Summer Fashion

How do you decide to what you need from season to season as far as clothing goes? How do decide what style and colors you are going to purchase?

Personally, I always like to look well put together and try to take a little bit of thought into making my wardrobe extremely functional. However, with the economy not fully recovered and on limited budget this is not always easy to do. I do have a system in which I make it all work though. The sales clerk at Lane Bryant yesterday told me that how I do it is really cool. So I thought I would share what I do to get the most out of my wardrobe without looking completely out if date.

My secret is that I buy ONE piece of accessory and build it around that ONE piece. So the first place I head is "Charming Charlie"

Last summer I was hooked on yellow. I found a pair of yellow wedge heels and built my wardrobe around that. The summer before that I was hooked on black and white. This summer I was kind of clueless what would be my color. I mean,  I had started to see a lot of brighter colors that focused on blues, greens, teals, and bright pinks, but I was still clueless until I found this:

Cute right? You know what is even cuter? The price! It was $9.97! Sweet! I really was in need of a new wallet and since I like my wallet to match my purse I needed to find something that matched. I have not bought myself a new wallet and purse in about 4 years. True, I have a lot of nice purses and wallets, but sometimes a girl just needs something to spruce up her wardrobe. What better way than a new summer purse, right? So I found this:

Now, it is fairly clear what colors I am going to need in my summer wardrobe. But, I still had one more thing I needed! Living in the dessert it is imperative that one has sunglasses. Yes, one pair would be sufficient, but I like to have a pair that I can wear with warmer tones and another pair that I can wear with cooler tones. I had my warmer tone pair, but I still needed something for the cooler tones. So, the brown and gold I had picked up at Charming Charlie in December and I found the black and white ones there yesterday and I LOVE them! So cute on! I also picked up a new pair of flip flops that would match my new accessory.

Now it was time to hit Lane Bryant and buy a few staples to get me through the summer. Something that I have learned is that once I find a pair of bottoms that fit well they never really look that out of style if you pair it with a cute trendy top or piece of jewelry. I mean, yeah they will eventually go out of style, but by the time that has happened I have worn them out. I just make sure I stick to fairly plain denim or black bottoms so I don't have to worry about it. I then focus on shirts when I shop. Which is good because they are cheaper than bottoms! This is what I found yesterday:

I then went through my closet and pulled a few more pieces that would match and I am happy to say that I do have a complete summer wardrobe and did not break the bank!

See how they all go together? The cool thing is when I travel it makes packing a whole lot easier!

So, there you have one of my little secrets about fashion and how I make it work :-)