Into the darkness

One of the hallmarks of my style is "all bright colors, all the time." Even on those rare occasions when I anchor my outfit with something dark, I almost always use splashy accent colors to balance the look. Case in point: When I decided to build yesterday's outfit around my navy blue palazzo pants, my first instinct was to look for a pale neutral sweater to wear on top. However, as I was pulling a few tan and ecru candidates out of the closet, I began to feel the inexorable pull towards the dark side.

When my eyes lit on this forest green blouse, I knew my fate was sealed. I was descending into the shadows, and there was no hope of returning!

You might remember this blouse from its debut appearance two years ago. Back then, I had recently purchased it from Swap.com, and the tag had contained detailed instructions on how to preserve its "crinkled" look. Well, it was definitely wrinkly, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it was crinkled, and I decided I'd much rather have a nice smooth surface than an imperfectly crinkled one, so I ironed it into near-submission for its first few wears. Since then, though, I've decided near-submission wasn't good enough. If it was going to have any texture at all (as it did), it would be better to have a ton of it! I made an effort to re-crinkle it (the challenge is in avoiding strangely angled creases in the armpit region), and the result is what you see today.

 

It also happens to perfectly match this new pair of sparkly green high heels that I just bought. I already wore them once this week, so you know that I really felt that the combination had promise, if it was enough to make me re-wear a pair of shoes after just one day!

My moody theme was going along swimmingly, except that I didn't have any earrings that really spoke to me (a necklace was out of the question, given the embellished neckline of the blouse). But not to fear! When I opened my bracelet box to see if I could find something appropriately somber, what I found was even better: something sinister!

I've had this snake-shaped bracelet for years. I bought it because I thought it might make a good addition to a Halloween costume, but I never did use it that way. I think I might have worn it once or twice, as an insignificant part of some inconsequential outfit,* but never has it served such a role as it does here! The slithering serpent with its evil emerald eyes was the perfect add-on to my emo ensemble...and also the perfect storm of alliteration and assonance, thank you very much!

* Digressive side note: The bracelet almost featured big in my Garden of Eden outfit, but I decided I really wanted to wear the snake earrings, which I had only recently bought because I thought they would go well with the bracelet. In the end, I did not wear the bracelet with them because I figured two serpents were already technically too many to be true to the story.