Black and White and Red All Over

When I first got this skirt as a hand-me-down, it was a tube dress. It still is a tube dress, but I refuse to wear it like one, because it has a way of making me look short and stubby with hips a mile wide, and plus, we all know I avoid strapless dresses like the plague.

With this dress, I was fortunate enough to not have to do any alterations. I simply pulled the top portion high up on my waist, folded the elastic band under once, and magically had a maxi skirt! This skirt is so long that I can't wear it without my highest of heels, and because of this, it's completely changed from making me look short and stubby to making me look tall and slender.

I was really keen to wear this skirt, but it took me a while to figure out what to wear it with. It was not until the phrase "black and white and red all over" popped into my head, that I knew I needed red, because that would give me a cool title for a blog post, and sometimes that's all that matters.

While I contemplated topping the skirt with my red blazer, that piece has been too recently used, so I decided to break out one of several new long-sleeved T-shirts I bought in another push to build out my wardrobe with solid colors. A downside to a solid T-shirt is that it's quite plain-looking by itself, but that becomes an upside when it allows you to showcase a fun scarf or vest! Today I chose a white knit vest.

Now for the footwear. I have to admit that when I conceptualized this outfit, I'd hoped to wear red shoes with it. But when I tried them on and saw their crimson toes poking out from under the black and white stripes, all I could think of was Ronald McDonald. For the record, Ronald's stripes are yellow and red, not black and white, but mental associations don't listen to logic. So I wore a much less exciting pair of black boots instead.

Mathematically, I was working my way to a perfect balance of the three colors of my title. Black stripes, black shoes, white stripes, white vest, red shirt, and... I needed one more red. For that, I chose red jewelry—specifically, a beaded necklace that fit so perfectly into the bowl of my neckline that it looked like it was made to go there! The two red items with skin between them reminded me of a stripe, just like the stripes in the skirt, which is the kind of subtle detail that I go ga-ga for.