothing to wear!

By "nothing," I mean 20+ Valentine's colored articles ranging from dresses to accessories....but most of the key pieces are things I've worn so many times, I'd risk putting myself to sleep if I put them into my outfit! I actually spent two days straight (I exaggerate; I may have occasionally stopped to eat) trying to invent a great new V-Day outfit from these clothes.

In the end, I decided my pink pants were the newest and most exciting thing I could wear. I briefly considered pairing them with purple for a less overdone take on the holiday's traditional colors. But I ended up looking like I was wearing pajamas, so I scrapped that plan!

Finally, I decided on my black tank top with the magenta lacing and trim, and those newish pink shoes. As cute as that tank top is on its own, with temperatures in the low 20s, I didn't have high expectations for warmth, even inside a restaurant, so I grudgingly topped off the outfit with a black blazer.

 

Before the blazer

Fortuitously, a pair of earrings I had ordered online from China just arrived yesterday, and they happened to match the pinks in my clothing admirably! They also happened to be enormous! I had expected them to be around an inch in length, but they dangled to just about my shoulders in a show-stopping display of size! The colors of the outfit also happened to match my hair, which I had re-colored with the last dregs of my Punky Colour Pink Flamingo hair dye for the occasion.

 

 

Altogether, what with the pointy-toed stilettos, skinny pants, blazer, and monstrous earrings, I think I might have achieved an "80's Valentine" look. What do you think?