Dress it down, layer it up

After I wore my red and pink paisley dress for the Red Wedding back in April, I really had low expectations for ever wearing it again. Re-wearing it at a formal occasion sounded like heresy, when I have a constant supply of new dresses and precious few opportunities to wear them! But it is just a little too shiny and flouncy to pull off at work or happy hour. Letting it go seemed like the most practical option, but I liked it enough to let it sit in my closet for several months, just in case the opportunity arose. I figured at some point, I'd maybe take a page from my own book and dress it down by layering it up (I'm getting that trick down to a science)!

So, I was planning my outfit for Wednesday, and decided I wanted to build it around this maroon notch-neck top. I've had this shirt for probably 4 years, ever since I salvaged it, still new with tags, from the overflow pile at a charity donation dumpster (It's wrong to steal from the poor, but if the donations are sitting outside the bin, there's a good chance they'll be ruined by the weather before the poor ever get them, so they're fair game for dumpster divers —according to Valerie's rules). After 4 years and countless wears, I realize I've never pictured it in my blog—welcome to the club, little shirt!

So I was looking at the shirt, and looking at my skirts, and all of a sudden my eye was drawn right over to my other wardrobe, where this dress was sitting pretty and practically winking at me! The colors were a perfect match for the cranberry shade of the shirt. I was a little uncertain how the wide keyhole neckline of the top would work with the V-neck and straps of the dress; but, as it happened, they looked fine—in a somewhat unconventional way!

Covering up the top half of the dress did a lot to tone it down for the office, but I took it another step into casual territory by donning some slouchy boots.

Phew! Now that this dress had had two moments in the sun, I felt like I'd gotten my money's worth and was ready to list it for sale...just in time to spill a carton of cheese juice down the front of it and rip a seam as I was taking it off.