Warmify

A few years ago, when Banana Republic had an awesome fall line (of which I wanted everything), there was this teal scoopneck sweater dress that I lusted after. I had already spent more than I should have there that season, so I couldn't justify the additional purchase. I even found the dress later on eBay, but I still thought better of it. One of the things that struck me about this dress was the way BR styled it  - with brown accessories. Brown belt, brown boots, brown tights, etc. At the time, I thought that was crazy. Brown with teal? Warm with cool? It was just so odd to me (and my rigid sense of color pairing) that they didn't style it with back or silver. Nevertheless, this intrigued me. 

Fast forward a few years to a few weekends ago, when I found a very similar dress on sale at Ann Taylor. It was jersey, with a drape neck, but still pretty damn close. And it was on clearance, so...mine! The minute I made the purchase, you better believe I knew exactly how I was going to style it...

Teal drape neck jersey dress - Ann Taylor / Brown belt - Banana Republic  / Brown patterned tights  - Banana Republic / Brown boots - Ciao Bella (via DSW)

Needless to say, I love the pairing. I'm much more inclined in general to pair brown with a wider range of colors these days, and I certainly feel it happily warms up otherwise "cool" colors. (It's a neutral, for heaven's sake!) And besides, I got to wear my boots! I would sleep in these if I could...

I will say that I've decided I don't like drape necks on me, however. They just do something to my top half that doesn't seem to do me any favors. I think I just need more of an open neckline to minimize my large chest, or maybe a portrait collar to balance out my broad shoulders. I dunno...

Brown pleated bag - Steve Madden (via Endless.com)

I would also like to mention that it was 70 degrees here today. It's November. In Illinois. I'm not complaining (not like the fact that it's pitch black at 5pm, anyway), but I will say that I did forgo the tights this morning. Since I was heading back into work for an evening performance, I thought I'd put them on before I snapped my pictures (in the last few moments of light, no less). The dress is just a titch shorter than I would like, too, so I felt much more comfortable with them on anyway.

Necklace - Banana Republic (clearance, baby!) / Earrings - Maurices

I need a hair cut, folks. And a dye job. Uffda.

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